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Romans 7, understanding Romans 7:7-25 from chapter 7:1-6

Discussion in 'Baptist Theology & Bible Study' started by Romans7man, Nov 15, 2011.

  1. Romans7man

    Romans7man New Member

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    Immediately after reiterating his main points in chronological order to the chapters in the way they were addressed, Paul now gives us an illustration. This has been a set of verses that have been debated and greatly misunderstood. Some think Paul is giving us an analogy of how the law has passed away by saying the first husband mentioned is the law and it has been put to death. But as we will see this is not the case.

    This is how it will look.
    Romans 7:1-3 is addressing Romans 5.
    Romans 7:4 is addressing Romans 6.
    Romans 7:5 is addressing Romans 7.
    Romans 7:6 is addressing Romans 8.
    Again, as we saw in Romans 7, understanding 7:7-25 from 6:16-23, we see the verse addressing chapter 6 is present tense, the verse addressing chapter 7 is past tense, and the verse addressing chapter 8 is present tense.

    Know ye not, brethern, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? Just as Paul does many times he gives us something that we can all relate to, how law has dominion over the living. Now I have read a commentary that said, "When Paul says, Know ye not, you can be assured this is something you don't know." So far this has been something I have witnessed many times. When someone breaks the law and caught they are fined or jailed, but til yet have I seen a dead man fined or jailed.
    This being part of what I attribute to chapter 5 and as I said already these verses are not saying the law died, I want to address this issue of what or who the first husband is as we go along. Notice this verse has already made a distinction between the law and a husband, both being something different.

    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. This may be where some begin to think the first husband and the law is one and the same, because of the phrase the law of her husband. That would be a stretch I think to come to that conclusion. All it is saying is it is the law that binds her to the husband, not that the husband is a law. I believe the first verse pretty much makes that clear and if not the first half of the second verse should.

    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. Here again I think maybe this is another verse that lends itself to those that believe the first husband is the law. The first husband dies and the woman is free from that law. How some come to that conclusion is just not being logical. Paul starts out giving us an analogy of something we can relate to and we all can relate to the fact that when a woman's husband dies she then is free to get married without being called an adulteress. She fulfilled the contract, Until death do us part.
    So if it wasn't the law that died, who or what was the first husband? Adam. Chapter 5 is about us first being in Adam and then being in Christ. Our problem was we were in Adam. Adam was carnal, earthy, of this world. Christ is a quickening Spirit, not of this world, but from above.
    Paul is simply showing us how it is legal for us to be in Christ. The first husband is depicted as Adam in chapter 5 and the old man and the mortal body in chapter 6, and the flesh in chapter 8. All of these have been done away with on the cross as scripture proves this out.
    Because when we were in Adam he was our covering, but now we have received the atonement, Jesus Christ and now he is our covering.

    Wherefore, my brethern, 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. We are dead to the law, because we have been baptized into the body of Christ. And just as chapter 6 tells us over and over, we are free from sin and we are to walk in righteousness and holiness, therefore bringing forth fruit unto God. This is a very clear description of chapter 6.

    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. As we see this is in past tense and this is a very good illustration Paul gives us of the man in chapter 7. This is a man under law as is the man in chapter 7. I hope there will be discussion on this, but I think it is self explanatory.

    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. Paul moves back into our present state, saved! Again this tells us we have been delivered from the law by something being dead. Just as we see Adam as the headship of man in chapter 5 and that headship was changed out by Christ becoming our headship when we believed, and we see that the old man is crucified in Chapter 6, we now see that thing that held us and has been the set of sin and our source of problems from the beginning is no less than the flesh in chapter 8.

    In all of these illustrations chapter 7 is taken as a whole and makes no differentiation between the present tense and the historical present tense.
     
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