Scripture
Observation
Interpretation
Application
Rom 7:1-25 NKJV - 1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?
2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to [her] husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of [her] husband.
3 So then if, while [her] husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.
4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another--to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.
6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not [in] the oldness of the letter.
7 What shall we say then? [Is] the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet."
8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all [manner of evil] desire. For apart from the law sin [was] dead.
9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
10 And the commandment, which [was] to [bring] life, I found to [bring] death.
11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed [me].
12 Therefore the law [is] holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
13 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.
16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that [it is] good.
17 But now, [it is] no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but [how] to perform what is good I do not find.
19 For the good that I will [to do], I do not do; but the evil I will not [to do], that I practice.
20 Now if I do what I will not [to do], it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
25 I thank God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
1. We are born in sin and the law which tells us how to live rules over us and judges us.
2-3Example: Marriage - bound by law to spouse, but only until they die
4 When we submit to Christ to bear God's fruit, we are not under the curse and burden of the law.
5 We originally submitted to our fleshly passions and bore fruit to death.
6 We can now serve in the Spirit.
7 The law just showed me God's character and how I was failing.
8 Law showed me my sin - selfishness.
9 I was not aware of all my sin before the law.
10 law showed how far i was from God's character and so dead
11 I was deceived and dead to my relationship with God.
12 The law is holy - defines God's character
13 the Law then just showed death
14-18
The law is how I should live in the Spirit, but my body/flesh/carnal wants to live for myself.
19 - 24
I want to do what pleases God, but I end up doing what is comfortable to my flesh.
25-
mentally I seek to serve God
physically I still am drawn to seek physical comfort
Ch 6 Positional sanctification, Rom 6:1-10 Union with Christ in His death and resurrection is the basis of deliverance from sin. Practical sanctification, Rom 6:11-23 Obedience to God leads to the experience of deliverance from sin.
Ch7 Powerless sanctification
a. Shackles of a saved soul, vv. 1-14 Spiritual emancipation
b. Struggle of a saved soul, vv. 15-25 Civil war (No good in old nature, no power in new nature)
Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” Luke 23:34
I was dead when following the law, which defined the character of the goodness of God.
I now submit to God and the power of his Spirit, who has power of life to produce fruit in me.