“For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.”
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. — Paul diagnoses the crisis: the νόμος (nomos, "law") is πνευματικός (pneumatikos, "spiritual")—oriented to the Spirit's reality—but the "I" (ἐγώ, egō) is σάρκινος (sarkinos, "fleshly"), dominated by the σάρξ (sarx, "flesh"). The self is sold under sin (τῷ ἁμαρτίᾳ, tō hamartia, "to sin") like a slave in chains. The law's transcendence and human bondage are irreconcilable.
Church Fathers on Romans 7:14
After having said that great evils had taken place, and that sin, taking occasion by the commandment, had grown stronger, and the opposite of what the Law mainly aimed at had been the result, and after having thrown the hearer into a great deal of perplexity, he goes on next to give the rationale of these events, after first clearing the Law of any ill suspicion. For lest — upon hearing that it was through the commandment that sin took that occasion, and that it was when it…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a reflection on this verse
No reflections on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!