Verse by Verse

⁷ What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”

⁸ But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.

sin = evil

On the contrary —  “howbeit”

You shalt not covet — The law revealed the evil as such, but also revealed its evil source inside us.

opportunity = a military base. The law gave sin a base of operations.

sin was dead — Sin as a principle was not active, but the person was still sinful. It’s just that the sinfulness of sin wasn’t realized. It was torpid, like a snake in the sun, until stirred.

If freed from the Law, then, can we not live in sin? Yes, we can, but shall we? (Romans 6:2, 15). Did we not come to Christ in the first place to be delivered from sin? And did He not die our death so that the “old man” might truly be “a thing of the past”?

But do we not need the Law to help us live aright? No, for God would not have us do His will because we must, or to gain His favor. He, like any normal parent, would have us do His will because we love Him and respond in gratitude to His love for us. Such an attitude needs no law to threaten it. Does a loving mother need a law to make her care for her children? Does a grateful employee need a law to make him serve his employer faithfully?

Without the law sin was dead, Paul continues. As a fallen son of Adam it did not trouble him. And the Law being dead (in him) he was alive, reveling in the “freedom” of doing what he pleased. “But when the commandment came,” he says, “sin revived and I died,” i.e., the Law made him conscious that sin was alive in him and that he was dead, powerless to deliver himself from it. Thus, he says, “the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death (verse 10). — Stam, page 165-166.

The law does not cause sin, but in the carnal mind, it provokes sin.

⁵ For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.

⁶ But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

flesh = unregenerate state, united to the law

passions = impulses, passions, affections, emotions

by the law — The law produced desires to do things that it forbade.

members = parts of our bodies

delivered = discharged, to make ineffective

that being dead — Believers have died to the claims of the law.

newness of spirit — new life lived through the Spirit’s power. Who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Corinthians 3:6).

oldness of the letter — outward conformity to the law

Indeed, our relationship to the Law has been doubly dissolved; it has died to us and we have died to it. And now we can serve this blessed One who loved us and gave Himself for us (Galatians 2:20, Ephesians 5:25), not in the old, dry dead, “religious” way, because the Law says we must, but in fresh, joyous newness of spirit, our words and works expressing our gratitude and love. — Stam, page 164.

⁴ Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.

body of Christ = His death, possible because He took on a human body. Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil (Hebrews 2:14).

By Christ’s death, believers were put to death to the law.

This verse parallels verse three except that it isn’t the “first husband” (the law) that dies, but our former selves. Or, to put it another way, our covenant to the law died.

In the Old Testament we find the death of the Law clearly typified. Recall how, in the face of Israel’s flagrant disobedience, God said to Moses: Let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them (Exodus 25:8). Would not this be a breach of the covenant He had just made with them, and which they had ratified? They had not “obeyed” His voice “indeed.” Already they were about to desecrate the very first commandment. But did you notice the first article of furniture God commanded Moses to make for the tabernacle? The words are: And they shall make an ark … (Exodus 25:10). But what is an ark? … The very same work here rendered “ark” is translated “coffin” in the last verse of Genesis. This harmonizes with the use to which this ark was put, for in Exodus 25 the commandment is given:

And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee. And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold … And thou shalt put the mercy seat above the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat (Exodus 25:16-17, 21-22).

Beautiful type! The Law had hardly been given when God said: “Put it in a coffin and cover the coffin with a mercy seat (to be sprinkled with the atoning blood — Leviticus 16:14-15), and there from the mercy seat, I will meet with you.” — Stam, pages 161-162.

² For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.

³ So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.

law of her husband = law concerning her husband

called = to be publicly know as, branded

Mark 10:12 — And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.

1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?

In Romans 6:15, Paul asks if we should sin because we’re not under the law but under grace. In the rest of chapter 6, he answered the second part of the question (under grace). Now he goes back to the first part (not under the law).

The point of chapter seven is that sanctification doesn’t come by law any more than salvation does.

Chapter six showed that we were dead to sin. Now chapter seven shows that we are dead to the law. Chapter six shows how we are delivered from sin as our master. Chapter seven shows how we are delivered from the law as our husband.

Paul shows the defeat of trying to keep the law by his use of personal pronouns.

• I — 30 times

• Me — 12 times

• My — 4 times

• Myself — 1 time

• Law — 23 times

This demonstrates failure to live out Galatians 2:20 — I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

law (in this verse) — law as such in the abstract

Out of the fifth verse a question arises. “The sinful passions which were through the law,” Paul says. If the inclination to sin comes from the law, then isn’t the law something  sinful? Paul answers that question in the second division by affirming that the law is holy. Look at the twelfth verse for a clear statement of this fact.

But another question will emerge right here. If the law is holy, then why cannot the law make the Christian holy? The answer follows logically. “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal” (7:14), and that is why a good and holy law cannot make a person holy. Not because there is anything the matter with the law, but because the person is “carnal.” — McClain, page 152.

²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Death is a wage (earned) of sin, but life is a gift (unearned) of God.

through — should be “in”

In the midst of teaching that the believer is free from the law and consequently may live in holiness, the apostle shows the great contrast between the life which was ours by nature and that which is ours by grace. The wages of sin is death. Does this teach that hell is the fate of those who commit sin? I think not; in fact, I do not believe that such teaching occurs in the Bible. True, the Bible warns of eternal punishment and eternal separation of the unregenerate from God; but this separation is based on the nature of the unregenerate man, not on his acts of sin. The born-again believer is free from eternal punishment because Christ bore the guilt of his sin and Adamic nature. Just as good works do not save us, so bad works cannot damn us. — Barnhouse, pg. 174-175

²¹ What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

²² But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.

end (in both verses) = limit, final result of a process

death (v.21) = not merely physical but in its most comprehensive state

become slaves (v.22) — as in verse 18, not the act of the individual, but by God’s power consequent on the individual’s faith

holiness = sanctification as in verse 19

¹⁹ I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.

²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

human terms (v.19) — Paul uses the slave analogy so the Romans will understand. Slavery was common throughout the Roman empire.

weakness (v.19) —  due to the Romans’ iniquity, there was a good chance they wouldn’t understand Paul’s point about the need to switch masters. Christianity isn’t slavery, but Paul uses the term so they would understand.

flesh (v.19) = weakness of human nature

lawlessness (v.19) — disregard and breach of the Law of God. 1 John 3:4 — Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

Uncleanness (impurity) defiles the person, iniquity violates God’s law.

more lawlessness (v.19)  — the effect of lawlessness

righteousness (v.19) = sanctification

Sanctification (hagiasmos) signifies (1) separation to God, as in 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2; (2) the course of life which benefits those who have been separated to God. This is its meaning here and in verse 22. Sanctification is a state which God has predetermined for believers, and is the state into which in grace He calls them and in which they begin their course as believers. On this account they are called saints, hagioi, “sanctified ones.” Whereas formerly their behavior bore witness to their standing in the world in separation from God, now their behavior should bear witness to their standing before God in separation from the world.

As there are no degrees of justification, so there are no degrees of sanctification; a thing is set apart for God, or it is not, there is no middle course; a person in either in Christ Jesus, justified and sanctified, or he is out of Christ, in his sins and alienated from God. But while there are no degrees of sanctification, it is evident there can and should be progress therein; hence the believer is urged to “follow after … sanctification” — Vine, pg. 95-96.

free from righteousness — no relation of any sort to it

Sanctification is not sinlessness; it is to be set apart as sacred to God. Thus slavery to God and righteousness brings us close to Him in a blessed relationship — and this is what delivers us from the tyranny of the flesh. — Stam

¹⁷ But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.

¹⁸ And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

though you were (v.17) = emphasis is on the contrast between what they were (servants of sin) and what they now are (servants of righteousness).

you obeyed (v.17) = tense points back to the moment they believed — which accomplished permanent results

from the heart (v.17) = voluntary and earnest

form (v.17) = cast or mold — Believers are the molten material, gospel truth is the mold that shapes our character.

The change of masters (v.18) results from faith and is accomplished by God (not by believers themselves).

¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!

¹⁶ Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

In verse 15, Paul asks the same question as in verse 1, but now he asks based on what he has just written in verses 2-14.

If we feel sin can be committed without risk because of grace, we turn grace into lasciviousness.

present (yield) — as in verse 13, to put a thing at the disposal of another

obey — should be obedience, not a verb. The first usage of obedience is an effect, not personified. The second usage is personified as the alternative master. Any decision to sin or acquiescence to sin makes sin our master. Matthew 6:24 — No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

death (here) = not eternal death but death of the Christian’s experience.

Romans 8:6 — For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Galatians 6:8 — For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

We should observe the two lines of truth which run throughout the chapter with regard to the believer’s deliverance from sin:

• 6:7 — … he that is dead is freed from sin.

• 6:18 — Being then made free from sin …

• 6:22 — being made free from sin …

• 6:14 — For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law but under grace.

• 6:17 — But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you.

• 6:20 — … ye were the servants of sin …

From these passages it is evident that in God’s sight, positionally, the believer has been delivered from the bondage of sin.

However, this same chapter also establishes the fact that experientially the believer may submit himself to the slavery of sin:

• 6:12 — Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body …

• 6:13 — Neither yield ye your members … unto sin …

• 6:16 — … to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey …

• 6:19 — I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh …

To the “carnal” Corinthian believers Paul listed “fornicators … adulterers … thieves … drunkards” and the like, as those who would be shut out from “the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10), and he could have said, “and such are some of you,” for some of these failing Christians had indulged in the grossest immorality. But he did not say this. He said rather, And such were some of you, and added: … but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God.

Thus the Scriptures, and especially the Pauline epistles, make a sharp distinction between the believer’s standing and his state, between his position and his condition. — Stam, pg. 151-152

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Righteousness = here not used for justification but right conduct. In this section of the epistle to the Romans, three verbs center on the will and choice of the believer, they are the plan of battle drawn up by the Lord for our Christian living. We are to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God (6:11), to forbid the reign of sin in our mortal bodies (6:12), to yield in obedience to righteousness (6:16). Each action involves acceptance by faith of a divine principle: we believe that we are united to Christ; we act by faith on the work that was done; we yield in obedience to righteousness. — Barnhouse, pg. 151.

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Paul has shown how horrible is the idea of continuing in sin in order to bring forth abounding grace. Now Paul evinces the same horror at the idea of sinning because grace does abound. The difference is that of position and conduct. Shall we continue in sin? (6:1); shall we continue to sin? (6:15). He is leading us to practical holiness under grace. — Stam, pg. 153