Grace Presbyterian Church, Montclair, New Jersey

Paul in this chapter adds an additional reflection to his understanding of life in God’s abundant grace (Romans 5:20). He deals here with the question of the role of the law. His likening the law to a woman bound to her husband only during the husband’s life time indicates his view that the role of the law in God’s plan of salvation is now over (Romans 10:4; Galatians 5:1-4; Ephesians 2:15; Philippians 3:7-9; Colossians 2:13-14). When we look to the law all we see is our own sin. This is not because the law is sinful. Rather we are the sinners. Whenever we try to follow the law we fail because our sinful nature is still with us (salvation for Paul is a process that extends into the future for its final fulfillment (Romans 5:9-10, 10:9, 13:11; I Corinthians 1:18, 3:15; I Timothy 4:16)). In this life our flesh remains captive to sin and resistant to God’s law (Galatians 5:17). Our sinful flesh can only become weaker. It never becomes better.

1. For Paul the issue of the law remains as a question that must be addressed.  Paul as a Pharisee was trained under the law (the “Torah,” literally the teaching) (Philippians 3:5). The Torah primarily was the five books of Moses but it also extended to all the Old Testament which could be referred to as the “law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12). What then is the role of the law for the Christian, especially the Gentile Christian who did not grow up under it?
2. This is a major question since one of the objections to Christians and the church in general is that we are “legalistic.” This usually means inflexible, rigid and judgmental. Yet the odd thing is that the law itself cannot be described as rigid and judgmental. This is also an area where certain combinations of Pharisaism and Greek cultural standards have penetrated the church. It is important to remember that despite Jesus’ frequent conflicts with the Pharisees (Matthew 23), they were close to his teaching in many ways and a number of them became early converts to Christianity (Acts 15:5). The Stoic philosophers (Acts 17:18) had some similarities to Christian ethics but their strong emphasis on duty could be perceived as rigid. Paul faced both these tendencies in the early church and their views were the occasion, in Luke’s words, of “no small dissension and debate” (Acts 15:2).
3. All this is to say that in Romans chapter 7 Paul is trying to give an account of the law in the Christian life. Paul’s basic view seems to be twofold. On the first side the law he argues had only a temporary role in God’s plan of salvation. As he says in Galatians the law was our tutor (“disciplinarian”) to bring us to Christ. Once that was accomplished we no longer need the law (Galatians 3:23-29). Christ is the end of the law (Romans 10:4). Secondly, for Paul the gospel message of love sums up the law itself so that its requirements are ultimately met by the attitude and nature of love which cannot be reduced to a written code of instructions (Romans 13:9-10; Galatians 5:14). Jesus says something very similar (Matthew 22:34-40). Jesus certainly does not hold rigidly to the law’s commandments (Matthew 12:1-8; John 8:1-11). Therefore Paul seems to be saying that the law has no authority over the Christian (Ephesians 2:15; Colossians 2:14).
4. Paul uses a creative analogy from marriage. A woman is only bound to her husband while he is alive (Romans 7:1-2). When he dies she is free and can remarry (Romans 7:3). In the same way, Paul argues, Christians have died to the law so they can share the new life in Christ (Romans 7:4). While we were living “in the flesh,” that is, in our own power, our sinful passions were in fact “aroused by the law” (Romans 7:5). This brought us under the wages of sin bringing death (Romans 6:23). In Christ however we have been freed from the law so that we can live under the “new life of the Spirit.” We are bound to Christ, slaves in a sense to him under the Holy Spirit as Paul said in chapter 6 (Romans 6:17-18). Yet this slavery is our ultimate freedom (Galatians 5:1). This is why using our freedom to sin is a complete contradiction. To sin is to go back to our earlier slavery where we had no freedom (Romans 6:7-8).
5. Paul is now going to advance his argument further. He wants to make it clear that the law is no help in avoiding sin. The law does not contribute to our freedom in Christ. Once it has brought us to Christ its work is over (Galatians 3:25). Everyone has to go to high school. The time comes however to graduate and then you can’t go back to school. Paul will now explain why the law is ineffective in the Christian life:
   1. The law is good in itself. However its function in God’s plan of salvation is not to make us righteous (that only comes through grace). Its role is to make us aware of our sin. The law in fact increases our sin. When the law tells us not to covet or desire what others have it only makes us more desirous (Romans 7:7-8).
   2. The law is “holy and just and good” (Romans 7:12). However in the presence of sin (which Paul regards as a power that exercises dominion, Romans 5:21) the law becomes deadly.
   3. Paul does not say that the law is deadly in and of itself. However sin takes the law and turns it to its own advantage, that is, sin uses the law to increase our desire for sin. In the hands of sin the law becomes an instrument of death (I Corinthians 15:56). How is this possible? The law reveals sin. It exposes the sin in us but does nothing to curtail its power. Sin, once exposed, seeks to establish its power more and more. In Paul’s graphic illustration, the commandment not to covet made him all the more covetous (Romans 7:7-10). It is the very nature of our sinfulness to want to do whatever the law forbids us to do (“whatever you do, don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”).
6. To turn to the law is only to discover the depths of our sin. It is when we look at the commandments that we see how far we are from fulfilling them. As a follower of Christ I want to do God’s will. I want to follow the law. Yet for the present sin is still with me. In my flesh, that is, my natural sinful self, “I know that nothing good dwells within me” (Romans 7:18). When I try to follow the law, even the law as Jesus interprets it in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do” (Romans 7:19).
7. Paul goes on to describe a war that is taking place within him and, by extension, within all believers (Galatians 5:17). As a Christian (and this would not apply to non-Christians) “I delight in the law of God in my inmost self” (Romans 7:22). Yet the law of sin remains in me and counteracts God’s law (Romans 7:23). Paul cries out, “Wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of death?’ (Romans 7:24).
8. It is important to recognize the dilemma that Paul is describing and to relate it to other parts of Scripture. David, for example, delights in the law of God (Psalm 119). Jesus maintains that he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). Paul would say that David’s reflections are those of one being tutored by the law. The law is holy and just and good (Romans 7:12). At a certain point we rejoice in the law because it presents us with truth in the midst of the chaos and self destructive practices of the world. Yet Paul in effect is saying this only goes so far. With regard to the Sermon on the Mount Paul would say this is life in Christ. In our flesh all of this is impossible. At the most we can only go through the motions (Luke 18:11). This is what he had done in his previous life as a Pharisee. Paul is saying that the Christian cannot live in terms of the law. This is not because of any defect in the law but rather because sin still resides in our flesh and will do so until we are in our resurrection body (I Corinthians 15:42-45), The more we seek to follow the law the more we will discover the power of sin that still resides in us. In this context we can only see ourselves as “wretched.”
9. Our only hope is “through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25).  There are several reasons for this:
   1. Christ forgives all our sin (Ephesians 1:7).
   2. He breaks the power of sin over us (Romans 6:6; Colossians 2:13-15)
   Therefore in Christ alone we can experience the freedom from the law and the freedom from sin. Yet Paul leaves us with a sober reminder. In our flesh we remain a slave to the law of sin (Romans 7:25). It is only as we are led by the Holy Spirit that we can live out the love which is the fulfillment of the law. This is Paul’s focus in chapter 8.
10. Questions for Discussion –
    1. John Calvin spoke of a ”third use” of the law that could benefit Christians. He argued that the law remains a model for us even though we are no longer under its authority. Do you think Paul would accept this idea?
    2. Why do you think so many Christians want to hold onto the law in some form (as the Christian Pharisees did in Acts 15)?
    3. How would you interpret Paul’s statement that nothing good dwells in our flesh? What do you think he means by “flesh?”

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