5 For when we were in the flesh, the evil passions which came into being through the law were working in our bodies to give the fruit of death.
And do not give your bodies to sin as the instruments of wrongdoing, but give yourselves to God, as those who are living from the dead, and your bodies as instruments of righteousness to God.
What fruit had you at that time in the things which are now a shame to you? for the end of such things is death.
Everyone who is a sinner goes against the law, for sin is going against the law.
What is the cause of wars and fighting among you? is it not in your desires which are at war in your bodies?
Then when its time comes, desire gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is of full growth, gives birth to death.
For in the past we were foolish, hard in heart, turned from the true way, servants of evil desires and pleasures, living in bad feeling and envy, hated and hating one another.
For this reason keep it in mind that in the past you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are looked on as being outside the circumcision by those who have circumcision, in the flesh, made by hands;
Among whom we all at one time were living in the pleasures of our flesh, giving way to the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and the punishment of God was waiting for us even as for the rest.
Now the works of the flesh are clear, which are these: evil desire, unclean things, wrong use of the senses, Worship of images, use of strange powers, hates, fighting, desire for what another has, angry feelings, attempts to get the better of others, divisions, false teachings, Envy, uncontrolled drinking and feasting, and such things: of which I give you word clearly, even as I did in the past, that they who do such things will have no part in the kingdom of God.
But I say, Go on in the Spirit, and you will not come under the rule of the evil desires of the flesh. For the flesh has desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; because these are opposite the one to the other; so that you may not do the things which you have a mind to do.
Who has made us able to be servants of a new agreement; not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter gives death, but the Spirit gives life. For if the operation of the law, giving death, recorded in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the eyes of the children of Israel had to be turned away from the face of Moses because of its glory, a glory which was only for a time: Will not the operation of the Spirit have a much greater glory? For if the operation of the law, producing punishment, had its glory, how much greater will be the operation of the Spirit causing righteousness?
The pain of death is sin; and the power of sin is the law:
But I see another law in my body, working against the law of my mind, and making me the servant of the law of sin which is in my flesh.
What then is to be said? is the law sin? in no way. But I would not have had knowledge of sin but for the law: for I would not have been conscious of desire if the law had not said, You may not have a desire for what is another's. But sin, taking its chance through that which was ordered by the law, was working in me every form of desire: because without the law sin is dead. And there was a time when I was living without the law: but when the law gave its orders, sin came to life and put me to death; And I made the discovery that the law whose purpose was to give life had become a cause of death: For I was tricked and put to death by sin, which took its chance through the law. But the law is holy, and its orders are holy, upright, and good. Was then that which is good, death to me? In no way. But the purpose was that sin might be seen to be sin by working death to me through that which is good; so that through the orders of the law sin might seem much more evil.
I am using words in the way of men, because your flesh is feeble: as you gave your bodies as servants to what is unclean, and to evil to do evil, so now give them as servants to righteousness to do what is holy.
And the law came in addition, to make wrongdoing worse; but where there was much sin, there was much more grace:
Because by the works of the law no man is able to have righteousness in his eyes, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
For this reason God gave them up to evil passions, and their women were changing the natural use into one which is unnatural:
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Romans 7
Commentary on Romans 7 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 7
We may observe in this chapter,
Rom 7:1-6
Among other arguments used in the foregoing chapter to persuade us against sin, and to holiness, this was one (v. 14), that we are not under the law; and this argument is here further insisted upon and explained (v. 6): We are delivered from the law. What is meant by this? And how is it an argument why sin should not reign over us, and why we should walk in newness of life?
Rom 7:7-14
To what he had said in the former paragraph, the apostle here raises an objection, which he answers very fully: What shall we say then? Is the law sin? When he had been speaking of the dominion of sin, he had said so much of the influence of the law as a covenant upon that dominion that it might easily be misinterpreted as a reflection upon the law, to prevent which he shows from his own experience the great excellency and usefulness of the law, not as a covenant, but as a guide; and further discovers how sin took occasion by the commandment. Observe in particular,
Rom 7:14-25
Here is a description of the conflict between grace and corruption in the heart, between the law of God and the law of sin. And it is applicable two ways:-