‏ Romans 7

* Believers are united to Christ, that they may bring forth

fruit unto God. (1-6) The use and excellence of the law. (7-13)

The spiritual conflicts between corruption and grace in a

believer. (14-25)

1-6 So long as a man continues under the law as a covenant, and

seeks justification by his own obedience, he continues the slave

of sin in some form. Nothing but the Spirit of life in Christ

Jesus, can make any sinner free from the law of sin and death.

Believers are delivered from that power of the law, which

condemns for the sins committed by them. And they are delivered

from that power of the law which stirs up and provokes the sin

that dwells in them. Understand this not of the law as a rule,

but as a covenant of works. In profession and privilege, we are

under a covenant of grace, and not under a covenant of works;

under the gospel of Christ, not under the law of Moses. The

difference is spoken of under the similitude or figure of being

married to a new husband. The second marriage is to Christ. By

death we are freed from obligation to the law as a covenant, as

the wife is from her vows to her husband. In our believing

powerfully and effectually, we are dead to the law, and have no

more to do with it than the dead servant, who is freed from his

master, has to do with his master's yoke. The day of our

believing, is the day of being united to the Lord Jesus. We

enter upon a life of dependence on him, and duty to him. Good

works are from union with Christ; as the fruitfulness of the

vine is the product of its being united to its roots; there is

no fruit to God, till we are united to Christ. The law, and the

greatest efforts of one under the law, still in the flesh, under

the power of corrupt principles, cannot set the heart right with

regard to the love of God, overcome worldly lusts, or give truth

and sincerity in the inward parts, or any thing that comes by

the special sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit. Nothing

more than a formal obedience to the outward letter of any

precept, can be performed by us, without the renewing,

new-creating grace of the new covenant. 7-13 There is no way of coming to that knowledge of sin, which

is necessary to repentance, and therefore to peace and pardon,

but by trying our hearts and lives by the law. In his own case

the apostle would not have known the sinfulness of his thoughts,

motives, and actions, but by the law. That perfect standard

showed how wrong his heart and life were, proving his sins to be

more numerous than he had before thought, but it did not contain

any provision of mercy or grace for his relief. He is ignorant

of human nature and the perverseness of his own heart, who does

not perceive in himself a readiness to fancy there is something

desirable in what is out of reach. We may perceive this in our

children, though self-love makes us blind to it in ourselves.

The more humble and spiritual any Christian is, the more clearly

will he perceive that the apostle describes the true believer,

from his first convictions of sin to his greatest progress in

grace, during this present imperfect state. St. Paul was once a

Pharisee, ignorant of the spirituality of the law, having some

correctness of character, without knowing his inward depravity.

When the commandment came to his conscience by the convictions

of the Holy Spirit, and he saw what it demanded, he found his

sinful mind rise against it. He felt at the same time the evil

of sin, his own sinful state, that he was unable to fulfil the

law, and was like a criminal when condemned. But though the evil

principle in the human heart produces sinful motions, and the

more by taking occasion of the commandment; yet the law is holy,

and the commandment holy, just, and good. It is not favourable

to sin, which it pursues into the heart, and discovers and

reproves in the inward motions thereof. Nothing is so good but a

corrupt and vicious nature will pervert it. The same heat that

softens wax, hardens clay. Food or medicine when taken wrong,

may cause death, though its nature is to nourish or to heal. The

law may cause death through man's depravity, but sin is the

poison that brings death. Not the law, but sin discovered by the

law, was made death to the apostle. The ruinous nature of sin,

and the sinfulness of the human heart, are here clearly shown. 14-17 Compared with the holy rule of conduct in the law of God,

the apostle found himself so very far short of perfection, that

he seemed to be carnal; like a man who is sold against his will

to a hated master, from whom he cannot set himself at liberty. A

real Christian unwillingly serves this hated master, yet cannot

shake off the galling chain, till his powerful and gracious

Friend above, rescues him. The remaining evil of his heart is a

real and humbling hinderance to his serving God as angels do and

the spirits of just made perfect. This strong language was the

result of St. Paul's great advance in holiness, and the depth of

his self-abasement and hatred of sin. If we do not understand

this language, it is because we are so far beneath him in

holiness, knowledge of the spirituality of God's law, and the

evil of our own hearts, and hatred of moral evil. And many

believers have adopted the apostle's language, showing that it

is suitable to their deep feelings of abhorrence of sin, and

self-abasement. The apostle enlarges on the conflict he daily

maintained with the remainder of his original depravity. He was

frequently led into tempers, words, or actions, which he did not

approve or allow in his renewed judgement and affections. By

distinguishing his real self, his spiritual part, from the self,

or flesh, in which sin dwelt, and by observing that the evil

actions were done, not by him, but by sin dwelling in him, the

apostle did not mean that men are not accountable for their

sins, but he teaches the evil of their sins, by showing that

they are all done against reason and conscience. Sin dwelling in

a man, does not prove its ruling, or having dominion over him.

If a man dwells in a city, or in a country, still he may not

rule there. 18-22 The more pure and holy the heart is, it will have the

more quick feeling as to the sin that remains in it. The

believer sees more of the beauty of holiness and the excellence

of the law. His earnest desires to obey, increase as he grows in

grace. But the whole good on which his will is fully bent, he

does not do; sin ever springing up in him, through remaining

corruption, he often does evil, though against the fixed

determination of his will. The motions of sin within grieved the

apostle. If by the striving of the flesh against the Spirit, was

meant that he could not do or perform as the Spirit suggested,

so also, by the effectual opposition of the Spirit, he could not

do what the flesh prompted him to do. How different this case

from that of those who make themselves easy with regard to the

inward motions of the flesh prompting them to evil; who, against

the light and warning of conscience, go on, even in outward

practice, to do evil, and thus, with forethought, go on in the

road to perdition! For as the believer is under grace, and his

will is for the way of holiness, he sincerely delights in the

law of God, and in the holiness which it demands, according to

his inward man; that new man in him, which after God is created

in true holiness. 23-25 This passage does not represent the apostle as one that

walked after the flesh, but as one that had it greatly at heart,

not to walk so. And if there are those who abuse this passage,

as they also do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction,

yet serious Christians find cause to bless God for having thus

provided for their support and comfort. We are not, because of

the abuse of such as are blinded by their own lusts, to find

fault with the scripture, or any just and well warranted

interpretation of it. And no man who is not engaged in this

conflict, can clearly understand the meaning of these words, or

rightly judge concerning this painful conflict, which led the

apostle to bemoan himself as a wretched man, constrained to what

he abhorred. He could not deliver himself; and this made him the

more fervently thank God for the way of salvation revealed

through Jesus Christ, which promised him, in the end,

deliverance from this enemy. So then, says he, I myself, with my

mind, my prevailing judgement, affections, and purposes, as a

regenerate man, by Divine grace, serve and obey the law of God;

but with the flesh, the carnal nature, the remains of depravity,

I serve the law of sin, which wars against the law of my mind.

Not serving it so as to live in it, or to allow it, but as

unable to free himself from it, even in his very best state, and

needing to look for help and deliverance out of himself. It is

evident that he thanks God for Christ, as our deliverer, as our

atonement and righteousness in himself, and not because of any

holiness wrought in us. He knew of no such salvation, and

disowned any such title to it. He was willing to act in all

points agreeable to the law, in his mind and conscience, but was

hindered by indwelling sin, and never attained the perfection

the law requires. What can be deliverance for a man always

sinful, but the free grace of God, as offered in Christ Jesus?

The power of Divine grace, and of the Holy Spirit, could root

out sin from our hearts even in this life, if Divine wisdom had

not otherwise thought fit. But it is suffered, that Christians

might constantly feel, and understand thoroughly, the wretched

state from which Divine grace saves them; might be kept from

trusting in themselves; and might ever hold all their

consolation and hope, from the rich and free grace of God in

Christ.