Shepherds Bible Romans chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

# You’ll notice the first verse of this chapter points out a difference
between the Israelite and the Gentile.

1. Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how
that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

# The law has dominion over man for as long as he lives, Paul says, and
he speaks to those who knew the law, or the Israelites. They were
given the law by Moses. So Paul speaks in this chapter to the children
of Israel, being one of the three to whom he was sent.

2. For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her
husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed
from the law of her husband.

# Paul is using this law as an example.

3. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man,
she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is
free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married
to another man.

# There are reasons that a divorce can be acquired biblically and by the
law, but this is an example, so don’t let it confuse you.

4. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the

body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him who
is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
# In other words, you people of Israel were married to the law. The
law was your husband, but now you are married to the body of Christ.
He is saying here we were married to the law that liveth forever, yet
when Christ came, we were divorced from the law. It was dead in a
sense and we were married to the body of Christ. What is the body of
Christ? What is Jesus Christ? What is the Holy Spirit….. other than the
fulfillment of the law? Was it not foretold that He would come… the
Messiah to the world?

5. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by
the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

# When we were in the unspiritual, our old pre-Christian nature, the

craving of sin worked in us.

6. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein
we were held; that we should serve in newness of Spirit, and not in the
oldness of the letter.

# The written code, so to speak.

7. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not
known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust except the law had
said, thou shalt not covet.

# Paul is referring not only to himself but to man generally from Adam
in the beginning. Until Moses gave the law, there was no law, and
except for the law, man would not know he was sinning.

8. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all

manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

# Concupiscence in Greek means to desire or covet.

# Sin apart from law is lifeless. There’s no future, no fruit in it. It hears
nothing but death.

9. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment
came, sin revived and I died.

# He’s saying, I knew after the law came that I had broken the law,
and it sentenced me to death.

10. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be

unto death.

11. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by
it slew me.

# In other words, sin slew me because of the law.

12. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandments holy, and just
and good.

# Paul is saying, the law is for our own good.

13. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But
sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is
good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

# Or, was this good law bad for me? Never, the law taught us right
from wrong and by the commandment pointed out what was
exceedingly sinful. By the way, it is one of Satan’s pet tricks to blame
something good for anything evil - to blame the law for man’s fall
rather than the sin of which he is the father.

14. For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under
sin.

15. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but
what I hate, that do I.

#In other words, Paul says he doesn’t act as he would like to, but does
those things he detests. He’s speaking here of the carnal man and his
weakness in face of temptations of the flesh.

16. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is
good.

# Or, if my conscience tells me my actions are wrong, I am agreeing

that the law is good, even though I break it.

17. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

# Sin takes over in my weakness.

18. For I know that in me, (that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good
thing: for to will is present with me: but how to perform that which is
good I find not.

# The sin that dwells in my flesh is no good. The wish to do the right
thing is there, but the power is not. In other words, the good will is not
sufficient to sustain man without the spirit of Jesus Christ dwelling
within him. The flesh alone is weak.

19. For the good that I would, l do not: but the evil which I would not,
that I do.

# Even against my own wishes, he says here.

20. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that
dwelleth in me.

# In flesh, sin still has its grip on me.

21. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with
me.

# I try to do right, but I manage only to do wrong.

22. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

# In my new self as a Christian, I find God’s law refreshing and right.

23. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of
my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my
members.

# In other words, the sin of the flesh fights with my intelligence, and
sometimes I lose the battle.

24. 0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of
this death?
25. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I
myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

# Paul acknowledges the weakness and sins of the flesh that lead to
death and thanks God for Jesus Christ who is our redeemer from sin.

# In summary. Israel itself was condemned to death by the law alone

until Jesus Christ came with the gift of salvation for those that have
faith in Him... the gift of forgiveness for those imperfect in the flesh
who strive, nevertheless, from the heart to do right. You are
responsible to the law, but when you slip, do not turn away from God.
Talk to Him, turn back to Him, lean on Him. He knows you’re in the
flesh.
That is not to say you may use this as an excuse to sin, but confess to
Him and ask Him to make you stronger. I assure you He will.