Romans 7
7
1Do you not have da'as, Achim b'Moshiach, for I speak to those who know the Torah, that the Torah exercises marut (authority, rule) over a man so long as he lives?
2For the agunah (woman whose husbandʼs whereabouts are unknown) is bound by the gezetz to her husband while he lives; but in the case that her husbandʼs death can be confirmed, she is no longer an agunah and is released from the gezetz of her husband.
3Accordingly she will be named no'ehfet (adulteress) if, while her husband lives, she becomes another manʼs. But if her ba'al (husband) dies, she is free from the gezetz, so that she is no no'ehfet (adulteress) if she becomes another manʼs.
4So then, Achim b'Moshiach, you also were put to death in relation to the Gezetz through the basar of Moshiach,#7:4 Ps 16:9-10; Ro 8:3 in order that you might become anotherʼs, bound to Moshiach who was given Techiyah (Resurrection) from the Mesim, so that we might bear p'ri for Hashem.
5For when we were in the basar (in the fallen condition of the old humanity), through the Gezetz, the ta'avat besarim, the sinful passions#7:5 i.e., Chet Kadmonʼs yetzer harah of the fallen human condition were working in our natural capacities, so as to bear p'ri for mavet (death).#7:5 cf. Ro 4:15
6But now we have become niftar (freed, deceased) from the dominating ownership of the Gezetz, having died to that by which we were confined, so that we might serve in the Ruach Hakodesh of hitkhadshut and newness and not in the yoshen (oldness) of chumra (stringency, strict adherence to the letter of the law).#7:6 Ro 2:29
7What then shall we say? That the Gezetz is considered as chet (sin)? Chas v'shalom! Nevertheless, I would not have experienced chet (sin) except through the Gezetz; for I would not have known chamdanut (covetousness, greediness) if the Torah had not said, LO TACHMOD#7:7 Ex 20:17 (Thou shalt not covet).
8But Chet (Sin), seizing its opportunity through the mitzvoh (commandment), stirred up all manner of chamdanut (covetousness) in me. For in the absence of the Gezetz, Chet (Sin) is dead.
9And in the absence of the Gezetz I was once alive. But when the mitzvoh (commandment) came,#7:9 Gn 2:16-17 Chet (Sin) became alive,
10and I died. The mitzvoh (commandment) intended as the Derech L'Chayyim (Way to Life) proved for me a means to mavet (death).
11For Chet (Sin), seizing its opportunity through the mitzvoh (commandment), deceived me and, through the mitzvoh (commandment), killed me.#7:11 Gn 3:1-6
12So that the Torah is kedoshah (holy) and the mitzvoh (commandment) is kedoshah and yasharah and tovah.
13Did that which is good, then, become mavet (death) to me? Chas v'shalom! But Chet (Sin), it was Chet, working mavet (death) in me through that which is tovah, in order that Chet might be shown as Chet (Sin), and in order that Chet through the mitzvoh (commandment) might become chata'ah gedolah ad m'od (utterly sinful).
14For we have da'as that the Torah is Ruchanit (Spiritual, of the Ruach Hakodesh); but I am of the basar (fallen humanity) sold under the power of (slave master Chet Kadmon) Chet.
15For I do not have da'as what I do. For that which I commit is not what I want; no, it is what I hate that I do!
16But if that which I do is what I do not want, I agree with the Torah that the Gezetz is good.
17But now it is no longer I doing this, but [the power of] Chet (Sin) which dwells within me.#7:17 Ro 5:13-14; 6:23
18For I have da'as that there dwells in me, that is, in my basar (my fallen humanity enslaved to Chet Kadmon) no good thing; for the wish [to do what is right] lies ready at hand for me, but to accomplish the good is not.
19For I fail to do good as I wish, but HaRah (The Evil) which I do not wish is what I commit.
20But if what I do not wish is that which I do, it is no longer I doing it but [the power of] Chet (Sin, Chet Kadmon, Original Sin) which dwells within me.#7:20 cf. Ro 8:7-8
21I find then it be a Gezetz that for me who wishes to do HaTov (The Good), that for me HaRah (The Evil) lies ready at hand.
22For I rejoice, I have simcha Torah in the Torah of Hashem, so far as the adam hapenimi#7:22 Ep 3:16 is concerned,
23But I see another gezetz (law) in my natural capacities at milchamah (war) with the Torah of my mind and making me a prisoner to the Gezetz of Chet (Sin) which is [a power] in my natural capacities.
24Wretched man am I! Who will deliver me from the body of this mavet (death)?
25Hodu l'Hashem (thanks be to G-d) baMoshiach Yehoshua Adoneinu. So then I myself with my mind serve the Torah of Hashem and with my basar I serve the Gezetz of Chet (the Law of Sin).#7:25 The total spiritual turn-around here described is when the conviction of the intellect, emotion, and will “obey from the heart the form of doctrine laid out here in Scripture” as we are born anew in the humanity of the new Man and die to the old depraved Adam
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Romans 7: TOJB2011
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THE ORTHODOX JEWISH BIBLE
FOURTH EDITION © Artists For Israel Intl Inc., 2002-2011, 2021.
Romans 7
7
Torn Between One Way and Another
1-3You shouldn’t have any trouble understanding this, friends, for you know all the ins and outs of the law—how it works and how its power touches only the living. For instance, a wife is legally tied to her husband while he lives, but if he dies, she’s free. If she lives with another man while her husband is living, she’s obviously an adulteress. But if he dies, she is quite free to marry another man in good conscience, with no one’s disapproval.
4-6So, my friends, this is something like what has taken place with you. When Christ died he took that entire rule-dominated way of life down with him and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to “marry” a resurrection life and bear “offspring” of faith for God. For as long as we lived that old way of life, doing whatever we felt we could get away with, sin was calling most of the shots as the old law code hemmed us in. And this made us all the more rebellious. In the end, all we had to show for it was miscarriages and stillbirths. But now that we’re no longer shackled to that domineering mate of sin, and out from under all those oppressive regulations and fine print, we’re free to live a new life in the freedom of God.
7But I can hear you say, “If the law code was as bad as all that, it’s no better than sin itself.” That’s certainly not true. The law code had a perfectly legitimate function. Without its clear guidelines for right and wrong, moral behavior would be mostly guesswork. Apart from the succinct, surgical command, “You shall not covet,” I could have dressed covetousness up to look like a virtue and ruined my life with it.
8-12Don’t you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me. Without all the paraphernalia of the law code, sin looked pretty dull and lifeless, and I went along without paying much attention to it. But once sin got its hands on the law code and decked itself out in all that finery, I was fooled, and fell for it. The very command that was supposed to guide me into life was cleverly used to trip me up, throwing me headlong. So sin was plenty alive, and I was stone dead. But the law code itself is God’s good and common sense, each command sane and holy counsel.
13I can already hear your next question: “Does that mean I can’t even trust what is good [that is, the law]? Is good just as dangerous as evil?” No again! Sin simply did what sin is so famous for doing: using the good as a cover to tempt me to do what would finally destroy me. By hiding within God’s good commandment, sin did far more mischief than it could ever have accomplished on its own.
14-16I can anticipate the response that is coming: “I know that all God’s commands are spiritual, but I’m not. Isn’t this also your experience?” Yes. I’m full of myself—after all, I’ve spent a long time in sin’s prison. What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God’s command is necessary.
17-20But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
21-23It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
24I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?
25The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.