2018 STUDY OF ROMANS
Chapter 7, Verses 1-6
The New Way!
[8-26-18]
Review: “Wages and Gifts!”
Romans 6:17-23) [NIV] But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.
18) YOU HAVE BEEN SET FREE FROM SIN AND HAVE BECOME SLAVES TO RIGHTEOUSNESS.
NOTE: You have been set free from sin! God said it! God is not a man, that he should lie [Numbers 23:19]!
19) (NLT) I speak this way, using the illustration of slaves and masters, because it is easy to understand. Before, you let yourselves be slaves of impurity and lawlessness. Now you must choose to be slaves of righteousness so that you will become holy
*NOTE: When Jesus sets us free we are free, not bound. However, Paul wants us to understand that we should yield our bodies to God in obedience, just like we used to yield them to sin. That’s why he compares the idea of slavery to sin to the idea of slavery to righteousness.
20) (NLT) In those days, when you were slaves of sin, you weren’t concerned with doing what was right.
QUESTION: Is Paul saying that sinners/unbelievers never do anything good?
*ANSWER: No! He’s simply saying that when people don’t embrace the truth of the Gospel they make their own determinations about right and wrong. Their perception becomes their reality. They felt no obligation to search the Scriptures to find true understanding of right and wrong.
21) (ERV) You did evil things, and now you are ashamed of what you did. Did those things help you? No, they only brought death.
NOTE: Once we become Christians we become ashamed of some of the things we did in the past that we thought were OK back then.
**NOTE: SIN ALWAYS KILLS SOMETHING! Sometimes it kills relationships. Sometimes it kills happiness. Sometimes it kills peace. Sometimes it kills our very conscience, in the sense of eroding it. In the end, if we don’t come to Jesus, the death sin causes will last forever.
22) But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
NOTE: The Greek work “hagiasmos” is used 10 times in the N.T. It’s translated “holiness” 5 times, and it’s translated “sanctification” 5 times. Holiness is sanctification! Sanctification is holiness! WE ARE IN GOD’S PILE OF STUFF!
23) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
NOTE: A wage is something we earn as an agreed amount of money for an agreed amount of work. A gift is something we receive as a token of good will from the giver. So, if we go to Hell it’s because we earned it. If we go to Heaven it’s because we received it. It is a gift freely given to us by a benevolent God.
This Week’s Lesson: “The New Way!”
Romans 7:1-6) [NIV] Do you not know, brothers-for I am speaking to men who know the law-that the law has authority over a man only as long as he 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 of marriage.
3) So then, if she marries 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, even though she marries another man.
QUESTION: Why is Paul suddenly talking about the Law as it applies to marriage?
ANSWER: Paul told us in the last chapter that we have died to the Law in Christ. He is now building on the principle.
QUESTION: What does the Law of marriage tell us regarding a woman?
ANSWER: If she leaves her husband and marries another man while her former husband is still alive she is called an adulteress; if she marries another man after her former husband dies she is not called an adulteress.
QUESTION: Is this all the Law teaches regarding marriage?
ANSWER: Note:
Deuteronomy 24:1-4) [NIV] If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house,
2) and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man,
3) and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies,
4) then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the LORD. Do not bring sin upon the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.
QUESTION: What do preachers of our day, who teach that Paul is telling the Romans about a strict Law that prohibits divorce and remarriage, say regarding divorced couples who are now married to others?
ANSWER: They teach they must divorce their current mates and remarry each other, or live single the remainder of their lives, or wait for one of them to die so the other can remarry.
*NOTE: Moses says it’s “detestable in the eyes of the LORD” to remarry your first mate after he/she has been married to someone else.
QUESTION: Then why does Paul say here that being married to someone else while your former mate is still alive is adultery?
**ANSWER: He’s not teaching on divorce is this passage; he’s teaching on our having died to the Law. He is simply using the general Law of marriage as an illustration.
NOTE: Paul teaches more in depth on marriage and divorce in I Corinthians, Chapter 7. That’s a topic for another day. Suffice it to say, for now, that Paul is using this example of marriage and divorce in our current chapter of discussion to illustrate how we have died to the Law.
4) So, my brothers, 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 to God.
(KJV) Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, [even] to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
QUESTION: What is the conclusion of Paul’s example?
*ANSWER: Since we have died to the Law death has broken the bond of marriage, and we are free from our former vows, and can now be married to Christ.
QUESTION: What’s different about the conclusion Paul draws from his example and the actual end result of the Law concerning marriage and death?
ANSWER: In the teaching of the Law that gives the woman a right to remarry it’s the survivor who has that right; in Paul’s conclusion here it’s the one who died who has that right. The idea is that just as we died to the Law in Christ we have also risen with Christ. Our death freed us from the Law, but now that we’re alive in Christ we are free to “marry” Him; i.e., we are free to be united to Him.
5) For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, 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.
QUESTION: Who is the “we” in these two verses?
ANSWER: Paul is saying, “We Jews who have put our faith in Christ,” were controlled by the sinful nature prior to our conversions.
QUESTION: Because of our fallen nature, sin dwells in the members of our flesh, but what arouses those sinful passions?
ANSWER: The Law arouses those sinful passions. The Law did it to faithful Jews prior to the cross, and the Law does it to all of us who follow Christ this side of the cross.
QUESTION: What’s the Good News of the Gospel found in these verses?
ANSWER: The fact is that we believers have been “released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit.” This is a spiritual fact! The problem we have is we don’t always believe it; consequently, we often walk outside of that truth.
2018 STUDY OF ROMANS
Chapter 7, Verses 7-13
The Law Came; I Died!
[9-2-18]
Review: “The New Way!”
Romans 7:1-6) [NIV] Do you not know, brothers-for I am speaking to men who know the law-that the law has authority over a man only as long as he 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 of marriage.
3) So then, if she marries 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, even though she marries another man.
NOTE: Paul told us in the last chapter that we have died to the Law in Christ. He is now building on the principle.
Deuteronomy 24:1-4) [NIV] If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house,
2) and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man,
3) and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies,
4) then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the LORD. Do not bring sin upon the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.
NOTE: Many teachers teach that divorced individuals must divorce their current mates and remarry each other, or live single the remainder of their lives, or wait for one of them to die so the other can remarry.
*NOTE: Moses says it’s “detestable in the eyes of the LORD” to remarry your first mate after he/she has been married to someone else.
4) So, my brothers, 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 to God.
QUESTION: What is the conclusion of Paul’s example?
*ANSWER: Since we have died to the Law death has broken the bond of marriage, and we are free from our former vows, and can now be married to Christ.
5) For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, 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.
NOTE: The Law arouses those sinful passions. The Law did it to faithful Jews prior to the cross, and the Law does it to all of us who follow Christ this side of the cross.
NOTE: The fact is that we believers have been “released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit.” This is a spiritual fact! The problem we have is we don’t always believe it; consequently, we often walk outside of that truth.
This Week’s Lesson: “The Law Came; I Died!”
Romans 7:7-13) [NIV] What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”
8) But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead.
QUESTION: How does the Law still benefit us?
*ANSWER: It exposes sin! We know what sin is because of the Law.
QUESTION: How did sin take advantage of the Law?
**ANSWER: Sin made the forbidden look good! We were told by the Law, “Thou shall not!” Sin said, “Yeah! But doesn’t it look good? Doesn’t it sound fun!”
“This shows how great the evil of sin is – it can take something good and holy like the law and twist it to promote evil. Sin warps love into lust, an honest desire to provide into greed, and law into a promoter of sin” [Guzik].
NOTE: In certain cases when something is forbidden it becomes all the more enticing.
QUESTION: Did sin only take advantage of the Law on the other side of the cross, before Grace appeared?
ANSWER: No! It still takes advantage of the Law because even though God has freed us from the Law, we do not fully walk in that freedom; in other words, we are still trying to win God’s favor by doing what’s right.
QUESTION: What happens when we try to earn God’s favor by keeping the Law?
1 Corinthians 15:55-56) [KJV] O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
56) The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
ANSWER: When we attempt to keep Moses’ Law, or any other set of rules, to win God’s favor we are putting Sin on steroids!
NOTE: When we attempt to find favor with God by doing what is right, we naturally then conclude that when we fail to do what’s right we fall out of God’s favor. That’s Law! Consequently, that kind of thinking opens the door for Sin to take advantage of the Law.
9) Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
(ERV) Before I knew the law, I was alive. But when I heard the law’s command, sin began to live,
QUESTION: When was Paul, a Jew, ever “alive apart from law”?
*ANSWER: I believe that Paul is referring to that time in his life when he had not reached the age of accountability. He wasn’t old enough to understand right from wrong. When he reached that age where clarity came, he then understood right from wrong, the commandment forbidding the wrong became clear to him, and he spiritually died [Guzik; Vincent; Robertson].
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.
NOTE: Once God holds us accountable we are dead in our sins!
QUESTION: What happened at that time in Paul’s life when understanding came?
ANSWER: He discovered that the very Law that was intended to bring life actually brought death to him. He found himself hopelessly lost.
QUESTION: Why?
**ANSWER: Sin took advantage of the commandment, made the forbidden look desirable, Paul succumbed to the temptation, and then the commandment that he had broken pronounced him death.
12) So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
QUESTION: Do we then conclude that there is something wrong with the Law?
*ANSWER: Of course not! God wrote this Law! The Law is absolutely, in every way, holy! Every last commandment of the Law is “holy, righteous and good.” THERE IS NO FAULT IN THE LAW!
QUESTION: Then why is it that “the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death”?
ANSWER: Paul will answer that question in Chapter 8.
13) Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
(ERV) Does this mean that something that is good brought death to me? No, it was sin that used the good command to bring me death. This shows how terrible sin really is. It can use a good command to produce a result that shows sin at its very worst.
QUESTION: Did the Law kill us?
ANSWER: No! Sin killed us by utilizing the Law to tempt us to do the forbidden.
QUESTION: What is the purpose of the Law?
ANSWER: The purpose of the Law is to define sin (vs. 7), and to show how horrible sin is by showing us how sin worked death in us through our breaking the Law. Sin worked death in us through utilizing the “holy” Law, with its “holy, righteous and good” commandments.
2018 STUDY OF ROMANS
Chapter 7, Verses 14-17
Doing the Very Thing I Hate!
[9-9-18]
Review: “The Law Came; I Died!”
Romans 7:7-13) [NIV] What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”
8) But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead.
**ANSWER: The Law took advantage of sin by making the forbidden look good! We were told by the Law, “Thou shall not!” Sin said, “Yeah! But doesn’t it look good? Doesn’t it sound fun!”
NOTE: In certain cases when something is forbidden it becomes all the more enticing.
QUESTION: What happens when we try to earn God’s favor by keeping the Law?
1 Corinthians 15:55-56) [KJV] O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
56) The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
ANSWER: When we attempt to keep Moses’ Law, or any other set of rules, to win God’s favor we are putting Sin on steroids!
NOTE: When we attempt to find favor with God by doing what is right, we naturally then conclude that when we fail to do what’s right we fall out of God’s favor. That’s Law! Consequently, that kind of thinking opens the door for Sin to take advantage of the Law.
9) (ERV) Before I knew the law, I was alive. But when I heard the law’s command, sin began to live,
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.
NOTE: Once God holds us accountable we are dead in our sins!
QUESTION: What happened at that time in Paul’s life when understanding came?
ANSWER: He discovered that the very Law that was intended to bring life actually brought death to him. He found himself hopelessly lost.
12) So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
*NOTE: God wrote the Law! The Law is absolutely, in every way, holy! Every last commandment of the Law is “holy, righteous and good.” THERE IS NO FAULT IN THE LAW!
13) (ERV) Does this mean that something that is good brought death to me? No, it was sin that used the good command to bring me death. This shows how terrible sin really is. It can use a good command to produce a result that shows sin at its very worst.
NOTE: Sin killed us by utilizing the Law to tempt us to do the forbidden.
This Week’s Lesson: “Doing the Very Thing I Hate!”
Romans 7:14-17) [NIV] We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
(KJV) but I am carnal, sold under sin.
(ERV) We know that the law is spiritual, but I am not. I am so human. Sin rules me as if I were its slave.
QUESTION: If the Law is so good, then what’s the problem?
ANSWER: You and I are the problem; we’re not so good!
QUESTION: What does “sold as a slave to sin” mean?
ANSWER: Sin has purchased us as slave. In the flesh we are totally under the control of sin.
“This expression is often adduced to show that it cannot be of a renewed man that the apostle is speaking. The argument is, that it cannot be affirmed of a Christian that he is sold under sin. A sufficient answer to this might be, that in fact, this is the very language which Christians often now adopt to express the strength of that native depravity against which they struggle, and that no language would better express it. It does not, mean that they choose or prefer sins. It strongly implies that the prevailing bent of their mind is against it, but that such is its strength that it brings them into slavery to it” [Barnes].
Paul “cannot mean himself, nor any Christian believer: if the contrary could be proved, the argument of the apostle would go to demonstrate the insufficiency of the Gospel as well as the law” [Clarke].
QUESTION: Is Paul referring to that time in his life when he wasn’t a Christian, or when he was one?
ANSWER: Both! Paul is trying to get believers to understand that the Law demonstrated to us all that the flesh is corrupt, and that man cannot live righteously through the power of the flesh; that is, through gritting our teeth and trying harder. The flesh failed before the cross, and the flesh fails after the cross!
Galatians 5:1, 4) [KJV] Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
4) Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
Galatians 5:18-21) [ERV] But if you let the Spirit lead you, you are not under law.
19) The wrong things the sinful self does are clear: committing sexual sin, being morally bad, doing all kinds of shameful things,
20) worshiping false gods, taking part in witchcraft, hating people, causing trouble, being jealous, angry or selfish, causing people to argue and divide into separate groups,
21) being filled with envy, getting drunk, having wild parties, and doing other things like this. I warn you now as I warned you before: The people who do these things will not have a part in God’s kingdom.
NOTE: Paul’s point in Romans 7 and Galatians 5 is, as his point always is, that rather I’m a Christian or a sinner, if I walk in the flesh, trying to gain favor with a Holy God by keeping the Law, my flesh will always produce the same results!
15) I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
(ERV) I don’t understand why I act the way I do. I don’t do the good I want to do, and I do the evil I hate.
16) And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
(GNB) Since what I do is what I don’t want to do, this shows that I agree that the Law is right.
17) As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
“Is Paul denying his responsibility as a sinner? No. He recognizes that as he sins, he acts against his nature as a new man in Jesus Christ. A Christian must own up to his sin, yet realize that the impulse to sin does not come from who we really are in Jesus Christ” [Guzik].
“We must not excuse our sinning by passing it off to indwelling sin. We are responsible for what we do, and we must not use this verse to “pass the buck.” All Paul is doing here is tracking down the source of his sinful behavior, not excusing it” [BBC].
QUESTION: Do only unbelievers face this struggle?
ANSWER: Any Christian reading this knows the answer to the above question. The answer is, “No!” Christians face this same struggle. We want to pray more; we don’t! We want to read the Bible more; we don’t! We want to give more to the church; we don’t! We don’t want to hold grudges; we do! We don’t want to harm others with our words and actions; we do! When we sin does that mean we’re an unbeliever? No! It means we’re a broken believer.
QUESTION: In what way am I agreeing with the Law when I’m doing the very thing I hate?
ANSWER: The reason I hate the thing I’m doing in this struggle is because the Law has taught me that it is wrong. By experience, I now know it to be wrong because of the great conviction of sin my actions produced in me.
QUESTION: What does “it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me” actually mean?
ANSWER: Note the following comment:
“This leads to the conclusion that the culprit is not the new man in Christ, but the sinful, corrupt nature that dwells in him. But we must be careful here. We must not excuse our sinning by passing it off to indwelling sin. We are responsible for what we do, and we must not use this verse to “pass the buck.” All Paul is doing here is tracking down the source of his sinful behavior, not excusing it” [BBC].
NOTE: The power of sin at work in the members of my body, even though I’m a Christian, can overpower me with the desire to sin when I am not being vigilant.
QUESTION: What does it mean, in regards to this subject, for a Christian to be vigilant?
ANSWER: It means that we must always walk in the Spirit; that is, we must always stand firm on the truth of the Gospel; we must believe that “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” [II Corinthians 5:17]. We must walk in faith; which means., we must believe what God says to us through His Word.
2018 STUDY OF ROMANS
Chapter 7, Verses 18-25
That Stupid Flesh Of Ours!
[9-16-18]
Review: “Doing the Very Thing I Hate!”
Romans 7:14-17) [NIV] We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
NOTE: Sin has purchased us as slaves. In the flesh we are totally under the control of sin.
NOTE: Paul is trying to get believers to understand that the Law demonstrated to us all that the flesh is corrupt, and that man cannot live righteously through the power of the flesh; that is, through gritting our teeth and trying harder. The flesh failed before the cross, and the flesh fails after the cross!
NOTE: Paul’s point in Romans 7 is the same point that he teaches in Galatians 5, that being, that rather I’m a Christian or a sinner, if I walk in the flesh, trying to gain favor with a Holy God by keeping the Law, my flesh will always produce the same results!
15) (ERV) I don’t understand why I act the way I do. I don’t do the good I want to do, and I do the evil I hate.
16) (GNB) Since what I do is what I don’t want to do, this shows that I agree that the Law is right.
17) As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
“Is Paul denying his responsibility as a sinner? No. He recognizes that as he sins, he acts against his nature as a new man in Jesus Christ. A Christian must own up to his sin, yet realize that the impulse to sin does not come from who we really are in Jesus Christ” [Guzik].
QUESTION: Do only unbelievers face this struggle?
ANSWER: Any Christian reading this knows the answer to the above question. The answer is, “No!” Christians face this same struggle. We want to pray more; we don’t! We want to read the Bible more; we don’t! We want to give more to the church; we don’t! We don’t want to hold grudges; we do! We don’t want to harm others with our words and actions; we do! When we sin does that mean we’re an unbeliever? No! It means we’re a broken believer.
QUESTION: What does “it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me” actually mean?
“This leads to the conclusion that the culprit is not the new man in Christ, but the sinful, corrupt nature that dwells in him. But we must be careful here. We must not excuse our sinning by passing it off to indwelling sin. We are responsible for what we do, and we must not use this verse to “pass the buck.” All Paul is doing here is tracking down the source of his sinful behavior, not excusing it” [BBC].
NOTE: The power of sin at work in the members of my body, even though I’m a Christian, can overpower me with the desire to sin when I am not being vigilant.
This Week’s Lesson: “That Stupid Flesh Of Ours!”
Romans 7:18-25) [NIV] I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
(ERV) Yes, I know that nothing good lives in me–I mean nothing good lives in the part of me that is not spiritual. I want to do what is good, but I don’t do it.
QUESTION: What is Paul telling us in this verse?
*ANSWER: Paul is telling us that we will not triumph in our struggle against sin by looking inward to our own abilities. Our self-determination will not win this battle. The required strength does not come from the who-we-are as an individual, but rather, from the who-we-are in Christ.
19) For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing.
“want to” – “1) to will, have in mind, intend; 1a) to be resolved or determined, to purpose” [Thayer].
“evil” – “1) of a bad nature; 2a) base, wrong, wicked; 3) troublesome, injurious, pernicious, destructive, baneful” [Thayer].
“keep on doing” – “1) to exercise, practice, to be busy with, carry on” [Thayer].
“The conflict here graphically described between a self that “desires” to do good and a self that in spite of this does evil, cannot be the struggles between conscience and passion in the unregenerate, because the description given of this “desire to do good” in Rom 7:22 is such as cannot be ascribed, with the least show of truth, to any but the renewed” [JFB].
NOTE: Paul is writing to believers, not unbelievers! Our flesh, that is, our bodies are not yet saved [Romans 8:23]. Sin dwells in the members of our bodies [Romans 7:20, 23]. As Christians we can want to do the right thing and end up doing the wrong thing! Why? We listen to the impulses of our flesh!
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.
QUESTION: What is Paul doing here?
ANSWER: He is restating his conclusions in verses 15, 16, and 17. Here’s a comment I made last Sunday concerning these things: “Christians face this same struggle. We want to pray more; we don’t! We want to read the Bible more; we don’t! We want to give more to the church; we don’t! We don’t want to hold grudges; we do! We don’t want to harm others with our words and actions; we do! When we sin does that mean we’re an unbeliever? No! It means we’re a broken believer.”
21) So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
(ERV) So I have learned this rule: When I want to do good, evil is there with me.
QUESTION: What does this conclusion, “when I want to do good, evil is right there with me,” mean to you and me?
ANSWER: He said, When I want to do good,” in other words, when I take matters into my own hands I will always discover that “evil is right there with me.”
**NOTE: Again, we will not find the strength to overcome by looking inward to our own abilities. When I try to live the New Covenant with an Old Covenant strategy, I WILL ALWAYS FAIL! My strength doesn’t come from my trying harder, but it comes by my believing God’s promises. If I believe I’m a new creation, I will live like a new creation.
22) For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;
(ERV) In my mind I am happy with God’s law.
The rational and moral I, the essence of the man which is conscious of itself as an ethical personality. Not to be confounded with the new man (Eph 4:24; Col 3:10). It is substantially the same with the mind (Rom 7:23) [Vincent].
“There is a debate among Christians as to if Paul was a Christian during the experience he describes. Some look at his struggle with sin and believe that it must have been before he was born again. Others believe that he is just a Christian struggling with sin. In a sense this is an irrelevant question, for this is the struggle of anyone who tries to obey God in their own strength. This is something that a Christian may do, but something that a non-Christian can only do” [Guzik].
23) but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
(NLT) But there is another law at work within me that is at war with my mind. This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.
(ERV) But I see another law working in my body. That law makes war against the law that my mind accepts. That other law working in my body is the law of sin, and that law makes me its prisoner.
“Regime of the sin-principle. Sin is represented in the New Testament as an organized economy” [Vincent].
NOTE: My inner being/my mind/my conscience/my humanity wants to do the things I deem morally acceptable; but the “regime of the sin-principle” operating in the members of my body wage war against my desire to do the right thing and often overcome me!
24) What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
QUESTION: What causes this struggle Paul is talking about in this chapter?
ANSWER: Even before I was born again I desired to live right; but now as a Christian I especially like God’s rules in my intellect; I know they are right. However, I discover “another law” at work in the members of my body; a natural law that longs to give in to my passion to sin. Human effort fails to consistently do what my intellect, as a believer, wants to do because my passion to sin, that is a result of having a fallen nature, is stronger that my passion to do what my intellect tells me is the right thing to do.
NOTE: As Guzik brings out in an above note, and as I have been teaching for decades, Paul is talking about the failure to do the right thing when we are walking in our own strength/walking in the flesh/trying to do the right thing in order to gain God’s favor. We must walk in the Spirit/walk by faith/believe what God says about us in His Word! That’s how we will gain the victory over these struggles!
QUESTION: What does Paul cry out as a result of this?
ANSWER: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
25) Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
QUESTION: How does Paul conclude this chapter?
ANSWER: He reiterates what the struggle is.
NOTE: He will introduce us to the victory we can enjoy in the next chapter!