Note: Clearly than, the apostle Paul starts to speak
and write to his brethren in Rome, those who are
familiar with the law. Christians! How
law dominates a man as long as he lives. Every
society and in fact the universe is run by laws,
and that includes Christianity.
For
the woman who has a husband is bound by the law
to the husband so long as he lives; for if the
husband be dead, she is freed from the law of
her husband.---verse
2
comment: A
woman in the Bible represents a church
[Eph.32,-24; Hosea 2:19,20] and GOD in the Bible
is represented as our Husband who loves very
much [2.Cor 11:2; Jer 3:14]. And if she does not
love her husband [GOD] she wants to be freed
from His law.
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.
comment: Friendship with the
world is also called spiritual adultery
[James 4:4].
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.
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.---verses
3-5.
comment:
From the previous chapter [6] we can see that
the subject of the Apostle is dead to sin and
our inherited sinful nature. The law of inherity.
We who have inherited the fallen nature of sin
from Adam have our sinful passion aroused by the
law of GOD when it points out sin to us. The
apostle says: "when we were in the flesh" when
we obeyed our own sinful lust of the flesh.
Since he died daily [Gal.2:20] we also have gone
down with CHRIST into the watery grave and died
with Him, but no good being a dead Christian if
we do not rise again with CHRIST and His
resurrection power of the Holy Spirit to walk in
newness of life [Romans
6:3,4; 8:1-4 ].
"But now we
are delivered from the law, that being dead
wherein we were held: that we should serve in
newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the
letter."---verse 6
Note: The
letter of the law kills unless there is a Holy
Spirit from GOD directly to us who makes it
alive we are not delivered from the condemnation
and dominance of the law. As he wrote to the
church at Corinth:
"For as much as
you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of
CHRIST ministered by us, written not with ink,
but with the Spirit of the living GOD, not in
tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the
heart."---2.Cor.3:3.
comment: This is the very new covenant of the new
testament that GOD writes love for His holy law
into our hearts and mind [Hebrews 8:10]
"What shall
we say then? Is the law sin? GOD forbid. No, I
had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not
known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt
not covet."---v.7
comment: The
last of the Ten Commandment told Paul of the
lust of the sinful nature we all have. When we
have come alive in CHRIST, we gladly obey GOD
and not sin[6:16].
"But sin, taking
opportunity by the commandment, produced in me
all manner of evil desire. For apart from the
law sin was dead."
---v.8
comment: Sin
is indeed in man, but no one knows it until man
learns to know the law. Then he burns all the
more with the fires of sin though it is not the
fault of the law. But it is by GOD'S grace that
the fires are extinguished.
As an analogy we may refer to the heat in lime.
No one knows that lime has heat until we pour
water on it. Than heat has an opportunity to
show itself. The water did not create the heat
in the lime, but made it manifest. It is similar
with the will of man and the law.
"I was alive
once without the law, but when the commandment
came, sin revived and I died."---v.9
comment:
Amazing how Paul, a trained Pharisee could have
been without the law. But like so many
Christians today, they are Christians by name
only.
"And the
commandment, which was to bring life, I found to
bring death."---v.10
comment:
The Apostle means to say: This I recognized in
the spirit, or according to my spiritual nature,
or as a new man. When we are converted and have
our sins forgiven it should bring death to our
carnal nature.
"For sin taking
occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by
it killed me."---v.11
comment:
Our
sinful nature is indeed deceitful and
desperately wicked above all things
[Jer.17:9] and the commandment he is speaking of
in every verse since verse 7, is the last of the
10 Commandments that showed Paul and also us the
lust of the flesh that is covetous and must be
kept under. It is only by the Holy Spirit
convicting us of sin and empowering us that we
can be victorious over sin.
"Wherefore the
law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just,
and good."---v.12
comment: you will find many Christians today
that will not say this of the Ten Commandment
law of GOD but speak passionately against it.
You wonder why. They must have the wrong spirit
as we shall see shortly in verse 14 because GODs
law is spiritual.
"Was then that
which is good made death unto me? GOD forbid.
But sin, that it may appear sin, working death
in me by that which is good; that sin by the
commandment might become exceeding sinful."---v.13
comment: It is
well for us to look up all the verses in which
the apostle Paul in the KJV says that which GOD
forbids [Romans 3:31; 6:2,15; 7:7,12,13; Gal.
2:17; 3:21]. This ties in all together and we
can see why by GODs commandments sin becomes
exceedingly sinful and abhorrent to us. Paul
shows a strong hatred for the flesh and a
sincere love or the law and all that which is
good. A carnal man never does this. he rather
hates the law and follows his flesh. The carnal
does not fight at all, but readily yields to
sin. cf. 1.Cor. 9:27
" For we know
that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal sold
under sin."---v.14
comment: GODs holy moral law of the Ten
Commandments are spiritual as GOD Himself. Sin
remains in us, but it does no longer reign. We
are certainly carnal but no longer sold out to
sin when we are born again.
" For that
which I do I allow not: for what I would, that I
do not; but what I hate, that do I."---v.15
comment: Surely, for the rest of this chapter,
Paul speaks of the carnal nature inside us that
is sold under sin, because it is not until
chapter eight that the apostle presents the
solution to the dilemma.
" If then I do
that which I would not, I consent unto the law
that it is good."---v.16
" Now then it
is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me."---v.17
"For I know
that in me [that is in my flesh], dwelleth no
good thing: for to will is present with me: but
how to perform that which is good I find not."---v.18
" For the good
that I would I do not: but the evil which I
would not, that I do."---v.19
comment: We would say, I couldn't help it, or,
the Devil made me do it.
" Now if I do
that which I would not, it is no more I that do
do it, but sin that dwelleth in me."---v.20
comment: In other words, can the Ethiopian
change his skin, or the Leopard his spots?
[Jer.13:23] no, they can't, neither can we change
ourselves.
" I find then a
law, that, when I would do good, evil is present
with me."---v.21
He discovers that he is tied to a carnal nature
from which he cannot escape. He is married to
the "old man" of carnality [7:24;6:6]. He can't
divorce himself from that nature. The law
convicts and condemns him [7:7].
" For I
delight in the law of GOD after the inward man:
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."---v.22,23
comment: No doubt here that the apostle Paul
compares the holy law of GOD with his unholy law
of sin inside himself that is now in conflict
since his conversion to CHRIST. His is not
referring to church members. Only a converted
man delights in the law of GOD after the inward
man!
" O wretched
man that I am! who shall deliver me from the
body of this 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."---v.25
[end of chapter 7 Romans].
recommended further reading: Luther's
commentary on Romans.---Kregel publ. 1976 ed.
ROMANS
CHAPTER 14
