7:10 The commandment, which was for life, this I found to be for
death;
7:13 Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never
be!
But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me
through
that which is good;
that through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful.
Comments
Till
Death
Do You Part
Rom
7:1-3 Or do you
not know,
brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law
has
dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who has
a
husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he
lives. But if
the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.
So then
if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will
be
called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free
from that
law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married
another man.
Marriage is till death do you part, not till divorce do you
part, as
some have misconceived it. Thus Paul writes, "A woman is bound to her
husband as
long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to
marry anyone
she wishes, but he must belong to the Lord." 1Cor 7:39 For Jesus said, "Anyone who divorces his wife
and
marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she
divorces
her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery." Mk 10:11,12 Who are they
committing
adultery against? Their spouse. For this to be the case it must
be that
divorce does not nullify a marriage. And indeed this is what
Paul is
saying. And this concept was well understand and accepted among
the
Christian community. And so Paul drew upon this principle to
teach us
about freedom in Christ.
Married
to Christ
Rom 7:4 So,
my
brothers,
you
also
died to the law through the body of Christ, that
you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the
dead, in
order that we might bear fruit to God.
Elsewhere Paul had also used the analogy of marriage to being
united
with Christ. "We are
members of
his body. For this
reason a
man will leave his father and mother and be united to his
wife, and the
two will become one flesh. This is a profound
mystery— but I am
talking about Christ and the church." Eph 5:30-32 Marriage itself
was made
to be in the image of the relationship between Christ and the
church.
Misconceptions of one lead to misconceptions concerning the
other.
Many people today treat marriage like joining a club, like you
can turn
in your club membership any time you want, divorcing yourself
from the
club. But marriage is not like that. Once a person is married,
they are
bound to stay married till one dies. No choice they make can
separate
them from that marriage. Likewise once a person is married to
Christ,
there is nothing that can separate them from Christ. It becomes
no
longer a matter of choice. But what does become a matter of
choice is
how fruitful you wish to be in that relationship.
Formerly we were bound to the law of sin, corruption and
condemnation.
But we died to that principle, and as such should reckon
ourselves no
longer bound to it. Now being married to Christ, children should
be the
natural byproduct of that relationship, as with any marriage,
whether
such offspring be people becoming Christians, or the
fruitfulness
portrayed in godly character qualities. "The one who received the seed that
fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and
understands it. He
produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times
what was
sown." Mt 13:23
Jesus said, "This is to my
Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves
to be my
disciples." John 15:8
Legal
vs Spiritual Service
Rom 7:5,6 For when we were in the flesh,
the
sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in
our
members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been
delivered
from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we
should
serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of
the letter.
Concerning the pre-regenerate Paul writes, "As for you, you were dead in your
transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you
followed
the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the
air, the
spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of
us also
lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our
sinful
nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest,
we were
by nature objects of wrath." Eph
2:1-3
And the sinful nature responds passionately to the
restrictions inherent in the law. Which is the main reason God
introduced the law of Moses. "The
law was added so that the trespass might increase." Rom 5:20a so that the sin
problem
might be evident. It's like a patient denying being sick, and so
the
doctor introduces something to make the symptoms more evident so
that
the patient may seek a cure.
"The letter kills, but the
Spirit
gives life." 2Cor
3:6b
What is the difference between serving in the newness of the
Spirit in
contrast to that of the oldness of the letter? For one thing,
serving
the letter of the law is all about conforming to regulations.
Serving
in the newness of the Spirit is all about attitude. Under the
letter
what is important is what you do. Under the Spirit what is
important is
why you do it. Under the letter one operates under fear of
condemnation. Under the Spirit one operates under grace in view
of the
hope of the resurrection and in accordance with a new nature,
being
influenced by the Holy Spirit.
Commands
Invoke Sin
Rom 7:7,8 What shall we say then? Is the
law sin?
Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin
except
through the law. For I would not have known covetousness
unless the law
had said, "You shall not
covet."
But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me
all
manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.
Similarly Paul once said to people, "If, while we seek to be justified in
Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does
that
mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not!" Gal 2:17 The threshold
to the
door of salvation is conviction of sin. And as we learned
previously, "through the
law we become conscious of
sin." Rom 3:20
It is not that he would not have sinned if he was unaware of the
law.
Rather he would not have realized that he was sinning. In a
lawless
society devoted to "freedom" are many people who reckon
themselves
"good" because they don't consider God's standard of
righteousness. But
given that the sinful nature is inherently rebellious, the law
naturally
invokes sin within the sinful nature. Is it nature or nurture?
It's
nature! For the LORD has
spoken:
"I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled
against
me." Is 1:2 So if the Lord raised children and
they nonetheless turn out to be rebellious, it must be nature.
The
Commandments Bring Death
Rom 7:9-11 I was alive once without the
law, but
when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the
commandment,
which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin,
taking
occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.
Prior to committing sin a person is alive to God. But through
the
sinful nature, the law invokes sin in us coercing us to sin.
Regardless
of whether that law is written law, or the law of the conscience
spoken
of in chapter 2, the law provokes us, through the flesh, to sin
and so
upon acting upon the evil desires of the sinful nature we die.
Now you
would think that rules and regulations would help us to be
better
people, but this does not take into account the reaction that
sinful
nature has to legal restrictions. A person cannot actually
become a
better person solely through the introduction of regulations.
Rather
what you end up with at best are the kind of religiously elite
people
that had Jesus put to death.
"Since you died with Christ
to the
basic principles of this world, why, as though you still
belonged to
it, do you submit to its rules: "Do not handle! Do not taste!
Do not
touch!"? These are all destined to perish with use, because
they are
based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed
have an
appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their
false
humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack
any value
in restraining sensual indulgence." Col 2:20-23
Sin
Corrupts the Holy
Rom 7:12,13 Therefore the law is holy, and
the
commandment holy and just and good. Has then what is good
become death
to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was
producing
death in me through what is good, so that sin through the
commandment
might become exceedingly sinful.
Sin does evil through what is good, whereas God often does good
through
that which is evil. The introduction of the law was for the
purpose of
revealing human depravity which would lead one to seek for
forgiveness
of sins. "Therefore the
law was
our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by
faith."
Gal 3:24
Jesus said, "It is not the
healthy
who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the
righteous,
but sinners." Mt 9:12
You might not seek a doctor until you feel you are sick. While
the law
does not make us sick, it reveals the sickness in us and so
leads us to
Christ to seek healing. The Law, while it is good, is not for
the
purpose of curing people from sin.
Inhabited
by a Sinful Nature
Rom 7:14-17 For
we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under
sin. For
what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do,
that I do
not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what
I will
not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it
is no
longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
"carnal" is "fleshly" (sarkikos),
the
root
word
being "sarx" in Greek, which is the same word often
translated "sinful nature". While the law is spiritual, we all
have a
sinful nature that gets in the way of following the law. And as
Jesus
said "everyone who sins is
a
slave to sin." John
8:34,
so
also we are enslaved to sin through our sinful nature as he will
describe.
What gets in the way of our good intentions turning into
actions? "Most men will
proclaim each his own
goodness, But who can find a faithful man?" Pr 20:6
You might imagine yourself a good person. But actually being a
good
person in action is quite different thing. In fact the very
thing that
we consider evil are the very things that we end up doing. Why
is that?
Yes, we agree with the law with regards to good and evil. But
that does
not help us in actually doing good.
Consequently Paul concludes that his actions are largely
controlled by
another, as if a separate entity, which he labels "sin", lives
in him
coercing him to sin.
To
Err is Human
Rom 7:18-20 For
I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells;
for to
will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do
not find.
For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I
will not to
do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is
no longer
I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
"flesh" (sarx) here is translated "sinful nature"
in the NIV as it is in most cases in these next few chapters,
and for
good reason. For it is not merely the physical nature of man
which is
the problem, but rather sin which has infested that nature so as
to make
a sinful nature part of human nature, and thus the saying, "To err is human".
However notice that while the sinful nature is total depraved in
that "nothing good dwells in
me",
yet Paul indicates that a man is more than just that
sinful
nature which abides in him. For while acknowledging that nothing
good
dwells in his sinful nature, yet Paul himself here affirms that
he
intends good, and that he recognizes the distinction between
good and
evil.
While, as Jesus also says, "No
one
is good— except God alone." Mk
10:18, yet such does not exclude the possibility of
those who
intend to do good, ("For the good that
I will to do ...") and yet fail to perfectly carry it
out, which
is likely the most common case among human experience.
But I don't view verse 20 as an excuse, much as Adam blamed Eve
and Eve
blamed the serpent for their sinning; but rather as an
explanation as
to why people unintentionally end up sinning. The sinful nature
coerces
us to sin. This is not to deny our being complicit in the matter
and
thus culpable. But we have three enemies which are working
against our
good intentions - the world, the sinful nature, and the devil -
and of
these, the sinful nature is what the other two grab hold of to
influence our behavior. Yes, there's an entity which dwells in
all of
us which is our worst enemy. It isn't the devil. It's our own
sinful
nature.
Battling
the Sinful Nature
Rom 7:21-23 So
I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right
there
with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I
see
another law at work in the members of my body, waging war
against the
law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at
work
within my members.
Like a dog who got sprayed by a skunk, no matter how far we run
we
cannot escape the stench of our sinful nature. Or as Jeremiah
says, "Can the Ethiopian
change his skin or
the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are
accustomed to
doing evil." Jer
13:23
While
the
good intention may be present, it is not in the nature of man
to do good, which is why for example history is most commonly
cataloged according to its wars rather than according to its
virtuous
actions.
Notice that he speaks of the law of his mind, of which I would
infer
includes his intentions, and his inner being which delights in
that
which is good. Such is a distinct entity from the sinful nature,
which
has a mind of its own. These two are in conflict with each
other. "Dear friends, I
urge you, as aliens
and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires,
which war
against your soul." 1Peter
2:11
Such is the nature of the Christian. But this is just a segue
into the
subject of a third entity which exists in those born of God
which also
influences our behavior, namely the influence of the Holy Spirit
of
which he introduced earlier in this chapter saying, "we have been released from
the law so
that we serve in the new way of the Spirit" Rom 7:6b
Christ
Actualizes Our Good Intentions
Rom 7:24-25 O
wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of
death? I
thank God——through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the
mind I
myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of
sin.
The common experience among believers is that, despite being
born of
God, there is a constant conflict between our inner man and that
of our
sinful nature. In fact I would say that those who don't
experience such
a conflict have merely surrendered to their sinful nature,
regardless
of how sinlessly perfect they reckon themselves to be.
The deliverance Paul speaks of here is in the future tense as he
looks
forward to what lies beyond the grave no longer be encumbered by
the
sinful nature. His present experience is that while he
intentionally
serves God, yet he fails to perfectly carry out his intentions.
Chapter
8 will be primarily about walking in accordance with the Spirit
in
contrast to that of walking in accordance to the flesh. But it
starts
in the mind, reckoning ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. (Rom 6:11)
"Put off, concerning your
former
conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the
deceitful
lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you
put on
the new man which was created according to God, in true
righteousness
and holiness." Eph
4:22-24