We are released by Christ from the law and from the guilt of sin,
though the inclination to it still tempts us.
7:1. Know you not, brethren (for I speak to them that know the law)
that the law hath dominion over a man as long as it liveth?
As long as it liveth; ... or, as long as he liveth.
7:2. For the woman that hath an husband, whilst her husband liveth is
bound to the law. But if her husband be dead, she is loosed from the
law of her husband.
7:3. Therefore, whilst her husband liveth, she shall be called an
adulteress, if she be with another man: but if her husband be dead, she
is delivered from the law of her husband: so that she is not an
adulteress, if she be with another man.
7:4. Therefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law, by
the body of Christ: that you may belong to another, who is risen again
from the dead that we may bring forth fruit to God.
7:5. For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were by
the law, did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death.
7:6. But now we are loosed from the law of death wherein we were
detained; so that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the
oldness of the letter.
7:7. What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? God forbid! But I do not
know sin, but by the law. For I had not known concupiscence, if the law
did not say: Thou shalt not covet.
7:8. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all
manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
Sin taking occasion.... Sin, or concupiscence, which is called sin,
because it is from sin, and leads to sin, which was asleep before, was
weakened by the prohibition: the law not being the cause thereof, nor
properly giving occasion to it: but occasion being taken by our corrupt
nature to resist the commandment laid upon us.
7:9. And I lived some time without the law. But when the commandment
came, sin revived,
7:10. And I died. And the commandment that was ordained to life, the
same was found to be unto death to me.
7:11. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, seduced me: and by
it killed me.
7:12. Wherefore the law indeed is holy: and the commandment holy and
just and good.
7:13. Was that then which is good made death unto me? God forbid! But
sin, that it may appear sin, by that which is good, wrought death in
me: that sin, by the commandment, might become sinful above measure.
That it may appear sin, or that sin may appear, viz.... To be the
monster it is, which is even capable to take occasion from that which
is good, to work death.
7:14. For we know that the law is spiritual. But I am carnal, sold
under sin.
7:15. For that which I work, I understand not. For I do not that good
which I will: but the evil which I hate, that I do.
I do not that good which I will, etc.... The apostle here describes the
disorderly motions of passion and concupiscence; which oftentimes in us
get the start of reason: and by means of which even good men suffer in
the inferior appetite what their will abhors: and are much hindered in
the accomplishment of the desires of their spirit and mind. But these
evil motions, (though they are called the law of sin, because they come
from original sin, and violently tempt and incline to sin,) as long as
the will does not consent to them, are not sins, because they are not
voluntary.
7:16. If then I do that which I will not, I consent to the law, that it
is good.
7:17. Now then it is no more I that do it: but sin that dwelleth in me.
7:18. For I know that there dwelleth not in me, that is to say, in my
flesh, that which is good. For to will is present with me: but to
accomplish that which is good, I find not.
7:19. For the good which I will, I do not: but the evil which I will
not, that I do.
7:20. Now if I do that which I will not, it is no more I that do it:
but sin that dwelleth in me.
7:21. I find then a law, that when I have a will to do good, evil is
present with me.
7:22. For I am delighted with the law of God, according to the inward
man:
7:23. But I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of
my mind and captivating me in the law of sin that is in my members.
7:24. Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?
7:25. The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, I myself,
with the mind serve the law of God: but with the flesh, the law of sin.