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Romans 7:9 – Understanding Produces Guilt

Posted on February 16, 2018 by Will

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

Truth to Learn

Without an understanding of what sin is, we feel innocent of it, but when we understand what it is, we realize our guilt.

Behind the Words

The word translated “alive” is dzaō, which means “to have life.” In early Greek writings this word was rarely used except in the present or past imperfect tense (I am alive or I was alive). For the other tenses, the verb bioō was used. This verb means “to spend one's existence or to pass one's life.” It is from this verb that we derive our English word "biography," the narrative of how one spent his life.

The word “without” is translated from the adverb chōris, which means “separately or apart from.”

“Revived” is from the Greek word anadzaō, which is made up of ana, meaning “again” and dzaō, which we just saw means “to have life.” Hence, anadzaō means “to have life again” or “to come back to life” or “to be revived.”

Meaning Explained

This is another difficult verse, perhaps the most difficult so far because it is not clear what Paul means by the two expressions, “I was alive” and “I died.” There has been much discussion amongst Biblical scholars throughout the ages, but there is little consensus other than this: When Paul claims to have been alive, he must mean that he had a certain kind of peace, he felt innocent and secure, and he was free from the convictions of his conscience. That is, he believed himself to be righteous. When he says that he died, therefore, it must mean the opposite to his being alive. In other words sin reigned, producing its condemning effects leading to guilt and misery.

So, what Paul is telling us in this verse comes from personal experience. There was a time when he felt confident in his own righteousness. But as he learned more about the Law, he discovered how much of a sinner he really was, and the effect was that he no longer believed himself to be righteous. In other words, he realized that he was a sinner under God’s condemnation.

This, I believe, is the first step towards salvation and a victorious Christian life for all of us. Unless and until we realize that we are not righteous, that we are sinful and lost, we cannot be saved. Once we realize our own depravity, however, we need to discover what it is that will take that depravity and its guilt away, and only the blood of Jesus Christ can accomplish this. Therefore, realizing that we are a sinner and in need of salvation, we find that the only way to receive forgiveness is to humble ourselves before the mighty hand of God and ask Him to forgive us. Then, we learn that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin, and all we have to do is to accept His payment for our sin and He saves us.

Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, He was buried as proof of His death, and He rose again as proof of His righteousness.

Application

Do you believe that you are a sinner in need of salvation? Do you believe that Christ died to pay the penalty for your sins?

In God's service, for His glory,

Romans 7:8 – A Sinful Product

Posted on February 15, 2018 by Will

But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all covetousness. For apart from the law sin is dead.

Truth to Learn

The Law does not prevent sin, it produces sin.

Behind the Words

The Greek word translated “taking opportunity” is aphormē, which means “an occasion, an opportunity, or casual circumstance producing a tendency toward something else.” In this verse it means that sin took the opportunity to produce lust. This word, aphormē, is an aorist participle which means the action took place before the main verb (produced). Or, to put it another way, sin used the commandment as an opportunity to then produce covetousness in Paul.

The word translated as “produced” is katergadzomai, which means not just simply to work on something but, “to carry out a task until it is completely finished.”

Meaning Explained

What Paul is telling us is that before the Law was declared, there was no sinful covetousness. Then the Tenth Commandment was declared:

You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's

As soon as the Tenth Commandment took effect, sin took this commandment and accomplished sinful covetousness in man’s heart, and he suddenly coveted after the very things that the law said we should not covet.

Paul goes on to say that “apart from the law,” in other words, when the law and sin were separated from each other, “sin was dead.” It’s very much like two siblings who are constantly fighting but as soon as you separate them from each other the fighting stops, it dies. Thus, Paul says that before the law was declared, it and sin were separated and sin was dead. But as soon as the law was declared, sin took the occasion of the presence of the law to completely work out sinful desires within man.

Adam and Eve are a good example of this. When they were first put in the garden, it was not wrong for them to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and they apparently had no particular desire for the fruit of that tree. But, as soon as God told Adam that they were not to eat of that tree, that’s when they both desired to eat of it, and their satisfying of that desire produced sin.

Did you ever wonder why, as a child when your mother baked cookies and put them in the cookie jar saying not to touch them until after dinner, all you could think about was sneaking into the kitchen to steal a cookie from the cookie jar?

That’s precisely the process that this verse is talking about!

Application

Now we can begin to see why obedience to the Law does not produce righteousness. The very declaration of the Law produces the desire to break it, and so we do!

In God's service, for His glory,

Romans 7:7 – The Revealing Law

Posted on February 14, 2018 by Will

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! I did not know sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness except the law said, "You shall not covet."

Truth to Learn

The Law reveals our sinfulness to us.

Behind the Words

The word translated “know” is a form of ginōskō, which means “to acquire knowledge” or “to have full knowledge.” It is expressed here in the aorist tense indicating action completed at a point in time in the past. Therefore, it should be translated as “I had not known” or “I did not know.”

“Covetousness” is from the Greek word epithumia, which we saw back in Romans 6:12, meaning “to have overly strong thoughts or desires.” It is often translated as “lust.”

Meaning Explained

Any good Jewish Christian having read or heard what Paul has just said about the Law might be inclined to say, “Are you saying that the holy Law of God is not only insufficient to sanctify us, but that it causes sin to increase? Does the Law increase sinful passions, and actually make people worse than they were before?” This is the theoretical objection that Paul is responding to here.

So Paul asks another of his rhetorical questions: “Is the law sin?” And he responds in typical Pauline style with the two Greek words, “me genoito” meaning, “May it not be!” or “No way!” As he will go on to say later in verse twelve, the law is holy and just and good! The evil is not in the law but the law brings out evil in us because of our sin nature.

Look very carefully at what Paul says here about the Law. He says, “I did not know sin except through the law.” You will notice that he did not say that he was not a sinner without the law, just that he did not know about his sin without the law. He then goes on to give an example from the Tenth Commandment, “For I would not have known covetousness except the law said, “You shall not covet.’” The law informs us about sin and, because of that, we become more aware of our own sinfulness. And, because of our sin nature, the knowledge of the sin makes us desire it even more, even though we know it is sin. This frustrates all of us at one time or another. Even the Apostle Paul was frustrated by this, which he will express later in this chapter.

In his letter to the Galatian Christians he explains the function of the Law this way,

So that the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. (Galations 3:24, 25)

The law reveals our sinfulness and amplifies it so that we will be unable to deny our need for a Savior. Fortunately, God’s plan includes our Savior and salvation through faith in His sacrificial death. So you see, the Law, though it produces death, leads us to Christ and to God’s gift of grace which produces life.

Application

Are you still trying to keep the Law? Does it frustrate you because you can’t do it? Do you now recognize your need for a Savior? If so, then it has successfully done its work on you.

In God's service, for His glory,

Romans 7:6 – Free to Serve

Posted on February 13, 2018 by Will

But now we have been set free from the law, having died to that in which we were held, so that we should serve in the newness of Spirit and not in the oldness of letter.

Truth to Learn

We are free to serve God through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Behind the Words

The word translated “set free” is katargeō, which is made up of kata, meaning “down” but used here as an intensifier and argeō, which means “to be idle or inactive.” Katargeō, therefore, means “to become completely ineffective” or “to cease being effective.” As Paul used it here it means “we have been completely set free from the effect of the Law.”

“Held” is from a form of katechō, which is also a compound word. This one is made up of kata, meaning “down” and echō, meaning “to have” or “to hold.” Thus we see that katechō literally means “to be held down.” It is a picture of someone who he being held down on the ground so that they are powerless to do anything.

Meaning Explained

In the previous two chapters Paul has spent considerable time and energy pointing out two things. The first is: before we were saved we were slaves to sin because of the Law. The second is: when we were saved, our sin nature was put to death. That is, we died with Christ. As he has just shown in the past few verses, death releases us from the requirements of the Law. Therefore, this verse is the culmination and summation of the results of these things.

Since we are dead with respect to the Law, like the wife who is free to marry after her husband has died, we are no longer under the dictates of the Law and are free to serve God. We are no longer held down by the Law. We are free from it! Let me say that again. We are free from the Law!

We do not have to keep the Ten Commandments or any other part of the Law in order to be righteous in God’s eyes. In fact, you will remember that Paul told us that we couldn’t obtain righteousness by keeping the Law anyway because no one (except Christ) is able to keep all the Law.

The second half of this verse is really a key statement and I don’t want any of us to miss it. We have been set free from the law to “serve in the newness of Spirit and not in the oldness of letter.” In other words, before we were saved by grace, we were unable to keep the Law and, therefore, could not serve God because the letter of the Law made us sinful and abhorrent to God. But … now that we have been set free from the Law we can serve God in a way that we never could have before – in the spirit of righteousness. That is, since we are righteous in God’s eyes now, He will allow us to serve Him. We have spiritual life which we owe entirely to God. Therefore we should gladly serve Him with the life that He has given us.

Application

When we were saved we were set free from the penalty of our sins. We were also set free from the requirements of the Law and have become free to serve God through the power of the Holy Spirit. Are you serving God right now? If you are, are you doing so out of obligation or are you serving Him out of gratitude for what He has done for you? We should rejoice in our service for Him because we have been set free from bondage to the Law!

In God's service, for His glory,

Romans 7:5 – Fruit of Death

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Will

For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.

Truth to Learn

Trying to live by a set of laws or rules produces spiritual death, not life.

Behind the Words

The word translated “flesh” in this verse is sarx, which means “the flesh, or muscle, of a living animal.” This is a contrasting word to kreas, which refers to “the flesh of a dead animal,” also sometimes translated as “meat.” Paul is using the word “flesh” here as a metonym, that is, a word used to represent something else. An example of a metonym is the use of the word “Washington” to refer to the U.S. Government. Paul uses “flesh” as a metonym for our sin nature.

“Passions” is from pathēma, which is a form of paschō, meaning “to experience strong feelings.” It is often translated “suffer,” although it can refer to strong feelings whether they are good or bad (or somewhere in between). The ending “ma” gives it the meaning “that which is felt strongly.”

The word “aroused” is energeō, from which we get our English word “energy.” It refers to “that which is active, effectual, or mighty.” We could easily translate the opening phrase of this verse as, “For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were energized by the law …”

Meaning Explained

What does the Apostle Paul mean by the opening part of this verse, “For when we were in the flesh”? Aren’t we always in our flesh, at least until we die? Yes, but that’s not the kind of flesh Paul is talking about. In order to understand what he’s talking about we need to look at a verse in the next chapter of this letter where Paul says,

And those being in the flesh are not able to please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this one is not His. (Romans 8:8-9)

In these verses Paul is contrasting being “in the flesh” and “in the Spirit.’ What he means is being controlled by the flesh, the sin nature, versus being controlled by the Spirit of God. Paul has already told us that before we were saved, we were in bondage to sin, or controlled by our sin nature. Now, in the current verse he is telling us that when we were controlled by our sin nature the passions, or overwhelming desires, of sin were not subdued but energized through the Law to bring forth fruit that resulted in death. I think Paul is talking about spiritual death or separation from fellowship with God, not physical death. And in the previous verse Paul told us that we should bring forth fruit to God by being married to Christ.

So, when we were controlled by our sin nature we produced fruit that resulted in spiritual death, but now that we have been saved and freed from the Law, we have become the bride of Christ, and the fruit that we produce should be fruit that is worthy of being brought to God.

Application

Now, the question is, what kind of fruit are you bringing to God? Are you allowing the desires of your flesh to control your actions? Or are you so tuned-in to God and walking so close to Him that your fleshly desires are easily resisted? The type of fruit that you produce will answer these questions for you.

In God's service, for His glory,

Romans 7:4 – Free to Bear Fruit

Posted on February 9, 2018 by Will

So, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may belong to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, so that we might bear fruit to God.

Truth to Learn

We have been set free so that we can bear fruit for God.

Behind the Words

Just as in the previous verse the word for “married” does not appear in the Greek text. A literal translation of that portion of the verse would be “for you to become another's,” or as we have translated it, “that you may belong to another …” More than implying the marriage relationship, it implies ownership. We belong to Him who was raised from the dead.

“Bear fruit” is translated from karpophoreō, which is made up of karpos, meaning “fruit” and a form of pherō, meaning “to bring” or “to bear.”

Meaning Explained

There are some who believe Paul is saying that the husband in this imagery is really the Law which is now dead. Because the Law is dead, we as Christians are free to marry another, which is Christ. Whereas that would parallel the previous verse and would demonstrate that we are no longer under obligation to the Law since it is now dead, that is not what Paul is saying.

In the current verse we see that Paul says we have become dead to the Law, not that the Law has become dead. His reason for using this imagery is to show that death causes a cessation of the bonds of law. If you re-read the first 11 verses of the previous chapter, you will see that it is our death to sin that Paul is talking about.

Romans 6:1-11 What shall we say then? Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so also we should walk in newness of life. For if we have been joined together in the likeness of His death, so also will we be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been set free from sin. And if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has lordship over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. In this way you also, reckon yourselves to be truly dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When we were saved we were made dead to sin, being released from bondage to it. That bondage came from the Law to which all belonged (i.e. we were married to it). Now that we have been made dead to sin, we are no longer bound to try to obtain righteousness through the Law. Instead, as Paul has already said, we have received the gift of righteousness, not because we earned it but because it has been given to us by God.

Application

We are no longer under the Law. We do not have to obey all the rules to be acceptable to God. We are acceptable to God because of the blood of Christ. Therefore our works (fruit) are not the source of our righteousness, but are to be the result of our having been declared righteous.

In God's service, for His glory,

Romans 7:3 – Free to Remarry

Posted on February 8, 2018 by Will

So then if, while the husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband should die, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.

Truth to Learn

We are no longer bound to obey the Law just as a woman is no longer bound to her marriage vows when her husband dies.

Behind the Words

The word translated “adulteress” is moichalis, which means “a woman who is unfaithful to her husband.” In other words, it means “a married woman who engages in sexual activity with anyone other than her husband.”

The words “marries” and “married” do not actually appear in the Greek text. The first part of this verse literally reads, “so, then, the husband being alive, an adulteress she shall be called if she should become another man's.” In the culture of the first century, a woman was a man’s property very much like a slave was his property. That’s not the way our society views it, however, so we have paraphrased the text at this point to make the verse more understandable to us.

Meaning Explained

God does not approve of divorce any more than He approves of stealing or coveting. He never intended for divorce to happen because marriage is a picture of the relationship between Christ and His church. He has told us that He will never leave us nor forsake us. In other words, He will never divorce us. However, let me ease the mind of those of you who are divorced. God does forgive divorce just as He forgives any sin. Divorce does not make you any less a Christian than a brother or sister who has committed any other sin, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Now, having said that, let me repeat that God does not approve of divorce. So the metaphor that the Apostle Paul is using here is a picture of how God feels about the relationship between a man and a woman and about the relationship between Christ and the church. Paul says that if a woman is divorced from her husband and remarries, she is committing adultery. We need to take notice, however, that Paul is not teaching about divorce in this passage. He is teaching about being bound by the law just as a woman is bound to her husband until one of them dies.

Back in Romans 6:6, 7 Paul introduced the idea that before we were saved, we were under bondage to our sin nature (our old man). And, he told us that our sin nature was crucified with Christ when we were saved. He now uses the metaphor of marriage to show that when our sin nature was crucified, we became free to join ourselves to another, that is, to Christ.

That’s what Paul is referencing when he says, if a woman’s husband dies she is no longer bound by the marriage obligation and she is free to remarry. Death breaks the legal bond in a marriage and death breaks the bond that the Law had on us. Therefore, since we died to sin and the Law when we were saved, we are no longer under the obligation to obey the Law.

Application

There are numerous churches today that add so many rules and laws above and beyond what is taught in Scripture that the members become enslaved to the church. That’s not the way that God intended it. Thanks be to God for making us free!

In God's service, for His glory,

Romans 7:2 – To Obey or Not

Posted on February 7, 2018 by Will

For the married woman is bound by the law to the husband while he lives. But if the husband should die, she is set free from the law of the husband.

Truth to Learn

Salvation releases us from the requirements of the Law.

Behind the Words

The words “married woman” are translated from two Greek words; hupandros gunē. The word gunē means “a woman” and is often translated as “a wife.” The word hupandros is made up of hupo, meaning “under” and andros, meaning “a man,” though often translated as “husband.” Literally, hupandros means “under a man.” We see, then, that these two words refer to a woman who is under a man. In other words “a married woman.”

Meaning Explained

In the previous verse Paul said that the Law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. The implication is that he is freed from the law when he dies. He now carries that implication to the marriage relationship. Just as the man was under the dominion of the Law while he was alive, his wife is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But when he dies, the dominion of the law ceases for him as well as for his wife. She is now set free from the wedding bond and is free to marry another.

In the same way, as long as we were alive to sin we were bound by law to obey sin. But now that we have died to sin (when we were saved) we are no longer bound by that law, and we are free to be married to another, namely Christ.

You see, the early Christians, particularly those who were raised in the Jewish religion, did not yet understand that they were no longer obliged to obey the Law. They were trapped in a system that was trying to impose the restrictions of the Law on every believer. The point that Paul will get to in the next chapter is:

But the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)

When we got saved, we died to sin and to the requirements of the Law. We no longer have to fulfill the Law in order to obtain righteousness because God has imputed that righteousness to us as a free gift. Does that mean that we can live a lawless life because we are no longer under the dominion of sin? Paul would say, “No way!” What he will show us in this and the next chapter, is that we are actually under a higher law, a law of voluntary obedience to our new master and husband, Jesus Christ. We can choose to obey or not to obey.

Application

That’s the difference between a sinner and a saint. The sinner has no choice; since he is not able to obey God, he can only obey his or her sin nature. There are some Christians who get hung-up on free will, refusing to believe that God chose us, as Paul teaches. In reality, unsaved sinners don’t have a free will because they are slaves to the sin nature. Saints (born again Christians) do have a free will and that is the free will to obey God or not.

Which do you choose?

In God's service, for His glory,

Romans 7:1 – Our Savior, Our Husband

Posted on February 6, 2018 by Will

Or do you not know, brothers (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has Lordship over a man as long as he lives?

Truth to Learn

Christians are in a marriage relationship with Jesus Christ.

Behind the Words

The word translated “brothers” is adelphos, which is made up of a, denoting unity and delphus, meaning “a womb.” Literally it means those who have come from the same womb. In the New Testament it is used metaphorically of all Christians.

The Greek word translated “has lordship” is kurieuō, which we looked at a couple of times in chapter six (verses 9 and 14). It is the verb form of kurios, meaning “master, lord, or owner.” Thus, kurieuō refers to “lordship or ownership.”

Meaning Explained

In the previous chapter, Paul told us that sin should not have lordship over us because we are not under the Law but under Grace (Romans 6:14). When we got saved, we died to sin and now we live to God as our new ruler. In this chapter he will tell us why we are still affected by the Law even though we are not under obligation to it.

The metaphor that he used in the previous chapter was that of the master-slave relationship. In actuality, it is more than a metaphor because God is the Master of all creation and all things are in subjection to Him. In this chapter he uses a different metaphor, the marriage relationship. And once again, it is more than a metaphor, because those of us who are saved are declared to be the Bride of Christ.

Paul now shows how this new relationship is related (or not, as the case may be) to the Law. He starts out this section of his letter with another rhetorical question. He uses the question as an attention grabber. He says that he is speaking to those who know the Law. This certainly would apply to any Roman Christian who had been converted from the Jewish religion. All Jews know the Law. So when he asks, “Are you ignorant, brothers, that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?” the answer is clearly, “No, I’m not ignorant of that fact!” He will talk more about the marriage relationship in the next few verses.

We moved from a master-slave relationship with God to a marriage relationship when we were saved. Marriage is a picture of the intimate relationship that God wants to have with each one of us. One of my favorite proofs of this comes from the book of Proverbs. In Proverbs 3:5,6 we are told:

trust in Jehovah with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

The word translated “acknowledge” is the Hebrew word yawdah, which means “to know someone relationally and intimately.” It is the same word translated as “knew” in Genesis 4:1:

And Adam knew Eve his wife. And she conceived and bore Cain …

Therefore, we could translate Proverbs 3:6 as, “In all your ways become intimately familiar with God, and He will make your paths straight.” That’s what God wants from each and every one of us who is a born again Christian; He wants an intimate relationship with us!

Application

Do you want God to direct your paths? If so, then you need to have an intimate personal relationship with Him? That requires a lot of effort on your part.

In God's service, for His glory,

Romans 6:23 – Free Eternal Life

Posted on February 5, 2018 by Will

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Truth to Learn

God offers all of us a free gift of inestimable value.

Behind the Words

The Greek word translated “wages” is opsonia, which is the plural form of opsonion. This word is a compound word made up of opson, which means “meat” and a form of oneomai, which means “to buy.” According to The Complete Word Study Dictionary, “It primarily signifies whatever is bought to be eaten with bread, provisions, or supplies from a soldier's pay. Metaphorically, it means general wages, recompense.” It is what a soldier has earned for being a soldier.

“Gift” is translated from charisma, which means “a gift of grace or an undeserved benefit.” In the New Testament, this word is only used in reference to an undeserved gift or favor from God.

The Greek for the gift that God gives us is, Zoe aionios. Zoe is the word for “life” and aionios means “belonging to the continuance of time.” In other words, it means “perpetual, everlasting, or eternal.”

Meaning Explained

This verse is one of the pinnacles of Paul’s teaching in the Book of Romans. It is the second step in what has been called “The Romans Road,” the road to salvation. The first is found in Romans 3:23:

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Now, after having talked at length about the fact that we used to be slaves to sin, Paul has just taught us that we are now the slaves of God. We learned that when we were slaves to sin, we were dead (separated from God).

In this verse Paul tells us why we were dead when we were the slaves to sin. He says:

For the wages of sin is death,

Paul is saying that death is what we earned for our sin (and we worked hard for it!). But, Paul says, God does not pay us what we have earned if we have received His gracious gift through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. Instead of giving us what we deserve (what we’ve earned), God gives us a free gift that we don’t deserve (and didn’t earn).

If you stop to think about it, there is no greater gift that God could possibly give to us than an eternal existence with Him. The one constant in this earthly existence is the fact that we all will die physically someday and we will be separated from our earthly body. But because of this marvelous gift that God has given us, we will continue our existence in His presence in a heavenly body. We will join with all of our loved ones who have likewise received God’s gift, and together we will glorify God for eternity.

Application

God offers a free gift to all who will believe and that gift is eternal life! Wow!

Do you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the price for your sins? I certainly hope so!

In God's service, for His glory,