Romans · chapter 7 of 16
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Romans 7 explains that believers have died to the law through the body of Christ in order to serve God in the new way of the Spirit. Paul defends the law as holy, righteous and good, while showing that sin uses it to awaken the desire to disobey and so produce death. The chapter ends with the inner conflict of someone who wants to do good and cannot, and with a cry of thanks: thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 6 said that believers are not under law but under grace. That raised doubts about the law: is it bad? Is it the cause of sin? Romans 7 is one of the most debated passages of the letter and answers those questions with an illustration, a defense of the law and a personal description of the struggle with sin.
Paul turns to an illustration: the law binds a person only as long as they live. A married woman is bound to her husband while he lives; if he dies, she is free from that law and may marry another. In the same way, believers died to the law through the body of Christ, so that they might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, and bear fruit for God. Before, sinful passions, aroused by the law, bore fruit for death; now they serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
Paul asks whether the law is sin and answers no. Through the law he came to know sin: he would not have known what coveting was if the law had not said you shall not covet. Sin seized an opportunity in the commandment and produced in him all kinds of covetousness, and the commandment that promised life proved to be death. The law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. The problem is not the law but sin, which used what is good to produce death and show itself as exceedingly sinful.
In verses 14 to 25 Paul speaks in the first person: the law is spiritual, but he is of the flesh, sold under sin. He does not understand his own actions; he does not do what he wants, but the very thing he hates. He agrees that the law is good, and that it is sin dwelling in him that acts. He finds that when he wants to do good, evil lies close at hand. He delights in the law of God in his inner being, but sees another law at work in his members, making him captive. He cries out: wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? And he answers: thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He concludes that with his mind he serves the law of God, but with his flesh the law of sin.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Believers died to the law through the body of Christ so that they might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, and so bear fruit for God. Paul describes the Christian life as a relationship of belonging, not a system of rules.
The law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. Paul protects the law from every accusation: the problem is not what God commanded but the sin that lives in human beings.
Paul says he does not understand his own actions, for he does not practice what he wants but does the very thing he hates. He describes an inner division many believers recognize: the desire to please God and the reality of sin that remains.
Paul's cry for deliverance from this body of death receives an immediate answer: thanks be to God through Jesus Christ. The solution is not greater effort but a person, and chapter 8 develops what Christ has done.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: That of a married woman, who is free from the law of her husband when he dies. — Romans 7:1-3
Answer: So that they might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, and bear fruit for God. — Romans 7:4
Answer: Through the law, which said you shall not covet. — Romans 7:7
Answer: The law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. — Romans 7:12
Answer: That he does not do the good he wants but the evil he does not want. — Romans 7:18-19
Answer: God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. — Romans 7:24-25
Romans 7 puts words to an experience many Christians know: wanting to live for God and stumbling again and again. In a small group this text allows us to talk honestly about struggles without pretending and without despairing. That the apostle went through this reminds us that feeling this tension does not prove we lack faith.
At the same time, the chapter points us to the answer: not a self-improvement plan but Jesus Christ. The law shows what is good and reveals our need; only Christ and his Spirit give power. So we can come to God with our failures and give thanks for his help.
Romans 7 leaves the reader with a cry of anguish and an answer of gratitude: Jesus Christ delivers us. Romans 8 opens with the great news that there is no condemnation for those in Christ and develops life in the Spirit.
Christian interpreters are divided. Some believe he describes his experience before knowing Christ, or that of Israel under the law; others, that he describes the believer's continuing struggle with sin; and others, that he speaks representatively. All agree that the passage shows the insufficiency of the law and that victory comes from Christ and the Spirit, the theme of the next chapter.
No. Paul firmly denies it: the law is holy, righteous and good. It reveals sin, and because sin is a force that uses the forbidden commandment to awaken the desire to disobey, the law ends up condemning. The problem lies in the human heart, not in the law.
It means that, through union with Christ in his death, they are no longer under the law's power to condemn nor dependent on it to be righteous before God. It does not mean the law is bad or that what God commands no longer matters; they now obey by the Spirit.