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7:7 Paul is not arguing that the Law encourages sinful behavior, but that the Law brings it to the fore. The Law de nes sin and thus brings sin to light.
7:20 “It is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.” Paul is not denying individual responsibility for sin. Rather, he is illustrating that the one who sins under the law is “sold into slavery to sin” (7:14), a captive to the forces of sin.
8:3 Paul contrasts “ esh” and “spirit.” By “ esh” Paul refers not simply to the human body in contrast to the soul or spirit within. Rather, “ esh” can be taken to refer to all the lower aspects of our existence, our earth-bound nature, our tendency to be overwhelmed by sin, while “spirit” is that aspect which urges us to aspire to the things of God. For Paul, “ esh” means human weakness, but this does not mean that the esh is evil.
Through the indwelling Spirit of God, our bodies can be lled with life and become instruments of holiness, not of sin.
CHAPTER 7
k. [7:18] Gn 6:5; 8:21; Phil 2:13.
l. [7:23] Gal 5:17; 1 Pt 2:11.
m. [7:25] 1 Cor 15:57.
CHAPTER 8
a. [8:2] 7:23–24; 2 Cor 3:17.
b. [8:3] Acts 13:38; 15:10 / Jn 3:16–17;
2 Cor 5:21; Gal 3:13; 4:4; Phil 2:7;
Col 1:22; Heb 2:17; 4:15; 1 Jn 4:9.
c. [8:4] Gal 5:16–25.
d. [8:6] 6:21; 7:5; 8:13; Gal 6:8.
e. [8:7] 5:10; Jas 4:4.
f. [8:8] 1 Jn 2:16.
g. [8:9] 1 Cor 3:16.
h. [8:10] Gal 2:20; 1 Pt 4:6.
i. [8:13] Gal 5:24; 6:8; Eph 4:22–24.
j. [8:14] Gal 5:18.
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ROMANS -
thegoodisnot.k 19ForIdonotdothegoodIwant,butIdotheevilI do not want. 20Now if [I] do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21So, then, I discover the principle that when I want to do right, evil is at hand. 22For I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self, 23l but I see in my members another principle at war with the law of my mind, taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.* 24Miserable one that I am! Who will deliver me from this mortal body? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, I myself, with my mind, serve the law of God but, with my esh, the law of sin.m
8The Flesh and the Spirit.*
1Hence, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death.a 3For what the law, weakened by the esh, was powerless to do, this God has done: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful esh and for the sake of sin, he condemned sin in the esh,b 4so that the righteous decree of the law might be ful lled in us, who live not according to the esh but according to the spirit.c 5For those who live according to the esh are concerned with the things of the esh, but those who live according to the spirit with the things of the spirit. 6The concern of the esh is death, but the concern of the spirit is life and peace.d 7For the concern of the esh is hostility toward God; it does not submit to the law of God, nor can it;e 8and those who are in the esh cannot please God.f 9But you are not in the esh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.g 10But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.h 11If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you. 12Consequently, brothers, we are not debtors to the esh, to live according to the esh. 13For if you live according to the esh, you will die, but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.i
Children of God Through Adoption.* 14For those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.j 15For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption,
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* [7:23] As in Rom 3:27, Paul plays on the term law, which in Greek can connote custom, system, or principle.
* [8:1–13] After his warning in Rom 7 against the wrong route to ful llment of the objective of holiness expressed in Rom 6:22, Paul points his addressees to the correct way. Through the redemptive work of Christ, Christians have been liberated from the terrible forces of sin and death. Holiness was impossible so long as the esh (or our “old self ”), that is, self- interested hostility toward God (Rom 8:7), frustrated the divine objectives expressed in the law. What is worse, sin used the law to break forth into all manner of lawlessness (Rom 8:8). All this is now changed. At the cross God broke the power of sin and pronounced sentence on it (Rom 8:3). Christians still retain the esh, but it is alien to their new being, which is life in the spirit, namely the new self, governed by the holy Spirit. Under the direction of the holy Spirit Christians are able to ful ll the divine will that formerly found expression in the law (Rom 8:4). The same Spirit who enlivens Christians for holiness will also resurrect their bodies at the last day (Rom 8:11). Christian life is therefore the experience of a constant challenge to put to death the evil deeds of the body through life of the spirit (Rom 8:13).
* [8:14–17] Christians, by reason of the Spirit’s presence within them, enjoy not only new life but also a new relationship to God, that of adopted children and heirs through Christ, whose su erings and glory they share.
* [8:15] Abba: see note on Mk 14:36.