Bullet Point Bible

Analogy of Marriage: Freedom from the Law

¹ Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is lord over a person as long as he lives?² For a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of the marriage.³ So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she is joined to another man, she is not an adulteress.⁴ So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God.⁵ For when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.⁶ But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.

Paul addresses readers familiar with legal principles, likely including Jewish Christians.
He uses the analogy of marriage law: death dissolves the legal bond.
A wife is bound to her husband only during his lifetime; his death frees her to remarry without being an adulteress.
Theological Application: Believers have "died to the law" through their union with Christ's death ("body of Christ").
This death frees believers from the Law's legal jurisdiction and condemnation, allowing them to be joined to the resurrected Christ.
The purpose of this new union with Christ is fruitfulness for God, contrasting with the "fruit for death" produced under the Law's interaction with sin (Romans 7:5).
"In the flesh" (v. 5) refers to the state of living under the power of the sinful nature, before union with Christ.
The Law, while good, unintentionally stimulated "sinful passions" leading to death when encountered by the sinful nature.
Believers are now released ("discharged") from the Law's binding power.
Service to God shifts from external adherence to a "written code" to internal empowerment by the "Spirit."

The Law Reveals Sin

⁷ What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else if the law had not said, " Do not covet ."⁸ But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. For apart from the law, sin is dead.⁹ And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment sin became alive¹⁰ and I died. So I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death!¹¹ For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died.¹² So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.¹³ Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.

Paul anticipates a potential misunderstanding: If freedom from the Law is good, is the Law itself bad ("sin")? He vehemently rejects this ("Absolutely not!").
The Law's function is not to cause sin, but to reveal it. Knowledge of sin comes through the Law's standards.
Paul uses the tenth commandment, "{{You shall not covet}}" (Exodus 20:17; Deut 5:21), as a specific example of how the Law defines sin.
Sin is personified as an active agent that uses the Law's goodness as a base of operations ("seizing an opportunity") to incite transgression.
"Apart from the law, sin is dead" means sin lacks definition and the power to condemn without the Law's standard.
Paul describes a state ("I was once alive apart from the law") which could refer to innocence before accountability or a rhetorical state before fully grasping the Law's demands.
The arrival of the commandment's demand ("when the commandment came") activated sin's power ("sin sprang to life") and brought spiritual death (condemnation, "I died").
The Law, designed to guide towards life, paradoxically led to death because sin exploited it.
Sin is portrayed as deceptive, using the good commandment to bring about Paul's (representative human) death.
Paul strongly affirms the Law's nature: it is holy, righteous, and good, reflecting God's character.
The ultimate cause of death is not the good Law, but sin. Sin uses the Law to reveal its true, "utterly sinful" nature.

The Inner Conflict of the Believer

¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual-but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin.¹⁵ For I don't understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want-instead, I do what I hate.¹⁶ But if I do what I don't want, I agree that the law is good.¹⁷ But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me.¹⁸ For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it.¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want!²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me.

Acknowledges the contrast: The Law originates from God ("spiritual"), but the human condition is dominated by the flesh ("unspiritual," Greek *sarkinos*), enslaved to sin.
Describes a universal human experience, often intensified in believers: the internal struggle between desire and action.
The failure to live up to desired standards ("I do not practice what I want") and the performance of hated actions ("I do what I hate").
This internal conflict paradoxically affirms the Law's goodness; the desire aligns with the Law even when actions don't.
Paul distinguishes between his true self (regenerated identity in Christ) and the "sin that lives in me" (indwelling sin).
"Flesh" (*sarx*) here refers to the fallen human nature, the seat of sinful desires, where "nothing good lives."
The core struggle: The will desires good, but the ability to consistently perform it is hindered by indwelling sin.
Verses 19-20 reiterate this painful reality, emphasizing the persistent power of indwelling sin over actions.
Scholars debate whether this describes Paul's pre-Christian state or the ongoing struggle of a Christian. The present tense verbs strongly suggest the latter, reflecting the reality of sanctification.
This passage highlights the inadequacy of human will alone to overcome sin, even when aligned with God's Law.

The War Within and Deliverance Through Christ

²¹ So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me.²² For I delight in the law of God in my inner being.²³ But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members.²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Paul identifies a principle or "law" operating within him: the persistent presence of evil alongside the desire for good.
His "inner being" or "mind" affirms and delights in God's Law, reflecting the new nature given by the Spirit.
However, another conflicting principle ("law") operates in his "members" (his body, representing the sphere of earthly action influenced by the flesh).
This "law of sin" actively battles ("waging war") against the "law of his mind" (his Spirit-renewed understanding and desires).
The result of this internal warfare is feeling captive ("prisoner") to the power of sin operating in the physical realm.
A cry of anguish ("What a wretched man I am!") expresses the despair of this condition and the inability to find self-deliverance from the "body of death" (the mortal body subject to sin and death).
The immediate answer is not self-effort but divine rescue: "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
This exclamation points forward to the solution detailed in Romans 8: deliverance and empowerment by the Holy Spirit.
Verse 25 summarizes the tension: the mind is oriented towards God's Law, while the flesh remains subject to sin's law. This highlights the ongoing struggle but ends with the hope of deliverance in Christ.
This entire chapter serves to demonstrate the Law's inability to sanctify and the desperate need for God's grace and the Spirit's power, setting the stage for Romans 8.

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Romans 7