Romans 7:7-25
Romans 7:7-25
Background
Over the last few weeks in Romans 6-7:6, Paul’s been discussing our relationship between the Law / flesh and the Spirit / faith. In a nutshell, we had an old nature under the law, enslaved to sin that’s been put to death and replaced by a new life under grace, enslaved to the Spirit who’s at work in us to bear good fruit. There’s a clean break and a call to walk differently in light of Christ’s death and resurrection for us.
In the rest of Romans 7-8, Paul’s gonna take the opportunity to describe from a personal angle what striving in our own strength looks like, compared to living the life we now have empowered by the Spirit, under grace, and alive to God. He tees this up in Romans 7:5-6:
For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused through the law were working in us to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law.
Village Resource
In case you’re unfamiliar, there’s a long-standing question about Romans 7: Who is it about? Is it talking about a Christian’s struggle with sin? Is it someone still under the Law who hasn’t yet believed and been filled with the Spirit? Is this Paul talking about his own personal experience, or is it some hypothetical “other” person?
This question matters, because it’s a question about the human experience, doctrine, and the place of the gospel in the daily battle with sin and despair. It’s a sympathetic chapter we can easily read ourselves into, and it also flows in Romans 8, which is one of the most powerful and encouraging passages of Scripture. Knowing how they can rightly meet us and guide us through our life in Christ is important!
Michael and Scott discuss the ins and outs in a podcast over the course of 35 minutes or so, and why it matters. Spoiler warning: Scott changed his mind and now thinks it’s from the perspective of an unbeliever still under the Law (Paul in particular!), while Michael’s still less cemented on one side or the other. Regardless, both find this article on Martin Lloyd-Jones perspective incredibly helpful: Believer or Unbeliever Is Not the Point of Romans 7.
Good law, Twisted Sin
Last week in Romans 7:5-6, Paul says our sinful passions were aroused by the law and worked in us to bear fruit for death. To be clear, Paul didn’t say that was the law’s fault; the fault lies with our sinful passions! But Paul begins this next section by asking the rhetorical question, “So does this mean that the law itself is sinful?”
What’s Paul’s answer to that question? What is the nature of the law?
Can you think of a time when something good actually revealed something bad? Maybe it was a house project, a doctor’s visit, or keeping track of your spending for a month. What was it for you?
Paul talks like sin has a “mind of its own” and a personal relationship with the law.
What does the law do to sin?
Illustration: Think about a doctor giving a specific name and diagnosis for something “off” you’ve not been able to identify. You might even find out there’s more wrong - or something else wrong - that you didn’t know was there!
What does sin do to the law?
Illustration: If someone tells you to not think about pink elephants, what’s the first thing you think of? If you tell a kid not to push the red button, eat that piece of candy, etc., what do they instinctively want to do?
What if the law and sin never “meet?” Why would God want us to recognize sin as sin? Why would he want us to recognize sin was sinful beyond measure?
From all of this, what’s one of the purposes of the Law that we can take away from this passage? How can we use it this way today?
Good desires, No Ability
Paul says the law is spiritual, but on his own, he’s just flesh. In other words, the written words of the law aren’t just something anyone can read and do in and of themselves; they’re spiritual in nature, substance, and result. The law is “real music,” but in the flesh, we’re only able to play the air guitar. On our own, we can only go through the motions.
Have you ever been given a job, expectations, goals, rules, etc. that you know you just couldn’t follow? Maybe they were unrealistic, unattainable, unmeasurable, or simply something you probably wouldn’t do. Tell us about it!
Paul’s audience of Jewish Christians would’ve known the Law and wanted to follow it. But while Paul himself (or whatever persona he might be writing as!) might want to do the Law, sin makes him do something else. Take the example of simply loving your neighbor. What are all the ways sin gets in the way of you doing what you know you should (or maybe even want!) to do? For example, sin might…
…find loopholes.
…make excuses.
…do something halfway, but not all the way.
…do it for your own glory / approval / show someone else up, not simply for the good of others or glory of God.
…tell you that the other person doesn’t deserve it / you deserve to spend your time doing something else.
…convince you that it’s not even worth trying, because you’re already a wreck or it doesn’t matter anyway.
What else?
Paul lays out a couple of principles: not only does his awareness of his good desires and sinful actions affirm the law’s inherent goodness, but whenever he even desires to do good, he can rest assured that evil is close at hand, just waiting to ruin it. His mind wants to serve God, but his flesh doesn’t.
Do you experience this? Have you ever felt like a wretch who just needs to be rescued from a body that produces nothing good?
What do you do with that? Do you just give up on trying to do good? Do you try something different? How do you deal with flesh that’s drawn to sin, even while you’re trying to live a Christian life?
Paul points us to our one, true rescue in Jesus. How does he rescue us from our “body of death?”