Romans 7
(1) The Law Only Rules Before Death
Fellow Christians who are familiar with the law, don’t you realize that the law only governs us for as long as we are alive? The law binds a married couple together for as long as they live, but if the husband dies, the wife is released from the law. If the wife were to join with another man while her husband was still alive, then she’d be called a cheater. But if the husband were to die, then she wouldn’t be enslaved to the law any more—and she wouldn’t be a cheat for joining with another man.
(3) Law Doesn’t Rule Those Who Died with Jesus
As far as the law is concerned, believers were put to death through Jesus’s body, so now we can join to The One who has been awakened from the dead and produce fruit for God. While we were in the flesh, our corrupted affections were aroused by the law and worked in our body parts to produce fruit for death. But now we’ve been released from the law—we used to be bound to it, but now that we’ve died to it, we can serve in newness of the Spirit instead of the oldness of the document.
(7) The law itself is good even though it exposes corruption
So does that mean that the law is corrupt? No way! On the contrary, the law is what showed me what corruption is. For example, I wouldn’t have thought twice about covering if the law wouldn’t have said,
“You must not covet.”
—Exodus 20:17
After hearing that commandment, corruption seized its opportunity and produced all kinds of coveting within my heart. See? Corruption is actually dead without the law. Before the law came, I used to be alive, but after the law came, corruption came to life, and I died. That command in the law was supposed to propel me toward life, but it actually propelled me toward death. Corruption hijacked the law’s command and used it to trick me and kill me. So we can conclude that the law is pure, upright, and good.
(13) Corruption Uses the Law to Produce Death
But even though the law is supposed to be good, wasn’t it the cause of my death? No way! Corruption was the cause of my death, and it brought death through something good—which shows just how utterly corrupted it really is.
(14) Corruption lives inside of me, producing evil
We know that the law is spiritual, but my fleshly self, has been sold into slavery to corruption. I don’t understand what I’m working towards: instead of doing what I want to do, I find myself doing the very things I hate. When I find myself doing the things I don’t want to do, I’m actually agreeing with the law and admitting its correctness. I’m not even the one working towards these evil things—it’s corruption living inside of my flesh. I have the desire to do good inside of me, but I don’t do it. Instead of producing the good things that I want, I end up engaging in the evil that I don’t want. If I’m producing the thing I don’t want, then I’m not the one working towards it—corruption is, which lives inside of me.
My flesh serves corruption & my mind serves God
I find that evil exists inside of me even though I want to do good. I gladly agree with God’s law on the inside, but I see a different law in my limbs. The law in my fleshly body wages war against the law in my mind, and holds me hostage. I’m such a miserable person! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thank God through Jesus the Chosen One, our leader. On one hand I am serving God’s law with my mind, but on the other hand, my flesh serves the law of corruption.