Page 49 - Romans Student Textbook.doc

and talking about law naturally leads to discussing sin. In many ways they are so tightly related that it is
like they are two sides of the same coin.

Romans 7 continued to be driven by questions but there are changes to notice in the text in regard to
them. Rather than coming in flurries, Paul now introduced the questions one at a time. Rather than just
being speculative the questions are now used by Paul to introduce a point he is attempting to get them to
see. The pattern of question, discussion, instruction still held true. The law of God no longer functions in
us to enslave us to our sinful passions, but we are set free to live apart from sin with the help of God’s
Holy Spirit. (7:1-6)

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The first question is essentially, “Don’t you understand that the law has limits?” To illustrate this aspect
of the law he used an illustration from the way that the Old Testament ordered the relationship between
a husband and wife. It is an aspect of the law that all to whom he wrote — especially those with a Jewish
cultural background — knew well. What he says in this paragraph is simply that what was true about the
law in regard to marriage was also true about the law in general. The law only applied to those who are
living under the law. When one died the law ceased to have effect on them. Just as a woman is no longer
bound to her husband when he dies and is free to marry whomever she might choose without being
branded as an adulterer, so because you have died with Christ in his death to sin you are no longer bound
or held captive to its dominion in your life. Being dead to sin you are free to live in a new way empowered
and enabled by the Spirit of God to do righteousness before God.

Paul’s answer to this question reveals to us a penetrating look into how the law of God was used in the
lives of those who were living under it apart from faith in the Son to enslave them to sin. In verse 5 he
wrote, “For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our
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members to bear fruit for death.” The law made those living in the flesh aware of sin, and in that
awareness aroused a curiosity into the dynamics of how sin worked in the economies and relationships of
the world that produced a passion for using sin as a tool for pursuing their own self-centered, self-serving
desires. The efficiency of sin in providing a means to satisfy selfish desires led to an addiction that
enslaved those living under the law apart from faith in Christ.

The instruction for those who are trusting in Christ is simply, “Realize that you are released from the law
and sin’s power to use it to enslave you because you have died to the law and sin when you trusted in
Christ.” Knowing that truth was intended to enable cooperation with the Spirit of God in living out the
righteousness of God in every relationship of life.

God’s holy, righteous and good law showed us the deadly reality of our own sin without being sinful itself.
(7:7-12)

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The next question is “Is the law of God sinful?” As Paul says, “Of course not!” He revealed a little more
of the insidious ways that sin used the good law of God to entrap people. Sin sometimes used God’s law
as a way to introduce people to sin and entice them to do sinful things. Paul used the tenth
commandment “You shall not covet,” to illustrate just how sin brings this about. He told them that he
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first became aware of what coveting was by what was said in the commandment. When he understood
what it meant to covet, he was drawn to practice it and when he practiced covetousness the law against
coveting became death to him. Sin used the law to deceive him and to kill him.

Paul is not saying by this that the law is the cause of his sin. Sin always uses the good creations of God in a
self-serving way that displays rebellion against the idea that God is allowed to tell us how we ought to

37 Romans 7:1.
38 Romans 7:5, ESV.
39 Romans 7:7.
40 Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21.
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