Romans 7

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You'll notice the first verse of this chapter points out a difference between the Israelite and the Gentile.

 

If You Love Me, Keep My Commandments

 

Romans 7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

• The law has dominion over man for as long as he lives, Paul says, and he speaks to those who knew the law, or the Israelites.
• They were given the law by Moses.
• So Paul speaks in this chapter to the children of Israel, being one of the three to whom he was sent.

2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

• Paul is using this law as an example.
• Jeremiah 3:8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

• There are reasons that a divorce can be acquired biblically and by the law, but this is an example, so don't let it confuse you.

4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

• People of Israel were married to the law.
• The law was your husband, but now you are married to the body of Christ.
• He's saying here we were married to the law that liveth forever, yet when Christ came, we were divorced from the law.
• It was dead in a sense and we were married to the body of Christ.
• What is the body of Christ?
• What is Jesus Christ?
• What is the Holy Spirit?
• Other than the fulfillment of the law?
• It was fore told that He would come..the Messiah to the world?

5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

• When we were in the unspiritual, our old pre-Christian nature, the craving of sin worked in us.

6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

• The written code, so to speak.

7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

• Paul is referring not only to himself but to man generally from Adam in the beginning.
• Until Moses gave the law, there was no law, and except for the law, man would not know he was sinning.

8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

• Sin apart from law is lifeless.
• There's no future.. no fruit in it.
• It bears nothing but death.

9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

• He's saying, I knew after the law came that I had broken the law, and it sentenced me to death.

10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

• Sin slew me because of the law.

12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

• Paul is saying, the law is for our own good.

13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

• Or, was this good law bad for me?
• Never, the law taught us right from wrong and by the commandment pointed out what was exceedingly sinful.
• By the way, it is one of Satan's pet tricks to blame something good for anything evil-to blame the law for man's fall rather than the sin of which he is the father.

14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

• Paul says, he doesn't act as he would like to, but does those things he detests.
• He's speaking here of the carnal man and his weakness in face of temptations of the flesh.

16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.

• Or, if my conscience tells me my actions are wrong, I am agreeing that the law is good, even though I break it.

17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

• Sin takes over in my weakness.

18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

• The sin that dwells in my flesh is no good.
• The wish to do the right thing is there, but the power is not.
• The good will is not sufficient to sustain man without the spirit of Christ dwelling within him.
• The flesh alone is weak.
• 1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
• Jesus cleanseth us from ALL our sins, you have to ask for forgiveness
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

• Even against my own wishes, he says here.
• As long as we're in the flesh body, we're going to sin.
• Back up to verses 14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
  15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
  16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
  17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

• In flesh, sin still has its grip on me.
• As long as you're in the flesh body, you're going to sin.
• Christ died on the Cross for our sins.
• If we need to ask for forgiveness, we can ask Him.

21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

• I try to do right, but I manage only to do wrong.
• Why?
• Because we still have a flesh body.

22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

• In my new self as a Christian, I find God's law refreshing and right.
• A good brother or sisters will help each other.
• For the know what's right.

23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

• The sin of the flesh fights with my intelligence, and sometimes I lose the battle.

24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

• Paul acknowledges the weakness and sins of the flesh that lead to death and thanks God for Christ who is our redeemer from sin.
• Israel itself was condemned to death by the law alone until Christ came with the gift of salvation for those that have faith in Him, the gift of forgiveness for those imperfect in the flesh who strive, nevertheless, from the heart to do right.
• You are responsible to the law, but when you slip, do not turn away from God.
• Talk to Him, turn back to Him, lean on him.
• He knows you're in the flesh.
• That is not to say you may use this as an excuse to sin, but confess to Him and ask Him to make you stronger.
• I assure you, He will.

• Exactly 2520 years from the exile of Benjamin, Iceland became an independent nation.

 

•  The first tribe to be conquered by the Assyrians was Manasseh, in 745 B.C. Exactly 2520 years later America became a nation on July 4, 1776.

 

• Study the book: Abrahamic Covenant, (A study outline of the identity of God's people) By E. Raymond Capt - page 25