ROM_AdNotes_12

The Law and Our Savior – Romans 7:1-6

Up to this point in Romans, Paul has clearly explained our need for salvation in Christ and the victory over sin and death that comes through faith in Him. No longer mastered by sin or trying to earn God’s favor, believers are freed from sin’s vice grip and declared righteous in Christ. Romans 7 further clarifies the truth summed up in Romans 6:14: “For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.” Believers are to count themselves dead to sin but alive to God. Romans 6 explains the truth about a believer’s position—free from sin’s mastery. Romans 7 describes the practical reality of a believer’s ongoing battle with indwelling sin.

Paul anticipated questions from his readers in Rome, particularly those from a Jewish background who greatly honored God’s law. Does faith in Christ make the law worthless? Is God’s law a burden or a blessing? Paul already proved that the law cannot justify us. Now, he declares the law also cannot sanctify or enable us to live rightly for God. Life in Christ requires power beyond the limits of the law. Christ sets believers free from the law to grow to be like Him.

The Law’s Limits – 7:1-3

The Premise (7:1) – First, Paul asked a question to lay down an important truth: “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 raised a self-evident truth. We are only subject to laws while we are alive; no one can require dead people to do anything. Most essentially, Paul was referring to God’s commands given to Israel through Moses, which incorporate the Ten Commandments1 and more—God’s righteous ways for humanity. God’s righteous and holy commands reflect God, who is Himself righteous and holy, and His good plans for relationship with His people.

The Illustration (7:2-3) – Because Paul’s opponents protested that the gospel negated the law, he gave a simple analogy from marriage to support his premise. A widow is no longer legally bound to her deceased husband but is free to remarry. The new marriage relationship does not violate but supports marriage laws. Similarly, the gospel fully upholds God’s law. Christians have died to the law to be united to Jesus Christ. They are born anew in Christ. God freely justifies all who have faith in Jesus, who Himself died to the law for sinners.2 Salvation in Christ satisfies the law’s demands and at the same time releases believers from dependence upon the law for victory it cannot provide.

A New and Better Way – 7:4-6

Only a new relationship with Christ allows anyone to bear fruit for God. Marriage to the law, the “old husband,” cannot produce the righteousness God requires. Believers belong to Christ, who rose from the dead to deliver them from the realm of the flesh and sinful passions that lead only to death. Dying to the law does not free the believer to practice what the law forbids. Rather, the law cannot condemn anyone who trusts in Christ for salvation.

Now, released from the law, believers no longer serve in the flesh. The powerful Greek word sarx, translated in verse 5 as “flesh,” has several possible meanings:

Physical life in a human body3
All humanity4
The sinful desires that oppose the Holy Spirit5

According to the third use of this word, the flesh seeks its own desires, while the Spirit wants what God wants. What does “flesh” mean in Romans 7:5? Paul seems to be referring to the sinful desires all humans inherited from Adam. Unbelievers live in the realm of the flesh, but believers no longer live there. Paul will explain this concept throughout Romans 7 and 8.6

Verse 6 opens with two remarkable words: “But now.” Released from serving the flesh, believers now serve in the new way of the Spirit. Paul masterfully used these deceptively simple words throughout his letter to highlight major changes for believers:

“But now” God has provided righteousness apart from the law. (Romans 3:21)
“But now” a believer is no longer bound by slavery to sin but willing slavery to God.
(Romans 6:22)
“But now” a believer has died to the law, the old way, to serve God in a new way. (Romans 7:6)

Believers are spiritually opposed to God before they are made alive in Christ.7 Resenting God’s law, rebellious and unredeemed hearts stir up sinful thoughts and actions. Paul explained that Christ releases people to respond to the Spirit rather than trying to earn God’s favor through a written code of behavior. Believers are not what they once were. By God’s grace, the Holy Spirit brings spiritual life to those who trust in Christ for salvation.

The Holy Spirit’s Transforming Work

The Doctrine of Sanctification

Two important words, “justification” and “sanctification,” frame a believer’s experience in life and position before God. When sinners receive God’s gift of salvation through faith in Christ, they are justified—declared not guilty or righteous before God. Believers’ position in Christ is secured by His perfect righteousness, not their own. Sanctification refers to the Holy Spirit’s ongoing work within believers to make them more and more like Jesus.1 Through sanctification, justified believers’ daily practices mature and more closely align with their God-given position in Christ. In this process, God forms His righteousness within us.

Set apart as God’s children, believers are led and equipped by the Holy Spirit to live in a way that glorifies God.2 A redeemed believer experiences a deep desire to please and obey God, rather than rebel against Him.3 The Holy Spirit convicts the believer, not just of general sinfulness but of specific sin, leading to repentance. By God’s power, not their own, believers’ thoughts are taken captive to become obedient to Christ, and their actions follow.4 Romans 7 describes Paul’s own internal battle to overcome sin and yield to the Spirit. Believers surrender to the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work to lead them forward in obedient faith. Though delivered from sin’s dominating control, growing believers battle sin’s residual presence while they walk on earth. The process of sanctification and the ongoing battle with sin make God’s people long for the full, eternal deliverance He has promised.5

Failing to understand or believe in the Holy Spirit’s ongoing sanctification means missing God’s purifying purposes woven into daily life. Difficult circumstances seem unexplainable rather than purposeful, prompting attempts to find escape or distraction. Even a believer saved by grace can wrongly rely on self-effort as a means to obedience, rather than depending on the Holy Spirit’s power.

Sanctification is God’s work. God does not leave the people He saves without resources to obey Him. Just as we cannot justify ourselves, neither can we sanctify ourselves. God’s own Spirit indwells His children, giving them the desire and power to walk faithfully with Him. While life brings difficult seasons of struggle and pain, the direction a believer walks should be increasingly toward obedience and surrender to God. Maturing believers increasingly recognize and hate sin’s presence in their motives, thoughts, appetites, and actions. By God’s power alone, the Holy Spirit roots out sin, allowing God’s children to love obeying Him. If your battle with sin discourages you, look for God’s sanctifying work within you. As a believer delivered from sin’s dominion, how will you yield to God’s patient and loving work—molding you to reflect Him to the world?

1. Conformed into image of Jesus: Romans 8:29
2. Living for God: Romans 8:14; 12:1-2; Galatians 5:16
3. Desire to obey God: Psalm 119:32; Romans 6:17
4. Obedience to Christ: John 14:15; 2 Corinthians 10:5; Philippians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:13-15
5. Eternal deliverance: Romans 7:24-25; 8:20-30; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 1 John 3:2; Revelation 21:1-4

The Law and Our Sin – Romans 7:7-13

Paul laid out his case—the law can neither justify nor sanctify. The law condemns but cannot save, give new life, or impart holiness. No one can be delivered from sin’s penalty by the law. Paul, sensitive to the objections his readers might raise, asked a rising question: “What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful?” Paul answered his own question by exclaiming, “Certainly not!” How then is God’s law good? With himself as an example, Paul explained three primary things the law accomplishes.

Sin Revealed – 7:7

The law reveals or defines sin. Even when people realize they have done wrong, they do not label the wrong as “sin” or recognize their offense against God. The law teaches us the ways we violate God’s righteous standards. Paul gave a personal example. He would not have known what coveting was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”8 God’s law made Paul realize he longed for things God had not intended for him. Apart from God’s law, we too could not accurately assess our sinfulness.

Sin Provoked – 7:8

The law provokes the sinfulness already rooted in our hearts. Sin takes advantage of every opportunity. How often do you feel a surge of rebellion when you receive a command or restriction? From two-year-olds testing their parents’ commands to adults who hate restrictions placed on their choices, rules and commands spark a desire to rebel. How can this be good? Paul’s personal example helps us understand his point: “But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.” The law allows us to realize how weak and vulnerable we are—so easily gripped by sin’s impulses. We learn that we desire the very things the law forbids. The law shows us sin’s strength, even using God’s good law to promote evil. Sin has wedged rebellion deep within the human heart.

Sinfulness Exposed – 7:9-13

By God’s grace, the law also allows us to understand how truly sinful we are. We need to understand sin’s embedded presence in our hearts. Paul, who had considered himself scrupulously obedient to the letter of the law, had wrongly assumed God’s approval.9 But a moment came when the commandment caused Paul’s sin to spring to life, and he faced the reality of his evil desires. The commands God intended for flourishing life revealed the death at work within Paul. Jesus’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount explains the law’s original and true intent—not external compliance to rules but hearts and motives that please God.10 Paul stated that sin seized the opportunity God’s commands presented and deceived him. Despite Paul’s attentive external commitment to the law, he ultimately realized his inability to do what the law commanded, and he died to the law. Through his encounter with his Savior and the sanctifying work of Jesus in his new life—including a new, redeemed, and proper perspective of the law—Paul experienced God’s grace.11

Despite the sin the law unveils, Paul declared God’s law as holy, righteous, and good. God’s standards help us realize that sin is indeed sinful—in opposition to God Himself. The law does not make us more sinful but, by God’s grace, reveals how sinful we are. When we realize our hopelessly sinful condition, we seek refuge. We find rescue, not in greater effort to keep laws we cannot obey, but in confessing our sin to God and seeking salvation in our sinless Savior. Believers in Christ need constant exposure to God’s righteous standards in His Word as they grow in their faith and obedience.

The Law and Our Struggle – Romans 7:14-25

In the second half of Romans 7, Paul described a fierce internal struggle against sin. He described a battle so intense that Christians have long debated what period in Paul’s life this portrays. The stark depiction here leads some to believe Paul spoke of himself before his conversion. This passage provokes challenging questions. Would a true believer describe himself as “unspiritual” or a “slave to sin”?12 But Paul also stated that his failure to fulfill the law’s demands distressed him. Do unbelievers really wrestle to obey God’s law?

Another view sees this struggle as representing an immature or weak Christian striving to surrender to God. Does Paul’s repeated use of personal pronouns “I,” “me,” “my,” or “myself” suggest self-focus? Certainly, there is no hope of obeying God apart from the Holy Spirit’s power and new life in Christ.

These notes interpret this passage as expressing the ongoing conflict with sin that any true believer experiences while living in this world. Paul used present tense verbs beginning in verse 14, rather than the past tense verbs in the previous verses, likely indicating a current struggle in his life as he wrote. Before trusting in Christ, people are fatally ruled by sin. But now, in Christ, believers have been delivered from the control of the flesh—sin’s death grip on their bodies and minds. Belonging to Him, they now fight a war they cannot lose, even as the flesh still rears its ugly head while they await the full consummation of their salvation. A love and desire for God and His ways bring joyful, faithful obedience. Because the old, sin-loving self is buried and gone forever, growing believers hate and battle sin.

Though dethroned, the inborn urge toward self-will and sin still pulls on a believer. While unbelievers must recognize their sinfulness to turn to Christ for salvation, believers mature as they yield to God and turn from sin. Only through the Holy Spirit can any sinner live in Christ’s victory over sin’s power. Paul’s brutal honesty helps explain the internal war all believers face as they increasingly turn from sin and yield to the Holy Spirit.

Real Battle – 7:14-23

Paul offered a series of statements that reflected the reality in his heart as he measured himself against God’s righteous standards. In a series of laments that culminate in a heart-rending wail, Paul expressed his internal battle with sin and his need for deliverance.

“I Am Unspiritual, Sold As a Slave to Sin” (7:14-17) – Paul had already declared that the law was good.13 He could not blame the problem he faced on the law, which is spiritual. The law expresses divine standards that he desired but could not fully meet. Deeply disturbed, Paul recognized a war within his own heart that he could not fully understand. He hated the things he wanted to do and blamed the sin living with him for his tainted desires. Paul was not absolving himself of responsibility but recognizing sin’s lingering and painful presence in his heart.

Wrestling Against Sin (7:15-23) – Paul’s sinful tendencies clashed against the holy desires within him. In transparent honesty, Paul confessed that nothing good came from his sinful nature: “For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” Certainly, Paul did some good things in obedience to God and in response to the Holy Spirit. He viewed remaining sin as abhorrent and loved righteousness. The more we know of God, the more clearly we recognize sin’s deep roots within us. “And if I do what I do not want to do,” Paul continued, “I agree that the law is good.” In light of God's righteousness and perfect Word, we still commit sins we detest, even as our hearts long to obey God.

As a child of God through faith in Christ, Paul’s new nature desired to please and surrender to God. His inner being delighted in the guidance and wisdom of God’s law. Yet sin remained a relentless foe. “So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me,” Paul said. “For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.” Only through God’s power can a believer crucify their sinful nature and actively respond as a new creation in Christ. Positionally, a
believer stands wholly redeemed and righteous in Christ. Yet, as saved people walk through life in this world and live in bodies that still desire sin, an internal battle rages. A lingering appetite for sin challenges our love for God and His ways. No one can live a righteous life in their own strength but only in the Holy Spirit’s power. Indeed, the desire to wage war against sin offers evidence of salvation.

Real Victory – 7:24-25

A Wail of Anguish (7:24) – Paul’s vivid description of his fierce internal battle rises to an agonizing crescendo. Paul loved God passionately and mourned his sin deeply. We can almost feel and hear the deep pain in his cry, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” Believers long to be delivered from sin forever and anticipate that victory, yet the sins harbored within our hearts will not be fully overcome in this life. Our motives will never be entirely pure, and our thoughts stray into treacherous places. While we can see spiritual growth over sinful habits in our past, our appetite for sin is all too easily aroused. Sometimes, we are so used to sin’s presence in and around us that we neglect to mourn its lingering footing in our hearts.

A Cry of Gratitude (7:25) – If reading Paul’s honest laments leaves you troubled, allow his burst of thanksgiving to give you hope. Paul almost explodes with these glorious words: “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” The battle with sin rages, but God alone gives the victory we long for. Though dead to the law’s condemnation, Paul continued to battle sin. Believers belong to Jesus even as they struggle against sin. God’s children develop a healthy distrust of the sin remaining within them and an ever-deepening gratitude for God’s power to deliver them from sin.

Take to Heart

Hold Fast

Paul explained that God’s law, while good and righteous, can neither justify the sinner nor sanctify the believer. God declares believers new creations in Christ.14 Romans 7 describes the power of sin and the limits of the law. God delivers sinners who come to faith in Christ from sin’s dominion. They belong to Him. However, believers struggle against sin and will do so until they draw their last breath. And while God’s children battle sin, Jesus has won the battle on their behalf!

Paul’s description of his internal battle against sin has made some wonder if a redeemed believer could struggle as he described. However, maturing believers in Christ become increasingly aware of sin’s lingering impulses and deeply desire to please and obey God. The Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work within believers exposes sin and empowers obedience, a daily battle ultimately won only in God’s strength. Paul’s woeful cry about the sin that still enticed him led to a sincere gasp of thanksgiving that Christ had delivered him from sin’s ultimate control. God’s children continue to war against sin but rejoice in the victory God promises.

Apply It

Romans 7 heralds a believer’s position—alive in Christ and dead to the law. God’s moral law reflects His character and good plans for human flourishing but also defines righteous standards to which sinners cannot rise. Paul’s explanation of the law’s purpose helps us. How do God’s righteous standards help you realize God’s holiness, the depth of sin within you, and your utter need for a Savior? When you trust in Christ for salvation, God sets you free from trying to earn His favor in your own strength. For the first time, we are able not to sin! As we walk through life with faith in God and depend on the Holy Spirit, we grow increasingly aware that we need Christ’s righteousness, which He has graciously provided for us. In fact, when we battle with sin’s remaining pull within us, we join Paul in joyful thanksgiving for Jesus Christ and His saving work on our behalf. If you are a believer who grows weary of battling sin, how are you helped to know Christ has triumphed on your behalf?

The Christian life is glorious, but it is not easy. Sometimes new believers question their salvation as they awaken to a battle with sin they previously had not experienced. Faith in Christ calls us into a Spirit-empowered struggle against sin. The very fact we struggle reminds us to whom we belong. We triumph by God’s grace and through His power, not our strength. Our war against sin is hard, but good. How else would we understand sin’s foothold in our life and properly value Christ’s sacrifice? As we seek to follow God and overcome sin’s pull on our flesh, we lean into the Lord as the solution to our brokenness. What does your ongoing battle with sin reveal to you? How quickly do you turn to the Lord for rescue, power, and strength to stand against temptation?

The battle Paul described in Romans 7 prepares us for his declaration in Romans 8:1: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” The battle we wage on earth anticipates a glorious outcome that is settled and secure. The fact that God increasingly reveals our sinfulness and how much we need Him offers further evidence of His boundless grace. How thankful are you when God reveals your sin? A child of God will desire the things of God, even while sin still beckons. How deeply do you love what God loves and hate what He hates? In what ways does victory over the flesh and active obedience to God give you joy? Does your ongoing battle with sin make you passionately long for eternity, when God fully completes what your position in Christ delivers? The depth and wonder of salvation in Christ cannot be reduced to a short conversation but will occupy our praise for all eternity! Christ’s work in salvation means believers will never face sin that overturns their position in Christ. We are great sinners, but we have a great Savior!

1. Ten Commandments: Exodus 20:1-17
2. Died to the law: Galatians 2:19-21
3. Flesh as physical life: John 1:14; Galatians 2:20
4. All people: 1 Peter 1:24
5. Flesh and the Spirit: Galatians 5:17
6. Inborn sinful desires: Romans 7:14, 18, 24; 8:3-5, 8-9, 12-13
7. Opposed to God: Romans 5:10; 8:7
8. Do not covet: Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21
9. Paul’s resume: 2 Corinthians 11:18-30; Philippians 3:3-11
10. Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 5:21-49
11. Paul’s new life, perspective: Acts 9:1-31
12. Slave to sin: Romans 6:17-18
13. The law is good: Romans 7:7, 12-13
14. New in Christ: 2 Corinthians 5:17

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