BOOK 45 OF 66 · PAULINE EPISTLES · KING JAMES BIBLE

Romans 7

Romans book home•Chapter 7 of 16•25 verses

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Romans 7 Overview

Paul uses marriage law as an illustration that death changes legal obligation: believers have become dead to the law by the body of Christ so they may belong to the risen One and bear fruit to God. He defends the law as holy, just, and good while explaining how sin uses the commandment to expose and intensify coveting. The chapter then portrays a profound conflict between delight in God’s law and the power of sin in the members, ending with the cry for deliverance and thanks to God through Jesus Christ.

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Before you read Romans 7

Coming from

Paul rejects the idea that grace gives believers permission to continue in sin. Those baptized into Jesus Christ are identified with His death and raised to walk in newness of life. Believers are told to reckon themselves dead to sin and alive to God, refuse sin’s reign, and yield their members to God. They are not under law but under grace, yet grace does not authorize sin. The chapter ends by contrasting sin’s wages—death—with God’s gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In this chapter

Romans 6 explained freedom from sin’s mastery and life under grace. Romans 7 now addresses the believer’s changed relationship to the Mosaic law and the inability of law alone to produce holiness.

Leads into

Romans 8 answers the struggle with no condemnation in Christ, the indwelling Spirit, adoption, suffering and future glory, God’s sovereign purpose, and unbreakable security in His love.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The marriage illustration is about jurisdiction: death changes the binding legal relationship. Paul’s point is not to give a complete marriage/divorce doctrine in this paragraph.

Interpreters debate whether verses 14–25 describe Paul as an unbeliever under law, a believer struggling with indwelling sin, or a rhetorical representation. The text clearly teaches that law is good, sin is the problem, and deliverance ultimately comes through Jesus Christ rather than self-effort.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Believers are released from the law’s condemning jurisdiction to serve Christ

The goal is fruit unto God and service in newness of spirit.

The law is not sin

God’s command exposes sin but does not create moral evil.

Sin exploits good commandments

The problem lies in sin’s deceitful use of what is holy.

Knowing the good is not enough to perform it

The chapter exposes the bankruptcy of self-reliant moral effort.

Deliverance is found in Christ

The cry ‘Who shall deliver me?’ is answered with thanksgiving through Jesus Christ.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Exodus 20:17

Paul uses the command against coveting as his concrete example of law exposing inner sin.

Romans 6:14

The prior statement that believers are not under law but under grace frames this chapter.

Romans 8:1–4

The next chapter answers the conflict with no condemnation and Spirit-enabled fulfillment.

Galatians 3:19–25

Paul elsewhere explains the law’s temporary disciplinary role and its inability to give life.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not call the law evil

Paul repeatedly says the commandment is holy, just, good, and spiritual.

Do not make law-keeping the solution to the problem the chapter says law cannot solve

The answer is Christ and, in chapter 8, the Spirit.

Do not force one disputed interpretation of verses 14–25 as if no serious alternatives exist

State the shared theological conclusions clearly while acknowledging the debate.

Do not use the marriage illustration to answer every possible marriage question

Paul’s immediate subject is death changing legal jurisdiction.

Read Romans 7 watching for…

The purpose of the marriage illustration.

The phrase ‘dead to the law by the body of Christ.’

Paul’s defense of the law’s goodness.

The example of coveting.

The repeated conflict between willing and doing.

The final cry and answer concerning deliverance.

Chapter outline3 sections

1-6Death releases a person from the law’s binding claim, and believers are joined to Christ to bear fruit unto God 7-13The law is holy and exposes sin, which uses the commandment to work death 14-25Paul describes the conflict of wanting good while sin works in the flesh and thanks God for deliverance through Jesus Christ

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

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.

For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.

Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

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.

For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

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.

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

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.

STUDY THIS VERSE

Romans 7:20

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