Notes on Romans 7

It's easy to conclude, from a quick reading of Paul's letters, that the law was a bad thing.  After all, people could not be saved by it, and those who persisted in following it as a substitute for grace only succeeded in remaining in bondage.  In fact, though, the law of the commandments, the old covenant, remains the standard for behavior.  The only difference, and it's a vital one, is how obedience to the law is obtained under the old system versus the one instituted by Christ.  Under the law, compliance was a matter of individual effort, and, thus, always doomed to failure.  Under the system of grace, the capacity for obedience to God's laws comes from God himself, through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.

So long as we live under the old system, which is still in place for all the unsaved, we are under bondage to sin.  The law can only identify it, and condemn us for it, not deliver us out of it.  When we die to the flesh, when we are born again, we also die to the system under which the law convicts of sin, but does not redeem us from it.  The old way is driven by mortality and death; the new one by immortality and life.  The first is dominated by the flesh; the second by the working of the Holy Spirit.

Sin without the law is still disobedience to God; the law just sets it up against a standard.  The idea that there is no sin, as such, without the law is easily illustrated.  We need look no further than modern notions of morality.  Under the so-called standard of situational ethics (not really a standard at all), what is right or wrong varies depending on the circumstances involved.  The idea really is, "What's best for me?"  If lying helps avoid conflict, and gets us out of a sticky situation with no one the wiser, then it's ok.  On the other hand, if we lie, and the final results are bad for us, then lying was wrong in that situation.  Another view is that what most people think is right must be what's right; if the majority of people approve of abortion, then abortion must be acceptable behavior, and right.  If there are no absolute moral standards, as contained in God's law, then defining what constitutes sin becomes all but impossible.  Without reference to God, human standards of behavior are meaningless anyway.

If there is no consciousness of sin, does God excuse it then?  No, because Paul, under the Spirit's inspiration, clearly states earlier that each of us has within us a natural law, given by God, which gives us understanding of what is right or wrong (Romans 4:13-15).  It is simply that, when the written law is known, the consciousness of sin is aroused by direct comparison of our behavior to God's standards.  The natural law provides a more general sense of right and wrong; the law of scripture gives explicit statement to it.  Under natural law, we may not know specifically that fornication is a sin, just that the behavior involved feels wrong.  When we sin in full knowledge that we are living and acting in a wrong way, that puts us into deeper bondage to sin than even our normal bent to sinning.

This is a difficult passage to follow, especially in King James English.  The essence of it is that, if we know about the moral standards taught in the law, we know when we are doing wrong.  It may well be that we really don't want to disobey Biblical standards, but no matter how hard we try, we do it anyway.  The standards are beyond our ability to reach, in ourselves, because we are physically born as sinners, as Adam's seed.  Our minds may tell us that the law is good and right, but then we proceed to do what is wrong anyway.  It is not a matter of our will; we have no choice in the matter.  However much we may want to reach the high mark set by the commandments, we violate them each day.  Our New Year's resolutions to do better fall by the wayside year after year.

This is the state of fallen man, and the curse of the "morally good" person.  Try as they might, these people can never quite measure up the impossible standards they set for themselves.  They live with a burden of guilt, with the knowledge that they will never be what they aspire to be, perfect.  They may be driven to achieve great things in business, or politics, or science, even the church, but no achievement ever satisfies.  Whether the standard was imposed by demanding parents or some deeply ingrained sense of inadequacy, the end result is still the same.  There is ever indication that Paul himself, before his conversion, was just such a driven perfectionist, a Pharisee of the Pharisees.

What is the solution then, if reaching the standards of the law is impossible?  Verse 25 gives the first part of the answer to the question, an answer more fully developed in the next chapter.  The short answer is: No matter what our questions are on the issues of life, Christ is always the answer.