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Romans 7

1

Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

2

For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

3

So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

4

Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

5

For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

1
6

But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

7

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

8

But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

9

For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

10

And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

11

For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

12

Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

13

Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

1
14

For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

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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.

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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?

1
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.

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Romans 7

Romans 7 opens with the marriage analogy to establish the believer's freedom from the law through union with Christ's death: as a woman is freed from the law of marriage by her husband's death, so the Christian has died to the law through the body of Christ in order to belong to the one who was raised from the dead, bearing fruit for God rather than for death. Paul's insistence that the law is not sin but rather the revealer of sin is demonstrated autobiographically: the commandment 'you shall not covet' exposed the covetousness that sin was producing through the law's very prohibition, so that the commandment which promised life proved to be death. The famous inner conflict of 7:14-25 — I do not do what I want but the very thing I hate, I do not do the good I want but the evil I do not want — has generated centuries of debate about whether the 'I' represents Paul's pre-Christian experience under the law, his post-conversion struggle with remaining sin, or Israel's representative experience. The repetition of 'I' (ego) fourteen times in this passage and the present-tense verbs favor a reading of ongoing Christian experience; the passage is not the last word on the Christian life but the necessary diagnosis before the solution of Romans 8. The wretched man cry — who will rescue me from this body of death? — is immediately answered by the thanksgiving: thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The summary of verse 25 holds together the two realities simultaneously: with my mind I serve the law of God but with my flesh the law of sin — the tension that Romans 8's Spirit-life resolves without denying. The chapter is essential to Paul's argument because it establishes that the problem of human failure cannot be solved by the law itself, no matter how holy and righteous and good the law is, and that the solution must come from outside the law through the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead.

Romans 7:1

Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? — Paul shifts from baptismal union to the law's temporal limit; νόμος (nomos, "law") binds only the living, suggesting the believer's crucifixion with Christ (6:9) releases from the law's jurisdiction. The address "those who know the law" suggests Roman Jewish converts. The principle is juridical: death severs legal obligation.

Romans 7:2

For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. — The marital analogy illustrates: a wife is bound (δέω, deō, "bound") to her husband during his life; his death dissolves the obligation and frees her for another union. Paul adapts Jewish halakha; the logic is straightforward—death terminates legal ties.

Romans 7:3

So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry another man without being called an adulteress. — The hypothetical presses the point: infidelity while the husband lives violates law; but his death liberates her to new marriage. The implication: the believer is "widowed" from the law through co-crucifixion with Christ and freed for union with the Risen One.

Romans 7:4

So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. — Death ἐν τῷ σώματι τοῦ Χριστοῦ (en tō sōmati tou Christou, "in the body of Christ"—through baptismal union) dissolves the law's claim; believers now "belong to" (γίνομαι, ginomai) the Risen Christ. The goal is κάρπος (karpos, "fruit for God")—ethical and spiritual productivity flowing from new covenant union, not external legal constraint.

Romans 7:5

For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. — Life ἐν τῇ σαρκί (en tē sarki, "in the flesh"—pre-Christian existence) was marked by sinful desires (παθήματα, pathēmata, "passions") actually aroused by the νόμος (nomos, "law"); the law, though holy, functioned to activate sin. The result was κάρπος (karpos, "fruit") unto θάνατος (thanatos, "death")—the inverse of 7:4. The law's prohibition becomes sin's provocation.

Romans 7:6

But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. — Death to the law through Christ liberates believers from the νόμος (nomos, "law") understood as ἐντολή (entolē, "commandment") or γραμμα (gramma, "written code"). The shift is not from obedience to lawlessness but from external regulation (γράμμα, gramma) to the Spirit's interior governance (πνευματικῶς, pneumatikōs, "spiritually"). Service to God continues but under a new economy.

Romans 7:7

What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! But I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting was if the law had not said, 'You shall not covet.' — Paul addresses the objection: if the law activates sin (7:5), is the law evil (mē genoito, "by no means!")? The law is not sinful but holy; it is a revealer. The tenth commandment (coveting) is Paul's example: the law makes explicit what is forbidden, thereby creating awareness of transgression. The law is a pedagogue who diagnoses the disease but does not cure it.

Romans 7:8

But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, sin is dead. — Here is Paul's paradox: sin is opportunistic, using the ἐντολή (entolē, "commandment") as a λαμβάνω (lambanō, "base/foothold") for amplification. Sin is not created by the law but awakened and intensified by it. The παράβασις (parábasis, "transgression") presupposes knowledge of law. Apart from law, sin lacks definition and, Paul claims, is "dead"—inactive or unrecognized.

Romans 7:9

Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. — Paul traces a personal or rhetorical history (or Israel's history): before the law's encounter, the "I" lived in innocence; the law's arrival activated sin, and the self experienced death—the death sentence that follows transgression. The νόμος (nomos, "law") is not the problem but the occasion of sin's eruption and the consequent judgment of death.

Romans 7:10

I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. — The paradox deepens: the ἐντολή (entolē, "commandment") was given by God εἰς ζωήν (eis zōēn, "unto life")—intended for flourishing—yet it produced θάνατος (thanatos, "death"). The law's intention is good; the outcome is death because sin exploits the law to condemn the sinner. The law reveals what should save but becomes the instrument of judgment.

Romans 7:11

For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. — Sin exercises ἀπάτη (apatē, "deception"); the law becomes the weapon. The grammar suggests sin is an active power, not merely personal choice. Paul anthropomorphizes sin as a force that perverts God's holy law into an instrument of death. The law itself is blameless; sin is the culprit.

Romans 7:12

So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. — Paul's thesis: the νόμος (nomos, "law") is ἅγιος (hagios, "holy"), and the ἐντολή (entolē, "commandment") is ἡγίασμένη (hēgiasmēnē, "holy"), δικαία (dikaia, "righteous"), and καλή (kalē, "good"). The law is not the problem; sin is. The law's goodness is affirmed even while its inability to produce righteousness is established. This clears God's law of the charge of evil.

Romans 7:13

Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. — Death comes not from the law's goodness but from sin's perversion of it. The law (which is ἀγαθόν, agathos, "good") becomes the occasion for sin to be revealed as ὑπερβολῇ ἁμαρτωλός (hyperbolē hamartōlos, "exceeding sinful"). The law's function is diagnostic: it exposes the depths of human rebellion and sin's parasitic nature.

Romans 7:14

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.

Romans 7:15

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. — The wretched I confronts the rupture of self: θέλω (thelō, "I want to") and πράσσω (prassō, "I do") are split. The self wills the good but enacts evil; this is the existential condition of the person under law without Spirit. The internal division is radical: what the mind approves the body refuses. Paul's language captures the lived experience of moral impotence.

Romans 7:16

And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. — Even in transgression, the "I" internally assents (συνφημί, symphēmi, "concur with") that the νόμος (nomos, "law") is καλός (kalos, "good"). This is Paul's argument: the law's goodness is not questioned; the problem is the self's servitude to sin prevents obedience even when the mind agrees with the law's righteousness.

Romans 7:17

As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. — Paul makes the radical claim: the "true I" (my rational, deliberative self) is not the actor; sin dwelling ἐν ἐμοί (en emoi, "in me") is the agent. This is not moral abdication but diagnosis: the self is inhabited by an alien force. Sin is not merely personal choice but a power indwelling the flesh, exceeding the individual will.

Romans 7:18

For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. — The σάρξ (sarx, "flesh") has no ἀγαθόν (agathos, "good") dwelling within it. The mind recognizes and desires τὸ καλόν (to kalon, "the good"), but the flesh's bondage prevents execution. Paul traces a threefold division: the law (good, spiritual), the mind (assenting to the law), and the flesh (hostile, incapable of obedience). The figure is of internal paralysis.

Romans 7:19

For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. — The repetition of 7:15 hammers home the contradiction: the self's willed good is consistently replaced by unwilled evil; the habitual action (προσσάσσω, prassō, "keep doing") is the opposite of intention. This is the lived chaos of the person ἄνομος (anomos, "lawless") in one sense, yet obsessed with the law—aware of obligation but incapable of fulfillment.

Romans 7:20

Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. — The restatement of 7:17 reinforces the diagnosis: the true self (the "I" that θέλω, thelō, "wills the good") is not the active agent in transgression; sin's indwelling power is. This is Paul's answer to the question of moral responsibility: the self is accountable yet captive, responsible yet enslaved to a power exceeding its will.

Romans 7:21

So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. — There is a νόμος (nomos, "law") operating in the flesh: the law of sin's presence and power. Even when the will (θέλημα, thelēma, "desire") orients toward the good, evil (κακόν, kakon) is present as a counter-force. The "law" here is not God's Torah but the principle of sin's habitation in the σάρξ (sarx, "flesh").

Romans 7:22

For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work in my members. — The ἔσω ἄνθρωπος (esō anthropos, "inner person/mind") delights (συνήδομαι, synēdomai, "rejoice with") in God's νόμος (nomos, "law"); but another law (ἕτερος νόμος, heteros nomos) wages war (ἀντιστρατεύομαι, antistrateuomai, "war against") the νοῦς (nous, "mind/reason"). The self is a battlefield: mind versus flesh, spirit versus sin. Sin's law makes the body's members prisoners of transgression.

Romans 7:23

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? — The cry τάλας ἐγώ (talas egō, "wretched I") is the climax of despair: the self seeks ῥύομαι (rhyomai, "rescue/deliverance") from τὸ σῶμα τοῦ θανάτου (to soma tou thanatou, "body of death")—the enslavementsoma, filled with mortality and sin's domination. This verse poses the unanswerable question within the law's economy: the law cannot deliver; only something external can.

Romans 7:24

Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. — The answer erupts: Χάρις τῷ θεῷ (Charis tō theō, "Thanks to God!") through Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν (Iēsoun Christon, "Jesus Christ")—deliverance is eschatological and christological, not legal. Yet Paul restates the divided condition: νοῦς (nous, "mind") enslaved to God's law, σάρξ (sarx, "flesh") enslaved to sin's law. The question is answered, but the divided self remains—until chapter 8.

Romans 7:25

Therefore, I myself in my mind am a servant of God's law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. — The final verse recapitulates the internal fracture; σάρκι δουλεύω νόμῳ ἁμαρτίας (sarki douleuō nomō hamartias, "with my flesh I am enslaved to the law of sin") and νοῒ δουλεύω νόμῳ θεοῦ (noï douleuō nomō theou, "with my mind I serve God's law"). This is the anatomy of the unregenerate self: divided, aware of goodness yet impotent, awaiting transformation by the Spirit in chapter 8.