The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Law” it comes from the Greek Word “nomos” which means “law.”
Paul gets remarkably honest about the ongoing struggle between wanting to do good and actually doing it. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Romans 7.
Paul uses the illustration of marriage law to explain that believers have died to the law, “nomos” in Greek, through Christ’s body, freeing them to belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, so they might bear fruit unto God rather than continuing under the law’s old way of the letter. He addresses whether the law itself is sinful, insisting it is not, “the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good,” though it made him fully aware of sin’s true nature, since he would not have known coveting was wrong without the commandment naming it directly.
Paul describes sin taking advantage of the very commandment meant to bring life, deceiving him and producing all kinds of coveting within him. He then delivers one of the most personally honest passages in the entire Bible, describing an internal battle every believer can relate to. “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. For I know that in me… dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.”
Paul describes this ongoing struggle vividly, delighting in God’s law according to his inward man, yet seeing another law in his members warring against the law of his mind, bringing him into captivity to the law of sin. He cries out in genuine anguish, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” before answering his own question with confident gratitude. “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” He summarizes his own experience honestly, that with his mind he serves the law of God, but with his flesh, the law of sin.
Paul’s raw honesty about his own ongoing struggle against sin, even as a mature apostle, offers real comfort to anyone who feels discouraged by their own repeated failures. The Christian life, according to Paul’s own testimony, was never presented as an instant escape from internal struggle, but as an honest, ongoing battle that ultimately points believers back toward their need for Christ.
Visit Us At: www.youtube.com/@BibleLifeBasics
Support Us On Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/BibleLifeBasics