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Romans

Romans 7 – Freedom From the Law

Published since 02. Dec. 2025
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Romans 7
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The opening words of chapter 7 take us back to verses 14 and 15 of the previous chapter, where the apostle clearly stated that the believer is not under law but under grace. Around this point, a tremendous controversy had raged, as the book of Acts shows—especially Acts 15.

That issue was officially settled at Jerusalem with regard to Gentile believers: they were not to be placed under the law. But was the matter just as clear when Jewish believers were concerned?

It was obviously not at all clear to the Jewish believers themselves. Acts 21:20 proves that. It was therefore very necessary for Paul to make the matter absolutely clear and definite; this is why he returns to the subject at the beginning of this chapter. The words in brackets in verse 1 show that he is now speaking especially to his Jewish brothers. They alone “knew the law” in the proper sense. Gentiles might know about it as observers from the outside; Israel knew it from the inside, having been placed under it. This comment of Paul’s gives us an important key to the chapter and shows from what standpoint things are viewed.

The first six verses of this chapter are doctrinal: they explain how the believer is delivered from the bondage of the law and brought into a relationship with Christ. From verse 7 onward, the passage becomes intensely experiential. The workings of the law in the heart and conscience of a person who fears God are described. We are given insight into the experiences produced by the law, which, in the end, prepare the believer for the deliverance found in Christ and in the Spirit of God. It is striking that, throughout chapter 7, the Holy Spirit is not mentioned once, whereas in chapter 8 He is mentioned more often than in perhaps any other chapter of the Bible.

Paul starts from the well-known fact that the law has authority over a person as long as he lives. Only death brings that authority to an end. This is seen clearly in the divine law of marriage, as stated in verses 2 and 3.

The same principle applies in spiritual things, as verse 4 tells us, although it does not apply in the same way. The law is pictured as the husband, and we who believe are pictured as the wife. But it is not that death has come upon the law; rather, we have died. Verse 4 is clear about that. Verse 6 seems, in our usual translation, to say that the law has died, but the correct reading is given in the margin of reference Bibles: not “that being dead,” but “having died to that.” The two verses fully agree.

We have died to the law “by the body of Christ.” This may seem obscure at first. Paul is referring, we believe, to what was involved in our Lord taking the body prepared for Him—becoming a Man. He took that body in order to suffer death, so “the body of Christ” here is used to signify His death. It is the same way of speaking as in Colossians 1:22, where we are said to be reconciled “in the body of His flesh through death.”

We have died out from under the law’s authority in the death of Christ. In this way, our relationship to the first “husband”—the law—has ended. But this is all with a view to bringing us into a new relationship under the risen Christ. Every Jew found the old husband—the law—stern and unbending, a kind of “wife-beater,” though they had to admit they fully deserved what they suffered. We Gentiles can hardly imagine what a relief it was when a converted Jew discovered that he was now under Christ and not under law. “Married” to Christ risen from the dead, the standard set before him was higher than anything under law, but now there flowed from Christ an unlimited supply of grace and power, so that fruit for God became possible. As Husband, Christ is the fountainhead of all support, guidance, comfort, and power.

How striking the contrast in verse 5! The verse names four things that go together: flesh, law, sins, and death. In the past, the law was imposed on a people “in the flesh.” The result was that it simply stirred up the sin that always lies hidden in the flesh. Consequently, the “passions of sins” were aroused, and death followed as God’s judgment. “Flesh” here does not mean our physical bodies, but the fallen nature that operates in and through our bodies. Every unconverted person is “in the flesh,” meaning the flesh dominates and characterizes their state. But notice that for believers this belongs to the past. Paul says, “When we were in the flesh.”

Another contrast meets us in verse 6: “When we were … But now.” Having died with Christ, we are not only dead to sin, as chapter 6 taught us, but also dead to the law and therefore delivered from it. We can now serve God in an entirely new way. We not only do new things; we do them in a new spirit. In the previous chapter, we read of “newness of life” (v. 4). Here, we read of “newness of spirit.”

In Old Testament times, some people turned from lives of recklessness and sin to the fear of God—Manasseh, king of Judah, for example, in 2 Chronicles 33:11-19. You might say that during the last years of his reign, he walked in “newness of life.” Yet he could only serve God under the principles and practices of the law system. It was impossible for him to serve in newness of spirit. To see service in newness of spirit, we must look at a converted Jew of this present age of grace. That man may once have tried to serve God in the spirit of strict law-keeping; now he discovers himself to be a son and heir of God in Christ Jesus, and he serves in the spirit of a son with a Father—a completely new spirit.

An employer may assign a task to two men, one of them his own son. If the son has any sense of his relationship, he will approach the work in a very different spirit from that of a hired servant. Our illustration would be even closer if we imagined a wife serving her husband’s interests. Delivered from the law by death—the death of Christ—we are joined to the risen Christ in order to serve God fruitfully, in a new spirit.

Teaching like this clearly brings Christ into prominence and puts the law into the background. Does this in any way cast blame on the law? Does it suggest that there was something wrong with it? This question is taken up in verses 7–13, and it is made absolutely clear that the law was perfect as far as it went. The problem was not with the law but with sin, which rose against the law, used the law as an opportunity, and was condemned by the law at the same time.

Verse 7 shows how the law exposes and condemns sin. Before the law came, we sinned but did not realize how sinful we were. As soon as the law spoke, we discovered the truth about ourselves, just as a plumb line reveals how crooked a leaning wall is, so the law exposed us.

Yet it was sin—not the law—that caused the damage, as verse 8 says; though sin disguised itself somewhat by springing into activity whenever it was confronted with a specific command from the law. The very fact that we were told not to do something stirred us up to do it!

So, in fact, the law affected us in two ways. First, it stirred sin into action. It drew a line and forbade us to cross it. Sin immediately stirred us to step over it. Second, once we had stepped over it, the law pronounced the sentence of death on us. The law indeed presented life, saying, “Do this, and you will live.” But as a matter of fact, all it ever did with regard to us was to condemn us to death, since we completely failed to do what it commanded. These two effects of the law are summarized at the end of verse 9: “Sin revived, and I died.”

Given this situation, no blame falls on the law, which is “holy, and just, and good.” Sin, not the law, is the guilty party. Sin worked death, though it was by the law that the sentence was announced. Sin was at work even before the law was given, but once the law was there, sin had no excuse, and its defiance became outrageous. “Sin, through the commandment, became exceedingly sinful,” as verse 13 says.

We have now reached the part of the chapter where the apostle speaks in the first person singular. In verses 5 and 6, it was “we, we, we.” From the question in verse 7 onward, it is “I, I, me, I.” This is because he now speaks from experience, and where experience is involved, each must speak for himself.

The opening words of verse 14 might seem an exception, but they are not. It is a fact that “the law is spiritual,” and that is not a matter of experience; it is stated as something we know. In contrast to that stands what “I am,” and this has to be learned painfully by experience: “carnal, sold under sin.”

How do we learn what we are? By making a sincere effort to meet the spiritual demands of the law. The more earnest we are, the more deeply the lesson is burned into our souls. We discover our sinfulness by trying to be good.

Let us recall what we learned in chapter 6, for there we were shown the way. Realizing by faith that we are identified with Christ in His death, we understand that we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God, and therefore yield ourselves and our members to God for His will and pleasure. Our souls agree that this is right and proper, and we say to ourselves—perhaps with considerable enthusiasm—“Exactly! That is what I am going to do.”

We attempt to do it, and immediately receive a very unpleasant shock. Our intentions are excellent, but we lack the power to carry them out. We see what is good and mentally approve it, but fail to do it. We recognize and disapprove of the evil, yet we are trapped by it. It is a very distressing and humiliating condition, described in verse 19.

In verses 14–23, the words “I,” “me,” and “my” appear over and over. “I” occurs no fewer than 24 times; “me” and “my” together 10 times. The person speaking is clearly describing a period when he was completely absorbed in himself. His thoughts continually turned inward. This is not surprising, for it is exactly the normal effect of the law on an awakened and conscientious soul. As we examine these verses, we see that this experience led to valuable discoveries:

  1. He learned by experience the good and holy character of the law.
    It is good, as verse 12 says—“holy and just and good.” He can now say, “I agree with the law that it is good” (v. 16).
  2. He learned by experience his own fallen condition:
    not only “carnal” but “sold under sin.” Anyone who is so overpowered that he continually does what he hates and fails to do what he desires, and is forced to disown his own actions (v. 15), is clearly enslaved. We are like slaves sold in the market to a cruel master—“sold under sin.”
  3. He learned to distinguish between the “new nature” and the flesh.
    Verse 17 shows this. He recognizes that there is a real “I” connected with the new nature, and an “I” or “me” (the flesh) that he must repudiate as the old nature.
  4. He learned the true character of that old nature.
    If it is a matter of “me”—that is, the flesh—“nothing good dwells” there, as verse 18 says. Good is simply not present. It is useless to look for it. Some of us have spent long months or years trying to find good in a place where it does not exist.
  5. He learned that the new nature (the “inward man”) gives no power by itself.
    The inward man delights in God’s law (v. 22). His mind agrees that the law is good. But there is another, stronger force working in his members that enslaves him (v. 23).

What a heartbreaking condition! Some of us know it bitterly enough. Others are tasting it now. And if anyone has never known it at all, there is reason to be alarmed, for it raises the question whether that person has yet received a new nature. If there is nothing but the old nature, such conflicts and struggles cannot exist.

These exercises, however, are very valuable because they prepare the soul for the joy of a deliverance that God Himself gives.

As we come near the end of chapter 7, it is important to notice that the word “law” is used in two senses. Most of the time, it means the law of God given through Moses. But in verses 2 and 3 we read of “the law” of a husband; in verse 21, “a law”; in verses 23 and 25, “another law,” “the law of my mind,” and “the law of sin.” In these cases, the word clearly means a power or principle that acts consistently in a given way—much as we speak of “the laws of nature.”

If we re-read those verses, substituting “controlling force” for “law,” we may see more clearly what Paul is saying. Take verse 23. The controlling force in each of us should be our mind: our body should be kept in the place of a servant. This should be especially true for those whose minds have been renewed by God. But sin exerts a controlling force in our members. We have to face—and learn by experience—the terrible fact that, if left to ourselves, sin proves the stronger force, takes control, and holds us captive.

No wonder the apostle, remembering this, cries in anguish, “O wretched man that I am!” We, too, know something of this wretchedness, surely. Have we never felt like a miserable seagull soaked from head to tail in filthy oil discharged from passing ships? The natural “law” of its wings and the air has been overwhelmed by the horrible “law” of sticky oil. Who will deliver it? It has no power in itself. Unless someone takes hold of it and cleanses it, it must die.

Verse 24 contains not only the anguished cry, but a very important question: “Who will deliver me?” The form of the question matters. Earlier, while he was going through the struggle described in verses 14–19, his question would have been, “How shall I deliver myself?” He was still looking for something within himself that could do the work, but was looking in vain. Now he is beginning to look outside himself for a deliverer.

When not only our self-confidence but even our self-hope has been shattered, we have taken a great step forward. Then we inevitably begin to look outside ourselves. At first, we may look in the wrong places, still hoping for “help.” But sooner or later, we discover that what we need is not help, but deliverance—a positive rescue by a power outside ourselves. Then, very soon, we find the answer to our cry: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Deliverance is ours through Him. He is just as able to deliver us from the slavery of sin as He is to save us from the guilt of our sins.

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