Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 7:14
For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
14. For we know ] The “ for ” points to the fact just cleared up that sin, not the law, is the true cause of the soul’s misery; which results from the collision of sin with the law. “ We know; ” as an admitted foundation-truth among Christians; a truth not only implied by the whole drift and often by the words (e.g. Psa 19:7-8, and Psalms 119 passim,) of the Old Testament, but explicitly taught in the Sermon on the Mount.
spiritual ] Coming from Him who is a Spirit, and addressed to man’s spirit. The practical force of the word here, is to shew the law as claiming internal as well as external obedience; that of thoughts as well as acts.
I am carnal ] The pronoun is emphatic, and the form (in the best reading) of the Gr. word rendered “carnal” is emphatic too, as meaning that the very material (as it were) of the Ego was “flesh.” It is remarkable how on the other hand, in e.g. Rom 7:25, he distinguishes the Ego from the flesh. But the contradiction is in form only. In the present verse he contrasts Paul with the Law. In Rom 7:25 he contrasts the “mind” of Paul with his “flesh;” and views the “mind” as influenced by Divine grace. Paul, as in contrast with the absolutely spiritual Law, is in his own view emphatically carnal; falling as he does (because of the element of the “flesh” still clinging to him) far indeed below its holy ideal. But Paul’s will, in the regenerate state, (and the will is the essence of the person,) is, in contrast with the same element of the “flesh” still encumbering it, not carnal. In view of the Law, he speaks of the whole state of self as, by contrast, fleshly. In view of the “flesh” he speaks of his self, his rectified will, as not fleshly.
We here remark on the general question whether he means the veritable Paul, and Paul in the regenerate state, in this passage. (See on Rom 7:7 for some previous remarks to the point.)
It is held ( a) by some expositors, that the “I” is purely general; a human soul relating a conceivable experience. But such a reference is so extremely artificial as to be not only unlike St Paul’s manner, but priori unlikely in any informal composition.
It has been held again ( b) that he speaks as Paul, but as Paul quite unregenerate: or again ( c) as Paul in the first stage of spiritual change, struggling through a crisis to spiritual peace; having seen the holiness of the Law, but not yet the bliss of redemption. As regards ( b), this surely contradicts St Paul’s doctrine of grace; for he views the soul, before special grace, as (not without the witness of conscience, which is another matter, but) “alienated and hostile as to the mind” towards the true God. (See Col 1:21; Rom 5:10; Rom 8:7-8, &c.) But the “I” of this passage “hates” sin, (Rom 7:15,) and “delights in the Law of God” (Rom 7:22; see note below). As regards ( c), the same remarks in great measure apply. In St Paul’s view elsewhere hostility and reconcilement are the only alternatives in the relations of the soul and God. But the “I” of this passage is not hostile to God.
The prim facie view of the passage, certainly, is that by the first person and the present tense St Paul points to (one aspect of) his own then present experience. And is not this view confirmed by what we know of his experience elsewhere? See 1Co 9:27: “I buffet my body and drive it as a slave;” words which, on reflection, imply a conflict of self with self, just such as depicted here. See too Gal 5:17; where the conflict of regenerate souls is evidently treated of. The language of 1Co 15:10, ad fin., must also be compared.
The records of Christian experience, and particularly of the experience of those saints who, like St Augustine, have been specially schooled in spiritual conflict, surely confirm this natural view of the passage. It is recorded of one aged and holy disciple that he quoted Romans 7 as the passage which had rescued him from repeated personal despondency. It would be a very shallow criticism here to object that the Paul of ch. 8 could not be, in the same part of his history, the Paul of ch. 7.
The language of the present passage is indeed strong; but it is the strength of profound spiritual insight. The man who here “does what he hates” is one who has so felt the absolute sanctity of God and of His law as to see sin in the slightest deviations of will and affection from its standard. Such penitence, for such sin, is not only possible in a life of Christian rectitude, but may be said to be a natural element in it [37] .
[37] See further remarks on this whole passage in Appendix E.
sold under sin ] i.e. so as to be under its influence. The metaphor is from the slave-market; a recurrence to the topics of ch. 6. But the difference here is that the redeemed and regenerate man is now in question, and the slavery is therefore a far more limited metaphor. He is now only so far under the mastership of sin as that he is still in the body, which is, by reason of sin, still mortal and still a stronghold of temptation. As regards a claim on the soul to condemnation, he is free from sin; as regards its influence, its temptations, he is liable. And such is now his view of holiness that the presence of these, and the least yielding to them, is to him a heavy servitude. To the question, When was he thus sold? we answer, At the Fall and in Adam.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
E. THE STATE DESCRIBED IN Ch. Rom 7:14-24
The controversy over this profound passage is far too wide to allow of full treatment here. It is scarcely needful to say that conclusions very different from those in the notes have been drawn by many most able and most devout expositors, ancient and modern. Very earnest convictions, mainly based on St Paul’s general teaching, and that of Scripture, alone could justify us in the positive statement of another view.
Here we offer only a few further general remarks.
(1) On the question what St Paul here meant very little certain light is thrown by quotations from pagan writers describing an inner conflict. For in the great majority of such passages the language manifestly describes the conflict of conscience and will; and the confusion of the voice of conscience with the far different voice of personal will is so easy, and no wonder, if Scripture truly describes the state of the human mind (cp. Eph 2:3; Eph 4:17-18) as to spiritual truth, that we believe that even the grandest utterances of pagan thought on this subject must yet be explained of a conflict not so much of will with will, as of will with conscience.
A careful collection of such passages (from Thucydides, Xenophon, Euripides, Epictetus, Plautus, both the Senecas, and Ovid) is given by Tholuck [56] , on Rom 7:15. And our conviction on the whole, from these and similar passages, is that either they do not mean to describe a conflict of will with will, or that they betray the illusions to which the mind, unvisited by special grace, must surely be liable regarding the conditions of the soul’s action; illusions which this chapter, among other passages of Revelation, tends to dispel.
[56] Whose conclusions are very different from ours.
(2) Suppose the person described in ch. Rom 7:14-25 to be not regenerate, not a recipient of the Holy Spirit; and compare the case thus supposed with the language of ch. Rom 8:5-9. The consequence must be that one who is “ in the flesh ” (for St Paul recognizes neither here nor elsewhere an intermediate or semi-spiritual condition,) and who as such “ cannot please God,” can vet truly say, “It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me;” and, “I delight in the law of God after the inward man;” and, “With the mind I myself serve the law of God.”
Now is this possible, from the point of view of St Paul’s teaching? For consider what he means by the law: not man’s subjective view of moral truth and right, but the absolute and profoundly spiritual demands of the True God upon not the approval of man but his whole will.
Surely when Divine grace makes plain to the man the width and depth of those demands, he needs a “renewing of the mind ” (Rom 12:2) if he is to say with truth, “I delight [57] in the Law;” “I myself with my mind serve it.”
[57] A word which it is impossible to explain away.
(3) The supposed impossibility of assigning the language of this passage to one who is meanwhile “in Christ” and “has peace with God” will at least seem less impossible if we remember St Paul’s manner of isolating a special aspect of truth. May he not, out of his profound, intense, and subtle spiritual experience, have chosen for a special purpose to look on one aspect only as if it were the whole? on his consciousness of the element which still called for “mortification,” hanging on “a cross,” “buffeting,” “groans,” “fear and trembling,” (Rom 8:13; Rom 8:23 ; 1Co 9:27; Col 3:5; Php 2:12, &c.;) almost as if he had no other consciousness?
(4) It is often assumed that ch. 8 is an express contrast to ch. Rom 7:14-25. But it is far more likely that it is written to sum up the whole previous Epistle. (See note on Rom 8:1.) If it is designed as a contrast to ch. 7, surely such words as those of Rom 8:13; Rom 8:23, are out of place.
With this view of ch. 8 there is less likelihood of our taking ch. 7 to describe a state antecedent to the experience of ch. 8. But however, if we are right in our remarks in (3), any view of ch. 8 still leaves ch. 7 quite free to be a description of (one side of) regenerate experience.
(5) Tholuck (on Rom 7:15) quotes from Grotius the remark that “it would be a sad thing, indeed, if the Christian, as such, could apply these sayings” (those of the pagan writers who describe an inner conflict) “to himself.” But those who interpret ch. 7 of the experience of a Christian take it to describe not his experience as a Christian, but his experience as a man still in the body, but who, as a Christian, has been illuminated truly to apprehend that infinite Holiness which can only cease to conflict with a part of his condition when at length his trial-time is over.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The remainder of this chapter has been the subject of no small degree of controversy. The question has been whether it describes the state of Paul before his conversion, or afterward. It is not the purpose of these notes to enter into controversy, or into extended discussion. But after all the attention which I have been able to give to this passage, I regard it as describing the state of a man under the gospel, as descriptive of the operations of the mind of Paul subsequent to his conversion. This interpretation is adopted for the following reasons:
(1) Because it seems to me to be the most obvious. It is what will strike plain people as being the natural meaning; people who do not have a theory to support, and who understand language in its usual sense.
(2) Because it agrees with the design of the apostle, which is to show that the Law is not adapted to produce sanctification and peace. This he had done in regard to a man before he was converted. If this relates to the same period, then it is a useless discussion of a point already discussed, If it relates to that period also, then there is a large field of action, including the whole period after a mans conversion to Christianity, in which the question might still be unsettled, whether the Law there might not be adapted to sanctify. The apostle therefore makes thorough work with the argument, and shows that the operation of the Law is everywhere the same.
(3) Because the expressions which occur are such as cannot be understood of an impenitent sinner; see the notes at Rom 7:15, Rom 7:21.
(4) Because it accords with parallel expressions in regard to the state of the conflict in a Christians mind.
(5) Because there is a change made here from the past tense to the present. In Rom 7:7, etc. he had used the past tense, evidently describing some former state. In Rom 7:14 there is a change to the present, a change inexplicable, except on the supposition that he meant to describe some state different from that before described. That could be no other than to carry his illustration forward in showing the inefficacy of the Law on a man in his renewed state; or to show that such was the remaining depravity of the man, that it produced substantially the same effects as in the former condition.
(6) Because it accords with the experience of Christians, and not with sinners. It is just such language as plain Christians, who are acquainted with their own hearts, use to express their feelings. I admit that this last consideration is not by itself conclusive; but if the language did not accord with the experience of the Christian world, it would be a strong circumstance against any proposed interpretation. The view which is here expressed of this chapter, as supposing that the previous part Rom 7:7-13 refers to a man in his unregenerate state, and that the remainder describes the effect of the Law on the mind of a renewed man, was adopted by studying the chapter itself, without aid from any writer. I am happy, however, to find that the views thus expressed are in accordance with those of the late Dr. John P. Wilson, than whom, perhaps, no man was ever better quailfled to interpret the Scriptures. He says, In the fourth verse, he (Paul) changes to the first person plural, because he intended to speak of the former experience of Christians, who had been Jews. In the seventh verse, he uses the first person singular, but speaks in the past tense, because he describes his own experience when he was an uncoverted Pharisee. In the fourteenth verse, and unto the end of the chapter, he uses the first person singular, and the present tense, because he exhibits his own experience since he became a Christian and an apostle.
We know – We admit. It is a conceded, well understood point.
That the law is spiritual – This does not mean that the Law is designed to control the spirit, in contradistinction from the body, but it is a declaration showing that the evils of which he was speaking were not the fault of the Law. That was not, in its nature, sensual, corrupt, earthly, carnal; but was pure and spiritual. The effect described was not the fault of the Law, but of the man, who was sold under sin. The word spiritual is often thus used to denote what is pure and hoy, in opposition to that which is fleshly or carnal; Rom 8:5-6; Gal 5:16-23. The flesh is described as the source of evil passions and desires; The spirit as the source of purity; or as what is agreeable to the proper influences of the Holy Spirit.
But I am – The present tense shows that he is describing himself as he was at the time of writing. This is the natural and obvious construction, and if this be not the meaning, it is impossible to account for his having changed the past tense Rom 7:7 to the present.
Carnal – Fleshly; sensual; opposed to spiritual. This word is used because in the Scriptures the flesh is spoken of as the source of sensual passions and propensities, Gal 5:19-21. The sense is, that these corrupt passions still retained a strong and withering and distressing influence over the mind. The renewed man is exposed to temptations from his strong native appetites; and the power of these passions, strengthened by long habit before he was converted, has traveled over into religion, and they continue still to influence and distress him. It does not mean that he is wholly under their influence; but that the tendency of his natural inclinations is to indulgence.
Sold under sin – This expression is often adduced to show that it cannot be of a renewed man that the apostle is speaking. The argument is, that it cannot be affirmed of a Christian that he is sold under sin. A sufficient answer to this might be, that in fact, this is the very language which Christians often now adopt to express the strength of that native depravity against which they struggle, and that no language would better express it. It does not, mean that they choose or prefer sins. It strongly implies that the prevailing bent of their mind is against it, but that such is its strength that it brings them into slavery to it. The expression used here, sold under sin, is borrowed from the practice of selling captives taken in war, as slaves. (Stuart.) It hence, means to deliver into the power of anyone, so that he shall be dependent on his will and control. (Schleusner.) The emphasis is not on the word sold, as if any act of selling had taken place, but the effect was as if he had been sold; that is, he was subject to it, and under its control, and it means that sin, contrary to the prevailing inclination of his mind Rom 7:15-17, had such an influence over him as to lead him to commit it, and thus to produce a state of conflict and grief; Rom 7:19-24. The verses which follow this are an explanation of the sense, and of the manner in which he was sold under sin.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 14. For, we know that the law is spiritual] This is a general proposition, and probably, in the apostle’s autograph, concluded the above sentence. The law is not to be considered as a system of external rites and ceremonies; nor even as a rule of moral action: it is a spiritual system; it reaches to the most hidden purposes, thoughts, dispositions, and desires of the heart and soul; and it reproves and condemns every thing, without hope of reprieve or pardon, that is contrary to eternal truth and rectitude.
But I am carnal, sold under sin.] This was probably, in the apostle’s letter, the beginning of a new paragraph. I believe it is agreed, on all hands, that the apostle is here demonstrating the insufficiency of the law in opposition to the Gospel. That by the former is the knowledge, by the latter the cure, of sin. Therefore by I here he cannot mean himself, nor any Christian believer: if the contrary could be proved, the argument of the apostle would go to demonstrate the insufficiency of the Gospel as well as the law.
It is difficult to conceive how the opinion could have crept into the Church, or prevailed there, that “the apostle speaks here of his regenerate state; and that what was, in such a state, true of himself, must be true of all others in the same state.” This opinion has, most pitifully and most shamefully, not only lowered the standard of Christianity, but destroyed its influence and disgraced its character. It requires but little knowledge of the spirit of the Gospel, and of the scope of this epistle, to see that the apostle is, here, either personating a Jew under the law and without the Gospel, or showing what his own state was when he was deeply convinced that by the deeds of the law no man could be justified, and had not as yet heard those blessed words: Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way, hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost, Ac 9:17.
In this and the following verses he states the contrariety between himself, or any Jew while without Christ, and the law of God. Of the latter he says, it is spiritual; of the former, I am carnal, sold under sin. Of the carnal man, in opposition to the spiritual, never was a more complete or accurate description given. The expressions, in the flesh, and after the flesh, in Ro 7:5, and in Ro 8:5; Ro 8:8; Ro 8:9, c., are of the same import with the word carnal in this verse. To be in the flesh, or to be carnally minded, solely respects the unregenerate. While unregenerate, a man is in a state of death and enmity against God, Ro 8:6-9. This is St. Paul’s own account of a carnal man. The soul of such a man has no authority over the appetites of the body and the lusts of the flesh: reason has not the government of passion. The work of such a person is to make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof, Ro 13:14. He minds the things of the flesh, Ro 8:5 he is at enmity with God. In all these things the spiritual man is the reverse; he lives in a state of friendship with God in Christ, and the Spirit of God dwells in him; his soul has dominion over the appetites of the body and the lusts of the flesh; his passions submit to the government of reason, and he, by the Spirit, mortifies the deeds of the flesh; he mindeth the things of the Spirit, Ro 8:5. The Scriptures, therefore, place these two characters in direct opposition to each other. Now the apostle begins this passage by informing us that it is his carnal state that he is about to describe, in opposition to the spirituality of God’s holy law, saying, But I am carnal.
Those who are of another opinion maintain that by the word carnal here the apostle meant that corruption which dwelt in him after his conversion; but this opinion is founded on a very great mistake; for, although there may be, after justification, the remains of the carnal mind, which will be less or more felt till the soul is completely sanctified, yet the man is never denominated from the inferior principle, which is under control, but from the superior principle which habitually prevails. Whatever epithets are given to corruption or sin in Scripture, opposite epithets are given to grace or holiness. By these different epithets are the unregenerate and regenerate denominated. From all this it follows that the epithet carnal, which is the characteristic designation of an unregenerate man, cannot be applied to St. Paul after his conversion; nor, indeed, to any Christian in that state.
But the word carnal, though used by the apostle to signify a state of death and enmity against God, is not sufficient to denote all the evil of the state which he is describing; hence he adds, sold under sin. This is one of the strongest expressions which the Spirit of God uses in Scripture, to describe the full depravity of fallen man. It implies a willing slavery: Ahab had sold himself to work evil, 1Kgs 21:20. And of the Jews it is said, in their utmost depravity, Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, Isa 50:1. They forsook the holy covenant, and joined themselves to the heathen, and WERE SOLD to do mischief, 1 Macc. i. 15. Now, if the word carnal, in its strongest sense, had been sufficiently significant of all he meant, why add to this charge another expression still stronger? We must therefore understand the phrase, sold under sin, as implying that the soul was employed in the drudgery of sin; that it was sold over to this service, and had no power to disobey this tyrant, until it was redeemed by another. And if a man be actually sold to another, and he acquiesce in the deed, then he becomes the legal property of that other person. This state of bondage was well known to the Romans. The sale of slaves they saw daily, and could not misunderstand the emphatical sense of this expression. Sin is here represented as a person; and the apostle compares the dominion which sin has over the man in question to that of a master over his legal slave. Universally through the Scriptures man is said to be in a state of bondage to sin until the Son of God make him free: but in no part of the sacred writings is it ever said that the children of God are sold under sin. Christ came to deliver the lawful captive, and take away the prey from the mighty. Whom the Son maketh free, they are free indeed. Then, they yield not up their members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; for sin shall not have the dominion over them, because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made them free from the law of sin and death, Ro 6:13; Ro 6:14; Ro 8:2. Anciently, when regular cartels were not known, the captives became the slaves of their victors, and by them were sold to any purchaser; their slavery was as complete and perpetual as if the slave had resigned his own liberty, and sold himself: the laws of the land secured him to his master; he could not redeem himself, because he had nothing that was his own, and nothing could rescue him from that state but a stipulated redemption. The apostle speaks here, not of the manner in which the person in question became a slave; he only asserts the fact, that sin had a full and permanent dominion over him.-Smith, on the carnal man’s character.
I am carnal, sold under sin.] I have been the more particular in ascertaining the genuine sense of this verse, because it determines the general scope of the whole passage.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He goes on to clear the law, and excuse it, giving it another commendation, that it is spiritual; i.e. it requires such obedience as is not only outward, but inward and spiritual; it forbids spiritual as well as fleshly sins. Read Christs exposition of it, in Mat 5:1-48.
I am carnal; i.e. in part, because of the remainders of sin and of the flesh that are still in me; in respect of which, those who are regenerated are said to be carnal. Compare 1Co 1:2, with 1Co 3:1.
Sold under sin: he did not actively sell himself to sin, or to commit sin, which is said of Ahab, 1Ki 21:20,25, and of the idolatrous Israelites, 2Ki 17:17. He was not sins servant or slave; but many times he was sins captive against his will; see Rom 7:23. Against his will and consent, he was still subject to the violent lusts and assaults of sin, and not able wholly to free himself: though he always made stout resistance, yet many times he was overcome. Hitherto the apostle hath spoken of the power of the law and sin in unregenerate persons, even as he himself had experienced whilst he was yet in such a state; but now he cometh to speak of himself as he then was, and to declare what power the remainders of sinful flesh had still in him, though regenerated, and in part renewed. That the following part of this chapter is to be applied to a regenerate person, is evident, because the apostle (speaking of himself in the former verses) uses the preter-perfect tense, or speaks of that which was past; but here he changeth the tense, and speaks of the present time. From Rom 7:7-14, he tells us how it had been with him formerly; and then from Rom 7:14-25, he relates how it was with him now; I was so and so, I am thus and thus. The changing of the tense and time doth plainly argue a change in the person. They that list to be further satisfied in this point, may find it fully discussed in our own language, by Mr. Anthony Burgess, in his excellent discourse of Original Sin, part iv. c. 3, and by Dr. Willet, in his Hexalta in locum; and they that understand the Latin tongue, may find it argued pro and con, in Synops. Critic. &c., and by Aug. Retractat. lib. i. c. 23; Contra Julian. lib. v. c. 11.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. For we know that the law isspiritualin its demands.
but I am carnalfleshly(see on Ro 7:5), and as such,incapable of yielding spiritual obedience.
sold under sinenslavedto it. The “I” here, though of course not the regenerate,is neither the unregenerate, but the sinful principle of therenewed man, as is expressly stated in Ro7:18.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For we know that the law is spiritual,…. We who have a spiritual understanding of the law, who have been led into the true nature of it by the Spirit of God, know by experience that that itself is “spiritual”; and therefore can never be the cause of sin or death: the law may be said to be “spiritual”, because it comes from the Spirit of God; and reaches to the spirit of man; it requires truth in the inward parts; spiritual service and obedience; a serving of it with our minds; a worshipping of God in spirit and truth; a loving of him with all our hearts and souls, as well as a performance of all the outward acts of religion and duty; and because it cannot be truly obeyed and conformed to without the assistance of the Spirit of God. To this spirituality of the law the apostle opposes himself,
but I am carnal, sold under sin: from hence to the end of the chapter many are of opinion, that the apostle speaks in the person of an unregenerate man, or of himself as unregenerate; but nothing is more clear, than that he speaks all along of himself in the first person, “I am carnal”:, c. , “I myself”, as in Ro 7:25, and in the present tense of what he then was and found whereas, when he speaks of his unregenerate state, and how it was with him under the first convictions of sin, he speaks of them as things past, Ro 7:5; besides, several things which are said by the apostle can neither agree with him, nor any other, but as regenerate; such as to “hate evil”, “delight in the law of God”, and “serve it with the mind”, Ro 7:15. Moreover, the distinctions between flesh and spirit, the inward and the outward man, and the struggle there is between them, are to be found in none but regenerate persons; and to say no more, the thanksgiving for deliverance from sin by Christ can only come from such; nor are any of the things said inapplicable to men that are born again, as will appear by the consideration of them as they follow: for when the apostle says, “I am carnal”; his meaning is, either that he was so by nature, and as he saw himself when sin through the law became exceeding sinful to him; or as he might be denominated from the flesh or corruption of nature which was still in him, and from the infirmities of the flesh he was attended with; just as the Corinthians, though sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints, are said to be “carnal” on account of their envying, strife, and divisions, 1Co 3:1, or in comparison of the “spiritual” law of God, which was now before him, and in which he was beholding his face as in a glass, and with which when compared, the holiest man in the world must be reckoned carnal. He adds, “sold under sin”; he did not “sell himself” to work wickedness, as Ahab, 1Ki 21:25, and others; he was passive and not active in it; and when at any time he with his flesh served the law of sin, he was not a voluntary, but an involuntary servant; besides, this may be understood of his other I, his carnal I, his unrenewed self, the old man which is always under sin, when the spiritual I, the new man, is never under the law of sin, but under the governing influence of the grace of God.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Spiritual (). Spirit-caused and spirit-given and like the Holy Spirit. See 1Co 10:3f.
But I am carnal ( ). “Fleshen” as in 1Co 3:1 which see, more emphatic even than ,” a creature of flesh.”
Sold under sin ( ). Perfect passive participle of , old verb, to sell. See on Matt 13:46; Acts 2:45, state of completion. Sin has closed the mortgage and owns its slave.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
We know [] . Denoting something generally conceded.
Spiritual [] . The expression of the Holy Spirit.
Carnal [] . Lit., made of flesh. A very strong expression. “This unspiritual, material, phenomenal nature” so dominates the unrenewed man that he is described as consisting of flesh. Others read sarkikov having the nature of flesh.
Sold under sin. As a slave. The preposition uJpo under, with the accusative, implies direction; so as to be under the power of.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For we know,” (gar oidamen) “For we perceive, know, or recognize;” regarding this matter at hand, his and their sin-bodies as related to salvation and the law.
2) “That the law is spiritual,” (hoti ho nomos pneumatikos estin) “That the law is (exists as) spiritual;” Gal 6:1; 1Co 3:1; spiritual and holy in nature and work, and demands a spiritual mind, in harmony with the believers divine, spiritual nature, to do the spiritual will of God, 1Co 6:19-20; 1Co 9:26-27; Rom 12:1-2; Gal 5:25.
3) “But I am carnal,” (ego de sarkinos eimi) “But I am fleshly;” as opposed to the holy character of the Law that expresses the holy attributes of God; Paul confessed here the sinful, carnal character of his old nature, the old man, which still housed his soul, after salvation, Rom 7:20.
4) “Sold under sin,” (pepramenos hupo ten hamartian) “Having been sold under sin,” referring to the inescapable depravity of the body and mind of man, so wrought with and susceptible to the passions and temptations of sin in every child of God until death. In this state there has never existed a born-again person who did not commit sin, 1Ki 8:46; Ecc 7:20; 1Jn 1:8-9; Rom 7:25.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
14. For we know that the law, etc. He now begins more closely to compare the law with what man is, that it may be more clearly understood whence the evil of death proceeds. He then sets before us an example in a regenerate man, in whom the remnants of the flesh are wholly contrary to the law of the Lord, while the spirit would gladly obey it. But first, as we have said, he makes only a comparison between nature and the law. Since in human things there is no greater discord than between spirit and flesh, the law being spiritual and man carnal, what agreement can there be between the natural man and the law? Even the same as between darkness and light. But by calling the law spiritual, he not only means, as some expound the passage, that it requires the inward affections of the heart; but that, by way of contrast, it has a contrary import to the word carnal (219) These interpreters give this explanation, “The law is spiritual, that is, it binds not only the feet and hands as to external works, but regards the feelings of the heart, and requires the real fear of God.”
But here a contrast is evidently set forth between the flesh and the spirit. And further, it is sufficiently clear from the context, and it has been in fact already shown, that under the term flesh is included whatever men bring from the womb; and flesh is what men are called, as they are born, and as long as they retain their natural character; for as they are corrupt, so they neither taste nor desire anything but what is gross and earthly. Spirit, on the contrary, is renewed nature, which God forms anew after his own image. And this mode of speaking is adopted on this account — because the newness which is wrought in us is the gift of the Spirit.
The perfection then of the doctrine of the law is opposed here to the corrupt nature of man: hence the meaning is as follows, “The law requires a celestial and an angelic righteousness, in which no spot is to appear, to whose clearness nothing is to be wanting: but I am a carnal man, who can do nothing but oppose it.” (220) But the exposition of [ Origen ], which indeed has been approved by many before our time, is not worthy of being refuted; he says, that the law is called spiritual by Paul, because the Scripture is not to be understood literally. What has this to do with the present subject?
Sold under sin. By this clause he shows what flesh is in itself; for man by nature is no less the slave of sin, than those bondmen, bought with money, whom their masters ill treat at their pleasure, as they do their oxen and their asses. We are so entirely controlled by the power of sin, that the whole mind, the whole heart, and all our actions are under its influence. Compulsion I always except, for we sin spontaneously, as it would be no sin, were it not voluntary. But we are so given up to sin, that we can do willingly nothing but sin; for the corruption which bears rule within us thus drives us onward. Hence this comparison does not import, as they say, a forced service, but a voluntary obedience, which an inbred bondage inclines us to render.
(219) This is evidently the case here. As carnal means what is sinful and corrupt, so spiritual imports what is holy, just, and good. As the works of the flesh are evil and depraved works, so the fruits of the Spirit are good and holy fruits. See Gal 5:19, and particularly Joh 3:6. — Ed.
(220) “He is ‘carnal’ in exact proportion to the degree in which he falls short of perfect conformity to the law of God.” — [ Scott ]
It has been usual with a certain class of divines, such as [ Hammond ] and Bull, to hold that all the Fathers before [ Augustine ] viewed Paul here as not speaking of himself. But this is plainly contradicted by what [ Augustine ] declares himself in several parts of his writings. In his [ Retractations, B. 1, chapter 23 ], he refers to some authors of divine discourses ( quibusdam divinorum tractatoribus eloquiorom ) by whose authority he was induced to change his opinion, and to regard Paul here as speaking of himself. He alludes again in his work against [ Julian ], an advocate of Pelagianism, B. 6, chapter 11, to this very change in his view, and ascribes it to the reading of the works of those who were better and more intelligent than himself, ( melioribus et intelligentioribus cessi .) Then he refers to them by name, and says, “Hence it was that I came to understand these things, as [ Hilary ], [ Gregory ], [ Ambrose ], and other holy and known doctors of the Church, understood them, who thought that the Apostle himself strenuously struggled against carnal lusts, which he was unwilling to have, and yet had, and that he bore witness as to this confiict in these words,” (referring to this very text,) — Hinc factum est. ut sic ista intelligerem, quemadmodum intellexit Hilarius, Gregorius, Ambroslus, et cœteri Ecclsiœ sancti notique doctores, qui et ipsum Apostolum adversus carnales concupiscentias, quas habere nolebat, et tamen habebat, strenue conflixisse, eundemque conflictum suum illis suis verbis contestatum fuisse senserunt — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES
Rom. 7:14.Rabbins: The law, because of its spirituality, will dwell only in the soul that is free from dross.
Rom. 7:15.I am blinded, I am hurried along and tripped up, I know not how. The I here not the complex responsible self by whom the deed is done and the guilt incurred, but the self of the will in its higher sense, the inner man. Quotations show that in all countries there is a struggle in the breast between conscience and carnal inclination. They also show how much alike men express themselves in relation to the struggle in question. They answer still another purposeviz., to show that language of this nature is used and is to be understood in the popular sense, and in this only.
Rom. 7:16. , indicates, not necessity, but mere non-approbation of what is done.
Rom. 7:17.Proof that sin has come upon us as a power originally foreign to us. , as a stranger or guest, or as one thing in another.
Rom. 7:18.More than ; to do the whole good I wish, and that perfectly.
Rom. 7:22.Not so much the mind itself as the man choosing the mind for his principle or standpoint.
Rom. 7:23.Rabbins: We should be always stirring up the good principle against the evil one. Genitive of connection, like . . , only the latter is without the individualthe former is most intimately within him: in the latter God tells him what He wants; the former the man gives to himself.
Rom. 7:24.The cry uttered in full consciousness of the deliverance effected by Christ.
Rom. 7:25. ., the grace of God, equal, if not preferable, as an answer to the question. The (flesh), and, as necessarily connected with it, the (animal soul), the whole inferior region of the life, remains still subject to the law of sin. The is not to be construed I myself, but ego idem, I, the one and the same, have in me a two-fold element. To be sure in this signification commonly has the article, but the supplies it here (Olshausen).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Rom. 7:14-25
Two men in one man.The two men in the one man are the carnal man and the inward man. As we read the history of these two men we wonder at St. Pauls power of mental analysis. He skillfully uses the pen and the discriminating power of the metaphysician. He has accurately read and studied the workings of human nature; and this result could only have been reached by the intense observation of the workings of his own nature. Know thyself is the old precept. Self-knowledge prepares the way for other-self knowledge. These verses, then, contain a record of the workings of St. Pauls nature. He finds in himself two men, one low and the other noble; and he mourns that the lower man so often gains the mastery over the noble man. Let us look at:
I. The two men.The one man is carnal, sold under sin. This carnal man serves the law of sin. Thus he is base in the extreme. He is of the earth earthy, and does not strive upward towards the true and the good. The other man is spiritualat least he is so far spiritual that he loves the law which is spiritual; for this inward man delights in the law of God, and consents unto the law that is good. How opposite the characters! How striking the contrast between the two men that dwell together in the one man! There is no need for us to ask the question whether St. Paul here speaks of the regenerate or the unregenerate man. This much may be safely affirmed, that every man who is candid to himself and his fellows must confess that ofttimes he sinks so low as to be compelled to ask, Is there in me any spiritual life? I profess Christianity, but what would my uncharitable neighbours say of my religion if all the secret workings and downfalls of my lower nature were proclaimed on the housetops? How often have we lamented the beastly which has shown itself? Is it possible that I am the same man who has stood on the mount of transfigurationI who am now desiring to be fed with the husks the swine eat? Let us, then, be merciful in our judgments.
II. The two men in conflict.The fight cannot be seen; the strain on the sinews cannot be observed; the sound of the struggle cannot be heard. But these unseen conflicts are oft the most real and the most severe. The one man desires to do good; the other man strives to prevent the accomplishment of the praiseworthy desire. How true to life and to all experience! A conflict goes on in allperhaps even in those who may appear to have altogether destroyed the divine image and completely effaced the nobler part of human nature. The poor criminal has had a strugglelight and short it may be, still a strugglebefore he did the fatal act which has led to his temporal ruin at least. And oh, what a conflict when the great mangreat spirituallyhas fallen from his eminence and has become as other men! Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed, lest he fall.
III. The lower man triumphant.The lower man compels the spiritual man to do the thing which he hates. Is there a malicious leer on the countenance of the lower man as he forces the spiritual man to do the evil which he would not and which he abhors? Certainly he is not backward in feeling remorse. The spiritual man mourns, perhaps weeps; and the carnal man takes to himself no blame, and does not attempt to wipe away the tears. How wondrous strange that the lower man should be so often triumphant! And yet this takes place in the larger sphere of life. The wicked man spreads himself like a green bay tree; base men are exalted; the wicked are too oft in great prosperity; the carnal man rides rough-shod over the spiritual man. Sad that society should ever allow vile men to rulesadder that the spiritual man should permit the lower to gain and keep the ascendency! But how is it to be helped? O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
IV. The inward man can only win by the help of a second man, the man Christ Jesus.Ethical systems cannot successfully help in this conflict. Philosophy is of no avail. Rhetorical phrases cannot nerve the nature, so as to enable us to gain moral victory. Music may inspire the soldier to deeds of daring; but what music hath charms sufficiently strong to enable the man always to perform that which is good? Reason may tell me that to follow and serve the good is a good in itself, that virtue is its own reward; but reason is soon dethroned by the power of the carnal man, vice wears an alluring mien, while virtue, with reward in its right hand, is not infrequently unattractive. Even when it is, the higher man is overridden by the lower man, if the former be not helped. The man Christ Jesus must be our helper. He allures by presenting vice in its true colours and virtue in its proper garb of attractiveness. He shows us that the higher man can be victorious by being Himself the example of unsullied holiness. He inspires with strength by the inspiration of His Holy Spirit. He removes moral weakness by cleansing us from our sins. The man forgiven is the man to fight; and though he fall beneath the adversary, yet he must in Christs strength gain the final victory. Let us learn not to attempt the conflict in our own strength. The question is not, Does this description apply to the regenerate or to the unregenerate? The practical and solemn truth is that your adversary the devil goeth about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is often sadly weak. Let us not despair when we are overcome by the lower man. Despair means ruin, while hope means salvation; and surely there is a large foundation for hope in the all-merciful High Priest, who is ready to help in every time of need. Nil desperandum must be the motto of the true soldier of Jesus Christ. Like brave English soldiers, he must never know when he is beaten. Let us try to feel that the conflict is worth pursuing, for final victory is sure in Christ Jesus, and final victory means the award of the crown of glory that fadeth not away, an inheritance incorruptible, a place where the carnal man shall no more molest.
Rom. 7:14-15. Believers conflict and victory.This last verse of the chapter not only gives us the conclusion of the argument discussed in the preceding verses, but also helps us in the interpretation of the whole passage by supplying us with an answer to the disputed question whether the conflict here described is that of a regenerate or unregenerate man. The words I myself in this verse must mean St. Paul after his conversion; and hethe same Paulin the process of his regeneration and of the working of the Holy Spirit in him, passed through this painful conflict, and found deliverance through the Lord Jesus Christ. Though speaking of himself and recording his own experience, St. Paul here is the representative of all true Christians, who with more or less distinctness and painfulness in individual cases have to pass through a similar conflict and to rejoice in the same deliverance. This scripture therefore is most instructive to all believers in Christ who desire to be established in the faith and to live the true Christian life. And in dwelling upon it we may profitably consider:
1. The conflict engaged in;
2. The deliverance obtained;
3. The practical lessons to be learned.
I. The conflict.This is between the enlightened mind and consciencethe inner man of the believer acknowledging the excellence of the law of Godand on the other hand the evil propensities of the natural manthe carnal man, the flesh, as it is often termed in Scripture language, refusing to obey Gods law or to refrain from sin.
1. The law of God is spiritual in its essential moral nature, as it emanates from the Spirit of God. But the believer at the beginning of his regenerate life is still carnal (see 1Co. 4:1-4)not yet emancipated from the bondage of sin (Rom. 7:14), which had held him under its dominion.
2. Hence he finds himself doing what he does not in his better mind approve of. He even hates his own sinful acts, especially after he has done them; and thus he testifies that the law is good, but sin too strong for him. Its reign is not yet overthrown.
3. Even when his will is expressly bent upon obeying Gods law he has not the power to carry out what he resolved to do. Indwelling sin has still the mastery of him; he does what he would not.
4. This is his unhappy state. He delights in the law of God after the inward man; but there is another law in his bodythe law of sin with its lusts and passionsbringing him under its hateful power. Something of this miserable conflict was known even to heathen men, who have recorded that they knew and approved of what was good, yet did what they knew was evil. How much more wretched must such a state of moral bondage be in a Christian who has learned to delight in Gods law! Well may we assent to St. Pauls vehement exclamation, O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver from the body of this death?
II. The deliverance obtained.The joyful answer to the question Who shall deliver me? is here very briefly expressed: I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
1. This happy result and the manner in which it is realised and carried out in the Christian life is explained and dwelt upon in the following chapter; but here even in this brief expression we have shown to us the source from which this blessing springs, the power by which the victory is gained. It is Jesus Christ our Lord.
2. The believer in Jesus Christ is not only delivered from, condemnation by his Lords atoning death (Gal. 3:13), but in and through the same divine Saviour the Holy Spiritthe very Spirit of Christ and of Godcomes and abides in him; and as his faith grows stronger and his surrender to the Spirits guidance becomes more complete, he is strengthened with might in the inner man. Christ dwells in his heart with His spiritual presence and power, and makes him victorious over the sin by which before he was overcome.
3. Thus the Lord Jesus, by our being united to Him, living unto Him, abiding in Him, and He in us, as our strength, our very life, is made unto us our sanctification (1Co. 1:30). The life which we now live in the flesh we live by faith in Him (Gal. 2:20). We can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us (Php. 4:13).
III. The practical lessons to be learned.So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
1. The happy deliverance from the bondage of sin by the Spirit of Christ in the Christian has not destroyed the law of sin. It has only restrained it under the force of a superior power. True they that are Christs have crucified the flesh (Gal. 5:4), and our old man was crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6). But this old man, this carnal mind, the corrupt nature of fallen man, is not dead, nor is it improved, reformed, or changed. It is only overpowered and kept down and its evil working stopped in the true Christian life. An untamable wild animal, confined or chained by mans power, cannot exercise its savage propensities; but those propensities are still there, and ready to break out if an opportunity were given. And so the carnal mind of manthe infection of his nature remains, yea even in the regenerate (Art. IX.), until at last it is annihilated in the Christians natural death.
2. Hence the Christian through the power of the same divine Spirit which gave him his freedom from the dominion of sin must continue to assert and maintain his liberty in Christ: mortifying His members which are upon the earth (Col. 3:5), the workings and efforts of carnal mind, and keeping them in place of death.
3. The Christian constantly led by the Holy Spirit and persistently giving himself up to His divine guidance preserves his liberty from the dominion of sin. But any falling into unbelief, unwatchfulness, or carelessness of living will enable the law of sin in his members to rise up and reassert its power. Hence the needful admonition, Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Php. 2:12). Hence St. Paul says of himself, I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway (1Co. 9:27). Thus the Lord Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith and of faiths whole life. His death redeems us from the guilt of sin. His Spirit rescues us from sins dominion. Abiding in Him, we are kept safe unto the end.Dr. Jacob.
Rom. 7:14-25. The principle of progress through antagonism.The soul is awakened through the law. This law work is a necessity of our times. The soul is kept awake by the antagonism going on within. For the gospel is not intended to promote at any time satisfaction with self. So far from this, it is a plan for subordinating self to its rightful sovereign, the Saviour. And so we are not only put out of conceit with ourselves in conviction and conversion, but kept out of self-conceit by the law of Christian progress. In this section, as in other portions of his epistles, the apostle reveals this law as that of antagonism. The imparted Spirit proves Himself a militant spirit. The special tendencies in the wild heart of man are met and controlled by the Holy Spirit, and to this war within the Christian has to reconcile himself. In fact, he is not right until this campaign of the spirit is begun. It will help us to the proper idea to look at the law of antagonism as it obtains in the larger sphere of Christianity. To special and undesirable tendencies on the part of men Christianity will be found to have presented such opposition as proved in due season victorious. A few leading illustrations must suffice. Take, for example, the case of those rude invaders who broke the power of imperial Rome to pieces. We call them Vandals. Now they were wandering soldiers who loved war but hated work. They were attached to military chiefs, and so were a constant menace to the peace of Europe. The problem for the Christianity of that early age was how to curb this wandering and idle disposition and settle the nomads in Europe. And the needful antagonism was supplied in feudalism, by which the soldiers were transformed into serfs and united to their chiefs by the mutual ownership of land. And it can be shown that from this feudalism modern patriotism properly so called has sprung. In Greece, for example, in pagan times all that passed for patriotism was love of a city. No man apparently had the comprehensive love which can embrace a whole land. They were Spartans or Athenians, but not patriots in the wider sense. But in the wake of feudalism true patriotism came, and vast nations were formed at last who were ready to die for their fatherlands. Thus Christianity antagonised the selfishness which was so rampant in pagan times. But under feudalism arose serfdom, which proved to be only a shade better than pagan slavery. How did Christianity antagonise these evils? Now the necessity for serfs under feudalism and of slavery under paganism arose from the mischievous and mistaken idea that work is degrading. Christianity, accordingly, in the dark ageswhich were not nearly so dark as some men make themset itself to consecrate manual labour by the example of the monks. Devoted men in religious houses made manual labour, agriculture, and work of all kinds a holy thing, and so prepared the way for the industrial movement of later times. Gradually it dawned upon the European mind that it is not a noble thing to have nothing in the world to do, that it is not a degrading thing to have to work, and that work may and ought to be a consecrated and noble thing. Having thus antagonised the natural indolence of men, Christianity had next to combat his unwillingness to think for himself, and this was through the Reformation of the sixteenth century under Luther. The problem of the sixteenth century was to get men, instead of leaving to others to think out the plan of salvation for them, and as priests to undertake their salvation, to think the question out for themselves, and to have as their advocate and mediator the one great high priest, Christ Jesus. Luther, in his stirring treatise on the freedom of a Christian man, brought out in his admirable way that every believing Christian is himself a priest; and so he enfranchised human minds and gave dignity to the race. Now this law of antagonism which we have seen on the larger scale in Christianity will be found in individual experience. This is evidently the idea of the present section of the epistle. And here let us notice:
I. The law of God proving delightful to the converted soul.Gods law is seen to enter into the very secrets of the renewed soul, to discern the desires and motives of the heart, and to furnish the perfect standard. It supplies the ideal.
II. The constant sense of falling short of the ideal.The renewed soul feels that it somehow cannot do what it would.
III. The cause of the failure is found in the body of death.What we have got to do is to fight the old self in the interests of God and of that better self which He has given us.
IV. In this holy war Jesus Christ is the only deliverer.The more progress made, the more intense the antipathy to the evil nature within. But the deliverer is found in Jesus. He comes to dwell within us and be a better self. He dwells within us by His Holy Spirit; and this Spirit is not only militant, but victorious.R. M. Edgar.
Rom. 7:15-25. A disheartening discovery.Some of us, when we find others failing just at the point where we should think them particularly strong, can hardly be surprised if we find that we too are failing. Paul, e.g., a pattern of Christian living; yet he laments the discovery of his shortcomings. And as for ourselves, we constantly regret the discovery of our weakness in face of temptation. We are not all tempted alike, but temptation of some sort is inevitable. Think of the various resolutions for good living by different men, and how they failthe thief, drunkard, etc. The text lets in light on one of the saddest chapters in the worlds experiences. Somewhere or somehow we see the fruits of our weakness; we get daily evidence that there is none righteous. The whole thing is a matter of experience, and by no means a theological principle merely. Why are we so powerless? Because our temptations assail us at our weakest points. The man who has no love of money would never be tempted to miserliness. Every man is tempted by his own lusti.e., by his own particular evil bent or propensity. Many examples in Bible: Solomon, drawn away by love of women; Lot, by love of strong drink; Balaam, by love of money.
Some lessons here suggested:
I. Our pride receives a rebuff, and we are made to feel that we are dependants on Gods grace.But the sense of humiliation is the only way to ultimate goodness. Moreover, only by our humiliation can we enrich our own lives and the lives of others. Pauls disheartening discovery undoubtedly went far to make him the splendid man he was, and lent a throb of living life to what he said and did and wrote for men.
II. The text points out the need for confession.Pauls manliness in confessing: In me dwelleth no good thing. Could you imagine a finer specimen of Christianity than Paul?and yet he felt his shortcomings. In general, taking our dealings with the world as a whole, we may be noble characters; but search will reveal grave offenceshastiness, pettishness, fretfulness, evil thoughts, etc.; and especially our offences against Godwant of love and loyalty to Him. These offences drive us to confession that we are sinful and need forgiving grace.
III. A call for watchfulness.When I would do good, etc. Watchfulness against a thousand things that may tend to draw us away from our true connection with Christ. Drifting is such a terrible possibility. What that means to us, and what it means to the Saviour: it is a stain on His government.
1. Christians scarcely go wrong from sheer wilfulnessrather through carelessness; therefore be watchful.
2. We must be watchful because of the judgment the world may form of religion. The world has no high law, no certain judgment, no pure righteousness, no favourable bias towards religion. Hence the possibilities of evil arising from a bad examplean unworthy display of life.
IV. No effort after the perfect life should be in our own strength.The apostle, recognising his frailty, turns to God. Reliance on God never misplaced. My grace is sufficient; As thy day; I will be with thee in six troubles, etc.Albert Lee.
Rom. 7:18. Dualism in the life.Who that knows anything of spiritual life does not know by experience how in every attempt one makes to worship or obey or keep pure and holy evil is at hand, present with us? How it thrusts itself into our most sacred moments, neutralises our best intentions, surprises us into a fault, or, overbearing our resistance, drags the reluctant Christian into unchristian sins? How often, when the mind seems to be bent wholly upon good, does a casual spectacle or a remote suggestion call up images of evil! How often, when no cause appears, do appetites leap forth in unexpected force, as if they rose out of some abyss of impurity within, at the bidding of some power of darkness! The inertia of the flesh may reduce, as Jesus hinted, the most willing spirit to inaction. As a watchful foe strongly posted in a troublesome position may neutralise a much stronger army which it dares not challenge on open ground, so this disinclination of fallen nature to what is spiritual keeps the life of the soul to some extent inoperative. The saint may long after communion with God in holy meditation and prayer; but no sooner does he set about it in earnest than he is made aware of an inexplicable sluggishness or positive backwardness to every pious exercise, which at first he hardly understands, and which he can never entirely overcome. What is this but the power of evil present with me? So always. It starts up a barrier in the path. It neutralises desire. It paralyses effort. Ones most serious intentions wither sometimes before they ripen into act, as buds never grow to fruit when spring winds are keen. It would be putting the case far too absolutely to say that the life of a good man is nothing but a contemptible series of barren wishes. A life of nothing but good intentions would not be a Christian life at all. It is not by the blossom, but by the harvest, that a man will in the end have to vindicate his Christian profession when the harvest day arrives. Still, no man with a Christian heart in him ever satisfies himself by the measure of his performance. He never is as good as he desires or means to be. There is always a gapa disappointing and humbling gapbetwixt the ideal cherished and yearned after and the actual behaviour. So that the most literal interpretation of Pauls passionate complaint does not seem too strong to the dissatisfied believer: To will is present with me; but to do that which is good is not (Rom. 7:18). While others applaud his virtue, a saint knows how far his own aspirations outbid his poor achievements, and in his closet he lies groaning under the grief of failure. When the soul in her purer moments is beholding the beauty of Gods face in Christ, does she not reach out vague longings after such a spiritual temper as she hath not attained to? Do there not come over her visions, divinings of a moral sublimity, a serene equipoise in goodness, a restful perfectness of will, never yet realised? So often as the soul seeks to arise and possess that region of pure heavenliness which seems her own, is she not speedily aware that she is chained to a close and heavy burden of earthliness which weighs her down? The flesh shuts her in, and the sweet glimpse dies away, and her feet stumble in the clay, and the things she would she cannot do. Well for any one of us if we have not cause to understand a still more humbling confession than this.Dr. Dykes.
Rom. 7:19. The Christian conscience.The good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Who are these twothe I that desires, the I that acts? Not two persons; for it is one and the same Paul that both desires and acts. Nor can we say that both are the simple and consistent doings of one and the same person. There is a complication. A desire to act in one way arises within: this desire is thwarted, and action is hindered. A reluctance to act in another way is felt: the reluctance is overborne, and action takes place. And this is not as when the body refuses the bidding of the willwhen energy is suspended by lassitude, or the desire of quiet broken by nervous excitement. Those conflicts, those defeats, are temporary; but this is enduring. Those are between the flesh and the will; this is within the will itself. For in this description there are two wills. We will one way; we act another way. But no man can be properly said to act without willing: the motion of conscious action is voluntary; abstinence from that motion is voluntary also. So that within the man is a will saying, I will, and protesting against the will which is carried out in actionsitting, so to speak, bound, and witnessing its own defeat. And when we come to inquire about this frustrated will, there can be no question that it is the higher of the two, though it be thus defeated. For it bears testimony for good and against evil; whereas its victorious adversary thwarts the good and carries out the evil. So then we find ourselves in the presence of these two phenomena in man: a higher will, a nobler consciousness, testifying to good, protesting against evil, but overborne; and a lower will, a less noble consciousness, putting aside the good, choosing the evil, and commonly prevailing. And we may observe that both these are residents in the inner man, not belonging the one to the inner, and the other to the outer. However the lower will may become entangled with and enslaved by the bodily emotions, it is yet a decision given, not in nor by the body, but in and by the mind.
But now let us go a step farther, and let us suppose that in some given case the higher will obtains the mastery, and that the word of command which the mind gives to the body to act or not to act proceeds, not from the lower will, but from the higher; or, if necessarily from the lower, then from the lower subordinated to and absorbed into the higher. Let us suppose, in other words, a state of things which would be expressed by the good that I would do, that do I; and the evil which I would not do, that I do not. Manifestly this is no impossible supposition, but one which is often, though not ordinarily, realised in fact. What have we now obtained? Why, this: that my practical will, the ruler of the acts which I do, and the non-acts which I refuse to do, lies open to two distinct influencesone drawing it upward in the direction of good and to the avoidance of evil, the other drawing it downwards in a direction which may lead to the adoption of evil and to the avoidance of good. And there can be no question that this my practical will emanates directly from and is the expression of my personalitythat it is the exponent of myself. But let us advance a step farther in this preliminary examination. This practical will is the result of thought, is the issue of determination. Are thought and determination peculiar to man? Certainly not. Every kind of organised animal life, in its measure and after its kind, possesses them. The practical will may be as limited as in the oyster, or as free as in the eagle, but it is equally in obedience to it that conscious animal action takes place. In man, of all animals, its capacities are greatest; but its nature is not distinct. In man, with all its intellectual powers and wide-reaching susceptibilities, it is but the animal soul; in the lowest organised being, with all its narrowness and dulness, it is the animal soul still. The Greeks, in their wonderfully accurate language, expressed by the same term (, psych) the soul of man which he has to save, and the life of the reptile which man crushes under his foot. And it would have been immensely for our profit if we had done the same. For then we should have understood what very few now do understandthe true nature, the true place, of this our intellectual and emotional being. We hear frequentlyin fact, it is the usual and still commonly received notionthat man is compounded of two parts,the mortal body and the immortal soul.
Man is conscious of God, not by virtue of a higher degree of that which he possesses in common with the lower tribe of animal life, but by virtue of something which he alone is endowed with. No mere animal has a conscience. An animal may be trained, by hope of reward and fear of punishment, to simulate the possession of a conscienceto behave nearly as if conscious of right and wrong. An animal may be acted on by its affectionsall situated in the animal soulso as to lead it to consult, to be united to, even to anticipate, the wishes and feelings of another animal, or of a human master; but no animal ever knew wrong as wrong, or right as rightever shrank from inflicting pain on principle, or practised self-denial except emotionally. Conscience, the source of the will that would do the good, that would not do the evil, is entirely a function of that nobler part, the spirit, which man possesses exclusively. How do we know this? What has enabled us to detect, to describe, to reason upon, this higher portion of the threefold nature of man? I answer, We know it by revelation. Holy Scripture has revealed to us, not God only, but our own nature. This its threefold division was not recognised, was not perceptible, by the Greek philosophers. Wonderfully accurate and keen as were their investigations, they could not attain to this discovery, for it was altogether above them. Neither, again, was it entirely made known in Old Testament days; nor could it be, in the gradual unfolding of God to man and of man to himself. It is matter of Christian revelation. We are first let into the secrets of our own nature when the entire redemption and renewal of that nature are disclosed. And in this disclosure the Christian Scriptures, as they stand entirely alone, so are they throughout consistent with themselves in asserting this triple nature of man. In fact, this consistency is kept in all the anticipatory notices in the Old Testament also. From the first description of mans creation to the latest notice of his state by redemption, the Scripture account of him is one and the same, and is found nowhere else,the body, created by the Almighty out of the dust of the earth; the divine nature breathed into this body, already organised, by God himself; the animal soul, common to man and the brute creation, expressed by the same term in speaking of the brutes and of man, carrying his personality, being that which he was made to beand man became a living soul.
But we must not treat of mans conscience, even in Christian countries, as being infallible or universally enlightened. It is clear in its testimony, it is trustworthy in its verdicts, only in proportion as men have become Christians. In every Christian land there are a certain number of persons, greater or less according to the purity or corruption of its Christianity, who form, as it were, the focus of the bright light of the Christian conscience. Sometimes they are banded together, and acting on the public; but this can only be where the utterance of opinion is free. And even in such lands the men of pure and clear Christian conscience often know not one another and work not together. They are separated by barriers of rank, or of sect, or of other circumstance; and it is not till Gods providence has made utterance inevitable that it is discovered how irresistible a power was gathering in secret. Thoughts that it would take a bold man to utter on a platform to-day may to-morrow be carried like a tide-wave over the land, and may the next day have become a confessed basis of national action. Of course in lands where utterance is not free the Christian conscience is repressed. But even there it is, in the long-run, repressed in vain. Like the up-bursting of the boiling granite from the central heat, it will find its way through the chinks of the tightest impost of artificial rule; or, if it cannot, it will end by upheaving and shattering in a moment the compacted crust of ancient and prescriptive wrong. All this I thankfully acknowledge; but I submit that these are only partial triumphs, only flashes in the midnight, compared with what ought to be the result of the spiritual life which is growing and bearing fruit among this great people. Whole realms of thought and action are as yet in utter darkness, as far as any illumination by the Christian conscience is concerned; and this with the light shining in the midst of them. Look at private life, look at public morality, and what a strange disparity appears. There is, thank God, no lack in our land of the pure, clear life of the spirit of man, led in the light of Gods countenance, guided by the gentle whisper of His Spirit.Dean of Canterbury.
Rom. 7:24-25. How to be delivered from the body of death.In discoursing upon these words I shall endeavour to explain:
I. What the apostle here means by this phrase, the body of death. The life of every living being in general, and of every rational being in particular, is the free gift of God, bestowed originally without any claim of right, continued all along by His mere good pleasure; and whensoever He pleases, who freely gave it, it may without any injustice be taken away. For God, who was under no obligation to give life to any being at all, is much less under any obligation of justice to make any creature immortal. The mere ending, therefore, of that life, which only by the free good pleasure of God ever began, is no wrong or injury to any, even the most innocent; and this would equally be so whether death were an entire ceasing to exist, or whether it be considered a translation only from one state or manner of being to another. But though death be in itself thus natural, considered barely as the bound or limit of a finite life, yet by the time or manner, and above all by the consequences of its being inflicted, it may very properly and frequently is appointed to be the just punishment of sin. Even by the laws of men, though they know it is in itself inevitable and after death they have nothing more that they can do, yet to the most capital crimes death is the punishment. Much more in the laws of God, in whose hands the consequences of death are, and who after death can continue what punishment He pleasesmuch more in His laws is the threatening of death justly terrible. Our first parent in paradise was in all probability created naturally, subject to mortality; yet the punishment threatened to his transgression was death. And what the consequence of this death might be in any future state was left uncertain. Since that God has now expressly threatened eternal death as the punishment of sin. To every presumptuous, to every act of known sin has God threatened this second death: how much more to those who are laden with iniquities is the body of this death justly terrible!
II. Wherein consists the wretchedness of those men who are under the unhappy circumstances of that state which the apostle here describes by the figurative expression of being subject to the body of this death. O wretched man that I am! The natural apprehension of death, considered barely in itself without any additional aggravation, is to every living being necessarily uneasy. The true sting of death, that which really and only makes the thoughts of it justly insupportable, is sin. To sinners the fear of death is what the apostle calls being all their lifetime subject to bondage. For so long as there is reasonable hope in a future state the spirit of a man will sustain his present infirmity, will bear the thoughts even of death itself with comfort; but a spirit wounded with the expectation of death being not the end but the beginning of sorrows, who can bear?
III. Wherein consists the difficulty here represented of men recovering themselves of this unhappy state.Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The manner of expression, Who shall deliver me! is such as usually denotes such a kind of difficulty as there is very little hope of overcoming. And the ground of this difficulty is twofold, partly arising from the appointment of God, and partly from the natural circumstances of the state wherein the persons themselves are involved. By the appointment of God dinners are under the just sentence of condemnation; and out of His hands no force, no fraud, no artifice, can deliver them. What expiation, what atonement, what intercession, will prevail with Him to reverse the sentence of death they cannot naturally know, and the inquiry after it is very apt to lead men into pernicious superstitions. Repentance itself is but a ground of hope and a probable motive of compassion. Without bringing forth fruit meet for repentance, the repentance is nothing; and to bring forth such fruits really and effectually is that other part of the difficulty wherein the persons here spoken of are involved. To an habitual sinner real amendment of life and manners, and acquiring the habits of the virtues contrary to the vices he has practised, is like plucking out a right eye or cutting off a right hand; it is like the Ethiopian changing his skin or the leopard his spots. This slavery to sin is with wonderful affection described through this whole chapter, of which my text is the conclusion.
IV. Here are the means suggested by which this difficulty, though naturally very great, may yet be overcome.It may be done through Jesus Christ our Lord. He has given assurance of pardon upon condition of repentance and amendment of life. He has promised the assistance of His grace and the influences of His Holy Spirit to make effectual the endeavours of those who under great trials are sincerely desirous to obey Him. He has strengthened the motives of religion by appointing a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness, and by bringing life and immortality more clearly to light. A firm persuasion and steadfast belief of these great truths will, with the divine assistance, effectually enable men to destroy the habit and the power of sin. And when once the habit of sin is rooted out, and the law of God becomes the governing principle and the real effectual rule of light and manners, the sting of death is then consequently taken away.
V. Here is expressed the great reason we have to be thankful to God for vouchsafing us this method of deliverance through Christ.I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He might very justly, and without impeachment of His goodness too, have suffered all those to perish who had wilfully and presumptuously transgressed His righteous commands, and could even out of the stones, as it is expressed, have raised up children unto Abrahami.e., He could immediately have destroyed the wilful transgressors and have created others from whom He might have expected a better obedience. But when, instead of this, His compassion moved Him to grant repentance to sinners, to admit them to a further trial, and by His gracious promise in Christ to give power to as many as would embrace and obey the gospelthis is the highest possible obligation to thankfulness, and to the most diligent endeavours of future obedience.
VI. I propose in the last place to explain how and for what reason the apostle, in his representation of this whole matter, doth himself personate the sinner he would describe, and chooses to express the miserable state of the greatest sinner in words seemingly spoken as if it had been concerning himself. And this deserves to be the more carefully and distinctly cleared, because upon a wrong interpretation of these words has been founded a notion most pernicious to religion, than which nothing can be more absurd. The plain and certain meaning of these words, I myself serve with the flesh the law of sin, is not I, Paul, who wrote this epistle, but I, the sinner, I, the miserable person, all along described in this chapter. And the reason why the apostle chose to speak after this manner is because it carries with it more of tenderness and compassion, and is more moving and less offensive to express things of this kind in the first person, which is more general, than to apply them directly and more particularly to the person intended, who may usually, with better effect, be left to make the application for himself. By the same figure of speech in his discourse about the last judgment (not through any mistaken apprehension as if the world was then coming to an end, but by the same vulgar figure of speech which I am now explaining) does the apostle, speaking of those who shall be found alive at the day of judgment, say, We shall all be changed, and We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord. No man while he lives in the habitual practice of any known vice can possibly be in a state of salvation. He is under the law of sin and death, wretched and miserable; nor can he by any other means be delivered from the body of this death but through Jesus Christ our Lordi.e., by the gracious helps and assistances of the gospel working in him effectual amendment of life and manners, in expectation of the righteous judgment to come.Clarke.
Rom. 7:24-25. Mans fallen and redeemed life.
I. Mans fallen life.There lived in the course of the last century a great satirist, unhappily a vowed minister of God, who loved to burn out the lines of the pictures which he drew of human nature, as it were, in vitriolic acid. He seemed to delight in exhibiting all the baseness, all the meanness, all the ugliness, all even of the physical repulsiveness, that there is in man. Sometimes he exhibited him under the microscope, sometimes under the magnifier, now on a liliputian scalethe word is his ownnow upon a gigantic scale. Now, whatever mens theological views may be, they shrink from these representations as a libel upon human nature. They will not allow that
Every heart when sifted well
Is but a clod of warmer dust
Mixed with cunning sparks from hell.
There is a view of human nature which is exactly at the opposite pole to this. An eminent statesman, who died not many years ago in advanced old age, surrounded by the love of friends and the gratitude of his country, is reported to have said that we are all born very good. It was an easy, sunny, genial sort of exaggeration, and most people are content to refute it with a significant smile. There is, again, an intermediate view of human nature, which has been very ingeniously illustrated by a living poet. Human nature, he tells us, is like one of those glass balls or tops which may be seen in one of our philosophical toy shops. When it is in a state of quiescence, you can easily distinguish each tintthe bright tint on the one side, and the dark tint on the other side; but when you touch it with your finger and set it off spinning, you become completely perplexed; the darkness is suffused by the brightness, and the brightness is shaded by the darkness, till you do not well know what colour to call it. Something in the same way, in the incessant whirl and motion of this life of ours, men perplex you as to what judgment you shall pass upon them; there is so much goodness in those who seem worst, and so much that is bad in those who seem best. I wish you also to consider for one moment the strange and terrible possibilities of sin which unquestionably lurk in this human nature of ours. A work which was published not many years ago contains what are believed by the initiated to be the actual confessions of an unhappy man of genius. This man in the days of his youth, upon one summer evening, declared positively that he had seen suddenly the shape of a drunken man, runniffg past him at first, then turning to him and looking at him with a terrible glance of hatred. He knelt down for one moment to peruse his features, and then he knew that the form and figure and face which he saw were his ownhis own twenty years laterhis own when the long lines of excess, and lust, and passion, and care, and sickness had been ploughed down into it. Oh, who can measure the possible distance between himself now and himself twenty years hencebetween the innocent babe in the cradle and the haggard and outcast Magdalen under the gaslights of some great citybetween the glorious youth of the poets vision, riding on his winged steed to the castle gates, and the same man in after-life, when his animal nature is worn down to the very stump, a grey and gap-toothed old man, lean as death? Now, if we are asked to explain these terrible possibilities of sin, if we are asked to draw out a general view of human nature which shall harmonise and take up all that there is of truth in these discordant views, then we need but turn, thank God, to our own Bibles; we need but range upon one side those texts which tell us of the image of God that still remains in man through all the ruins of the Fall, and on the other those which tell us that the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and that out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
II. The redeemed life.The redeemed life includes something more than even the forgiveness of sin, blessed though that be. It includes an emancipated will. Mans will, as we have seen, is weak and sick. It is a universal law of our moral life that, when we go and seek for strength by trying to lay our weak will upon a stronger will, strength is almost invariably given. Nay, to seek the strength is to find it. Evermore, when the will is felt to be weakest, we go to the incarnate God by the means which He Himself has appointed; we go to that precious, loving, sympathising Lord; and the language of the poor soul, addressed to Him who has trodden the bitter grapes of our sins in the awful winepress, is practically just this: Thou art whiter than driven snow, immaculate Lamb of God, upon whose pure and perfect human will, upon the perfect will of whose superhuman humanity, all the shadows of temptation could no more leave an impression than the passing shadows upon the pillared alabasterThou art pure, and I come to Thee for strength because Thy will is perfect. I cry unto Thee from the ends of the earth, Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I. Take this weak will of mine and lift it up, and fold it with the unfoldings of that everlasting strength of Thine. May we not read in the light of these great truths the seventh and eighth chapters of St. Pauls Epistle to the Romans? There seem to be three stages in the seventh chapterman before the law, man under the law, man under grace; first, moral insensibility, then moral knowledge without moral power, then the great emancipation. First unconscious ignorance; then comes the law of God: for in the tenth commandment, Thou shalt not covet, the whole intense holiness and spirituality of the law seem to be concentrated, and that sword of God goes on and down, cutting deeper and deeper, until He has cleft and divided into twain on the one hand the decaying, decomposing body of moral and spiritual death, on the other hand the weak and fluttering will; and the last and lowest cry of the fallen life is, O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? while the first blessed cry of the redeemed life is even this, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. It was said now many years ago by a writer who is very unjustly forgotten that history is like a pall covering dead mens bones and all uncleanness, but that it covers them gracefully. So it does. It covers them gracefully enough. How different is it with Gods inspired history! If we had to frame a history which men should suppose to be Gods history, what would be its character? It should be a following on of saints and martyrs to the very throne of God. And yet how different is that divine history which we actually find in the Bible from these surmises! Turn to those chapters which record first the fall of man, then the sin of the whole world. We ask why these these things are there, why they are written. For our instruction. They justify and illustrate the Fall; and they explain that redemption which could only be wrought for sinners by the life and death, by the passion and resurrection, of our incarnate God. Yes, still as we think of the corruption and the fall of man, and of the redemption wrought by Christ, let us look at it as St. Paul looks at it in the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. Have you ever remarked how St. Paul begins there the comparison between the first and Second Adam in slow and measured lines, till, as he goes on, that great spirit of his catches fire, and there are parallel lines of light and darkness, and at last the delicate line of light broadens and deepens, shining more and more unto the perfect day? Yes, Christ our Lord, Christ the Second Adam, Christ in whom there is redemption, Christ into whom we are grafted by the baptism of the Spirit, Christ in whom we live by faithChrist is our redemption.W. Alexander, D.D.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Rom. 7:7-25
Pathology of sin.So ends one of the most profound passages which ever proceeded from the inspired pen of the great apostle. Of its general drift no one can entertain a doubt; it describes the divided unhappy state into which sinful desires bring a man. It is the pathology of sin. It lays bare the symptoms of that inward leprosy, and tells us at last the name of the one Physician that can cure it. And many have imagined that St. Paul has done this by simply describing himself; that we are reading, not a general treatise, but a clinical lecture on a single case; that we are studying the nature of sin from the workings of the apostles own mind. The whole passage from the seventh verse thus becomes an account of what the law was meant to do for the people of God. It was to set a mark upon sin. It was to draw their attention to their own sinfulness. Holy and just and good in itself, it provoked the self-will of those that received it, and became the cause of their fall. But their fall was not meant to be final. It is no doubt a bold figure of speech that one man should speak thus in his own person for the whole race of mankind. Now, first, the consciousness of sin is so far a universal fact of human nature that, if any one of us is without it, it is because of some disease, a defect in his own mind. We know the better way, we choose the worse, and we are ashamed of it; these are three plain facts, which contain all that we contend for. Not those who sorrow for sin are deceiving themselves, but those who deny its existence. The consciousness of sin, then, is universal. And in what does it consist? It is the consciousness of division and strife within a man. His mind is not at peace with itself. First, that the consciousness of sin is not an exceptional state, but is as universal as the knowledge of right and wrong; secondly, that it consists in the feeling of a state of discord and division in the soul, which is represented in Holy Scripture as a war between spirit and flesh, the law of the mind and the law of the members, the soul and the body, the will and the desires; and thirdly, that such a condition must be one of misery, out of which it is natural to try to escape by that door of deliverance opened to us by Christ in His gospel. And all these belong, not to the nature of sin in itself, but only to our consciousness of it. Sin is the transgression of a law. Most of the names for sin in various languages bring out this view of its nature; it is the transgression or over-leaping of a line prescribed; it is the missing of our aim or the falling short of our duty. And so far as we have gone it appears that the consciousness of sin is possible for heathens as for Christians. Conscience is there, if its reproofs are more rare and its sensitiveness less; a higher law of life is there, though far from the highest. It is Cicero, and not a Christian, who speaks these words: There is no conceivable evil that does not beset me; yet all are lighter than the pains of sin, for that, besides being the highest, is eternal. Such words are a comment on those of St. Paul: When the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves. Sin is disobedience to a known law of God. Without the Bible man could never have known why it is that conscience, which often has not the power to prevent sin, still preserves its authority to reprove it. The conscience is all that remains of God in the soul of the fallen man. Man is strong with Gods strength, rich with Gods abundance, intelligent with Gods light, and he was meant to be holy with His holiness. It is a defiance of the present God. It is the provoking to anger of One whose anger is death. And in the Bible this representation of sin overpowers all others. When we add to these passages those in which sin is spoken of as blindness, darkness, ignorance, foolishness, we see that sin is represented, not as something having a real existence, but as a privation of existence, a loss of life which the soul might have had. And a hundred passages might easily be cited from writers of every age to show how deeply this idea has sunk into the Christian mind. We say, to use the words of Origen, that all those who do not live to God are dead, and that their life, being a life of sin, is, so to speak, a life of death. It whispers to itself about the claims of my opinion, my ease, my special talent, my engrossing pleasure; it inclines to appeal from the law of duty to the decision of this selfish I, that is evermore trying to exalt itself into a god. But these selfish behests cannot be obeyed save at the cost of others, and hence we see the deep wisdom which makes our love of our neighbour a test of our condition as towards God. Every sin is an acted lie. It is a breach of an eternal law. It is a pursuit of an empty phantasm instead of real good. If our faculties are too low to know God as He is, at least we can know what He is not. He is not one that can love sin; and all that painful pilgrimage that ended in the cross was to witness to that truth. Sin is abomination to God. See what it needs to purge it away! Keep as your dearest possession the conviction of your guilt; it is the one link within your reach of a chain that hangs down from heaven. It leads you up to confession, to atonement, to reconciliation, to a new life unto righteousness, to a joy unspeakable and full of glory. The folly and restlessness and disappointment of sin are a part of that sore burden which we brought to the foot of the cross, and besought the Redeemer to bear. Sin and grace, says a great English writer, cannot more stand together in their strength than life and death. In remiss degrees all contraries may be lodged together under one roof. St. Paul protests that he dies daily, yet he lives: so the best man sins hourly, even while he obeys; but the powerful and overruling sway of sin is incompatible with the truth of regeneration. The pardon of sin, then, is accompanied by an inward gift; and the nature of this will be evident from what we have learnt of the nature of sin, of which it is the corrective. It was the sense of sin that sent you to the Redeemer; it is a knowledge that a relapse is possible that keeps you by His side. Fight the good fight set before you; count it all joy that you fall into divers temptations. It is your schooling in holiness. You are free from sin; you are no longer its slaves. Christ has made you free, and you shall have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. I had two wills, says Augustine, an old and a new, a carnal and a spiritual, which warred against each other, and by their discord scattered my soul. It is the souls sickness, he says; bowed down by evil custom, it cannot rise up whole and complete when the truth lifts it. It is indeed a wonder. The serpent nature in us, with its head crushed under the heel of the Redeemer, wriggles and defiles, and will not die at once. The corruption in which we were born was great; but the second corruption, of a soul that has known the Lord, is still more terrible. We should watch and pray against the fatal relapse.Archbishop Thomson.
Vain desire to reach the ideal.The deception which was practised by the power of the hitherto slumbering but now rampant sinful desires consisted in this, that when the law in its glory, the moral archetype, first revealed itself to the higher nature of man, he was filled with earnest desire to seize the revealed ideal; but this desire only made him more painfully sensible of the chasm which separated him from the object after which he aspired. Thus what appeared at first a blissful ideal by the guilt of death-producing sin became changed into its opposite.Neander.
Christian conquest over the body.JEREMY TAYLOR (condensed from sermon on the Christian conquest over the body of sinRom. 7:19): The evil natures, principles, and manners of the world are the causes of our imperfect willings and weaker actings in the things of God. Let no man please himself with perpetual pious conversation or ineffective desires of serving God; he that does not practise as well as talk, and do what he desires and ought to do, confesses himself to sin greatly against his conscience; and it is a prodigious folly to think that he is a good man because, though he does sin, it was yet against his mind to do so. Every good man can watch always; running from temptation is part of our watchfulness; every good employment is a second and great part of it; and laying in provisions of reason and religion beforehand is a third part of it; and the conversation of Christians is a fourth part of it.MATTHEW HENRY on Rom. 7:24-25 : When, under the sense of the remaining power of sin and corruption, we shall see reason to bless God through Christ and for Christ. Through Christs death an end will be put to all our complaints, and we shall be wafted to an eternity without sin or sigh. It is a special remedy against fears and sorrows to be much in praise.SCOTT: A proper knowledge of the holy law of God is the two-edged sword which gives the death-wound to self-righteousness and to Antinomianism; for it is perfectly fit to be the rule of our duty, written in our hearts and obeyed in our lives.CLARKE: We never find that true repentance takes place where the moral law is not preached and enforced. The law is the grand instrument, in the hands of a faithful minister, to alarm and awaken sinners; and he may safely show that every sinner is under the law, and consequently under the curse, who has not fled for refuge to the hope held out by the gospel.HODGE: It is an evidence of an unrenewed heart to express or feel opposition to the. law of God, as though it were too strict; or to be disposed to throw the blame of our want of conformity to the divine will from ourselves upon the law as unreasonable. The Christians victory over sin cannot be achieved by the strength of his resolutions, nor by the plainness and force of moral motives, nor by any resources within himself. He looks to Jesus Christ, and conquers in His strength. The victory is not obtained by nature, but by grace.Taken from Lange.
I thank God, etc.As much as to say, Jesus Christ delivers me from this wretchedness and moral death. This was the logical conclusion of the whole chapter. Jesus could do what the law could not accomplishput an end to the internal insurrection. But in exalting Christianity to the first place, we must remember that the law occupies the second place, and that it was a good schoolmaster to bring men to Christ. The chief scope of the law was conscience; the gospel came to include in its ample culture the heart, with all its boundless affections and aspirations. The last clause is but an enumeration of what had been expressed before. There are three principal forces or creators of character which at different periods have engaged the attention of mankind. They are all good, and there is need of them all to keep the whole man sound and morally healthy and growing; but the error has been that too exclusive devotion has been given to one, and the others have been neglected. These three are: wisdom, which answers to the mind; law, which refers to the conscience; and faith, which appeals to the heart. The three most eminent civilisations or refinements of human society have been based upon these three ideas: the Grecian upon wisdom, the Hebrew upon law, and the Christian upon faith; but the greatest of these is faith.Livermore.
Comfort for weak Christians.So ends this chapter, concerning which there has been much dispute. For some have contended that the apostle does not here speak of himself, but personates another. They suppose that he refers to a Jew, under the law, but not under grace; awakened, but not renewed; convinced, but not converted. Yet can any unregenerate person with truth say, not only I consent to the law that it is good, but With my mind I serve the law of God? and I delight in the law of God after the inward man?an expression of godliness that characterised the very temper of the Messiah Himself. He could say nothing more than this, I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy law is within My heart. At first view the language of complaint may seem much too strong to apply to the experience of a real Christian. But what real Christian would find it too much to utter when placed in the same state and occupied in the same way with the apostle? This chapter has been much perverted. There is no part of the Bible that Antinomians so much delight in, or which ungodly men who turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness so often quote. Such persons wrest also the other scriptures to their own destruction. And are we to argue against the use of a tiling from the abuse of it? What good thing is not abused? We do not refuse raiment to the naked because there are some who glory in what ought to remind us of our shame; nor food to the hungry because some make a god of their belly. And shall we refuse to sincere and humble souls mourning over the evils of their own heart the instruction and consolation here provided for them for fear the interpretation should be applied to an improper purpose? No one really taught of God will abuse it, nor can he be more reconciled to his corruptions or more satisfied with his deficiencies in consequence of being able to adopt the language as his own. For shall they continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! How can they who are dead to sin live any longer therein? We are not to make sad the hearts of Gods people, but to comfort them; for the joy of the Lord is their strength. And only the last day will show how much this section of Scripture has strengthened the weak hands and confirmed the feeble knees of those who were deeming their experience peculiar, and concluding that they had no part with the Israel of God till they heard Paul bewailing and encouraging himself thus: For to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 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.W. Jay.
Similar language by heathen writers.It has been objected that the language of this section is inapplicable to men not yet justified. But we find similar language on the lips of Greek and Roman pagans. Compare SenecasLetters, 52: What is it that draws us in one direction while striving to go in another, and impels us towards that which we wish to avoid? Euripides, Hippolytais, 379: We understand and know the good things, but we do not work them out. Xenophon, Cyropdia, VI. 1:41: I have evidently two souls, for if I had only one it would not be at the same time good and bad, nor would it desire at the same time both honourable and dishonourable works, nor would it at the same time both wish and not wish to do the same things. But it is evident that there are two souls, and that when the good one is in power the honourable things are practised, but when the bad the dishonourable things are attempted. Euripides, Medea, 1078: I know what sort of bad things I am going to do, but passion is stronger than my purposes. And this is to mortals a cause of very great evils. Ovid, Metamorphoses, 17:17: I desire one thing, the mind persuades another; I see and approve better things, I follow worse things. I do not say that these passages teach the great truth to prove which Paul quotes his own experience. Nor do they mention the law of God. But they prove that in many cases men are carried along against their better judgment to do bad things. From this Paul inferred that an inward but foreign power was the real author of his actions. And these passages also prove that even in pagans there is an inward man which approves what Gods law approves. Paul does not say here that the law gives him pleasure, but that what God wrote on the tables of stone He also wrote in Pauls mind.Beet.
Sensible of moral delinquencies.
1. From this passage it may be remarked that those who consider the law of God only carelessly and superficially are apt to imagine that their conduct approaches so near to a conformity with it as to give them good cause to hope for divine favour? This is a very delusive mistake; for, unless we are properly sensible of our moral deficiency, what motive can we have to endeavour to amend our errors? To escape from this delusion we ought to contemplate the divine law in all its extent and in all its inflexible requirements, that, seeing how unspeakably we come short of our duty, we may rest all our hope of justification on that atonement which Christ hath made for the sins of the world.
2. When we contemplate our own utter inability to yield a perfect obedience to the divine law, let us not blame the law of God as if it were too pure and perfect for such frail creatures as we are. The law is holy and just and good. It is calculated, with unerring wisdom, for promoting the best interests of man. The fault lies solely in the degeneracy of our nature, a degeneracy which we have brought upon ourselves, and for which therefore the law of God is not answerable. Surely we cannot expect, because we have debased our nature so as to be unable to act up to the purity of the divine law, that the law of God should be debased also to adapt itself to our imperfect nature.
3. When we find how very imperfect our best endeavours are to keep ourselves from sin, let us give glory to God that in His infinite mercy He hath provided an atonement by means of which sin may be forgiven; and let it ever be our study to live as becomes those who are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, that so we may have the reasonable hope of obtaining at last an inheritance among them that are sanctified.Ritchie.
Law cannot sanctify.But what follows from all this? Just what the writer set out to prove: viz.,
1. That the law of God, which has reason and conscience on its side, is not to be accused as being the efficient cause of sin; but that the indulgence of the sinners own evil passions is the direct cause of his guilt and misery.
2. That the law, with all its holiness and justice and goodness, and even with reason and conscience on its side, is unable to control the person who is yet under it and is destitute of the grace of the gospel. From all this follows the grand deduction which the apostle intends to makeviz., that we must be under grace, in order to subdue our sinful passions and desires. In other words, Christ is our as well as our . And now, at the close of this whole representation, we may well ask: What stronger proof could the apostle produce than that which he has brought forward in order to show that the law is ineffectual as the means of subduing the power of sin and of sanctifying sinners? The law, with all its terrors and strictness, even when reason and conscience are on its side, cannot deliver . On the contrary, its very restraints are the occasion of the sinners guilt being aggravated, because his passions are excited by them to more vehement opposition. Does not all this fully and satisfactorily establish the assertion implied in Rom. 7:5 : , ? And yet with what admirable caution and prudence is the whole of this nice and difficult discussion conducted! The law stands fully vindicated. Even the sinner himself, who abuses it to his own aggravated guilt and ruin, is obliged to concede that it is holy and just and good. But with all its excellence and glory, with all its promise and threatenings, it never did and never can redeem one soul from death, nor hide a multitude of sins. Christ is, after all, our only and all-sufficient Saviour; His is the only name given under heaven among men whereby we can be saved. He is our wisdom, our justification, our sanctification, and our redemption. What then becomes of all the vain and selfish hopes of the legalist? The apostle has scattered them to the winds, and showed that no man can come unto the Father except by the Son. That there is, after all, adequate help for the poor perishing sinner the apostle next proceeds to show. What the law could not accomplish Christ has effected. That control over the carnal passions and desires, which no legal penalties and no remonstrances of reason and conscience would give to him, the grace of the Holy Spirit, given through the gospel, does impart. No longer does he live to the flesh; no more does sin have a habitual and supreme control over him. Such is the happy state to which the perishing sinner comes by being brought ; and this, he has abundant assurance, will be a permanent statei.e., his grace will be crowned with glory.Stuart.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 7
Rom. 7:22-23. The law of sin.The Rev. William Johnston, missionary in Africa, gives the following account: One woman was much distressed, and wept, and said that she had two hearts, which troubled her so much that she did not know what to do. One was the new heart, that told her all things that she had ever been doing. The same heart told her she must go to Jesus Christ and tell Him all her sins, as she had heard at church. But her old heart told her, Never mind; God no save black man, but white man. How know He died for black man? New heart said, Go cry to Him and ask. Old heart tell me do my work first, fetch water, make fire, wash, and then go pray. When work done then me forget to pray. I dont know what I do. I read to her the seventh chapter to the Romans, and showed that the apostle Paul felt the same things, and spoke of two principles in man. When I came to the verse O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? she said, Ah, massa, that me; me no know what to do. I added the words of St. Paul, I thank God through Jesus Christ, and explained to her the love of Christhow He died for sinners like her. she burst into tears; and has continued ever since, so far as I know, to follow her Saviour.
Rom. 7:23. A wavering will.
Oh, how my will is hurried to and fro,
And how my unresolved resolves do vary!
I know not where to fix: sometimes I go
This way, then that, and then the quite contrary;
I like, dislike; lament for what I could not;
I do, undo; yet still do what I should not,
And, at the selfsame instant, will the thing I would not.
Thus are my weather-beaten thoughts opprest
With th earth-bred winds of my prodigious will;
Thus am I hourly tost from east to west
Upon the rolling streams of good and ill;
Thus am I driven upon the slippry suds
From real ills to false apparent goods:
My lifes a troubled sea, composed of ebbs and floods.
I know the nature of my wavring mind;
I know the frailty of my fleshly will;
My passions eagle-eyd, my judgment blind;
I know whats good, and yet make choice of ill.
When the ostrich wings of my desires shall be
So dull, they cannot mount the least degree,
Yet grant my sole desire, that of desiring
Thee.Quarles Emblems.
Rom. 7:23. St. Bern., Med. IX.My heart is a vain heart, a vagabond and instable heart; while it is led by its own judgment, and wanting divine counsel, cannot subsist in itself; and whilst it divers ways seeketh rest, findeth none, but remaineth miserable through labour, and void of peace: it agreeth not with itself, it dissenteth from itself; it altereth resolutions, changeth the judgment, frameth new thoughts, pulleth down the old, and buildeth them up again; it willeth and willeth not, and never remaineth in the same state.
Rom. 7:23. St. August., De Verb. Apost.When it would, it cannot; because when it might, it would not: therefore by an evil will man lost his good power.
Rom. 7:24. The dead body and the living man.It is commonly supposed that here is a reference to a cruel usage sometimes practised by the tyrants of antiquity, and which is mentioned by Virgil and Cicero and Valerius Maximus. It consisted in fastening a dead carcass to a living man. Now suppose a dead body bound to your body, its hands to your hands, its face to your face, its lips to your lips! Here is not only a burden, but an offence. You cannot separate yourself from your hated companion. You cannot breathe without inhaling a kind of pestilence, and Oh! you would say, oh how slowly the parts corrupt and fall off! Oh, how can I longer endure it? When shall I be free! O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death! This is very strong. Yet it comes not up to Pauls case. He is speaking of such a wretchedness, not without him, but within.
Rom. 7:25. Victory through Christ.There is an affecting passage in Roman history which records the death of Manlius. At night, on the Capitol, he had expelled the Gauls and saved the city when all seemed lost. Afterwards he was accused, but the Capitol towered in sight of the Forum, where he was tried, and he pointed, weeping, to the scene of his triumph. At this the people burst into tears, and the judge could not pronounce sentence until they had removed Manlius to a low spot from which the Capitol was invisible. What the Capitol was to Manlius, the cross of Christ is to the Christian. While that is in view in vain will earth and sin seek to shake the Christians devotionone look at that monument of a love which interposed for our rescue when all was dark and lost, and their efforts will be baffled.Clerical Library.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(14) For we know.There is no need to argue the question. We Christians all know that the Law is spiritual. It is divinely given and inspired. On the other hand, man, though capable of communion with God, is dominated by that part of his nature which is the direct opposite of divine, and is entirely earthly and sensual. This sensual part of his nature is the slaveand just as much the slave as if he had been sold in the auction martof Sin. (Comp. 1Ki. 21:20; 1Ki. 21:25.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(14-25) Further and detailed proof why it was that though the Law appealed to all that was best in man, still he could not obey it.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. Spiritual The law is not only to be vindicated but extolled, and extolled not only by the good, but even by the man whom it condemns.
Carnal That is, in the flesh, (Rom 7:5,) that is, unregenerate.
Sold under sin Not merely under the dominion of sin, (Rom 6:14,) although that is the sure and infallible characteristic of the unregenerate. The low regenerate state has sin rebellious within, the higher life has nature under foot; but though sin may win many masteries, it never holds permanent dominion over the regenerate man, for then he ceases to be regenerate. But this man is worse still, sold under sin, not only a subject but a slave. And it is not the base I, the lower self, but the higher I that utters this awful plaint. Reducing the hyperbole as much as we reasonably can, it is absolutely inadmissible to predicate this in any case of a regenerate man.
Dr. Hodge expresses the opinion that such is the ordinary language of Christian experience. It is so only, we reply, in accordance with and in consequence of a theological teaching that requires it. No such language, either doctrinal or practical, is found in the Christian writings of the first three centuries. Under such doctrinal instruction language of a hyperbolical “voluntary humility” is sometimes habitually uttered, utterly factitious in its character. This practice of factitious self-invective, both in language and cultivated thought, is repressive of the higher emotions of Christian life, and produces a dry, hard, and ungenial style of piety. it often produces in revivals also not a winning, but a menacing tone of preaching; and in the religious tone that results, much that is severe and unlovely.
Dr. Hodge is surprised that Tholuck should approve the declaration of Dr. Adam Clarke that the Augustinian interpretation of this passage tends to lower the Christian standard. He avers that Calvinists, who prefer this interpretation, may safely claim a superior piety over Socinians and Arminians, who take the reverse view. The so-called Arminian view, we again reply, was held in the earliest and best days of the Church. Nor do those who coincide with Mr. Wesley in this interpretation shrink from Dr. Hodge’s comparison as to piety; or hesitate the declaration that the spirit in which they read this passage, carried out in all directions, is the source of a large part of their spiritual life, joy, and efficiency. Oblige them to feel that this and cognate passages are a true view of Christian life, and their whole frame of piety would receive a lowering cheek.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am fleshly, sold under sin.’
If we consider the passage from Rom 7:14 to Rom 8:4 we discover an interesting fact. It commences with ‘we’ and then immediately moves into ‘I, me’, and with the exception of ‘our’ in Rom 7:25 (easily explicable in a phrase which is commonly found throughout the letter). The use of ‘I, me’ then continues until Rom 8:2 with the passage finishing in Rom 8:4 with ‘us’. Thus ‘we’ and ‘us’ form an inclusio for the passage, which is on the whole based on Paul’s personal experience. And it commences with the idea that the Law is ‘spiritual’ (pneumatikos) and ends with that same Law being fulfilled by those who walk after the Spirit (Rom 8:4). In between, however, is a vivid description of times when the ‘fleshly’ part of the Christian comes out on top.
Paul begins by defining the problem, and at the same time exalting the Law. The problem lies in the fact that the Law is ‘spiritual’ (of the Spirit), and its commands thus cater to what is truly spiritual. It is too high in its standards for fleshly man. It assumes a perfect man. The wholly spiritual man, if such existed, would no doubt have no problem with it. Indeed, we have one such example in Jesus Christ Himself. And those who come nearest to fulfilling it are spiritual Christians (Rom 2:29; Rom 8:4). It is intended for those who ‘walk by the Spirit’ all the time. No doubt the angels in Heaven would not have found it too difficult to observe due to their spiritual natures, but that is not true of us. For men, even the best of men, are not wholly spiritual (pneumatikos). On the contrary, they are ‘fleshly’ (carnal), something which from time to time reveals itself.
Thus our flesh rebels against obedience to the Law. Whilst with our minds we want to fight our flesh, we at times find ourselves giving way, defeated by sin which takes advantage of our fleshly disposition. Our ‘flesh’ (Rom 7:18) provides a place from which sin can launch its attacks. Thus ‘as we are in ourselves in our fleshliness’ we as Christians are at times the unwilling slaves of sin, sold under sin against our will. We at times serve the principle of sin, albeit reluctantly. We may have been redeemed (Rom 3:24), but that, though real, and resulting in a genuine spiritual experience (Rom 6:1 to Rom 7:6), is not always effective in outward living, precisely because of the flesh. The fleshly side of man (and the context suggests that fleshly must signify sinful weakness) is still contrary to what is spiritual. This is as true for the Christian as the non-Christian. That is why there is such a struggle between flesh and spirit in the Christian, a struggle described in Gal 5:16 onwards. It arises because the Christian is fleshly as well as being spiritual. Sin still seeks to bring him into subjection. He is still in that sense ‘under sin’. That is why it must therefore be ‘put to death’.
In this regard we should note that the statement is in the first person, and is in the present tense, ‘I am fleshly.’ Paul does not exclude himself from those who by nature have a ‘fleshly disposition’. Indeed he thrusts himself forward as such. None among men (save the One Who was supernaturally born) can be excluded. It is the very nature of man. And that it refers to Paul’s present state would also appear to be confirmed by the following verses, also in the present tense, and also in terms of ‘I’. Those who see what follows as the description of unregenerate men, or as representing the Jews, have to find some explanation for some of these clear declarations in the first person singular and in the present tense, (note especially the ‘I myself’ of Rom 7:25, and the heart cry of Rom 7:24) and we know of none that is satisfactory. Such interpreters have to invent something which is not in the text, and is certainly not apparent from it. But what they cannot do is see them as meaning what they say, that is, as Paul referring to his present state, even though on the face of them that is what they do, and would certainly appear as doing so to the hearer.
The problem lies in thinking that Paul was referring to gross sins. But once we recognise that he has in mind spiritual sins, of failure to be totally Christlike, we recognise that he was conscious of, and convicted by, things which we would not even call sins. His conscience was highly attuned.
Our view therefore is that Paul is referring to himself as having the fleshly disposition that is common to man, a fleshly disposition which has to be brought into subjection by the Spirit (Rom 8:2; Gal 5:16 onwards), and which is still subject to sin, even though from the point of view of acceptability with God we can count it as ‘dead’. That this is so would seem to be confirmed by the experiences which follow which are all the common lot of Christians whenever they allow ‘the flesh’ to prevail.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Law Which Was Spiritual Was Limited By The Fleshliness Of Men (Including Christians) Whose Desires Often Caused Them To Do What Was Bad Rather Than What Was Good (7:14-8:4).
When looking at this passage we have to see it in the context of the whole letter. We must ask, is it just a parenthesis, or is it part of a constructive, ongoing presentation? Chapter 6 has dealt with our oneness in Christ in relation to dying to sin and living with Him, resulting in our need to be yielded to righteousness. Rom 7:1-6 has demonstrated that we have died to the Law as an accusatory agent and have been conjoined with Christ. Together they seem to have made the Christian life so straightforward. But as they heard it read many Christians would have found that their lives did not measure up to this high standard, and there might have been the danger that they may be caused to lose faith through it. It was therefore necessary to introduce a counterbalance in order to indicate that in practise sin within still had to be coped with at times, even though for the Christian triumph was available through Jesus Christ our LORD (Rom 7:25) and through the powerful work of the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:2-12). Rom 7:14 to Rom 8:4 thus enables the oft-times struggling Christian to recognise that his repeated failures, occurring alongside his successes, do not disqualify him from being a child of God. They are rather a sign of the fleshliness still within him. Most Christians who live in trying circumstances or in spheres of great temptation know this experience only too well. It is therefore perfectly consistent with Paul’s theme that this chapter deals with failures at times in the Christian’s struggle to die to sin in practise, preparatory to announcing the grounds on which he can overall have confidence for the future, and the way that he can achieve an overall victory. Indeed chapter 8 demands something like chapter 7 in order to highlight the importance of the work of the Spirit in overcoming the flesh, whilst at the same time acknowledging that there may at times be periods of failure.
So while the experience described below is in one sense the experience of all men, as all men struggle with conscience and often fail, it would appear to have in mind especially the Christian (that is why it is placed here), for it is only the Christian who ‘delights in the Law of God after the inward man’ and who ‘serves the law of God with his mind’ (Rom 8:25; Rom 8:27). To the Jew the Law was a burden heavy to be borne (Act 15:10). It is the Christian who delights in God’s Law even though he often fails to fulfil it. He wills to do good, even though he often does not do it. And it was clearly Paul’s experience too, as the use of the first person singular implies. Furthermore it is only the Christian who seriously wars against the law of sin, finding himself taken captive by it (Rom 7:25) until he is delivered by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:2). Non-Christians have ‘the mind of the flesh’ even if they do have struggles with conscience. They fulfil ‘the desires of the flesh and of the mind’ (Eph 2:3). Thus their mind does not war with their flesh. Their motives are always carnal.
But can we really see Paul as living what appears at first sight to be such a defeated life? The answer is probably both yes and no. Initially, of course, we have to recognise what he is saying. There are two possibilities:
1) That he is describing times of failure in his life, which distressed him greatly without saying that they occur all the time. That would mean that we are not to see what is being described as, in its fullest sense, a picture of the totality of his everyday life (or indeed that of anyone). Rather it would indicate that he is describing what happens during times of special temptation (for no one is like this all the time, not even the non-Christian). He is describing what he would be like if it were not for the work of the Spirit, and what he is sometimes like even as it is.
2) That he is speaking as one who has recognised the truth about himself, that his whole life came short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). Being so close to God his conscience would have been very discerning. As Jesus had indicated, the glory of God is especially reflected on earth in loving God with heart, soul, mind and strength, and in loving one’s neighbour as oneself (Mat 22:37; Luk 10:27). And even Paul would recognise that this was something to which he never quite attained because of the fleshliness within him. Love God as he did, he recognised that he continually came short of the ideal. Love his neighbour as he did he recognised that he sometimes fell short. What Paul was concerned about might be something that does not concern us too much, simply because we are involved in other sins which are taking up our attention, but to someone who had attained a special closeness to God they would have been seen as heinous.
We should note that Paul does not spell out any particular sin in spite of the fact that he had done this in Rom 7:7-13. He wants his hearers to read into his words their own sins. What troubled him may not have troubled them, and vice versa. And he may also be reflecting on earlier days. As with us all, when Paul began his Christian life he may well have been subject to the constant trouble and defeats of one or two of the grosser sins, and there were no doubt times in his later life when he might have appeared to himself, if not to others, to have relapsed with regard to them, in his thoughts if not in his actions. While others may have witnessed an exemplary life, he may well have been conscious of battles within of which they knew nothing. But later in his life the sins of which he would have been most aware may not have been what we see as the grosser sins, but may well have been those which related to his own heavy responsibilities in Christ, a sense which would come upon him of not always having done what he could have done. His sense of what was sin (coming short of the glory of God) would be highly tuned. That was no doubt why towards the end of his life he could speak of ‘sinners, of whom I am chief’ (1Ti 1:15). As sin battles within us we are all at times on the edge of such defeats, indeed we all constantly ‘come short of the glory of God’. For who can even conceive of such a standard?.
For as we are in ourselves this passage does describe what life would be more obviously like if we did not have the Spirit active along with us, and indeed it still is like this for most of us some of the time. So Paul deals with this aspect of his life, partly in order to encourage the weak, and partly in order to illustrate the spirituality of the Law, which even he finds himself unable at times to keep. But thankfully Paul then launches into the overall remedy. Victory is attainable through Jesus Christ our LORD, as the law of the mind triumphs over the law of the flesh (Rom 7:25), even though sin is still active; and it is obtainable by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus which sets us free from the law of sin and death (Rom 8:2); with the full explanation of that victory through the power of the Holy Spirit being then described in Rom 8:3-17. So it is very probable that we are to see in this description in Rom 7:14-23 a deliberate portrayal of the human side of the Christian’s battle for victory over sin, which sometimes breaks through in the way described, but which is supplemented by the activity of God through the Spirit, which then transforms the whole situation. And that this is so is confirmed by Rom 7:25 where even the intervention of Jesus Christ our LORD still leaves the person with the struggle between mind and sin , ‘with the mind I serve the Law of God, and with the flesh the law of Sin’.
But having said all that we also need to recognise that the truth is that because of our fleshliness we do all sin all the time. How many can say that they love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength all the time? We may at times in periods of high exaltation feel that we do so, but even then it is very questionable. We do not know what such love is capable of. But the truth is that we do constantly come short of the glory of God, and the ‘practical sins’ about which these verses speak arise out of our failure in this central issue.
It cannot, however, be denied that some of the arguments for seeing these verses as referring to unregenerate men are fairly strong. They have convinced many. And those arguments are partly based on expressions which would appear to be inconsistent with a reference to someone who was regenerate. Thus, for example, the person being spoken of is described as ‘sold under sin’ (Rom 7:14). And the question is asked, could such an expression be used of a person who in Christ had died to sin (Rom 6:2) and was therefore no longer ‘under sin’, one who was now ‘free from sin’ (Rom 6:18) and was no longer a slave to sin.
We have, however, to remember in this regard that such statements as the latter depict a theological position. They are not literally true in experience. They have to be ‘reckoned on’ by faith (Rom 6:11), whilst here Paul is speaking of individual practical experience. While theologically we have died to sin, and are no longer ‘under sin’, and as such are dead in the sight of God, it is not always so practically. All of us experience present sin (even perfectionists if they remember that to come short of the glory of God is to sin) and find ourselves acting as servants of sin, not because we are willing servants, but because we find that we do not have the power to resist. At such times we can truly cry out, ‘I am carnal, sold under sin’. Our slavery is an unwilling one. But the unregenerate man is not ‘sold under sin’. He willingly presents his body to sin in order to be its slave (Rom 6:13). He willingly presents himself to sin, not to obedience (Rom 6:16). He may live respectably in order to soothe his conscience and satisfy his pride, but he still resists yielding to God. His whole life is thus carnal. It is the true believer who constantly fights against sin, even though he can regularly find himself defeated. He is not a willing slave. He is ‘sold under it’, a captive taken by force. He knows that he ‘has sin’, he does not deceive himself (1Jn 1:8). But he thanks God that he always has a way of cleansing and forgiveness (1Jn 1:7; 1Jn 1:9).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Rom 7:14. But I am carnal The Apostle is here demonstrating the insufficiency of the law, in opposition to the Gospel; but if by I he meant himself, or any other person whohad embraced the Gospel, then his argument would prove the insufficiency of the Gospel, as well as of the law. The verse may be paraphrased thus: “For we all are agreed that the law is spiritual, requiring actions pure and rational, and quite opposite to those which our carnal affections dictate. But I, the sinner, am carnal, under the dominion of sensual appetite and the habits of sin, and for that reason condemned by the law: the fault is not in the law, but in me the sinner, as appearshence;that which I do, I allow not,” &c. Sold under sin, implies a willing slavery, as Ahab had sold himself to work evil, 1Ki 21:20 and the Jews, Isa 50:1. Ye have sold yourselves to your iniquities: he does not mean that the sinner is forced to sin. Buying and selling are often used metaphorically in Scripture; where we are said to buy, when we diligently use the proper means to gain knowledge and good habits; and to sell, when we neglect and abandon ourselves to ignorance and vice. See Isa 55:1; Isa 55:3. Pro 23:23. Mat 13:45-46. Rev 3:18. Deu 32:30.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rom 7:14 . ] . , Chrysostom. Comp. Rom 2:2 , Rom 3:19 . It is not to be written (Jerome, Estius, Semler, Koppe, Flatt, Reiche, Hofmann, Th. Schott), since the following would only correspond logically with the , if Paul, with a view to contrast the character of the law with his own character (so Hofmann), had said: , . . .; or, in case he had desired to contrast his character with his knowledge (so Schott): . . ., , or , omitting the , which is the antithesis of the .
] obtains its definition through the contrasted . Now is the material phenomenal nature of man opposed to the divine , animated and determined by the (comp. on Rom 4:1 , Rom 6:19 ), and consequently ( of flesh ) affirms of the , that it is of such a non-pneumatic nature and quality. So must affirm regarding the law, that its essence (not the form in which it is given, according to which it appears as ) is divine = spiritual: its essential and characteristic quality is homogeneous with that of the Holy Spirit, who has made Himself known in the law. For believers no proof of this was needed ( ), because the , as , must be a holy self-revelation of the Divine Spirit; comp. Rom 7:12 ; Act 7:38 . In consequence of this pneumatic nature the law is certainly (Chrysostom), and its tenor, rooting in the Divine Spirit, is only fulfilled by those who have the (Tholuck, with Calovius, joining together different references), as indeed the necessary presupposition is that it (Theodoret), and the consequence necessarily bound up with its spiritual nature is that there subsists no affinity between the law and death (Hofmann); but all this is not conveyed by the word itself, any more than is the impossibility of fulfilling the law’s demands, based on its pneumatic nature (Calvin: “Lex coelestem quandam et angelicam justitiam requirit”). Following Oecumenius 2, and Beza, others (including Reiche, Kllner, and de Wette) have taken of the higher spiritual nature of man (Rom 1:9 ; Mat 26:41 ), and hence have, according to this reference, explained very variously. E.g. Reiche: “in so far as it does not hinder, but promotes, the development and expression of the ;” de Wette: “of spiritual tenor and character, in virtue of which it puts forward demands which can only be understood and fulfilled by the spiritual nature of man.” So too, substantially, Rckert. But Rom 7:22 ; Rom 7:25 show that characterizes the law as ; consequently the is just the divine , which the natural man, who knows and has nothing of the Spirit of God, resists in virtue of the heterogeneous tendency of his .
] but I, i.e. according to the pervading the entire section: the man, not yet regenerate by the Holy Spirit, in his relation to the Mosaic law given to him , the still unredeemed , who, in the deep distress that oppresses him in the presence of the law, Rom 7:24 , sighs after redemption. For the subject is in Rom 7:14-25 necessarily the same and that, indeed, in its unredeemed condition as previously gave its psychological history prior to and under the law (hence the preterites in Rom 7:7-13 ), and now depicts its position confronting ( ) the pneumatic nature of the law (hence the presents in Rom 7:14 ff.), in order to convey the information ( ), that not the law, but the principle of sin mighty in man himself, has prepared death for him. It is true the situation, which the apostle thus exhibits in his own representative Ego, was for himself as an individual one long since past; but he realizes it as present and places it before the eyes like a picture, in which the standpoint of the happier present in which he now finds himself renders possible the perspective that lends to every feature of his portrait the light of clearness and truth.
, made of flesh , consisting of flesh, 2Co 3:3 ; 1Co 3:1 ; comp. Plat. Leg . x. p. 906 C; Theocrit. xxi. 66; LXX. 2Ch 32:8 ; Eze 11:19 ; Eze 36:26 ; Addit. Est 4:8 : . The signification fleshy , corpulentus, Polyb. xxxix. 2. 7, is here out of place. It is not equivalent to the qualitative , fleshly , (see Tittmann’s Synon . p. 23), that is, affected with the quality that is determined by the . The , as the expression of the substance, is far stronger; and while not including the negation of the moral will in man (see Rom 7:15 ff., Rom 7:15 ; Rom 7:22 ; Rom 7:25 ), indicates the that unspiritual, material, phenomenal nature of man, serving by way of vehicle for sin as the element of his being which so preponderates and renders the moral will fruitless, that the apostle, transporting himself into his pre-Christian state, cannot in the mirror of this deeply earnest, and just as real as it was painful, self-contemplation set forth the moral nature of the natural man otherwise than by the collective judgment, I am of flesh; the , my substantial element of being, prevails on me to such an extent that the predicate made of flesh cleaves to me as if to a nature consisting of mere . This is the Pauline (Joh 3:6 ). The Pauline . follows in chap. 8. Since the is the seat of the sin-principle (see Rom 7:18 , comp. Rom 7:23 ), there is connected with the also the ., sold , as a slave, under the (dominion of) sin, i.e. as completely dependent on the power of the sin-principle as is a serf on the master to whom he is sold: , Theodore of Mopsuestia. Comp. 1Ki 21:20 ; 1Ki 21:25 ; 2Ki 17:17 ; 1Ma 1:15 . The passive sense of . finds its elucidation in Rom 7:23 . , in Greek authors (Soph. Tr . 251; Dem. 1304. 8; Lucian, Asin . 32) with (comp. also Lev 25:39 ; Deu 28:68 ; Isa 50:1 ; Bar 4:6 ), is here coupled with (comp. Gal 4:3 ) for the more forcible indication of the relation. Compare 1Sa 23:7 ; Jdt 7:25 ; and on the matter itself, Seneca, de brev. vit . 3.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Rom 7:14-25 . Proof not merely of the foregoing telic sentence (Th. Schott), but of the weighty main thought . “For the law is spiritual, but man (in his natural situation under the law, out of Christ) is of flesh and placed under the power of sin; against the moral will of his better self, he is carried away to evil by the power of the sinful principle dwelling in him.”
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
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. (16) If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. (17) Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. (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. (19) For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. (20) Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. (21) I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. (22) For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: (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. (24) O 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.
I have not interrupted the Reader with making observations as we have passed through those verses, for they are too plain to need any; but in the close, I would now gather the whole into one view, and ask, if there can be a more humiliating account given of human nature, than what the Apostle hath here opened of himself? Let the Reader notice the strength of the expressions, sold under sin; consenting unto the law that it is good, but in the same moment acting in direct opposition to it; delighting in the law of God after the inward man, but with the flesh serving the law of sin. Some have thought, (that is, such as were never taught, as Paul was, the plague of their own heart), that the Apostle could not be speaking of himself, but of some other person : or, if of himself, that he referred back to the days of his unregeneracy. But, nothing can be more plain, than that it is Paul’s own history he writes, and his own experience in the very moment of writing; and which the Holy Ghost taught him to instruct the Church concerning. And sure I am, that every child of God, savingly called of God, and long taught of God, as Paul was when he thus committed to writing what daily passed in his heart, will not only bear testimony to the same; but bless God the Holy Ghost for the history, for it is most precious.
Let any, yea, let every child of God, in whose spirit the Holy Ghost bears witness that he is born of God, examine what passeth daily in the workings of his own breast, and see whether be is not conscious, as Paul was, of the two different principles by which he is directed. The I, the Apostle speaks of, that is, the unrenewed body of sin and death, which is carnal, and sold under sin: and the I, that is the inner man, which is regenerated and renewed day by day! Surely there is not a man alive, truly born of God, and savingly called by the Holy Ghost, but must be conscious of those two distinct and opposite principles in himself. And indeed the Holy Ghost hath taught the Church to judge of his Almighty work of regeneration, by this very conflict between nature and grace, between flesh and spirit. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would, Gal 5:17 . So far is this statement the Apostle hath made of himself to be supposed as referring to the days of his unregeneracy, that until he was regenerate he had no consciousness of any warfare, neither indeed was there in his life, or can there be in any man’s life, while remaining in the state of an unawakened nature. Paul saith himself in this very Chapter, that he was alive once, before the commandment came in this convincing light in which he saw it by regeneration. It was then only, when brought under the teachings of God the Spirit, that the commandment came, and all Paul’s self-righteousness fell to the ground!
Pause, Reader! and take a leisurely review of the whole. Here is the great Apostle Paul, mourning and groaning over a body of sin and death; in which he declares, dwelt no good thing. He had been savingly converted, and miraculously called by the Lord himself before this, for more than twenty years. He had, during that time, been caught up to the third heaven, and heard unspeakable words, 2Co 12:2 . He had been called by Christ, as a chosen vessel, to bear the Lord’s name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel, Act 9:15 . And he had been especially ordained to the ministry by the Holy Ghost, Act 8:2 . Such was the man, whose history we have been reading in this Chapter. And what is the sum and substance to be gathered from the whole under divine teaching, but this: (and which most plainly the Lord the Spirit’ designed for the instruction of the Church from it:) all the Lord’s people, after all their attainments, are in themselves nothing. In the Lord alone have we righteousness and strength! It is very blessed to learn our own nothingness, that we may the better know how to value Christ’s all-sufficiency!
We must not conclude our view of the Apostle here, without first noticing the lamentable cry he put up, in the contemplation of his sinful nature. Oh! wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? He did not thus exclaim, as if at the time unconscious how, or by whom, he should be delivered from it. For he immediately adds, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And long before this, he had told the Churches of his safety in Christ. He knew whom he had believed. His hope in Christ was blessed. His crown of righteousness was always in prospect before him, Phi 1:20-21 ; Tit 2:13 ; 2Ti 4:6-8 . But, while he was perfectly assured of his everlasting safety in Christ, he could not but daily mourn under the remains of in-dwelling corruption, which followed him as the shadow doth the substance. There is a great beauty in the Apostle’s expression, in calling sin the body of this death, if it be as hath been said, that Paul then writing as he did to the Romans, alluded to a well-known custom among that people, who in cases of murder, punished the murderer by fastening the body of the person he had killed to his own; so that he was compelled to drag it about with him wherever he went. It lay down with him, and he raised it with him when he arose: so that it haunted his guilty conscience, and poisoned the air he breathed, by day and night. And such is the case of sin. For, every sinner is a soul-murderer, for he hath by sin destroyed himself. Hos 13:9 . And, when God the Spirit hath convinced of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, every child of God, made thoroughly acquainted, as Paul was, with the plague of his own heart, is conscious of carrying about with him a body of death; and, from the breakings forth of sin in the unrenewed part, is haunted daily with the spectre of his own creating, and in breathing the effluvia of his own corruption. And although, like Paul, he knows his deliverance to be com pleat in Christ; yet while he remains in the present time-state of the Church, he groans under the burden of a body of sin, which will never cease under one form or other, manifesting forth its in-bred evil, until it drops into the dust. Reader! these are blessed discoveries, however humiliating. They do indeed damp the pride of the Pharisee, and contradict the doctrine of what some men teach, but no man ever found in his own heart inherent holiness. But they endear Christ. They preach daily the necessity of coming to him the last hour of the believer’s life, as he came the first hour of his conversion. They prove, yea, practically prove, that salvation, from beginning to end, is all of grace. They give God all the glory, and cause the soul to lay low in the dust before God. So Paul was commissioned to teach the Church. And so Paul found. To win Christ and be found in him, Phi 3:8-14 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
Ver. 14. Sold under sin ] But yet ill paid of my slavery, and lusting after liberty.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
14 .] On the change into the present tense here, see above in the remarks on the whole section. Hitherto has been historical : now the Apostle passes to the present time , keeping hold yet of the carnal of former days, whose remnants are still energizing in the renewed man. For (by way of explaining and setting in still clearer light the relative positions of sin and the law, and the state of inner conflict brought about by their working) we know (it is an acknowledged principle amongst us, see reff.) that the law is spiritual (sprung from God, who is a Spirit, and requiring of men spiritual purity. These meanings, which have been separately held by different Commentators, may, as Thol. and De W. observe, well be united): but I (see beginning of section) am carnal ([subject to the law of the flesh, and in bondage to it, see below] , stronger than ; carneus rather than carnalis , but it is doubtful whether the two endings were not used indiscriminately: see Tholuck), sold (into slavery, see reff.; but the similitude must not be exacted in all particulars , for it is only the fact of slavery, as far as its victim, the man , is concerned, which is here prominent) under (to, and so as to be under the power of) sin .
Tholuck (who differs from the view of this section advocated above, yet) adds here: “The appears here in its totality as sinful, while in Rom 7:16 ; Rom 7:20 it is distinguished from sin. That Paul does not here bear in mind this distinction, may be justified by the maxim, ‘ potiori fit denominatio;’ the is a slave, and has not his own will: as Rom 7:23 shews, the which is hostile to sin, the , is under coercion, and the man is a captive. So Arrian in Epict. ii. 22: , , , , , (qu. ?) .”
The latter clause of the verse is the very strongest assertion of man’s subjection to the slavery of sin in his carnal nature.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Rom 7:14-25 . The last section of the chapter confirms the argument in which Paul has vindicated the law, by exhibiting the power of sin in the flesh. It is this which makes the law Weak, and defeats its good intention. “Hitherto he had contrasted himself, in respect of his whole being, with the Divine law; now, however, he begins to describe a discord which exists within himself” (Tholuck).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Rom 7:14 . : the law comes from God who is Spirit, and it shares His nature: its affinities are Divine, not human, , : I, as opposed to the law, am a creature of flesh, sold under sin, is properly material = carneus , consisting of flesh, as opposed to , which is ethical= carnalis . Paul uses it because he is thinking of human nature , rather than of human character ; as in opposition to the Divine law. He does not mean that there is no higher element in human nature having affinity to the law (against this see Rom 7:22-25 ), but that such higher elements are so depressed and impotent that no injustice is done in describing human nature as in his own person he describes it here. Flesh has such an exclusive preponderance that man can only be regarded as a being who has no affinity for the spiritual law of God, and necessarily kicks against it. Not that this is to be regarded as his essential nature. It describes him only as : the slave of sin. To speak of man as “flesh” is to speak of him as distinguished from God who is “Spirit”; but owing to the diffusion of sin in humanity, and the ascendency it has acquired, this mere distinction becomes an antagonism, and the mind of “the flesh” is enmity against God. In there is the sense of man’s weakness, and pity for it; would only have expressed condemnation, perhaps a shade of disgust or contempt. Weiss rightly remarks that the present tense is determined simply by the preceding. Paul is contrasting the law of God and human nature, of course on the basis of his own experience; but the contrast is worked out ideally, or timelessly, as we might say, all the tenses being present; it is obvious, however, on reflection, that the experience described is essentially that of his pre-Christian days. It is the un-regenerate man’s experience, surviving at least in memory into regenerate days, and read with regenerate eyes.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rom 7:14-20
14For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
Rom 7:14 “the Law is spiritual” God’s Law is good. It is not the problem (cf. Rom 7:12; Rom 7:16 b).
“I am of flesh” This term is used by Paul in (1) a neutral sense meaning physical body (cf. Rom 1:3; Rom 2:28; Rom 4:1; Rom 9:3; Rom 9:5); and (2) a negative sense meaning mankind’s fallen nature in Adam (cf. Rom 7:5). It is uncertain which is being referred to here.
“sold into bondage to sin” This is a perfect passive participle meaning “I have been and continue to be sold into bondage to sin.” Sin is again personified, here as a slave owner. The agent of the passive voice is uncertain. It could refer to Satan, sin, Paul, or God.
In the OT the major term for God drawing mankind back to Himself was “ransom” or “redeem” (and their synonyms). It originally meant “to buy back” (and its synonyms. See Special Topic at Rom 3:24). The opposite concept is the phrase used here, “sold into the hands of. . .” (cf. Jdg 4:2; Jdg 10:7; 1Sa 12:9).
Rom 7:15-24 The child of God has “the divine nature” (cf. 2Pe 1:4), but also the fallen nature (cf. Gal 5:17). Potentially, sin is made inoperative (cf. Rom 6:6), but human experience follows Romans 7. The Jews say that in every man’s heart is a black and a white dog. The one he feeds the most is the one that becomes biggest.
As I read this passage I experientially feel the pain of Paul as he describes the daily conflict of our two natures. Believers have been freed from their fallen nature, but, God help us, we continue to yield to its lure. It is often surprisingly true that the intense spiritual warfare begins after salvation. Maturity is a tension-filled daily fellowship with the Triune God and a daily conflict with evil (cf. Rom 8:12-26; Gal 5:16-18; Eph 6:10-18; Col 3:5-10; see J. D. G. Dunn, Jesus and the Spirit).
Rom 7:16; Rom 7:20 “if” These are both first class conditional sentences, which are viewed as true from the author’s perspective or for his literary purposes.
Rom 7:18 “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh” Paul is not asserting that the physical body is evil, but that it was the battle ground between the fallen nature and God’s Spirit. The Greeks held that the body, along with all matter, was evil. This developed into the dualistic heresy of Gnosticism (cf. Ephesians, Colossians and 1 John). The Greeks tended to blame “the physical” for spiritual problems. Paul does not view the spiritual conflict in these terms. He personified sin and used mankind’s rebellion against God’s Law as the opportunity for evil’s invasion of human nature. The term “flesh” in Paul’s writings can mean (1) the physical body which is morally neutral (cf. Rom 1:3; Rom 2:28; Rom 4:1; Rom 9:3; Rom 9:5) and (2) the fallen sin nature inherited from Adam (cf. Rom 7:5). See Special Topic: Flesh (sarx) at Rom 1:3.
Rom 7:20 “sin which dwells in me” It is interesting that the book of Romans so clearly shows humanity’s sin, but there is no mention of Satan until Rom 16:20. Humans cannot blame Satan for their sin problem. We have a choice. Sin is personified as a king, tyrant, slave owner. It tempts and lures us to independence from God, to self assertion at any cost. Paul’s personification of sin linked to human choice reflects Gen 4:7.
Paul uses the term “dwells” several times in this chapter (cf. Rom 7:17-18; Rom 7:20). The sin nature is not destroyed or removed at salvation, but made potentially inoperative. Its continuing powerlessness depends on our cooperation with the indwelling Spirit (cf. Rom 8:9; Rom 8:11). God has provided for believers all that is necessary to combat personified (literary) and personal (Satan and the demonic) evil. It is the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. As we accept God’s free gift of salvation, so too, we must accept God’s gift of the effective deterrent of the Holy Spirit. Salvation and the Christian life are a daily process that begins and ends with believers’ daily decisions. God has provided all that we need: the Spirit (Romans 8), spiritual armor (Eph 6:11), revelation (Eph 6:17), and prayer (Eph 6:18).
The battle is fierce (Romans 7), but the battle is won (Romans 8).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
spiritual. See Rom 1:11.
carnal. Greek. sarkikos, according to the Received Text (App-94), but the Critical Texts read sarkinos (compare 2Co 3:3).
under. App-104.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
14.] On the change into the present tense here, see above in the remarks on the whole section. Hitherto has been historical: now the Apostle passes to the present time, keeping hold yet of the carnal of former days, whose remnants are still energizing in the renewed man. For (by way of explaining and setting in still clearer light the relative positions of sin and the law, and the state of inner conflict brought about by their working) we know (it is an acknowledged principle amongst us, see reff.) that the law is spiritual (sprung from God, who is a Spirit, and requiring of men spiritual purity. These meanings, which have been separately held by different Commentators, may, as Thol. and De W. observe, well be united): but I (see beginning of section) am carnal ([subject to the law of the flesh, and in bondage to it, see below] , stronger than ; carneus rather than carnalis, but it is doubtful whether the two endings were not used indiscriminately: see Tholuck), sold (into slavery, see reff.; but the similitude must not be exacted in all particulars, for it is only the fact of slavery, as far as its victim, the man, is concerned, which is here prominent) under (to, and so as to be under the power of) sin.
Tholuck (who differs from the view of this section advocated above, yet) adds here: The appears here in its totality as sinful, while in Rom 7:16; Rom 7:20 it is distinguished from sin. That Paul does not here bear in mind this distinction, may be justified by the maxim, potiori fit denominatio; the is a slave, and has not his own will: as Rom 7:23 shews, the which is hostile to sin, the , is under coercion, and the man is a captive. So Arrian in Epict. ii. 22: , , , , , (qu. ?) .
The latter clause of the verse is the very strongest assertion of mans subjection to the slavery of sin in his carnal nature.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rom 7:14. , is spiritual) it requires, that every feeling of man should correspond to the feeling [i.e. the will] of God; but God is a Spirit.-, carnal) Rom 7:18.-, I am) Paul, after he had compared together the twofold state of believers, the former in the flesh, Rom 7:5, and the present in the Spirit, Rom 7:6, proceeds in the next place from the description of the first to the description of the second, and does so with a view both to answer two objections, which, in consequence of that comparison might be framed in these words: therefore the law is sin, Rom 7:7, and, therefore the law is death, Rom 7:13; and to interweave in the solution of those objections the whole process of a man, in his transition from his state under the law to his state under grace, thinking, sighing, striving, and struggling forth, and to show the function of the law in this matter: this, I say, he does, Rom 7:7-25, until at ch. Rom 8:1, he proceeds to the topics, which are ulterior to these. Therefore in this 14th verse the particle for does not permit any leap at all, much less does the subject itself allow so great a leap to be made from the one state into the other; for Paul diametrically opposes to each other the carnal state in this verse, and the spiritual state, ch. Rom 8:4, as also slavery in this [sold under sin] and the 23d [bringing me into captivity] verse, and liberty, Rom 8:2, [free from the law]. Moreover he uses, before the 14th verse, verbs in the preterite tense; then, for the sake of more ready expression [more vivid realization of a thing as present], verbs in the present tense, which are to be resolved into the preterite, just as he is accustomed to exchange cases, moods, etc., for the sake of imparting ease to his language; and as an example in ch. Rom 8:2; Rom 8:4, he passes from the singular to the plural number, and in the same chapter Rom 7:9, from the first to the second person. Also the discourse is the more conveniently turned from the past to the present time, inasmuch as a man can then, and then only, understand really the nature of that [his former] state under the law, as soon as he has come under grace; and from the present he can form a clearer judgment of the past. Finally, that state and process, though being but one and the same, has yet various degrees, which should be expressed either more or less in the preterite tense, and it is step by step that he sighs, strives eagerly, and struggles forth to liberty: The language of the apostle becomes by degrees more serene, as we shall see. Hence it is less to be wondered at, that interpreters take so widely different views. They seek the chief force [the sinews] of their arguments, some from the former, others from the latter part of this passage, and yet they endeavour to explain the whole section as referring to one simple condition, either that under sin, or that under grace. [We must observe in general, that Paul, as somewhat often elsewhere, so also in this verse, all along from Rom 7:7, is not speaking of his own character, but under the figure of a man, who is engaged in this contest. That contest is described here at great length, but the business itself, so far as concerns what may be considered the decisive point, is in many cases quickly accomplished; although believers must contend with the enemy, even till their deliverance is fully accomplished, Rom 7:24, ch. Rom 8:23, V. g.]-, sold) A man, sold to be a slave, is more wretched, than he who was born in that condition, and he is said to be a man sold, because he was not originally a slave. The same word occurs in Jdg 3:8, 1Ki 21:25. Sold: Captive, Rom 7:23.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rom 7:14
Rom 7:14
For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.-Man was carnal and could not receive and cherish in his carnal heart the abiding Spirit. The mind perceived the truth, but his heart, unchanged and dominated by the flesh, did not cherish or obey it, and while in that condition could not be freed from sin.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
the Conflict Within
Rom 7:14-25
The Apostle gives a further statement of his personal experience of the inability of the soul to realize the divine ideal which has been revealed to it as the norm and type of its attainment. Life does not run smoothly. There are effort, strain, failure, the consciousness of sin, the dazzling glory of sunlight on inaccessible peaks. Why is this? It is due to the lack of power unto salvation. We are not strong enough to win any victory. We are weak through the flesh. There is a leakage through which our good desires vanish, as water through a cracked vessel.
Self is ever the difficulty. Before we find Christ, or are found of Him, we try to justify ourselves, and afterward to sanctify ourselves. Notice how full these verses are of I, and how little is said of the Holy Spirit. As the corpse of a criminal that was, in the old barbarous days, hung around the neck of a living man, so the flesh is to us, with all its evil promptings. But this background of dark experience, ending in vanity, vexation, disappointment, and misery leads to the following chapter, which is saturated with Pentecostal power. The distant anticipation of this revives us, like the scent of land to animals sick with a long voyage; and we thank our God.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
carnal
Cf. 1Co 3:1; 1Co 3:4. “Carnal” = “fleshly” is Paul’s word for the Adamic nature, and for the believer who “walks,” i.e. lives, under the power of it. “Natural” is his characteristic word for the unrenewed man 1Co 2:14 as “spiritual” designates the renewed man who walks in the Spirit; 1Co 3:1; Gal 6:1.
sin Sin. (See Scofield “Rom 5:21”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
the law: Lev 19:18, Deu 6:5, Psa 51:6, Mat 5:22, Mat 5:28, Mat 22:37-40, Heb 4:12
but: Rom 7:18, Rom 7:22, Rom 7:23, Job 42:6, Psa 119:25, Pro 30:2, Pro 30:5, Isa 6:5, Isa 64:5, Isa 64:6, Luk 5:8, Luk 7:6, Luk 18:11-14, Eph 3:8
carnal: Mat 16:23, 1Co 3:1-3
sold: Rom 7:24, Gen 37:27, Gen 37:36, Gen 40:15, Exo 21:2-6, Exo 22:3, 1Ki 21:20, 1Ki 21:25, 2Ki 17:17, Isa 50:1, Isa 52:3, Amo 2:6, Mat 18:25
Reciprocal: Lev 13:12 – cover all Lev 13:16 – General Num 4:23 – to perform the service Jos 15:63 – General Jdg 3:8 – he sold Psa 119:96 – but thy Psa 119:128 – I esteem Psa 119:172 – for all thy Jer 34:14 – been sold Joh 8:34 – Whosoever Rom 7:12 – the law Rom 7:16 – I consent Rom 12:2 – good 1Co 6:12 – but I Gal 2:19 – through
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
:14
Rom 7:14. This is explained at verse 10.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rom 7:14. For we know. This is again an appeal to Christian experience, but we cannot infer from this that the experience of the I is distinctively Christian. This verse is a proof of Rom 7:13.
The law is spiritual; in its essence it is divine, because its characteristics are those of the Holy Spirit. This view agrees best with the contrast which follows. Other views: inspired by the Holy Spirit; related to the spiritual nature of man; fulfilled by those only who have the Holy Spirit; requiring an angelic righteousness, etc. Most of these are true, but not in accordance with the Scripture use of the word spiritual, or with the context
But I am carnal. The change of a single letter gives, as the better reading, the word meaning, made of flesh, instead of that meaning, of a fleshly character. The correct reading seems to give the stronger sense, though this is denied by some, in order to defend the reference to the regenerate man. We think Paul here describes himself not as a Christian, but over against the law. For he does not use the word spirit at all in this description, and applies spiritual only to the law; whereas in the Christian the conflict is directly between flesh and Spirit (on these terms, see Excursus below). It is true the situation, which the Apostle thus exhibits in his own representative Ego, was for himself as an individual one long since past; but he realizes it as present and places it before the eyes like a picture, in which the standpoint of the happier present in which he now finds himself renders possible the perspective that lends to every feature of his portrait the light of clearness and truth (Meyer).
Bold under sin. A permanent state of slavery is referred to; sin being personified as the master. How this state of slavery manifests itself is described in the next verse.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Still observe, How the apostle goes on to assert the purity and spirituality of the law of God: The law is spiritual; spiritual in the author of it, God, who is an Holy Spirit; spiritual in the matter of it, requiring perfect purity both of heart and life.
Learn hence, That the moral law of God is in the nature of it purely spiritual, perfectly holy, being breathed forth by the Holy Spirit of God, and requireth perfect purity both of heart and life, and perfect conformity to it, both in the inward and outward man.
Hence some derive the word which we translate law, from a root which signifies to behold and consider, to contemplate and look about: Intimating thereby that the holy and spiritual law of God is diligently to be observed and considered, looked into, and mediated upon; it being so perfectly pure and holy, that it requires not only the purity of our actions, but also the integrity of our very faculties, our hearts and natures.
So may, 1. every unregenerate man truly say, I am carnal, having not only flesh in me, but prevailing in me, sin having a regency and dominion over me: he fights under the banner of corrupt nature, acting in a willing, ready, and full subjection to sin, and compliance with it; he is carnal, being under the power and unbroken strength of carnal lusts, and sensual propensions, and following them in the daily course of his life.
2. I am carnal, may a regenerate person truly say,
1. With respect to that exact purity and spirituality both of heart and life; which the holy law of God requires; the law is spiritual, but I, alas! compared with the spiritual law, am but a lump of corruption, coming infinitely short, God knows, of that uprightness and spirituality which the law of God requires.
2. A regenerate person may truly say he is carnal, that is, in part, in part so, having much, too much carnality in his carnal affections found with him, and carnal infirmities cleaving to him:
Such as are truly acquainted with the spirituality of the word and law of God, and also well acquainted with their own hearts, do see sufficient cause to complain of carnal corruption abiding in them and cleaving to them. I am carnal, have said, and may say, the holiest of saints, with respect to the perfect measure and degrees of holiness.
Thus that holy and blessed martyr, Mr. Bradford, complains, styling himself the heard-hearted, unbelieving, earthly-minded Bradford; yet was a man of a very tender spirit, full of faith, fruitful in good works, and exceedingly mortified to the world. Dost thou groan under the burthen of indwelling corruption? know, that the whole spiritual creation groaneth, and travelleth in pain together with thee until now: But blessed be God for the hopes of a deliverer and a deliverance.
This phrase is borrowed from bondmen or capatives, some of which are sold, others sell themselves into captivity. The unregenerate man, with Ahab, sells himself to work wickedness. This denotes willfulness and obstinacy; such a person doth prostitute himself to the lust of Satan: A regenerate person doth not, with Ahab, sell himself, but is sold, like Joseph by his brethren, and Sampson by his wife; being rather passive than active: He is sometimes sin’s captive, but never sin’s slave; he is never sin’s willing servant, but sometimes its unwilling prisoner.
The holiest and best of saints, though not held in wilful slavery, thraldom and bondage unto sin, yet corruption holds them too much, though in part unwillingly, under the tyranny of sin; they do not yield to sin, as good subjects yield to their lawful prince, voluntary obedience; but as captives yield to a tyrant, paying him involuntary subjection. His soul is betrayed, says one, by corruption to temptation, and by temptation to corruption.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Rom 7:14. For we know that the law is spiritual Extending to the spirit of man; forbidding even the sins of the spirit; sins internal, committed merely in mens minds, such as vain thoughts, foolish imaginations, carnal inclinations, pride, self-will, discontent, impatience, anger, malice, envy, revenge, and all other spiritual evils, in the commission of which the body has no concern: enjoining, at the same time, all spiritual graces and virtues, such as humility, resignation, patience, contentment, meekness, gentleness, long-suffering, benevolence; with all holy intentions, affections, and dispositions, included in loving God with all our heart, and our neighbour as ourselves, which the law especially enjoins: being intended, at the same time, to purify and exalt the spirit, and assert its superiority over the meaner part of our nature. But I am carnal That is, man, considered in himself, as in a state of nature, and destitute of the regenerating grace of God, is carnal. See note on Rom 7:5, where to be in the flesh is evidently of the same import with the word carnal here, as are also similar expressions, Rom 8:5; Rom 8:8-9, &c., expressions which, all are agreed, solely respect the unregenerate; and in which the person that is in the flesh, or carnally minded, is represented as being in a state of death, and enmity against God. Very different, surely, from the spiritual man, whom this same apostle represents as living in a state of favour and friendship with God; minding chiefly the things of the Spirit; yea, having the Spirit of God dwelling in him, and giving him dominion over all fleshly lusts, which, through that Spirit, he is enabled to mortify; whose passions submit to the government of reason, and whose reason is itself under the influence of grace; whose enjoyments are chiefly of a spiritual nature, and his great employment to work out his salvation with fear and trembling. The Scriptures, therefore, place these two characters in direct opposition the one to the other; and the apostle begins this paragraph by informing us that it is his carnal state which he is about to describe, in opposition to the spirituality of Gods holy law, saying, But I am carnal; and adding, as a still more decisive proof that his meaning is as is here stated, sold under sin That is, sold as a slave, to remain under the dominion of sin, and to be compelled to do those evil actions to which sinful inclinations prompt men. In peccati potestatem, libidinis et concupiscenti predio redactus, says Origen; brought under the power of sin by the enticement of lust and concupiscence. So enslaved to it, says Theophylact, , as not to be able to look up: a willing slave, who had sold himself to it, says Theodoret. The meaning is, totally enslaved: slaves bought with money being absolutely at their masters disposal. In this sense, the phrase is continually used in the Old Testament, as the reader may see by consulting the texts referred to in the margin. By the addition of this clause, therefore, the apostle evidently shows that he does not here use the word carnal in the sense in which it is taken 1Co 3:1, namely, to denote only such a state of imperfection in knowledge and holiness, as persons may be in who are newly converted; but that he uses it in the worst sense, namely, in the same sense in which the expression, to be in the flesh, and carnally minded, is used; that is, to signify a state of death and enmity against God. Those commentators, therefore, who suppose that in this and what follows, to the end of the chapter, the apostle describes his own state, at the time he wrote this epistle, and consequently the state of every regenerated person, must be under a great mistake. Universally, indeed, in the Scriptures, man is said to be in this state of bondage to sin until the Son of God make him free; but in no part of the sacred writings is it ever said of the children of God, that they are sold under sin, or enslaved to it. The very reverse is the Holy Spirits description of Christians, for the Son of God makes them free, and therefore they are free indeed; free especially from the power of sin, which has no longer dominion over them. See notes on Rom 6:13-22; Rom 8:2. The truth is, through this whole paragraph the apostle, to wean the Jews from their attachment to the Mosaic law, is showing how little that dispensation, even the moral part of it, considered as a covenant of justice, independent of the covenant of grace, could do for them, or for any of the fallen offspring of Adam. It could convince them of sin, but not constitute them righteous. It could show them their guilt, depravity, and weakness, but could neither justify their persons, nor renew their nature, nor furnish them with power to do the will of God. As he expresses himself, Rom 8:3, It was weak through the flesh, or through the corruption and infirmity of human nature. In pursuance of his design, having compared together the past and present state of believers, that in the flesh, Rom 7:5, and that in the spirit, Rom 7:6. in answering two objections, (Is then the law sin? Rom 7:7, and, Is the law death? Rom 7:13,) he interweaves the whole process of a man reasoning, groaning, striving, and escaping from the legal to the evangelical state. This he does, from Rom 7:7 to the end of the chapter.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 14-25.
It is from this Rom 7:14 especially that the difference between the two explanations of the passage comes out: that which applies it to the state of man regenerate, and that which regards it as depicting the impotent struggles of a sincere and serious man, but one still under the yoke of the law, and ignorant of deliverance by the Holy Spirit.
The principal reasons advanced in favor of the first opinion are the following (best developed perhaps by Hodge): 1. The transition from the past tense in the preceding passage to the present in this; 2. The impossibility of ascribing to unregenerate man sentiments so elevated in their nature as those which are here professed: cordial assent to the law, Rom 7:16; Rom 7:22, and profound hatred of evil, Rom 7:15; Rom 7:19, etc.; 3. Rom 7:25, where the apostle seems expressly to appropriate to himself at the present time the entire description which he has just traced: thus far the objections whose validity or groundlessness it belongs to exegesis alone to determine. The only side of the question which we can exhaust here is that of the connection of this passage with the preceding, and with the section to which it belongs taken as a whole.
1. Paul has just delineated, Rom 7:7-13, the deadly action of the law upon him, from the time it established its supremacy in his inmost soul, and from that period during the whole time of his Pharisaism. How should he now pass all at once from this description, to that of his inward struggles as a regenerate man? Hodge and Philippi explain this transition by an a fortiori. The law is powerless to regenerate the natural man, it only serves to increase the power of sin, Rom 7:7-13. And the proof is, that it does not act otherwise, even on the believer’s heart, when, forgetting his faith for the time, he finds himself as a naturally carnal man face to face with the law. Even with the profound sympathy which his renewed heart feels for the law, he cannot find in it the means of sanctification which he needs; how much less can it deliver from sin a heart still unregenerate? This attempt to construe the passage in keeping with what precedes is ingenious, but inadmissible. Exactly what it was most essential to say in this case, to make the argument intelligible, would be understood: Even since I have become a new creature in Christ, I cannot find any assistance in the law; on the contrary, when I put myself under its yoke, it renders me worse. This must have been said in order to be clear. Paul says nothing of the kind between Rom 7:13-14.
2. Another omission, not less inexplicable, would be his passing over the profound change which was effected in him by regeneration. He would pass from the period of his Pharisaism (Rom 7:7-13) to his Christian state, as it were on the same level, and without making the least allusion to the profound crisis which made all things, and the law in particular, new to him (2Co 5:17). And it would not be till chap. 8, and by an afterthought, that he would come to his experiences as a Christian. The author of the Epistle to the Romans has not accustomed us hitherto to a style of writing so far from clear. Hodge says no doubt that the apostle is here speaking of the believer from the viewpoint of his relations to the law, abstracting from his faith. But a believer, apart from his faith…, that surely resembles a non-believer. So understood the description of the miserable state, Rom 7:14-25, would be the demonstration not of the impotence of the law, but of that of the gospel.
3. How explain the contrast between the delineation of chap. 7 and that of chap. 8, a contrast infinitely sharper than we find between the section Rom 7:7-13 (description of Saul as a Pharisee) and Rom 7:14-25, a passage which they would refer to Paul the Christian? Is there, then, a greater difference between Christian and Christian, than between Pharisee and Christian? Philippi alleges that the apostle describes successively in the two passages, Rom 7:14-25 and Rom 8:1 et seq., the two opposite aspects of the Christian life, the believer without and the believer with the breath of the Spirit. But once again the great crisis would require to be put in this case, not in Rom 7:24-25, between the two aspects of the same state, but between Rom 7:13-14, where the new state is contrasted with the old, newness of spirit with oldness of the letter, to use Paul’s own words.
The direction of the apostle’s thought is clearly marked out by the section as a whole; it may serve as a guiding thread in all that follows. After showing that there is in faith a new principle of sanctification (Rom 6:1-14), which is a sufficiently firm standard for moral life (Rom 7:15-23), and which renders emancipation from the law possible and desirable (Rom 7:1-6), he explains what the intervention of the law produced in his own life (Rom 7:7-13), and the state in which, despite his sincere and persevering efforts, it left him (Rom 7:14-23), to issue in that desperate cry of distress in which this state of continual defeats finally expresses itself: Who shall deliver me? Of this liberator he does not know the name at the time when he utters the cry (a fact which proves that he is not yet in the faith); but he anticipates, he hopes for, he appeals to him without knowing him. And heaven gives him the answer. Chap. 8 contains this answer: The Spirit of Christ hath set me free, Rom 7:2; He it is who works in me all that the law demanded, without giving me power to do it (Rom 7:4).
This series of ideas is unimpeachable; it only remains to see whether in this way we shall account for all the details of the following passage, and succeed in overcoming the objections mentioned above, which have been raised in opposition to this view.
This passage seems to me to fall into three cycles, each of which closes with a sort of refrain. It is like a dirge; the most sorrowful elegy which ever proceeded from a human heart.
The first cycle embraces Rom 7:14-17. The second, which begins and ends almost in the same way as the first, is contained in Rom 7:18-20. The third differs from the first two in form, but is identical with them in substance; it is contained in Rom 7:21-23, and its conclusion, Rom 7:24-25, is at the same time that of the whole passage.
It has been sought to find a gradation between these three cycles. Lange thinks that the first refers rather to the understanding, the second to the feelings, the third to the conscience. But this distinction is artificial, and useless as well. For the power of this passage lies in its very monotony. The repetition of the same thoughts and expressions is, as it were, the echo of the desperate repetition of the same experiences, in that legal state wherein man can only shake his chains without succeeding in breaking them. Powerless he writhes to and fro in the prison in which sin and the law have confined him, and in the end of the day can only utter that cry of distress whereby, having exhausted his force for the struggle, he appeals, without knowing him, to the deliverer.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
14. But we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, having been sold under sin. The law is the very splendor radiating from the throne of God and revealing sin in its horrific deformity. Hence the law is perfectly pure and holy, and, of course, spiritual, i. e., consentaneous with the Holy Spirit. We have here carnal I and spiritual I used contrastively ever and anon. We must not identify them, for the one represents the old and the other the new man, different as sin is from holiness, and Satan from God. Having been sold under sin, an allusion to the Fall, when father Adam sold us all out for a mess of apples. The Greek is the perfect tense, as I here translate, involving the whole human race in original sin.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 14
But I am carnal; that is, man is carnal. The idea seems to be that the law itself is holy; it is the man who is to be charged with the sin which the exhibition of the law develops. The pronoun I continues to be used through the remainder of the chapter, as representing human nature; though some suppose that renewed, and others that unrenewed, human nature is denoted. The language is easily susceptible of an interpretation adapted to either supposition; but the latter seems most in accordance with the general design of the apostle in this discussion, which is, to show the utter inefficacy of the law to sanctify and save those who are under its dominion. We may, therefore, understand the Romans 7:15-25, to the close of the chapter, as representing the fruitless struggles and the difficulties which would be encountered in an attempt made by one possessing the sinful nature of man, to secure his salvation by the law.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
7:14 {8} For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
(8) The law is the cause of this matter because the it requires a heavenly purity, but when men are born, they are bondslaves of corruption, which they willingly serve.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
As a foundation for what follows, the apostle reminded his readers that all the godly ("we") know that the Law is "spiritual" (Gr. pneumatikos; cf. 1Co 3:1). It came from God (cf. Rom 7:22; Rom 7:25). Paul did not want his readers to understand what he was about to say about the Law as a criticism of God who gave it.
In contrast to the good Law, Paul was fleshly or unspiritual (Gr. sarkinos, made of flesh; cf. 1Co 3:1). Man is essentially different from the Law because we have a sinful nature whereas the Law itself is sinless. Therefore there is a basic antagonism between people and the Law.
"’Sold under sin’ is exactly what the new convert does not know! Forgiven, justified, he knows himself to be: and he has the joy of it! But now to find an evil nature, of which he had never become really conscious, and of which he thought himself fully rid, when he first believed, is a ’second lesson’ which is often more bitter than the first-of guilt!" [Note: Newell, p 272.]
Paul’s statement that he was then as a Christian the slave of sin may seem to contradict what he wrote earlier in chapter 6 about no longer being the slave of sin. The phrase "sold in bondage to sin" is proof to many interpreters that Paul was describing a non-Christian here. However in chapter 6 Paul did not say that being dead to sin means that sin has lost its appeal for the Christian. It still has a strong appeal to the Christian whose human nature is still sinful (Rom 6:15-23). He said that being dead to sin means that we no longer must follow sin’s dictates.
In one sense the Christian is not a slave of sin (Rom 6:1-14). We have died to it, and it no longer dominates us. Nevertheless in another sense sin still has a strong attraction for us since our basic human nature is still sinful, and we retain that nature throughout our lifetime. For example, a criminal released from prison no longer has to live within the sphere of existence prescribed by prison walls. However he still has to live within the confines of his human limitations. God has liberated Christians from the prison house of sin (Rom 6:1-14). Notwithstanding we still carry with us a sinful nature that will be a source of temptation for us as long as we live (Rom 7:14-25).
To minimize the difficulty of grasping this distinction Paul used different expressions to describe the two relationships. In chapter 6 he used "slaves," but in chapter 7 he wrote "sold" (Rom 7:14). In chapter 6 he spoke of the relationship of the new man in Christ (the whole person, the Christian) to sin. In chapter 7 he spoke of the relationship of the old nature (a part of every person, including the new man in Christ) to sin. Adam sold all human beings into bondage to sin when he sinned (Rom 5:12; Rom 5:14).
"We take it then that Paul is here describing the Christian as carnal and implying that even in him there remains, so long as he continues to live this mortal life, that which is radically opposed to God (cf. 8.7), though chapter 8 will make it abundantly clear that he does not regard the Christian as being carnal in the same unqualified way that the natural man is carnal." [Note: Cranfield, 1:357. Cf. 1 Corinthians 2:14-3:3.]