1 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 commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his 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.
For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also?
Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.
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:-