Brit Chadasha Foundations-Concepts in Romans-Chapter 7

Rom 7.1-25 tells us that we have been set free from the curse of the Law, meaning the judicial aspect of the Torah. We are no longer “under indictment” or arrest. Now we follow the Torah in the educational aspect of the Torah on how to walk before Yehovah; believers are not made righteous by keeping the Torah; the conflict between the old and the new nature.

v 1… Or do you not know (or ignorant of), brethren, for I am speaking to those who know the Torah (Paul continues his teaching about the Torah filled with Hebrew thought and concepts. Knowledge of the Torah is the framework in which these passages can be understood), that the Torah has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?

v 2…For the married woman is bound by Torah to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies (the old nature -Torah is not what dies, as some use this verse to say  Torah is the framework in which there was a marriage), she is released from the law (the teaching concerning marriage, the framework for it found in the Torah) concerning the husband.

v 3… So then if, while her husband is living she is joined to another man (without a proper divorce or his death), she shall be called an adulteress, but if her husband dies (or they are divorced), she is free from the Torah (on that point), so that she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to another man.

v 4… Therefore (for this reason), my brethren, you also were made to die to the Torah (the condemnation found in it due to sin. A believer removes himself from the judicial aspect of the Torah by faith in Yeshua. The Torah gives life-Lev 18.5; Deut 28.15-20; Prov 3.18; 4.4,13; Ezek 20.11. Dying to sin, we can now keep the Torah and serve the Lord) through the body of Messiah, that you might be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead that we might bear fruit for God.

v 5… For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions (old nature) which were by the Torah (the Torah stirred up sin within, makes us aware of sin) were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death (condemnation, it revealed sin).

v 6… But now we have been released from the Torah (the condemnation/judicial aspect of it, but we still have the educational aspect of it by following the will of God, the Torah; Paul was Torah observant so he is not saying that a believer does not have to follow the Torah anymore) having died to that by which we were bound (Yeshua freed us from the death sentence; we are no longer under indictment. We are freed from the condemnation aspect of the Torah, not the whole Torah itself), so that we serve in newness of the spirit (still following the Torah in order to serve. Like Moses said “Let my people go, so that they may serve me”) and not in oldness of the letter (a lifeless existence of legalistic observances in order to gain merit).

v 7…What shall we say then? Is the Torah sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin (sin nature) except through the Torah (one of its purposes-Rom 3.20), for I would not have known about coveting if the Torah had not said “You shall not covet.”

v 8…But sin (the sin nature), taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Torah sin (the sin nature) is dead (he wouldn’t have known; Paul was covetous for the Torah. At one point he thought that Jews were “in” and the Gentiles were “out” and he did not see that Israel was to be a light to the world).

v 9…And I was once alive apart from the Torah; but when the commandment came sin (the sin nature) came alive and I died

v 10…and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me (he studied the Torah because someone said he could have life if he lived it. What he found was the Torah pointed out his sin and convicted him, resulting in death instead);

v 11… for sin (the sin nature was now aroused against him) taking opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.

v 12… So then, the Torah is holy (has a kedusha; set apart from all the other religious books of the world) and the commandment is holy (has a kedusha) and righteous and good (the Torah was given to show what is holy, righteous and good, not to produce righteousness. It is like a marriage counselor that tries to help).

v 13… Therefore (for this reason) did that which is good become death for me? May it never be! Rather, it was sin (the sin nature) in order that it might be shown (pointed out) to be sin (the sin nature) by effecting my death through that which is good, that through the commandment sin (the sin nature) might become utterly sinful (the Torah, as a counselor, says that the believer’s relationship to the first husband, death, is over).

v 14…For we know that the Torah is spiritual, but I am of the flesh (Yeshua uses his marriage counselor, Torah, through faith and the Holy Spirit in our hearts), sold into bondage of sin (the sin nature).

v 15… For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate (an inner conflict).

v 16… But if I do the very thing I do not wish, I agree with the Torah, that it is good (and should be obeyed).

v 17… So now no longer am I the one doing it, but sin (the sin nature-he gives in to the first spouse’s demands) which dwells within me.

v 18… For I know that nothing good dwells in me (nothing of real value there; there is something wrong), that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of good is not.

v 19… For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish (Ecc 7.20; Isa 64.5).

v 20…But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin (the sin nature) which dwells within me.

v 21…I find then the principle that evil is present in me (the sin nature, his former spouse and the present spouse, Yeshua, are in conflict within him-Ecc 9.14-16), the one who wishes to do good.

v 22… For I joyfully concur with the Torah of God in the inner man (spirit)

v 23… but I see a different law (the law of sin and death) in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind (his will) and making me a prisoner (a POW) of the law of sin (the sin nature) which is in my members.

v 24… Wretched man that I am (I am stressed out). Who will set me free from the body of this death (I am chained to a dead body, which was a common punishment for someone who murdered another. Notice he does not say “who will set me free from the Torah”).

v 25… Thanks be to God through Yeshua the Messiah our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind (where my will is; where doctrine is stored) am serving the Torah of God, but on the other with my flesh (where the sin nature dwells) the law of sin (the sin nature- nobody will be totally free from the sin nature until he is physically dead. But even though we sin, by faith we still serve the Lord and follow the Torah, trust God in what he has said).

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament, Verse-by-Verse Bible Studies

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