WARNING: This is the hardest study in the book of Romans, intellectually speaking, though not emotionally speaking. In part, this is because this passage is potentially the most controversial passage in the book in terms of its interpretation. I will be including terms that theologians use in this study. These terms are to aid you in your understanding of difficult concepts. The terms aren’t necessarily that important, but the concepts are. Please feel the freedom to ask questions.
Gospel in a Sentence: God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die and pay the penalty for our sins; and all who believe in the risen Christ will not suffer God's wrath but will be given eternal life.
Big Picture: Jesus’ death frees us from being judged by the righteous Law so that we will bear fruit for God.
Goal: That we celebrate our freedom from being judged by the Law, while still rejoicing in the Law’s righteousness and goodness.
Key Ideas
1) Jesus’ death frees us from being judged by the Law.
2) Because we’re rebels, we rebel against the Law. Thus, being free from the judgment of the Law eliminates our urges to rebel against it.
3) A person who is free from the Law, by Christ’s work received through faith, will bear fruit for God.
4) The Law is righteous, holy, and good, despite the fact that it arouses our sinful lusts.
Key Terms
Brothers – Or brothers and sisters. Everyone who is adopted by God by virtue of their union with Christ, which is through faith.
United/Union – Every believer in Christ is bound to Christ in such a way that they are treated, by God the Father, as if they were Jesus, the truly obedient man. Chapter 5 tells us that this union results in our justification – Christ’s righteousness counted as ours. Chapter 6 tells us that it is also this union that results in growth in obedience – becoming more like Christ in our moral character. Chapter 7 tells us that this union results in freedom from the judgment of the Law, since Christ has been judged by the Law in our places.
The Law – By this point in the letter Paul is combining the two types of Law. In chapters 1 and 2 he speaks of a ‘natural law’ that every human knows by virtue of their being able to see God’s glory in creation. They know how their moral behavior ought to look to some degree. In chapters 2-5, Paul refers to the Law given by God specifically to the nation of Israel in the form of commandments. These two ‘laws’ are related – the Law given verbally by God is infallible, and the Law of God seen through nature contains much of the same morality that is given in the Old Testament Law, even if it lacks the specificity of the Old Testament Law. In chapter 7 we should see the Law in terms of both of those types of Law, given their great deal of overlap. The Law is the set of morals that God requires for us to stand righteous before him, ultimately fulfilled only by Christ for us.
Members – Parts of a person’s personhood. Not only their body parts, but their thoughts, motives, feelings, etc.
Law of… – These are the principles given for how one should live from different sources. In this section there is a ‘law of my mind,’ how I know I should live – as well as a ‘law of sin,’ how sin wants me to live.
Wretched – Pathetic, weak, incapable of doing anything worthwhile and suffering the consequences thereof. Miserable.
Key Observations
7:1 ‘Or do you not know’ indicates that Paul his continuing is argument from the previous section. He’s still responding to the thought that justification through faith alone means that we can live however we want. Here, he gives us a second reason: the Law is only binding on a person while they’re alive. He’ll unpack that in vv. 1-6.
2-3 Paul, before getting into how the Law relates to us and our relationship with Christ, uses the analogy of marriage. Simply put, adultery happens when you ‘live with’ (the term includes a sexual relationship but is not limited to it) someone who’s not your spouse. But if your spouse dies, the marriage ends. The Law about marriage is over, and so remarriage is not against the Law.
4 In the same way that death frees a spouse from the guilt of adultery if they have sex outside of marriage, so Christ’s death frees us from being judged by the Law. How so? Well, we had broken God’s Law and thus earned death and hell for ourselves. That punishment was poured out on Christ in the place of everyone who believes. Therefore, everyone who believes is free from being punished. Because of their union with Christ, they have already been punished and can’t be punished twice. Therefore, they are free from being judged and punished. So we belong to God to bear fruit for him. Note the purpose clause, ‘in order that we might bear fruit’. That means that fruit-bearing was God’s intent in joining us to himself. Therefore, everyone joined to Christ through faith will bear fruit. Recall and reread the excursus in the last study, “Do Christians Sin?” That we will bear fruit does not mean we will be perfect in this life. However, everyone who is joined to Christ will live a life of fruit-bearing accompanied by sin. That does not mean that a Christian will be bearing fruit in every aspect of his life; only that fruit will be borne. It also does not mean that we should be judging whether or not people who profess Christ based on some sin in their lives. We should not; though, we should, for the sake of their relationship with God, in love, talk with them about their sin.
The Relationship of Christians to the Law
This question may come up in your study: “What is our relationship to the Law?” Do we just ignore it, since we’re not ‘under’ it? It’s helpful to examine what historically is referred to as the three uses of the Law to answer that question.
Disclaimer: these are theological terms. It’s okay to not memorize the terms, though it is not okay to not understand the three uses of the Law. Without them, it’s very difficult to make sense of the Law itself, let alone this passage.
1) The Pedagogical Use – the Law leads us to Christ. This is the use most clearly in view in Romans 7, notably in v. 7. The Law reveals our sin to us, thus revealing our need for a righteousness that is not our own.
2) The Civil Use – the Law restrains the sin of the wicked. The Law restrains society from being as evil as it could be. We saw this in Romans 2. Since people have consciences because of God’s Law, and thus fear judgment, they will try to be ‘good people,’ even though they fail to ever please God (Romans 8:7).
3) The Didactic Use – the Law shows us how to live. The Law instructs Christians about how we are to live. We must be extremely cautious with this use, however! In the Scriptures, the Law is only used this way after a firm declaration that justification is by Christ’s work alone apart from our works. Our obedience to the Law must flow from our belief in our justification; it must not be an attempt to earn justification.
These three uses apply only to what theologians have historically called ‘The Moral Law.’ Here’s why that distinction is helpful. If someone has read the Old Testament, they’ll note that God gives commandments both about sexual purity and about not eating bacon. God gives commands about not murdering people as well as giving commands about not sowing fields with two kinds of grain. So how do we distinguish between types of laws?
Historically, theologians have come up with the following categories of laws in the Old Testament. These distinctions are very helpful in reading the Old Testament.
Remember, we’re asking about our relationship to the Law, since we’re no longer ‘under’ it. That means that we are not judged by it; however, it does not mean that we may ignore it (2 Timothy 3:16; Matthew 5:17). The threefold distinctions between laws are helpful for understanding how to apply the Law.
1) The Moral Law. These are the laws that flow out of the fact that we are created in God’s image (Genesis 1:26-28) and should reflect his character. They are usually understood to be the Ten Commandments and the laws that are implications of the Ten Commandments. For instance, ‘You shall not commit adultery’ implies all of the rules regarding sexual purity. If you do not know the Ten Commandments, you should study them. They can be found in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. Christ was judged in our places for our disobedience to the Moral Law; however, since these laws reflect the character of God, they are a guide by which we know how we should live. That said, we should not seek to obey these Laws on our power – or even by trusting in the Spirit alone. We should gaze at the holiness of the Law and remember and rejoice in our justification first. Remember the point of Romans 1 – we grow in Christ as we remember the Gospel – not the Law.
2) The Civil Law. These are the laws that governed how Israel’s government was to work. Their relationship to how modern governments are to work is a matter of some discussion and debate (and a worthwhile one!), but they are also applicable to our lives. The Kingdom of Israel was a picture of the coming Kingdom of God. The way in which justice was to be carried out in the Kingdom of Israel reflects how Jesus will carry out justice when he is revealed in his Kingdom and glory. It also reflects how the subjects of his Kingdom are to act in relationship to each other in some ways even now.
3) The Ceremonial Law. These are the laws that governed the religious worship of Old Testament Israel. They included laws about the priests, the temple, and the sacrifices. These laws are pictures of the coming Messiah’s work. They have a prophetic function – they were to reveal to the nation of Israel what the coming Messiah would do in dying for our sins.
It’s our hope that this information will help you not only understand Romans 7, but will also help you read and delight in God’s glory revealed in the Old Testament.
5 The word ‘for,’ beginning this verse, indicates that Paul’s about to explain the truths of v. 4 further. He does so in vv. 5-6. In v. 5, Paul lets us know what our pre-Christian state was like. We lived in the realm of the flesh, and our sinful lusts rebelled against the Law, resulting in death. By the way, this ‘fruit’ terminology ties 7:4-5 tightly to 6:20-23.
6 ‘But’ indicates the contrasting half of Paul’s explanation of v. 4. We now no longer are governed by the flesh, but by the Holy Spirit, because Jesus died and thus we died in the realm of the flesh and came to life in the realm of the Spirit.
Romans 7:7-25
This may come as a surprise to you, but Romans 7:7-25, among scholars, is probably the most debated passage in the book of Romans. It may be a passage you’re familiar with. Take a moment to read it. It’s the passage with, “I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”
On the surface, it seems as if Paul is merely describing his experience as a Christian. However, when you dig a little deeper, you see that he says some things that seem to contradict things he’s said in chapter 6 about not being a slave to sin. Add in a few other details about what the passage says, and it all becomes very confusing. Furthermore, it has been noted in literature of this time, that the first person pronoun ‘I,’ can be a literary device, in which the author isn’t actually talking about himself. Paul actually arguably uses this device in Romans 3:5-9.
I will list the positions that people take on the passage below; however, debate about this passage does not affect its meaning. This passage is not about the ‘I’ – it’s about the Law. The whole of it is an answer to the question in v. 7: “What then shall we say? That the Law is sin?” Paul’s answer is emphatically ‘no!’ He then goes on to describe how the Law is righteous, but that people are sinful and rebel against the Law.
That said, here are the various positions scholars have taken on this passage.
1) Paul is talking about his own experience as a Christian. This isn’t his normal experience; but when he forgets the Gospel, he slips into trying to work for his justification and ends up sinning more. This certainly feels, at certain times, like our experience. We do not live in light of the Gospel perfectly. However, this view has a hard time making sense of the ‘slave to sin’ language that appears throughout. Even if this view isn’t what Paul intended in Romans 7, the situation presented (forgetting the Gospel) does result in legalism and sin. The text can be applied to the situation of our sinning even if that isn’t Paul’s meaning. One must be extremely careful here not to let people think, though, that this is being presented as normal Christian experience! It is not.
2) Paul is talking about the experience of a non-Christian, probably a religious Jew, and possibly himself prior to his conversion. This view has the most consistent view of the times in the passage in which the person in question says he’s a slave to sin. It also lends credence to the very real conscience of unbelievers who are genuinely trying to be ‘good people.’ This view, however, has a hard time making sense of the person saying that his delight in the Law means that he is not the one sinning, but only sin in him is sinning.
3) Paul is talking about the experience of an important figure in the history of salvation – perhaps Adam or the nation of Israel. These views try to make sense of the fact that at some point the Law comes to the person in vv. 7-13; and that the person didn’t have the Law beforehand. It also tries to read Romans in light of the whole of the history of salvation (redemptive history). On the other hand, this reading seems to force a heavy-handed reading of redemptive history into this text, which would, at the very least, be odd in the context of the letter.
4) Paul is using the ‘I’ merely as a literary device, referring to a hypothetical/not real person. This view has the advantage of forcing the interpreter to get the main point right. The Law is the main character of the passage, not the ‘I.’ This view could be criticized, though, as ‘the easy way out’ of a very hard passage.
It’s my intention in writing this in a very even-handed fashion, so that you don’t know which view I lean to, and so you focus on the point of the passage. Frankly, my leaning in this passage is very slight; however, if you’d like to talk about, feel free to contact me.
All that said, you must read this passage with the point in view, which is an answer to the objection presented. The problem is that the Law looks bad in light of how it participates in damning humanity. But it isn’t bad – it is righteous, holy, and good. We should love the Law of God because it comes from the mouth of God. And we should love the fact that Christ obeyed it in our places to give us a righteous status before God. Even life under the Law, trying to keep it without Christ’s righteousness in view, resulting in sin, shows that the Law is good.
7-8 The problem of whether or not the Law is sin is raised because Paul’s just said that humanity’s lusts were aroused by the Law. Before he reveals why the Law is not sin, he deepens the problem a bit more. The Law shows us what sin is. Sin responds to the presence of Law by producing sin in us.
9-11 The Law promised eternal life: obey this and live! However, sin responds to the Law by producing sin and thus condemnation and death.
12 Paul gives a preliminary conclusion: given that the Law promises life on the condition of obedience, and given that sin is really responsible for our condemnation, the Law is good, not evil.
13 Paul presents another objection to the Law’s goodness: is it responsible for our condemnation? No, sin is. The Law reveals what’s already there.
14 The Law is from God, but people are slaves to sin. This fact supports the idea that it was sin that produces the death in humanity, not the Law.
15-16 The Law’s goodness and humanity’s rebelliousness is demonstrated in the fact that humanity’s desire to do right things confirms the Law’s goodness, even if humans are incapable of obeying it.
17-21 The Law produces a situation in which a person is incapable of doing what is right. Sin so controls a person under the Law that he desires righteousness and is incapable of doing it. Evil always is ‘close at hand.’
22-23 Here is a further reason to see how the Law is good, yet sin kills us. Even though people know what is right – and even delight in it – sin comes in as a King and rules over humanity.
24 This verse is the ultimate cry of humanity – knowing the good that is demanded and the inability to do it – knowing that we need a Savior from the righteous condemnation earned by lawlessness.
25 Paul answers his question from v. 24. Who will save? God saves, and he does so through Jesus, the Messiah – and for this he must be thanked! Paul does not end this section on this note of triumph, though, but returns to his point – living under the Law creates a situation in which a person knows and wants what is right, but cannot do it. This situation shows us that the Law is holy, but humanity is trapped in sin.
Sample Discussion Guide:
-What are a few things that you would describe as ‘righteous’ things to do?
-How easy for you is it to do those things? Would you say you do them consistently?
-Turn to Psalm 119:46-47. How do you feel about this statement?
-What have we learned about the Law so far in Romans?
-What have we learned about justification? (What is it? Why is it necessary? How is it accomplished?)
-In Romans 6, Paul raised a possible objection to the teaching of ‘justification through faith alone.’ The objection was that if that’s true, a person can trust Jesus and keep living the same sinful way they were beforehand. Paul answers that question in the emphatic negative. In Romans 6, he tells us that Christ’s death and resurrection has freed us from sin as our master, and so everyone in Christ will grow in obedience to him. In Romans 7, he’ll give us another answer to that objection.
-Have someone in the group pray for your time in the Word.
-Have someone read vv. 1-3.
-Why is adultery so bad?
-Why is it not adultery if someone remarries after his/her spouse dies?
-Have someone read vv. 4-6.
-How does the marriage and death analogy relate to Christ’s death?
-Why was it necessary for us to die to the Law?
-Have the group read Exodus 20:17. How does our being dead to the Law through Christ change how you read Exodus 20:17? Do you covet? How is Christ’s death related to your coveting?
-Have the group read Matthew 5:21-22. Do you get angry? How is Christ’s death related to your getting angry?
-We see in v. 5 that the Law aroused our sinful passions, or lusts. This should make us uneasy. It leads to the objection in v. 7. Have someone read vv. 7-12.
-What do we see about the Law in these verses? About sin?
-This passage isn’t about a person’s experience. It’s about the Law being a good thing, even though it would condemn us if we were not dead to it. Re-read v. 12. How should you feel about the Law? What prevents us from feeling rightly about it?
-Have someone read vv. 13-25.
-What do we see the Law doing in these verses? Sin?
-What do we see from these verses about the person who tries to live under the Law? What is their experience?
-What are some commands of Scripture that are hard for you to obey?
-Given that every sin of ours is a sin that could condemn us, how should we deal with those sins that we struggle with in light of Jesus’ death?
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