Through all this new chapter (Rom. 7) the inspired apostle is still expounding the weighty statement he had made in 6:14--"For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under law but under grace."

      In the first six verses he sets forth the Christian's deliverance from the law through death--not his own, but Christ's death, which, by virtue of our union with Christ, is reckoned to us, and which we, in faith must reckon to ourselves (6:11). From Rom. 7:7 to 24 he shows how the law is the power of sin, and pictures the bondage to sin into which a man is brought by the law, but all along carefully vindicating the law from all fault in this matter, and laying all the blame on the sinful human nature, the sin which dwells in the flesh. The failure is due to the fact that a spiritual law is brought to bear on a carnal man. The hopeless struggle which ends in defeat is set forth in vs. 14-22; but v. 25 sounds the note of deliverance and victory through Christ.

      To illustrate the fundamental truth that "the law has dominion over a man for so long time as he liveth," Paul takes the case of wedlock. The law binds the wife to her husband for so long as the husband lives. If the husband dies she is free from this law, and she may marry another man without blame. The comparison is that thus we have died to the law (through Christ's death on our behalf) in order that we may now be joined to Another, even to Him who was raised from the dead; so that we may henceforth bring forth fruit unto God. (Comp. 6:21, 23.)

      In the illustration the husband dies and the wife lives, but in the application is it the wife that dies, and is then joined to another. This has occasioned much perplexity. Who is the wife, and who is the husband in the case? The matter is not so mixed up as it may appear. The illustration of a wedded couple was chosen because by it alone could such a case be illustrated: for there is no other earthly comparison in which we can see a party released from law by death, yet remaining alive to be joined to another. For the death of either partner is the death of both as a married couple. The wife dies as a wife, though she survives as a woman. In like manner a death took place for us--not our own death, but the death of another which was valid for us, and in which, therefore, legally, we died. On a dead person the law has no more claim. Thus we are free to be joined to Another, namely, to Him who was raised from the dead. Only in this way can we live unto God (Gal. 2:19) and bring forth fruit unto God.

      And as to who was "the husband" in the comparison to whom we were formerly joined--perhaps that does not so much enter into the matter, for Paul is chiefly concerned in showing that we died and are therefore free from the law. But if it be insisted that the former "husband" stands for something from which by death (Christ's death for us) we are released--the answer must be [32] found in Rom. 6:6. The husband is not, as some have thought, the Law. We were not married to the Law, but the Law was that which had bound together the husband and the wife. Furthermore the Law did not die, cannot die; but we die to it (7:4). It was our fleshly humanity that was nailed to the cross, when the Lord Jesus took our place and gave Himself for us. (Comp. Col. 2:11.)

      But in all this the chief point is that through Christ's death on our behalf we died and having died we were made dead to the law. "We have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held." And this, is shown to be absolutely necessary if we are to live unto God and bring forth fruit unto God. (Comp. Gal. 2:19.) Many who have come to the Lord Jesus endeavor to live by law, and are continuing under its dominion. The result is that portrayed in the rest of this chapter. But the Christian who has entered into the truth of this teaching now serves God "in the newness of the Spirit, and not in oldness of the letter"--that is to say, upon the new principle of spiritual life, not upon the old principle of legal observance.

      But now the apostle turns to forestall a wrong conclusion. His evident joy over the fact that we are dead to the law, as also the statement that the law incited us to sin "when we were in the flesh" (i. e. before we died. Cf. Rom. 8:9)--might lead some to think that the Law itself was sinful. This he indignantly denies. But he shows that the law makes us sin-conscious. It reveals our sin to us and pronounces the sentence of condemnation on its. Thus when law comes in (although the law itself is holy, righteous, and good) sin gets complete mastery and effects our ruin and death. (Verses 7-13.) But it is not the law, but sin working death to us through that which is good. Then comes the picture of the carnal man, a slave, "sold under" sin, struggling to keep a spiritual law.

      Through all this discussion Sin is not a sinful act, but an evil power and principle--personified as it were. It dwells in the flesh (vs. 17, 18), and dominates the man as its helpless slave. He is no longer his own master, nor can he do what he wants to do. (Comp. John 8:34.) If he wants to do what is right he finds himself under the law of an evil power, an inward though foreign force, which evermore drags him down into all manner of evil. (Vs. 15-17.) He is good at making resolutions, but a failure at keeping them (v. 18.) He delights in the law of God after the inward man, but finds a different power--the law of sin--in his members, warring against the law of his mind. And "the law of sin" proves to be the more powerful, subdues him and brings him into captivity. (Vs. 22, 23.)

      Who is this man? Is it Paul himself? Many think so because he writes in the first person. If so, is it Paul before he became a Christian, when he was still Saul the Pharisee? Of is it Paul the Christian? If so is this the regular, normal Christian experience.

      In answer to the last of these questions we must say No. The man of Rom. 7:7-24 is not the man spoken of in Rom. 6:6, 14, 22; nor is he the man of Rom. 8:2, 15, 16. Many Christians, of course, do have this experience, but that is not the normal Christian life. We cannot admit therefore that Paul is here describing his own Christian, experience. But, as seen in verse 5, it is the experience of [33] a man "in the flesh" who is under the law, over whom therefore sin has dominion (Rom. 6:14; 7:8; 1 Cor. 15:56.) This may be an earnest Jew, such as Paul once was; or a Christian, who ignorant of his rightful position in Christ (v. 6) tries to live by the law, instead of reckoning himself dead to it and to sin. (Rom. 6:11; 7:4-6.)

      But in the last utter failure, deliverance is sighted in Jesus Christ. This sad conflict is not related to exhibit a final despair, but to set forth the deliverance through Christ. (V. 25.) The last sentence of Rom. 7 sums up the truth illustrated by this whole conflict--namely that, left to myself, serving "in the oldness of the letter" I serve God's law indeed with my mind, but with my flesh, the law of sin. (Comp. 8:8.) The next verse (8:1) strikes the note of freedom and victory which characterizes the eighth chapter of Romans; of which more in the next lesson.

      What statement in chapter 6 is the apostle still expounding here? Why is the Christian free from the law? In verses 7-24 is Paul describing his own Christian experience that the picture of a normal Christian life? Does the struggle of Romans 7 end in defeat or in a cry of thankfulness for victory? [34]

[LOR2 32-34]