Rom 7:1-25, The flesh uses the knowledge of sin to increase sin

1. Introduction 1:1-17 (includes purpose, 8-15; and theme, 16-17)
2. The Need for God's Righteousness 1:18-3:20
3. The Imputation of God's Righteousness 3:21-5:21 (description, defense, proof, benefits, and restorative effects)
4. The impartation of God's righteousness 6:1-8:39
1. The believer's relationship to sin 6:1-23
1. Freedom from sin 6:1-14
2. Slavery to righteousness 6:15-23
2. The believer's relationship to the law 7:1-25
1. The law's authority 7:1-6
2. The law's activity 7:7-12
3. The law's inability 7:13-25
3. The believer's relationship to God 8:1-39
1. Our deliverance from the flesh by the power of the Spirit 8:1-11
2. Our new relationship to God 8:12-17
3. Our present sufferings and future glory 8:18-25
4. Our place in God's sovereign plan 8:26-30
5. Our eternal security 8:31-39


Rom 7:1-6 (NIV) Do you not know, brothers — for I am speaking to men who know the law — that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. 3 So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.


4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.


• In discussing the believer's relationship to the law, Paul starts with an example from natural law regarding marriage.  What is Paul's point?
• If the husband dies, the wife is not bound to the law of marriage.  She marries another without any consequences
• If she marries another while her husband is alive (not divorced), she is called adulteress
• How does it apply to the OT law?
• Paul says that we died to the law through the body of Christ, therefore we are not lawbreakers
• We are released from the law
• We serve God in a new way of the spirit and not in the old way
• So we still do serve God
• But it is not the same
• The term "written code" is a very clear description of the OT law
• Additionally, there is some linkage between our sinful passions and the law.  In same way, the law increased our passions (aroused) and controlled us, but not in a good way.  So release from the law is a good thing for us spiritually, although is hard to understand or even explain


Rom 7:7-12 (NIV) What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet."  8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.


• The immediate thought then is that the law is sin since it increase our sinful passions.  But that is not entirely Paul's point
• The law made us aware of things that were not sin
• Covetous is an example.  It wasn't really a sin until the law told me it was a sin (that's the good thing).  But somehow that knowledge produced even more covetous behavior (the bad thing)
• Sin used the laws to actually deceive me.  Again the knowledge of my sin is good, but the result is that our sinful flesh used it to make our lives worse
• The law is not at fault for revealing sin to us
• Our flesh, which rebelled against God, rebelled even more when it understood what other areas were sin


Rom 7:13-25 (NIV) Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.


14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.


21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!


So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.


• So, did a good thing (originally) become death to me?
• No, death is caused by sin
• The commandment reveals sin (and also by that knowledge increased sin), but the commandments did not cause death
• The commandments helped me to see how utterly sinful I am
• I already was sinful
• To an extent, my body, seizing the opportunity afforded by the knowledge from the law, became more sinful (the bad)
• But I also became more aware of my sin (the good thing)
• Verses 14-20 reveal the real problem which was not the law but what?
• It is our sinful nature
• It causes us to do what is wrong
• Even when I know something is wrong (through the law) I still sin, because of my sinful nature
• So there is a principle (not law) at work in my body?
• I want to do what is right (I was created to do what is right)
• My flesh wants to do what is wrong
• My mind and my flesh battle (wage war)
• What is the answer?
• Jesus has rescued our mind, now we are a slave to righteousness
• Our body of flesh (sinful nature) remains a slave to sin
• IMPLICATION: previously, both were slaves to sin, but my mind has been released.  I will always struggle to wage war against my sinful flesh.  By the Spirit's power, I can have increasing victory, but I will never be perfect until I have a new body (occurs at glorification)