Introduction
After showing in Romans 6 that we have died to sin and now live under Messiah’s reign, Paul turns to clarify our relationship to Torah. If we have died with Messiah, then we have also died to the Torah’s condemning jurisdiction – not because Torah is flawed, but because the sin filled hearts of man weakened its purpose.
Romans 7 exposes that tension: Torah is holy and good, yet powerless to change our heart posture- That can only come through fidelity to Messiah.
7:1 Or are you ignorant brothers- those indeed knowing Torah I speak- that laws rule over the man for as long as the time he is alive?
7:2 Indeed the married woman to the living husband is bound by Torah. If however should die the husband, she is discharged from the husband by Torah.
7:3 As follows, therefore, being alive the husband, an adulteress she will be called if she comes to a another man. If however should die the husband, freed she is from Torah so not to be an adulteress, coming to another man.
Paul’s point here is
- A law’s punishment only has power while a person lives
- Death releases someone from legal condemnation
7:4 Likewise my brothers, also you have been parted by death to Torah through the body of Messiah, having come to belong to another.
7:5 To the One out from the dead having been raised so that we should bear fruit to God.
The emphasis is not that Torah itself dies, but that death changes the relationship.
Paul explains that believers have “died” in Messiah- meaning their former covenantal standing under sin’s condemnation has ended. Torah itself is not portrayed as sinful or abolished.
Rather, through union with Messiah, believers are released from Torah’s role as a condemning authority and transferred into a new covenant relationship- where we are empowered to bear fruit:
Bearing fruit = Actions in life
Bearing fruit to God = walking in Obedience to His ways
- Deuteronomy 28:1-4
- Psalms 1:1-3, 92:12-14
- Isaiah 5:1-7
- Hosea 14:2-8
7:5 Indeed while we were in the flesh, the afflictions of sin that by reason of Torah were at work in our members to bear fruit unto death
Because Torah brings the knowledge of sin; not because Torah itself is sinful.
While we were in the flesh, sins which were brought to light by Torah were at work in our members, bearing fruit unto death- because the flesh rebels against God’s commands. The Torah exposes sin, defines it, and gives our flesh something to rebel against.
7:6 Now however we have been discharged from the Torah, having died to that which we were bound, in order to serve us in newness of Spirit and not in oldness of letter.
Since Paul has already said faith does not nullify the Torah (Romans 3:31), it would be strange for him to claim a few chapters later that believers have nullified or been released from the Torah itself without explanation; so we know that this is not what he is saying.
Notice the wording: “Having died to what we were bound“
What were we bound to?
Paul answers this throughout Romans 6, 7 and 8:
Before Messiah
- We were slaves of sin (Romans 6:17)
- Sin exercised dominion over us (Romans 6:14)
- The wages of sin was death (Romans 6:23)
So then it was not Torah we were bound to- but sin, which Torah identified.
The Letter vs the Spirit:
Letter – Physical Torah encountered through the flesh; external, without inner transformation
Spirit – Torah written on the heart, empowered from within (Jeremiah 31:33 , Ezekiel 36:27)
Through union with Messiah we die to the Torah’s condemning jurisdiction under sin, are joined to Messiah as our new covenant head (instead of Adam), and are finally able to bear fruit to God through Spirit-empowered obedience.
7:7 What then shall we say? “Is Torah sin?” Never may it be! But sin not I have known if not by reason of Torah. Indeed covetousness not I would be aware of if not Torah had said “Not you shall covet”.
7:8 An opportunity, however, having taken sin by the commands produced in me all covetousness. Indeed apart from Torah, sin is lifeless.
7:9 I however was alive separate from Torah. Once having come however the commandment, sin was revived then I died.
Paul is describing living in a state of unawareness, not yet under conscious guilt-
But once he knows the truth of Torah, he is condemned to his sin by knowledge of it (he being a Pharisee and previously believing that Jewish dogma was divine interpretation.)
7:10 And was discovered to me the command that was unto life was to death
7:11 Indeed the sin having taken opportunity by the commandment deceived me and by it put me to death
Torah has always been for the purpose of life- Deuteronomy 30:15-16
But, when a sin filled heart encounters Torah:
- The commands expose rebellion and guilt
- Self righteousness, pride, self justification and haughtiness abound
- The result is condemnation, not life
An easy analogy for this is to think of a speed limit sign:
- The sign exists to protect life- It doesn’t cause accidents, it prevents them
- But if someone ignores it, the sign becomes the evidence of guilt
- The sign isn’t to blame- the driver is
7:12 Therefore indeed Torah is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
7:13 Did that which is good then, become death? Never may it be! Rather, sin, so that it might be revealed as sin- was producing death in me through what is good, that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful.
7:14 We know indeed that Torah spiritual is. I however am fleshy, having been sold ( to be a slave) to sin
7:15 Indeed, I do not understand not indeed what I desire. This I do, but what I do i detest.
7:16 If on the other hand that which not I desire this I act on, I agree with Torah that it is good.
7:17 In that case now no longer I am doing it, but the sin dwelling in me
Paul is saying if Torah was evil, he would want to go against it-
But he wants to obey- and because he lives in a body of flesh, his failure actually proves Torah is good.
It is flesh that is the problem, and why we need the Spirit to guide us.
7:18 I know indeed that nothing there that dwells in my flesh is good. Indeed to desire is present with me, but to bring about the good is not
7:19 Indeed the good that I am willing, I do not bring about, but the evil I do not desire- that I practice.
7:20 If now what not I desire I bring about, [it is] no longer I who bring it about, but the sin dwelling in me
7:21 I find so the principle that desiring to bring about good, that evil is present within me
7:22 I delight indeed in God’s Torah according to the inward man
7:23 I see however another law in my members, warring against the Torah in my mind, and making me captive to the law of sin in my members.
Paul shows us how he wrestles between Torah- God’s standard of righteousness- and the sin in his flesh. He says “inward man” which calls back to the language in the promise of Jeremiah 31:
“Behold, the days come, says YHVH when I will cut an alliance with the house of Yisrael, and with the house of Judah – a berith chadash
Not berith chadesh that I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt which they violated- a berith though I was husband to them” says YHVH
“But likewise the covenant that I cut with the house of Yisrael after those days” says YHVH “I will set Torah in qereb and on leb write it; I will be their Elohim and they shall be My people.”
– Jeremiah 31:31-33
- berith- chadash: covenant- new
- Chadash in Hebrew: refers to repairing, freshening or renewing, and restoring
- it’s also the root of the word “chodesh” which is used for new month, or new moon as representing a cycle of renewal.
It doesnt mean “new” as in a completely new thing; it means restoration, or repair of something which is already in existence.
The “New Covenant” is the Sinai Covenant renewed- because it was broken by man- not a different one because it was flawed.
In the Hebrew understanding
- leb (heart) is not merely feeling- it is the seat of willpower, desire and decision-making.
- Qereb (mind) is literally ‘inward being’ ‘inner self’
So to have Torah written on the heart and mind means it is no longer external pressure, but internal conviction.
Instead of Torah being something imposed from outside, it becomes something sought from within- through empowerment of YHVHs Spirit.
“Written on the heart” means:
- You desire what He desires for you- to be holy
- You seek His ways because you love Him
- Obedience becomes alignment with God, not obligation.
7:24 O miserable man I am! Who will deliver me out from this body of death?
7:25 Thanks then to God through Yeshua Messiah our Lord! Therefore then myself I with this mind serve God’s Torah, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Paul shows us the struggle of the transition of dying to the flesh and our old ways and turning to YHVH’s ways:
- A believer who has been awakened by the Spirit yet is not fully transformed in practice
- But thanks to Gods we are empowered by Him to do so; if not we could not do it
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