TAWG - October 23, 2024 - Romans 7:1-12
October 23, 2024

Romans 7:1-12

7:1 | Any law has jurisdiction over a person only as long as that person lives. Criminals cannot be brought to lawful justice after death, no matter how terrible their crimes.

7:2-4 | Believers are no longer bound by former obligations to the law; they are free to transfer their loyalty to Christ. Upon claiming their identity in Christ, the law is broken and can no longer control them. The believer, having died to the law, is “married” to Christ.

7:5-6 | When the law declares evil acts in unsaved people, those people often feel driven to do those very things. The Holy Spirit fills the believer with an internal desire to serve God so he or she is not driven by external rules (Eph. 5:18).

7:7-25 | Spiritually, humankind has been delivered from the law, while naturally, humankind has been doomed by it. The verbs in 7:7-13 are past tense, reflecting Paul’s life before conversion. The verbs in 7:14-25 are present tense, describing Paul’s experience after conversion.

7:7 | When tempted, people might restrain themselves with discipline, while still desiring to act. The law not only defines evil deeds but illuminates evil attitudes and intentions, as illustrated by the commandment: Do not covet (Ex. 20:17; Deut. 5:21).

7:8-9 | The Greek word for opportunity was originally used to describe a base of operations for an expedition. Sin uses the law as a beachhead from which to launch its evil work; it triggers sinful nature (1 Cor. 15:56).

7:10-11 | The law can reveal sin but it cannot remove the sin it triggers. The law’s function is not to reward those who keep its precepts but to punish those who break them. The death penalty is either appended to or associated with every one of the Ten Commandments.