Romans 7:7-14
by:
Dan Hill, PhD
Pastor, Southwood Bible Church
7655 South Sheridan Avenue
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74113
E-Mail: hill918@aol.com
Romans 7:7
What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary,
I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not
have known about coveting if the Law had not said, You shall not covet.
If we were bound by the Law, if we have now been released from the Law,
should we conclude that the Law was sin?
Paul says, may it never be!
ALLA is the strongest contrast in the Greek
I would not have come to know sin except through law.
Here he removes the definite article so as to broaden out this principle.
In the first use of NOMOS and in the last use in this verse he is referring
to the OT Law.
But here, with this more general statement he referees to any law.
Romans 4:15, Where there is no law, neither is there violation.
We cannot assume that man automatically realizes that certain thoughts or
words or actions are sin. Law indicates to us what is and what is not a
violation.
EXAMPLE: Have you ever been driving down the highway and wondered, what
is the speed limit? Am I going too fast, too slow? Until you see the speed
limit sign, the Law, you do not know.
Paul adds one more point: For I would not have known about coveting if
the Law had not said, You shall not covet.
This phrase begins with TE GAP which translates into for also . . .
This is an additional thought to the one just stated, not an explanation
of what was just stated.
Paul uses COVETING or more accurately LUST.
Here we have EPITHUMIA and later the verb form EPITHUMEW.
This is the Greek word that translates the Hebrew CHA-MAD which is the prohibition
of the tenth commandment.
Hebrew did not have a word for LUST, so this word was used; but in the Greek
text the full force of this prohibition is made clear in that it is a prohibition
against lust.
We have studied what causes DESIRE to become LUST.
Lust is uncontrollable, it desires to dominate or control others, it hurts
others, it ignores the provision of God.
Paul states that apart from the OT Law he would not have known that this
type of desire was sin.
So Psychologists will tell us that the desire for what one cannot have is
the very first craving for wrongdoing in human development. When you say
to your child "NO cookies", and they go for the cookie jar anyway,
you are seeing that which is as old as the Garden of Eden.
Remember Adam and the woman, only one prohibition, yet they went for it.
Genesis 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that
it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one
wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband
with her, and he ate.
NOW WE KNOW LUST IS SIN . . . BUT HOW DO WE KNOW? Because of the Law.
Verses 8-11 must be studies as a connected thought. Paul begins with the
Law in v 8 and ends up in v 11 death.
Remember the pattern of v 5: LAW --- OSN --- SINS --- DEATH
Romans 7:8
But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting
of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.
As soon as the law is stated - "Thou shall not covet" [lust],
it is human nature to violate that law.
OPPORTUNITY or OCCASION is the word AFORMJ.
Used only by Paul, it means to make a start from a place. Militarily it
was a base of operations. Also used for what was used to start a military
campaign, the material, not the campaign itself. Used for capital in business
but not the business activity itself.
So here the Law is seen as furnishing sin with the material or capital for
its assault. The Law served as a starting place.
Kenneth Wuest sees the Law as the fulcrum that was placed under wrongdoing
and lifted it to be sin.
The word WROUGHT or PRODUCED is to carry something to an end or to a conclusion.
And the end was a rebellion against the Commandment that resulted in coveting
or LUSTING of every kind.
Then the explanatory GAR, the last part of this verse is an explanation:
For you see, without law (anathrous, any law) sin is dead.
The singular use of the word SIN would refer to the sin nature and without
law the OSN was dead or unknown to Paul.
THE SIN NATUE WAS the cause of spiritual death and it was producing sins,
yet Paul did not know of the Sin Nature.
Principles:
1. You cannot solve a problem until you know there is a problem
2. The Sin Nature was dead in the sense of being unknown as a problem
3. The OT Law, specifically the tenth commandment, brought cognizance of
the problem.
All the other commandment of the decalogue are prohibitions against things
said or things done. But the tenth commandment is a prohibition against
an attitud ... thou shall not covet.
In the face of that commandment is where Paul learned something.
4. Paul learned from the tenth commandment that spiritual death comes from
what is on the inside of man, not the sins the man commits. He recognized
at that point that sin was a result of the Sin Nature.
5. The culprit in this case is the Sin Nature, not the OT Law. The Law
worked as a fulcrum to lift sins up.
Romans 7:9
And I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came,
sin became alive, and I died;
When the Sin Nature was unknown, Paul says that he was alive, apart from
the Law. Uses an imperfect tense, past complete action, he lived in the
past and that life stopped in the past.
ONE MORE NOTE: Paul uses EGW, the 1st person sing pronoun, unusual in Greek
grammar. This is the largest concentration of this pronoun found in any
chapter in the NT. Found 8 times in vv 9-25. Paul is using to emphasize
his personal efforts in this matter or struggle.
Paul employs a parallel to human development. He looks back to a time of
child-like innocence.
The time of child-like innocence that we all have is innocent not because
we are, we do sin, but we are not aware of the sins. Nor are we aware that
it comes from the Sin Nature that is very much apart of us.
"But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died."
The commandment came, aorist tense, point in time of hearing the commandment.
Sin revived, also aorist tense.
REVIVED is ANA+ZAW; ZAW is LIFE and ANA means to live again.
Sin, the Sin Nature, which was alive at birth resulting in spiritual death,
now lives again, perpetuating that spiritual death.
I DIED, ceased to lived as before.
Romans 7:10
And this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in
death for me;
The command had a view towards life but found that it had a view towards
death for him.
WHY? The commandment was given, as were all commandments, to show the holiness
of God and the sinfulness of man and how man cannot keep the commandments.
BUT REMEMBER WHO PAUL WAS, a religious leader, a Pharisee, a member of the
Sanhedrine, a very learned Jew of the highest standing ... certainly he
could keep the Law couldn't he?
Well, he thought so and as he tried, he saw more and more the result was
death for him.
Romans 7:11 :
For you see sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, deceived
me, and through it killed me.
SIN is singular so we are still talking about the Sin Nature.
OPPROTUNITY is the same word we saw in verse 8, the fulcrum that lifts up
our rebellious actions and defines them as sins.
Through the command: Thou shall not covet . . .
Deceived me, and through it [the Law] killed me.
Why was Paul deceived by the sin nature? The commandment clearly indicated
that coveting was sin and Paul could clearly see that the sin of coveting
was not external but came from the inside, from the sin nature.
What is the deception? It is the deception that caused Paul to think he
could live under the law, fulfill the law, and again experience life unto
God through law-obedience.
But he found that all his efforts at law-obedience came up short and resulted
in defeat ... and this defeat killed him.
THIS IS THE BOTTOM LINE OF PERFORMANCE-BASED CHRISTIANITY, it does not work!
The result is often more guilt, more loss, more sense of defeat, more sense
of dread and death.
WHAT A SORRY STATE TO BE in, but Paul is not going to give up. His struggle
in 7:14-24 describe how he continued to attempt to regain life, to be alive
unto God in the flesh, by his own merits, his own self resolve, his own
disciplines, and how it did not work.
Principles:
1. All mankind go through a state of innocents based on ignorance.
2. This gives way to a state of guilt based on cognizance.
3. The Law makes man cognizant of sins and the sin nature
4. Without the 10th commandment it was easy for Paul, a self-righteous Jewish
leader, to see sins on the outside.
5. The 10th commandment, however, placed sin on the inside and with that
there was awareness of the OSN.
Coveting or Lusting is something no one else sees, no one hears it, but
it is there, very real, very much sin.
6. That sin was an evidence of the presence of the OSN
7. And that awareness brought about the recognition of spiritual death.
Romans 7:12
So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and
good.
There are no verbs in this verse making it a very dogmatic statement of
truth.
The entire OT Law and the one commandment Paul has mentioned, thou shall
not covet, are holy, righteous, and good.
This was true of the Law when it was given to Moses, and it is true of the
Law today.
The OT Law continues to reveal the holiness, righteousness, goodness of
God and the sinfulness of man.
Romans 7:13
Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May
it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin
by effecting my death through that which is good, that through the commandment
sin might become utterly sinful.
Paul picks up on that last term in the description of the Law, it is good.
GOOD is AGIOS which looks at a good of absolute character and value whereas
KALOS looks at a relative good.
The question raised and can that which is good produce death?
THIS IDEA IS REJECTED BY PAUL, May it never be!
In order that the sin nature might become evident in that act of sin (lust),
through that which was good, the commandment.
And that combination, the commandment and my sin nature, brought about death,
in order that the sin nature may be seen for what it will ever be, sinful.
That last part uses an aorist, mid, subj verb which looks to the future.
Principles:
1. The law shows us that sins come from the inside, the sin
nature. And that the sin nature will always be sinful.
2. The recognition of the sin nature results in a recognition of spiritual
death.
3. So the process again:
LAW ---- OSN ---- SINS ---- DEATH
4. And that process is exactly the route God wants it to take in our lives.
5. It is only when we realize the outcome is death that we will realize
we can do nothing about our situation.
6. So the Law was designed to show mankind that it was impossible to be
saved, impossible to impress God with keeping the Law because it could not
be done.
7. Rather than be a means of salvation it is a means of death.
That is true about any ridged system including the OT Law. Eventually the
one who attempts to please God through some ridged system will realize his
total inability to please God.
WHY? HOW? Because it doesn't work, that is why. It just does not work.
So the person is eventually discouraged, disillusioned, and they drop out.
Romans 7:14
For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold into bondage
to sin.
The problem is not the Law, the problem is what is inside Paul and inside
you and me, the OSN.
Reflect back to verse 6: We are released, no longer bound.
Yet even as believers we can put ourselves under the bondage of the sin
nature.
Now when we think OSN we usually think SINS, PAS.
But what follow this statement through to verse 24 is not a struggle of
sins but quite the opposite, a struggle to bring one's life into conformity
with God through law-obedience ... but there is a problem, it does not work.
AND WHY NOT? Verse 14 tells us: the Law may be spiritual but I am of the
flesh, under bondage to the Sin Nature.
End of Lesson 29
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