(RASV-1901)

ROMANS CHAPTER 7

  This next segment must be considered by keeping both God’s visible dispositions and God’s invisible dispositions in an operative state. That is, the man and his wife are clearly in a visible state, but the death spoken of here "you also were made dead" is a part of the invisible state. Just as the "oldness of the letter" is observing the natural and visible, and the "newness of the spirit" is observing the spiritual and is a part of the invisible:  

  ROMANS 7—“Or are you ignorant, brethren (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long a time as he lives? 2For the woman that has a husband, is bound by law to the husband while he lives; but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband. 3So then if, while the husband lives, she be joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be joined to another man.
  4Wherefore, my brethren, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ; that you should be joined to another, even to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God.
5For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were through the law, worked in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 6But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter."

  (aaron-Since these first six verses are speaking about both the visible [the wife and husband divorce scenario in verses 1-3] and the invisible [the brethren who were made dead to the law in verse 4], we must now attempt to discover this most difficult teaching. The first challenge from Paul is to his Christian brethren’s ignorance-as he is speaking these difficult teachings only to those “who know the law”. He is using the law on divorce to possibly explain the supernatural John 5:24-25; 11:25 [to live on-zao] principal. Life and death are being presented here on both the natural and the supernatural planes. That is, the law of divorce is being considered on the natural plane, while the death of the brethren to the law in this instance is speaking from the supernatural perspective. What is most clear from this teaching, is the fact that the unbelieving wife can divorce her living husband, who has been made dead to the law through the regenerative power of God, without the further condemnation of being called an adulteress.)

  (aaron-Then examining sin and the law:)

  "7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Howbeit, I had not known sin, except through the law: For I had not known coveting, except the law had said, you shall not covet.
  8But sin, finding occasion, worked in me through the commandment all manner of coveting. For apart from the law sin is dead. 9And I was alive apart from the law once. But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. 10And the commandment, which was unto life, this I found to be unto death. 11For sin, finding occasion, through the commandment beguiled me, and through it slew me. 12So that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.

  13Did then that which is good become death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good; --that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful. Amen!

  (aaron-By recognizing the death that is attached to sin, this passage has outlined the process that is involved in the crucifying of the flesh.)

  14For we know that the law is spiritual: But I am carnal, sold under sin. 15For that which I do, I do not fully understand: For the things I approve, I do not practice; but the things I hate, that I do. 16But if I do what I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. 17So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. 18For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not. 19For the good that I approve, I do not do: But the evil which I would not do, that I practice. 20But if I do what I would not do, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21I find then the law, that, when I desire to do good evil is present with me. 22For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

  23But I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. 24O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?

  25I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I of myself with the mind, indeed, serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."

  (aaron-This is essentially defining the visible characteristics of our natural side in opposition to the invisible characteristics of our spiritual side: Temptations /or concupiscence that each and every one of God’s peoples must continually struggle against within themselves.)