Romans 7
Scofield Reference Notes
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?
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.
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.
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.
Margin married

joined. Eph 5:31, same Greek word. Bride (of Christ). 2Cor 11:1-3 Jn 3:29 Rev 19:6-8.

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.
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.
[1] newness

Cf. Rom 2:29 2Cor 3:6. "The letter" is a Paulinism for the law, as "spirit" in these passages is his word for the relationships and powers of new life in Christ Jesus. In 2 Cor. 3. a series is presented of contrast of law with "spirit," of the old covenant and the new. The contrast is not between two methods of interpretation, literal, and spiritual, but between two methods of divine dealing: one through the law, the other through the Holy Spirit.

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.
Margin sin

Sin. See Scofield Note: "Rom 3:23".

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

Sin. See Scofield Note: "Rom 5:21".

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

The passage (vs 7-25) is autobiographical. Paul's religious experience was in three strongly marked phases:

(1) He was a godly Jew under the law. That the passage does not refer to that period is clear from his own explicit statements elsewhere. At that time he held himself to be "blameless" as concerned the law Phil 3:6. He had "lived in all good conscience" Acts 23:1.

(2) With his conversion came new light upon the law itself. He now perceived it to be "spiritual" (Rom 7:14). He now saw that, Song far from having kept it, he was condemned by it. He had supposed himself to be "alive," but now the commandment really "came" (Rom 7:9) and he "died." Just when the apostle passed through the experience of Rom 7:7-25 we are not told. Perhaps during the days of physical blindness at Damascus Acts 9:9, perhaps in Arabia Gal 1:17.

It is the experience of a renewed man, under the law, and still ignorant of the delivering power of the Holy Spirit Rom 8:2.

(3) With the great revelations afterward embodied in Galatians and Romans, the apostle's experience entered it third phase. He now knew himself to be "dead to the law by the body of Christ," and, in the power of the indwelling Spirit, "free from the law of sin and death" Rom 8:2 while "the righteousness of the law" was wrought in him (not by him) while he walked after the Spirit Rom 8:4, Romans 7. is the record of past conflicts and defeats experience as a renewed man under law.

Margin sin

Sin. See Scofield Note: "Rom 5:21".

And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
Margin sin

Sin. See Scofield Note: "Rom 5:21".

Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
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.
Margin sin/sinful

Sin. See Scofield Note: "Rom 5:21".

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

Cf. 1Cor 3:1,4. "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 1Cor 2:14 as "spiritual" designates the renewed man who walks in the Spirit 1Cor 3:1 Gal 6:1.

Margin sin

Sin. See Scofield Note: "Rom 5:21".

For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
[2] I do I allow not

The apostle personifies the strife of the two natures in the believer, the old or Adamic nature, and the divine nature received through the new birth 1Pet 1:23 2Pet 1:4 Gal 2:20 Col 1:27. The "I" which is Saul of Tarsus, and the "I" which is Paul the apostle are at strife, and "Paul" is in defeat. In Chapter 8, this strife is effectually taken up on the believer's behalf by the Holy Spirit Rom 8:2 Gal 5:16,17 and Paul is victorious.

Contra, Eph 6:12 where the conflict is not fleshly, but spiritual.

If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Margin sin

Sin. See Scofield Note: "Rom 5:21".

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.
For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Margin sin

Sin. See Scofield Note: "Rom 5:21".

I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
[3] law

Six "laws" are to be distinguished in Romans: The law of Moses, which condemns Rom 3:19 "law" as a principle Rom 3:21 the law of faith, which excludes self-righteousness Rom 3:27 the law of sin in the members, which is victorious over the law of the mind Rom 7:21,23,25 the law of the mind, which consents to the law of Moses but cannot do it because of the law of sin in the members Rom 7:16,23 and the "law of the Spirit," having power to deliver the believer from the law of sin which is in his members, and his conscience from condemnation by the Mosaic law. Moreover the Spirit works in the yielded believer the very righteousness which Moses' law requires Rom 8:2,4.

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
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.
Margin sin

Sin. See Scofield Note: "Rom 5:21".

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Margin from the body

Or, out of this body of death. Rom 8:11 1Cor 15:51,52 1Th 4:14-17.

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.
Margin sin

Sin. See Scofield Note: "Rom 5:21".

Scofield Reference Notes by Cyrus Ingerson Scofield [1917]

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