Romans 7

Delivered from the power of the Law

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Released from the Law, bound to Christ
Do you not know, brothers and sisters – for I am speaking to those who know the law – that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.
So, my brothers and sisters, 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 for God. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:1-6)

Paul begins by making it clear that he is writing mainly for the benefit of those Christians who used to be Jews or ‘God-fearers’ (that is Gentiles who attended the synagogue). They were taught that only by keeping the Law of Moses could a person become acceptable to God. There would have been many new Christians, as the church grew and spread throughout Europe, who had no knowledge of the Jewish Law.

This situation does have some application to us because, having bibles and reading about the Law in the first five books, we too have some knowledge of the Law. Some of these laws did used to be part of our society too. For instance, there was a Christian tradition of keeping ‘The Sabbath’ which has now largely been lost. It used to be the case that there was no shopping on Sundays.

This chapter is generally considered a very difficult one to understand. I hope by looking at a few principles we can get to the straightforward and practical meaning that underlies it. I do believe it was written for practical reasons and not to be a text for theologians to argue over endlessly.

limits

First of all, we must notice that Paul uses various metaphorical devices to try and explain what he is getting at. He begins with the metaphor of marriage as an illustration. It would be a fair comment to say that Paul mixes his metaphors. This is probably inevitable, because Paul is trying to give a straightforward explanation of deep spiritual principles. So, he starts by saying a man is ruled by law only while he is alive. He then changes this to a woman being ruled by the law of marriage until her husband dies, after which she can remarry. He then says that if we die to the law, we can be joined to Christ, in the same way that a widow can marry again.

There is no need for this to worry us – we just need to see what Paul is getting at. So, to summarise what he is saying: laws only apply to people who are alive; so, if we die these laws no longer control us. The next question is this: how then can we die in such a way that we can be free from the power of the law?

Paul says:
you also died to the law through the body of Christ
This means two things:
Firstly, we die with Jesus on the cross to our self-life, ambitions, passions, even identity. In Galatians he explains it in this way:
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
(Galatians 2:20)
Christ lives in those who live (or walk) in his crucifixion. That is those who are filled with the passion for the work of the cross, every moment of the day, by being filled with the Spirit. Once we understand this work of the cross, we can live in its grace through the Holy Spirit. This powerful spiritual encounter changes how we deal with our sinful weaknesses as we saw in Chapter 6, and will do so more in Chapter 8.

servants

Secondly, the body of Christ is also a reference to the people of God. Being with others in Christian commitment can also be part of how we can die to the Law. In these relationships, we learn to share and be open about our weaknesses, bringing them into God's light. Furthermore, this gives us many opportunities to love and serve God’s people. From this there is purpose, and a desire to be a blessing to others through being holy before God. Our purpose is to live as a servant of God and of others – it displaces the pernicious worship of self.

As the proverb goes: “the devil finds work for idle hands”. Being committed to caring relationships keeps us busy in the Spirit through worship, prayer and serving one another. This chapter helps us to understand that we do not need to try and please God by keeping hundreds of laws; but we do please God by fulfilling the second great commandment to love one another. Although this is pleasing to God, it is not a means of salvation by merely doing good works.

passions

But an extra spin-off is that serving others also deals with the way Law can grind us down, and bring us to condemn ourselves as being not good enough for God. Law highlights our failures rather than our achievements through grace. Why is this so? Paul explains:
the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us
This is actually very straightforward. We express its truth in statements like: “laws were meant to be broken” or “I was told not to do it, so it made me even more determined to do it!”. When we are told not to do something it can stimulate in us a desire to actually do it, especially if we convince (or deceive) ourselves that it is actually harmless. The conflict between law and the urge for self-indulgence can be a factor when we try to diet for instance. If you are told not to eat something, you develop a craving to do so! It is like Pandora’s box: she was told not to open it, but gave in to the irresistible urges to do so. It is like Eve’s forbidden fruit: she was told not to eat it but did so because she persuaded herself that no harm would come.

Now if we live by the instincts of the ‘flesh’ (as described in Chapter 6) we find that laws or rules stir up many sinful passions. This can come from the wish to impress others or even impress God by our own efforts. This motive is the opposite one to ‘living in the Spirit’. As we learn how to live in the Spirit, we develop self-control. Living in the Spirit means we are not trying to prove anything to anyone, especially ourselves:
so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
Our passion is now to please God every day; and the outcome is:
that we might bear fruit for God.
God wishes to use us fruitfully in spreading the gospel and being salt and light in the world.

fruit

A tree does not bear fruit by following rules. Fruit is an expression of the life within it. Likewise, there are no laws which can instruct us in how to produce the fruit of the Spirit: it comes from the expression of the life of the Spirit within us:
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. (Galatians 5:16-18)
This is the daily conflict of living as a genuine Christian – actions motivated by the flesh are easy, and bring immediate gratification.

The fruit of the Spirit requires commitment and faith. This fruit is manifested in holiness of living:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. (Galatians 5:22-26)
This is only one fruit; but if you like it has nine flavours. All of them can be manifested as we walk with Jesus in the Spirit. It is not a magic process. We have to guard ourselves from self-deceptive attitudes such as conceit or envy. We should make sure we live according to the bible’s teaching. If we are living as servants of one another, counting others better than ourselves, and being content to be called by Jesus as servants, then the Spirit can rule in our lives.

The law and sin
What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. (Romans 7:7-12)

It is intriguing to ask why Paul uses the example of coveting out of all the Ten Commandments. Is this simply that he has a personal problem with it? Or has he chosen it because most people can identify with temptations to covet, even if they do not give in to them? If he had instead illustrated his point with murder, theft, adultery or perjury, you could imagine that his point may well have been lost by the reader's horror. Also, coveting is the one commandment which particularly can be in the heart and not necessarily be acted on. My feeling is that he chose this for pragmatic reasons because every single one of his readers would be able to relate to what he is saying (more on this later).

So to summarise the effect law has on us, he wrote:
sin sprang to life and I died
The death he refers to is that referenced in the last verse of chapter 6 – ‘the wages of sin is death.’ Sin makes us dead to God which is why we should no longer live in it.

tutor

Paul moves on to deal with the suggestion that because we needed to be delivered from the Law, that law is somehow bad because it reveals our failures. That law ‘shames’ us is not necessarily a bad thing because it shows us our need for Jesus. But feeling ashamed could be an alien concept to our present culture, where shaming is seen as a bad thing. I have dealt with this in Romans 6 part 2: the shame here is not self-rejection, but affirmation that as sinners we need to come to Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. In fact, it was necessary for law to be given by God, in order that we should become aware of all the sins we commit which need forgiveness. We cannot ask for forgiveness if we are unaware of our sin.

Paul puts it this way:
Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.
In Galatians, he also expresses the same thing in another way:
Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. (Galatians 3:23-25)
The word ‘guardian’ is translated as ‘schoolmaster’ or ‘tutor’ in other versions. The Law ensures we cannot claim ignorance of God’s holy standards. In British law, there is a principle that “ignorance of the law is no excuse”. But God’s law only acts where there is knowledge of it.

So, the Law acted as a tutor or teacher to show us our sinfulness; so that when Christ died for sin, we would rush to him to be cleansed. Put another way, we were once like children in regard to evil. Children are born with little idea of right and wrong until the parents train them to know this – they are tutors. Our tutors now are the Holy Spirit, the Bible and sound Christian teaching. Since we begin from ignorance of God’s commandments, the demands of the Law can come as an enormous shock, when we realise the things which God considers good, right and holy.

As we previously discussed, Law seems to incite us to do the exact opposite of what it demands. Paul uses coveting as an example. The 10th commandment said, “You shall not covet”. Without that commandment, we might easily have thought too much about what other people have, than we should have done . The consequence is that instead of growing close to God and increasing in the knowledge of God, the commandment shows how far away we are from God. He describes this as:
sin sprang to life and I died.
and also:
For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.
This statement is very important when we come to the final section of this chapter.

Moral law

Paul now makes an extremely important conclusion:
So then, the law is holy
We must look at this in detail. There is a false belief about law which is called ‘antinomianism’ – from ‘anti’ (against) and ‘nomos’ (law). It imagines that Christians are freed from the obligation to keep the moral law of God, because faith alone is all that is needed. But we are still required to keep the moral laws of God as they promote human flourishing. The need to keep the Ceremonial Laws with their blood sacrifices finished at the cross. The Civic and Food laws were also no longer needed, as God’s spiritual Israel is no more a single polity but a worldwide church. The moral laws reflect the holiness of God in humanity – we did not give up our responsibilities to one another as humans when we became Christians.

There are many places in the New Testament which make it clear that we still have moral responsibilities before God. Here is an example:
The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm. We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers (1 Timothy 1:5-10)
Where Paul writes ‘not made for the righteous’, he is referring to someone who has matured in walking in the Spirit.

conscience

There is so much here about law that we need to grasp. We know that the Law can be abbreviated into two great commandments – love God and love your neighbour. And this is the purpose of the Moral Law in all its detail – to show us how to fulfil these. When we read the Old Testament, we must have this big picture view in our minds. The Old Testament helps us to get to grips with these two commandments. Remember that the only bible the first Christians had was the Old Testament.

However, love can even be viewed by some people as something unholy or selfish. And so, Paul has to to show that love needs the boundaries of laws in order to be the genuine thing. So, we must become aware of deceptive teachings at all times. All teaching should be verified by the bible, taking into account the tradition of Christian orthodox teaching; and it should also be biblically reasoned (see Acts 17:2, 11)

Love should also come from ‘a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith’. The pure heart is a cleansed one: it is the heart of those who come to Jesus to be cleansed by his blood, because they are acutely aware of their sin. It is a promise to every Christian:
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, (openness to biblical truth and accountability relationships) we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)

A good conscience develops from obeying good teaching which makes clear what is morally right and wrong. I can’t emphasise enough how important good biblical teaching is. And finally, a sincere faith is one which is not an outward show, but comes from a genuine heart – from one who is a servant of all. The servant-heart is always an excellent test of sincerity. The opposite of this is seen in Paul’s description of deceitful people; they pretend to teach what is morally right and wrong, but do so only to impress and control others.

As Paul affirms in his letter to Timothy, law is for people who sin, to make them conscious of their own sin. He lists many despicable sins which people commit and for which the law calls them to account (the list is much longer than I have quoted above). Some of these sins may not be wrong according to the law of the country in which we live (remember that British law was once based on the Old Testament). But even though civic law may permit them, they are still wrong for the Christian whose duty is to follow God’s moral law. Without law, Christians can indulge in a free-for-all, and engage in many questionable activities on the basis that they are “not under law but under grace”! It is noticeable that these activities are usually ones inspired by the present culture.

Law Cannot Save from Sin
Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognised as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: although 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 me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. (Romans 7:13-25)

This part of Romans 7 is contested and complicated. I shall try to get to the simple heart of the truth which is found in the connection between sin and the flesh. Paul again stresses that the fault is not in the Law of God which is ‘good’. The Law highlights our failings. Once we see this we do not have to keep on reflecting on it: Paul was emphasising this in order to answer the arguments of Jewish critics who portrayed him as opposed to God’s laws:
in order that sin might be recognised as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death
Paul had the greatest respect for the Law, but needed to put it in its proper context in the new life of the Kingdom of God.

spiritual

But now the key point is made: that the Law is spiritual whereas basically humans are not:
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
Another good reference to this, is that passage we have considered before from Ephesians:
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 flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. (Ephesians 2:1-3)

Notice that the flesh and the mind are together in fulfilling their lusts. Again, this can be confused if we analyse too deeply. A few verses later the mind is spoken of as expressing good desires. We are complicated and confusing beings; we have to accept that. We are not two different people inhabiting one body!

Paul is saying that something which is spiritual, the Law, can only be practised by those who are spiritually alive. This is why Jesus was the only human ever to have kept the whole Law because, being the God/Man, his nature was fully spiritually energised. Jesus fulfilled the Law on our behalf so that we could pass the test of being righteousness by the standards of The Law – this is all part of grace lavished upon us.

As we are not spiritual people (because we are spiritually dead in sin) then a conflict occurs when something inside of us wishes to live in the way that pleases God. This especially begins when the heart is touched by converting grace. As with everything, it is possible that this could be deceptive. But in the case where there is no genuine grace at work, there will be self-importance and self-achievement. We could want to live in God’s way in order to impress other people with how religious we are. Whether our motive is pure or not, because we are unspiritual, we cannot keep the whole Law. No doubt we can manage some parts, but not the whole thing; what we need is a spiritual resolution to this dilemma. We need the Holy Spirit’s inward power.

personal

Paul now seems to go into personal mode to illustrate what he is saying:
For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing.
This is a contested passage for two reasons:
Firstly, it seems contradictory that a mature spiritual person like Paul, who has spent the whole of Chapter 6 explaining how to overcome sin, seems in reality to be entirely ruled by it. But the way I read it – Paul is using an illustration, which can be made most effective by making it personal.
Secondly, this verse in particular is leapt upon to justify a weak form of Christian living, where compromise is justified by such expressions as “I am under grace not law”, “all my sins are forgiven”, “God loves me whatever I do”, etc.

It is tempting to adopt the second view if one is failing to live free from habitual sins. Holiness aims high. The way I read this section, is that Paul, wishing to explain things practically, is illustrating it with common human experience, but putting it in the first person. We do this in conversational situations, where we wish to show that we identify with someone's weakness, without condemning them: instead of saying 'you', which points the finger, we use 'I' and make it personal.

Paul clearly cannot say ‘the good that WE will to do, we do not do’. It would be presumptuous of him to state that something is true of every single person, whatever their Christian maturity; and that this also applies to every single temptation. So, he puts it in a personal form, to help everyone identify with the dilemma between wanting to live free from sin, yet finding sin powerful. This conflict will always be there while life lasts; for one thing we need to walk every moment with the Spirit. But also, we shall discover new faults in ourselves as we get closer to God: ‘in your light we see light’ (Psalm 36:9); life keeps moving on.

weakness

Remember that earlier Paul also resorted to being personal when he mentioned coveting as an illustration. This did not imply that he still had a problem with covetousness, as we learn from other things which he wrote, such as:
I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:11-13)
This is the confession of a mature Christian.

And when addressing the Ephesian elders, he publicly declared:
I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. (Acts 20:33-34)

And in yet another passage he writes in a personal way to explain something important, but he is trying hard not to make himself the main focus:
I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know – God knows. And I know that this man – whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows – was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. (2 Corinthians 12:1-5)
It is recognised that this ‘man in Christ’ of whom he speaks is actually Paul himself, but he does not want the focus to be on him, but on what God wants us to understand.

And, as in our Romans 7 passage, he does not mind appearing weak to avoid the trap of pride. Of course, Paul’s enemies may well have used this passage against him to misrepresent him as a weak sinful man.

Law and law

A further confusion arises in this passage because now Paul introduces a type of law other than the Jewish Law. This law could perhaps be easier understood as referring to 'the law of habitual faults'. We can see the difference if we realise that this law (lower case) is not the same as the Law (upper case). Remember, this letter was not written as a piece of carefully edited theology which he thought through again and again in case it was analysed by theologians. It was a dictated exhortation to people needing his input:
So I find this law at work: although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
And this law (of habitual faults) produces the conflict in those of us who wish to be free from sin, but are at a loss as to how this can be achieved.

He then continues:
but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the Law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.
The ‘Law of my mind’ means he is thinking about obeying God’s Law; in his love for God, he wishes to obey God's commandments, but he finds the sinful flesh is powerful. We should not despise our desire to obey God’s commandments. In fact it is dangerous when we are lukewarm about obedience to holiness. The final verse is a good summary:
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s Law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

deliverance

So, having established that the Law is spiritual and good, and that we are unspiritual and ruled by sin, he can move on to how the Holy Spirit enables us to be spiritual, and so get free from sin’s hold over us. The Holy Spirit is the key to being spiritual. We can help by making holy choices in our life [see Rule of Life tab]. Good habits can be an aid; they help us to invite the Spirit into our daily thinking, choices and actions.

But Paul concludes with heartfelt human exasperation. Again, he is writing as a normal human to express human weakness and frustration. He undoubtedly, many times made this cry over many years before he wrote the letter, and he is here rehearsing it again, so that we can identify with him. He has found the practical answer:
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Feeling wretched is a response we all get when frustrated with the weakness of the flesh, and our dullness in not seeing as much of God in our lives as we would like. The ‘body that is subject to death’ will always be controlled by sin if we live according to its dictates: sin is the instinctive rebellion which the body and mind express.

So what does the deliverance he is thankful for mean? Some people think it refers to physical death; that is, we will be delivered from sin at the end of our lives. They also infer this from the first few verses of this chapter where it says that death delivers us from the Law. But Paul is about to explain in the next chapter that we are delivered now. Being resigned to freedom only upon physically dying completely misses the excitement with which he concludes: 'Thanks be to God'! This chapter, which seems to emphasise failure, in fact has a positive conclusion.