Romans 7
I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do
what is wrong, but I do it anyway. (18,19) So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does
it. (17) “I’m Doomed!”
Take the letter as a whole. Now we can serve God in the new way of living in the Spirit. (7:6)
Sin used the command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me. (8) The law code
started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to twist the
command into a temptation, ‘making a piece of forbidden fruit.’
We died to sin. We are no longer slaves to sin. (6:2,6) We died to the law and are no longer
captive to its power (7:6) Don’t pick up the rope!
Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and
death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. (Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set
things right in the life of contradictions…)
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Because you belong to
him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law
of Moses was unable to save us… through Jesus declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son
as a sacrifice for our sins.
He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer
follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.