Study session scripture: Romans 7:13-25

Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Study session topics:

• The Law and sin, continued

  • v. 13 summarizes vv. 7-12

  • The law does not bring death

  • The law reveals sin as sin

  • Sin takes provocation from the law

  • The law, operated on by sin, brings us to the end of ourselves

• What is the state of the man in vv. 14-25?

• Paul as an unsaved man -Calls himself "sold under sin"

• Says "nothing good dwells in me"

• Wonders "who will deliver me from this body of death?

  • Problems with this view:

    • The way Paul describes himself here is different from how he describes his unsaved state elsewhere

    • Paul expresses delight in God's law, which is absent in unbelievers

    • Paul describes himself in the past tense in vv. 7-12, but here he describes himself in the present tense

• Paul as a "carnal Christian"

• The man in the passage speaks in despair, as if he has been defeated

  • This view holds that the passage talks about a Christian who lives in sin, and Ch. 8 is about a life of victory

  • Problems with this view:

  • This view suggests that there are 2 stages of Christian experience, where a person first accepts Christ as Savior, then later accepts Him as Lord

  • Paul does speak of his flesh, but there is a struggle that a so-called "carnal Christian" has given up on

• Paul as a man under conviction

  • This view claims that Paul is speaking neither as a regenerate man nor an unregenerate man

  • The strongest argument for this position is that Paul is speaking as a man who has come to the end of himself after being confronted by the law

  • Problems with this view:

  • It still doesn't account for the change from past to present tense

  • Paul knows who his redeemer is

Study session audio:

Study session scripture: Romans 7:7-12

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Study session topics:

• The Law and Sin

  • The Legalist's Objections

  • Objection 1: If the law can neither save nor sanctify, what is its value? Should it not be thrown out?

  • Objection 2: If our sin is aroused by the law, isn't the law sinful since it leads to evil?

  • Why these objections matter: Since the law came from God, who does not do or make anything evil

  • Paul will show in this passage that the law is good and holy, and that it does accomplish good things

• The law reveals sin as sin

• No one naturally thinks of themselves as wicked, but God's law reveals that fact to us

• Genesis 6:5 -Romans 3:10-12

• Even if we can see our wicked state with clear eyes, we cannot know what is "sin" without the law

• Paul touches on this earlier in 4:15 and 5:14

• Paul relates this truth to himself

• Philippians 3:2-6 -- Paul once thought very highly of himself and needed the law to see himself as a sinner

• The law provokes sin

• This sounds counterintuitive, but it draws out the realization of how bad sin is

• Sin, through the knowledge of the commandment, creates a surge of rebellion in our hearts

• The law brings out sinful desires we never knew existed

• Our sinful nature reveals itself (and its power over us) by taking provocation from the law

• The Law Brings Us to the End of Ourselves

• v. 9 in context talks about Paul's obliviousness to his own wickedness, becoming aware of that wickedness due to the law, and feeling hopeless -- dying -- due to his realization that he cannot keep the law

• This hopelessness in oneself is a good thing because it drives us to see our need for a savior

• Jesus used the law this way when talking to the rich young ruler (Mark 10:17-22)

• Paul summarizes this idea earlier in 3:19-20

Study session audio:

Study session scripture: Romans 7:1-6

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Study session topics:

• The triumph of grace over the power of the law

• Law is binding only until death

• Ancient Greek wording omits "the" in v. 1

• Paul is talking about a broader concept of law than the Law of Moses

• Death ends all obligations and contracts

• Paul's illustration: marriage

• Paul ties the idea of marriage dissolving at death to the Christian's relationship to the dominion of the law vs. the dominion of Christ

• This illustration is not allegorical (i.e. the husband does not represent the law, or Adam, or our old nature)

• Though this is an imperfect illustration, it is useful for several reasons:

  • A woman who is married to a man is under the authority of that man

  • The subjection of a wife to a husband in marriage is for life

• In spite of the permanence of this relationship and the authority it confers, there is still the possibility of entering into another relationship

• The object of marriage is to bear fruit

• Flesh vs. spirit

• The word "flesh" here has a deeper theological meaning that Paul often uses in his letters in contrast with "spirit"

• Flesh (sarx) can refer to a physical human body (Luke 24:39, Gal. 2:20), the whole of mankind (Isaiah 40:6), or our fallen, sinful nature

• v. 5 uses the latter meaning

  • It can't be a physical body, since it speaks of flesh in the past tense

  • It can't be all humanity, since it is contrasting flesh with the new life according to the Spirit

• Interpreting the use of the word "flesh" correctly is critical, because misuse of the term has given rise to the modern view of the "carnal Christian"

• Scripture does speak about and to immature Christians, but it does not support the idea of them being in a separate category of persons from "spiritual" Christians

• Scripture treats the process of sanctification for the Christian not as something that is optional, but as an inevitability (I Cor. 6:9-11, Philippians 1:6, Hebrews 9:13-14)

• In Romans 7:6, Paul presents 2 categories: captivity to sin aroused by the law, and serving in the new way of the Spirit

Study session audio: