Romans 7
Read:
Reflect:
I find Romans 7 very difficult to understand, and at the very same time, I can completely empathize with the interior conflict Paul describes. I find this so frustrating!!!! I feel like I am missing something critical, and don’t have the means to find understanding.[1] (Interestingly, Paul seems to feel this same frustration when it comes to the law. It shows him the way to God, but not the means to fulfill it[2]. Agggh!)
Rules are critical to a civilized world[1].
When/Why have you found rules (the law) to be helpful?
When/Why have they been unhelpful? How does God - through Jesus Christ and the gift of the Spirit - allow you to rise above the power of sin? (This is a lifetime question – and when you get close to figuring it out, humbly, write a book.)
[1] Maybe because of our yearning for civilization, we always want to raise up law as the savior. Today, good and holy concerns about Social Justice is the example. Social justice eclipses the true savior. Social justice is good, and wonderful, but it’s not enough. Regardless of our laws we still and will always have abuses of power.
[1] So, what I do with these passages like this is PRAY! (a lot more than usual). Then, I read the troublesome passage in different versions moving from more literal translations (think of these translations as attempting to be faithful to the author – translating the original language with word for word equivalents) to more dynamic translations (think of these translations as attempting to be more helpful to today’s reader. Translating the original language idea for idea). The danger with dynamic translations (sometimes called paraphrases) is that the translators of those versions make a ton of interpretive decisions for you. That’s why I always start with the literal versions. My path for this work is to start with NRSV (RSV & ESV are also good starting texts) then NIV then The Message.
[2] I am pretty sure Paul is saying the Law is good, maybe wonderful, but it is not enough. The law distinguishes between what is good and what is sin, however, it does not supply the means to rise above sin. Jesus alone accomplishes this (the last verse).
[1] Elijah did not die, but was taken up by God into heaven (2 Kings 2:11) and only Elijah (of the prophets) and Moses (of the leaders) appeared with Jesus in the transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-3).
Lagniappe:
Jeremiah 31:31-34
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An Analogy from Marriage
7 Or do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only during that person’s lifetime? 2 Thus a married woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning the husband. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she belongs to another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she belongs to another man, she is not an adulteress.
4 In the same way, my brothers and sisters, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are enslaved in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the written code.
The Law and Sin
7 What then are we to say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived 10 and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.
13 Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin that was working death in me through what is good, in order that it might be shown to be sin, so that through the commandment sin might become sinful beyond measure.
The Inner Conflict
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin.[a] 15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17 But in fact it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that the good does not dwell within me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that, when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God[b] through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with my mind I am enslaved to the law of God, but with my flesh I am enslaved to the law of sin.