Released from the Law
Study note
Paul uses the illustration of a married woman who is bound to her husband while he lives but freed upon his death. Similarly, believers have died to the law through the body of Christ, releasing them to belong to another -- the risen Christ. Under the old arrangement, sinful passions stirred up by the law produced fruit for death. But now, released from the law, believers serve in the new way of the Spirit rather than the old way of the written code.
1 My friends, you know the law well. So you understand this: the law only has power over a person while that person is alive. Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
2 Think about marriage: a married woman is tied to her husband by law for as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, the marriage law no longer applies to her. For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
3 If she goes to another man while her husband is alive, she would be called unfaithful. But if her husband dies, that law is done. She can marry someone else without doing anything wrong. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
4 It works the same way for you, my friends. Through what happened to Christ's body on the cross, you died to the law. Now you belong to someone new -- the one who came back from the dead -- so that together we can produce something good for God. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
5 Before, when we lived by our old nature, the law stirred up sinful desires inside us. Those desires produced things that led to death. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
6 But now we have been released from the law's hold. We died to what used to trap us. So now we serve God in a fresh way through the Spirit, not in the worn-out way of following written rules. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
The Law and the Knowledge of Sin
Study note
Paul defends the law against the charge that it is sinful. The law itself is holy, righteous, and good, but it exposed the reality of sin within. Paul recounts how the commandment 'You shall not covet' awakened every kind of desire in him. Sin seized the opportunity through the commandment, using what was good to produce death. The law's role is diagnostic: it reveals the full extent and severity of sin without providing the cure.
7 Does this mean the law itself is sinful? Of course not! But the law is what showed me what sin looks like. I would never have known what it means to want something that belongs to someone else if the law had not said, 'Do not want what is not yours.' What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
8 But sin saw its chance and used that rule to wake up every kind of wrong desire inside me. Without the law, sin has no power. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
9 There was a time when I lived without knowing the law, and everything seemed fine. But once I understood the commandment, sin came alive and I was the one who died. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
10 The very rule that was supposed to show me how to live pointed me toward death. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
11 Sin found its opportunity through the commandment. It tricked me and used the commandment to kill me. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
12 So make no mistake: the law itself is holy, and the specific commandment is holy, right, and good. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
13 Was then that which is good made death to me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good -- that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
The Inner Conflict of Sin
Study note
Paul describes the agonizing struggle between the desire to do good and the inability to carry it out consistently. He delights in God's law in his inner being, but another law in his body wages war against his mind, making him a prisoner of sin. This honest confession of internal conflict reaches its climax in the desperate cry, 'Who will rescue me from this body of death?' The answer comes immediately: deliverance is through Jesus Christ our Lord.
14 We all know the law comes from God's Spirit. But I am human, and sin has me on a leash. For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15 I am totally confused by my own actions. The things I want to do, I do not do. And the things I hate, those are exactly what I end up doing. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
16 When I do what I do not want to do, I am agreeing that the law is right and good. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
17 So it is not truly the true me doing these things. It is sin, which has set up camp inside me. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
18 I have learned the hard way that nothing good lives in my old sinful nature. I genuinely want to do what is right, but I cannot pull it off. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
19 The good things I plan to do, I never get around to doing. The bad things I promised myself I would stop, I keep on doing. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
20 When I keep doing what I do not want to do, it proves that it is not the real me in charge. Sin living inside me is running the show. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
21 So this is the pattern I keep finding: every time I want to do something good, evil is there waiting for me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
22 Deep down in my soul, I love what God's law says. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23 But I see a different force at work in my body. It fights against what my mind knows is right and takes me prisoner to sin's power that is active in my body. 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 I am miserable! Is there anyone who can pull me out of this battle with death? O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25 Thank God -- the answer is Jesus Christ our Lord! So here is where I stand: in my mind, I want to follow God's way. But my old sinful nature keeps dragging me back toward sin. 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.