Bible Study Romans 7
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Romans 7 · WEB

Released from the Law, Wrestling with Sin

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Or don't you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives?
2For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband.
3So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man.
4Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might produce fruit to God.
5For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law worked in our members to bring forth fruit to death.
6But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.
7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn't have known sin, except through the law. For I wouldn't have known coveting, unless the law had said, "You shall not covet."
8But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead.
9I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
10The commandment, which was for life, this I found to be for death;
11for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.
12Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.
13Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, was producing death in me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful.
14For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin.
15For I don't know what I am doing. For I don't practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do.
16But if what I don't desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good.
17So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.
18For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don't find it doing that which is good.
19For the good which I desire, I don't do; but the evil which I don't desire, that I practice.
20But if what I don't desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.
21I find then the law that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present.
22For I delight in God's law after the inward man,
23but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.
24What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?
25I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve God's law, but with the flesh, the sin's law.
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Summary

Paul illustrates the believer's relation to the law through marriage: a woman is bound to her husband while he lives, but his death frees her to be joined to another. So believers, having died to the law in Christ, are now joined to him to bear fruit for God. The law itself is holy, righteous, and good, but sin used it as an opportunity to deceive and kill — when the commandment "do not covet" came, sin sprang to life in Paul's experience. Then Paul describes a tortured inner conflict: knowing the law is good, but finding himself unable to do the good he wants and doing the evil he hates; delighting in God's law in his inner self but seeing a contrary law warring in his members. The cry "Who will deliver me from this body of death?" finds its answer: "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

Themes

  • Death to the law through Christ
  • The law's goodness in spite of sin's manipulation of it
  • Sin as an indwelling power, not just an act
  • The honest experience of moral struggle
  • Christ as the only deliverance

Key verses

  • Romans 7:12 — “The law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.”
  • Romans 7:18 — “For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing.”
  • Romans 7:24-25 — “What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!”
  • Romans 7:6 — “Now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.”

Context & background

Written c. AD 56-57 from Corinth. The marriage analogy (vv. 1-6) hinges on the obvious legal principle that death ends the binding power of a marriage covenant — Paul applies it in a slightly compressed way to argue that we have died to the law in Christ. The famous "I" passage (vv. 14-25) is one of the most debated in Paul's letters: is he describing his pre-Christian Pharisaic struggle, his current Christian experience, a representative "I" for humanity under the law, or some combination? Most likely Paul is using a representative voice that includes himself as a believer who still feels the pull of indwelling sin — the wrestle is real, but it is the wrestle of someone who delights in God's law in the inner self (v. 22), which is not the experience of an unregenerate person. The shift to clear pneumatology in chapter 8 (the Spirit not mentioned at all in 7:7-25) suggests Paul is intentionally restricting the discussion here to the law-flesh dynamic. The phrase "body of this death" (v. 24) may allude to a punishment in which a corpse was tied to a criminal — a vivid picture of the believer's continued attachment to fallen flesh.

Cross-references

  • Exodus 20:17 — "You shall not covet" — the commandment Paul singles out in v. 7.
  • Galatians 2:19-20 — "Through the law I died to the law, that I might live to God" — the marriage analogy compressed.
  • Galatians 5:17 — "The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh" — parallel experience.
  • Philippians 3:9 — Paul's longing for the righteousness that comes "not of my own from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ."
  • Psalm 119:97 — "Oh how I love your law!" — the delight in God's law that v. 22 describes.

Check your reading

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  1. Observe

    What analogy does Paul use in Romans 7:1-4 to explain the believer's release from the law?

  2. Observe

    In Romans 7:24-25, Paul cries "What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" What answer does he immediately give?

  3. Interpret

    Romans 7:7-12 insists the law is "holy, righteous, and good," yet it led to Paul's death. How can a good law produce death?

  4. Interpret

    In Romans 7:18-19, Paul writes "the good which I desire, I don't do; but the evil which I don't desire, that I practice." What does this reveal about sin as a power rather than merely bad choices?

  5. Apply

    Romans 7:24 — "What a wretched man I am!" — is one of the most honest expressions of personal spiritual struggle in the Bible. What does Paul model by naming this struggle rather than hiding it?

  6. Apply

    Romans 7:6 says believers now serve "in newness of the Spirit, and not in oldness of the letter." What practical difference does this make between Spirit-motivated obedience and rule-keeping?

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