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




2. The believer's relationship to the law 7:1-25
1. The law's authority 7:1-6
Rom 7:1-6 (ESV) 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? 2 Thus 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.  3 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.


4 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. 5 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. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.


• Paul uses personal pronoun "I" almost 30 times in Rom 7
• In discussing the believer's relationship to the law, Paul starts with an example from natural law regarding marriage.  What is Paul's argument?
• 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
• What is the difference? Death cancels all claims
• 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
• DEATH BREAKS THE LAW's AUTHORITY


2. The law's activity 7:1-12
Rom 7:7-12 (ESV) 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. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.


• The immediate thought then is that the law is sin since it increased our sinful passions, and we appear better off with it dead.  But that is not entirely Paul's point. What is Paul saying?
• The law made us aware of things that were not sin (LAW REVEALS)
• 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
• Which opens us a curious question, why?
• Our flesh, which rebelled against God, rebelled even more when it understood what other areas were sin
• Our flesh is still in rebellion to God. It is as if, any opportunity to rebel even more against God encourages it to do so more (FLESH REBELS)


3. The law's inability 7:13-25
Rom 7:13-25 (ESV) 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. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 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. 19  For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.


21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 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. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 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.


• 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 flesh, 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, our flesh
• 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 flesh
• So there is a principle (not law) at work in my body, what is it?
• 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)