CHAPTER VII. _The law has power over a man as long as he lives_, 1. _And a wife is bound to her husband only as long as he lives,_ 2, 3. _Christian believers are delivered from the Mosaic law by Christ_ _Jesus, and united to God_, 5-7. _By the law is the knowledge of sin_, 8. _But it gives no... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Romans 7:2. _FOR THE WOMAN WHICH HATH A HUSBAND_] The apostle illustrates his meaning by a familiar instance. A married woman is bound to her husband while he lives; but when her husband is dead she is discharged from the law by which she was bound to him _alone_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Romans 7:3. _SO THEN, IF, WHILE_ HER _HUSBAND LIVETH_] The object of the apostle's similitude is to show that each party is equally bound to the other; but that the death of either dissolves the engagement. _SO - SHE IS NO ADULTERESS, THOUGH SHE BE MARRIED TO ANOTHER_] And do not imagine that... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Romans 7:4. _WHEREFORE, MY BRETHREN_] This is a parallel case. You were once under the law of Moses, and were bound by its injunctions; but now ye are become dead to that law - a modest, inoffensive mode of speech, for, _The law, which was once your_ _husband, is dead_; God has determined that... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Romans 7:5. _FOR, WHEN WE WERE IN THE FLESH_] When we were without the Gospel, in our carnal and unregenerated state, though believing in the law of Moses, and performing the _rites_ and _offices_ of our religion. _THE MOTIONS OF SINS, WHICH WERE BY THE LAW_] τα παθηματα των αμαρτιων, the _pa... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Romans 7:6. _BUT NOW WE ARE DELIVERED FROM THE LAW_] We, who have believed in Christ Jesus, are delivered from that yoke by which we were bound, which sentenced every transgressor to _perdition_, but provided no _pardon_ even for the _penitent_, and no _sanctification_ for those who are weary... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Romans 7:7. _IS THE LAW SIN?_] The apostle had said, Romans 7:6: _The motions of sins, which were by the law, did bring forth fruit_ _unto death_; and now he anticipates an objection, "Is therefore the law sin?" To which he answers, as usual, μηγεςοιτο, _by no_ _means_. Law is only the means o... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Romans 7:8. _SIN, TAKING OCCASION BY THE COMMANDMENT_] I think the pointing, both in this and in the 11th verse, to be wrong: the comma should be after _occasion_, and not after _commandment. But_ _sin taking occasion, wrought in me by this commandment all manner_ _of concupiscence_. There ar... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Romans 7:9. _I WAS ALIVE WITHOUT THE LAW ONCE_] Dr. Whitby paraphrases the verse thus:-"For the seed of Abraham _was alive_ _without the law once_, before the law was given, I being not obnoxious to death for that to which the law had not threatened death; _but when the commandment came_, for... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Romans 7:10. _AND THE COMMANDMENT_] Meaning the _law_ in general, _which_ was ordained _to life_; the rule of righteousness teaching those statutes which if a man do he shall live in them, Leviticus 18:5, I _found_, by transgressing it, _to be unto death_; for it only presented the _duty_ and... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Romans 7:11. _SIN, TAKING OCCASION_] Sin, deriving strength from the law, threatening death to the transgressor, (Romans 7:8,) _deceived me_, drew me aside to disobedience, promising me gratification honour, independence, c., as it promised to Eve for to her history the apostle evidently allud... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Romans 7:12. _WHEREFORE THE LAW_ IS _HOLY_] As if he had said, to soothe his countrymen, to whom he had been showing the absolute insufficiency of the law either to justify or save from sin: I do not intimate that there is any thing _improper_ or _imperfect_ in the law as a _rule of life_: it... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Romans 7:13. _WAS THEN THAT WHICH IS GOOD MADE DEATH UNTO ME?_] This is the question of the _Jew_, with whom the apostle appears to be disputing. "Do you allow the law to be _good_, and yet say it is the _cause_ of our _death_?" The apostle answers:- _God forbid_! μη γενοιτο, by no means: it i... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Romans 7:14. _FOR, WE KNOW THAT THE LAW IS SPIRITUAL_] This is a general proposition, and probably, in the apostle's autograph, concluded the above sentence. The law is not to be considered as a system of _external rites_ and _ceremonies_; nor even as a _rule of_ _moral action_: it is a _spiri... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Romans 7:15. _FOR, THAT WHICH I DO, I ALLOW NOT_, c.] The first clause of this verse is a general assertion concerning the employment of the person in question in the state which the apostle calls _carnal, and sold under sin_. The Greek word κατεργαξομαι which is here translated _I do_, means... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Romans 7:16. _IF THEN I DO THAT WHICH I WOULD NOT_, c.] Knowing that the law condemns it, and that therefore it must be _evil_. _I consent unto the law_ I show by this circumstance that I acknowledge the law to be good.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 17. _NOW THEN IT IS NO MORE I_] It is not that _I_ which constitutes _reason_ and _conscience, but sin_-corrupt and sensual inclinations, _that dwelleth in me_-that has the entire domination over my reason, darkening my understanding, and perverting my judgment; for which there is _condemnatio... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 18. _FOR I KNOW THAT IN ME_, c.] I have learned by experience that in an unregenerate man there is _no good_. There is no principle by which the soul can be brought into the light no principle by which it can be _restored_ to purity: fleshly appetites alone prevail; and the _brute_ runs away w... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 19. _FOR THE GOOD THAT I WOULD I DO NOT_] Here again is the most decisive proof that the _will_ is on the side of God and truth. _BUT THE EVIL WHICH I WOULD NOT_] And here is equally decisive proof that the will is against, or opposed to evil. There is not a man in ten millions, who will car... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Romans 7:20. _IT IS NO MORE I_] My _will_ is against it; my _reason_ and _conscience_ condemn it. _But sin that dwelleth in me_-the _principle of sin_, which has possessed itself of all my _carnal_ _appetites_ and _passions_, and thus subjects my reason and domineers over my soul. Thus I am in... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Romans 7:21. _I FIND THEN A LAW_] I am in such a condition and state of soul, under the power of such habits and sinful propensities, _that when I would do good_-when my _will_ and _reason_ are strongly bent on obedience to the law of God and opposition to the principle of sin, _evil is presen... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Romans 7:22. _I DELIGHT IN THE LAW OF GOD AFTER THE INWARD MAN_] Every _Jew_, and every _unregenerate man_, who receives the Old Testament as a revelation from God, must acknowledge the great purity, excellence and utility of its _maxims_, c., though he will ever find that without the _grace... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Romans 7:23. _BUT I SEE ANOTHER LAW IN MY MEMBERS_] Though the person in question is less or more under the continual influence of _reason_ and _conscience_, which offer constant testimony against sin, yet as long as help is sought only from the _law_, and the grace of Christ in the Gospel is... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Romans 7:24. _O WRETCHED MAN THAT I AM_, c.] This affecting account is finished more impressively by the _groans_ of the _wounded_ captive. Having long maintained a useless conflict against innumerable hosts and irresistible might, he is at last _wounded_ and taken prisoner and to render his s... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Romans 7:25. _I THANK GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST_] Instead of ευχαριστω τῳ Θεῳ, _I thank God_, several excellent MSS., with the _Vulgate_, some copies of the _Itala_, and several of the _fathers_, read ἡ χαρις του Θεου, or του Κυριου, _the grace of God_, or _the_ _grace of our Lord Jesus Chr... [ Continue Reading ]