Romans 7 The good, the bad, and the ugly The struggle of law, grace, and the believer that cares about their fruit

We are united to Christ so that we can bring forth spiritual fruit for God (1-6) Romans 7:1-6 NKJV (1) 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? (2) 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. (3) 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. (4) Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. (5) 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. (6) 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.

A return to the comparison of death as the termination of an obligation over life (1) Paul speaks to the Jews here and refers to the law as a master that has a lifelong covenant over all men (2) He compares to the status of a wife, subject to her husband, but released in his death (3) If she remarried while he yet lives (defies the law) she is subject to the hardship of the law, but if he has passed then she can do the very same thing and it is now without offense or consequence (4) Likewise Paul states that we have become dead to the law so that we can be married to Christ so “that we should bear fruit to God.” (5) Under the law we were made worse (6) Under Grace… “we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”

The purpose and power of the law (7-13) Romans 7:7-13 NKJV (7) 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." (8) But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. (9) I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. (10) And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. (11) For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. (12) Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. (13) 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.

The law is the ally of the evangelist and even Paul and his conscience found need of salvation (7) Paul asks if we should consider the law to be sin? And responds with a resounding NO He says without the law he would not have known sin (his own with coveting as the “for instance”) (8 - 11) His old nature responded to the conviction of the law with all manner of evil desires , having believed he was innocent prior to conviction of his conscience (Stephen’s dissertation?) Paul responded to the challenge by desiring more evil (he was on his way to persecute another Church when Christ came to him personally. The gospel’s challenge of the incompleteness of the law made him hateful and led to the death of the sinless man he had previously seen himself to be. (12) Paul recognizes the righteousness of the law in contrast to his sinful nature now fully visible (13) So is the law to blame for the sinful condition he discovered himself in? No. Sin was the poison, the law (which may even lead some men to rebel to God in the path to their own destruction) is the spotlight, not the gunman

The spiritual conflict between sin/corruption and grace in a believer (14-25) Romans 7:14-25 NKJV (14) For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. (15) 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. (16) If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. (17) But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. (18) 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. (19) For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. (20) Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. (21) I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. (22) For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. (23) But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. (24) O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (25) 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.

Did Paul take a weak stance on sin? (14) Paul contrasted himself to the law, which he now understood as spiritual, and found himself like an unwilling slave to sin – carnally incapable of achieving the freedom it offered under a covenant that could not be fulfilled without the addition of Christ. (15) Paul herein shares with us the utter disgust he had for the part of him that still fell prey to sin of any kind (temper, words, loss of peace under fire, etc.). We can all relate to the struggle, and should also relate to the disdain (16) Paul finds the law vindicated by his own conscience

Dead Man Walking II (18) Paul acknowledges the flesh is evil, but that there is a will to do good that is thwarted by the flesh… “but how to perform what is good I do not find.” (19) No need for explanation: “For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.” (20) This often misunderstood verse is Paul delineating or demarcating the two entities that shared his existence, The new spirit – the believer, the one with Christ living in him The old man (the flesh) who works against his sanctification (21) “I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. (22) For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.”

Paul shares his own struggle to encourage us (believers) that we are not alone, and to show us the right end of it – thankfulness for Yeshua (23) Paul sees that his body desires to rage and gorge and lust and envy and covet and thereby return him to the captivity of sin (24) And cries out to be released from the tools of hopeless failure – so that his will to please God can be worked out (25) Paul Thanks God (as should we) *THROUGH* Jesus Christ our Lord, and again recognizes that because of Christ he can measure himself as the spirit (mind) working towards sanctification as separate from the weakness of the flesh. Remember, God judges us by the heart, the heart he sees as renewed by Christ, and he supports us in our battle against the remains of our dying flesh. He already sees us as we will be. How much more powerful it makes any fruit we bear, that we are still among the choking vines.