Released From the Law, Bound to Christ
7 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? 2 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. 3 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.
4 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. 5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh, [In contexts like this, the Greek word for flesh (sarx) refers to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit.] the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 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.
The Law and Sin
7 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.”[Exodus 20:17; Deut. 5:21] 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 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? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[Or my flesh] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 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. 20 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.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 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. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 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[ Or in the flesh] a slave to the law of sin.
NOTES:
7:1–6 Paul reflects on the fact that Christians have a
different understanding of the law because of their faith in Christ. Law binds
the living, not the dead, as exemplified in marriage, which binds in life but
is dissolved through death. Similarly, Christians who through baptism have died
with Christ to sin (cf. Rom 6:2–4) are freed from the law that occasioned
transgressions, which in turn were productive of death. Now that Christians are
joined to Christ, the power of Christ’s resurrection makes it possible for them
to bear the fruit of newness of life for God.
7:7–25 In this passage Paul uses the first person singular
in the style of diatribe for the sake of argument. He aims to depict the
disastrous consequences when a Christian reintroduces the law as a means to
attain the objective of holiness pronounced in Rom 6:22.
7:7–12 The apostle defends himself against the charge of
identifying the law with sin. Sin does not exist in law but in human beings,
whose sinful inclinations are not overcome by the proclamation of law.
7:13–25 Far from improving the sinner, the law encourages sin to
expose itself in transgressions or violations of specific commandments (see Rom
1:24; 5:20). Thus persons who do not experience the justifying grace of God,
and Christians who revert to dependence on law as the criterion for their
relationship with God will recognize a rift between their reasoned desire for
the goodness of the law and their actual performance that is contrary to the
law. Unable to free themselves from the slavery of sin and the power of death,
they can only be rescued from defeat in the conflict by the power of God’s
grace working through Jesus Christ.
7:23 As in Rom 3:27, Paul plays on the term law, which in
Greek can connote custom, system, or principle.
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