Romans 7
7
1Brothers and sisters (I'm speaking here to people who know the law),#7:1. Paul's use of the word for law can have various meanings, but usually refers to the whole system of Jewish belief. Much of this has to do with rule-keeping. don't you see that the law has authority over someone only while they're alive? 2For example, a married woman is bound by the law to her husband while he's alive, but if he dies, she's released from this legal obligation to him. 3So if she lives with another man while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery. However, if her husband dies and then she marries another man, she wouldn't be guilty of adultery.
4In the same way, my friends, you've become dead to the law through the body of Christ, and so now you belong to someone else—Christ, who was raised from the dead so that we could live productive lives#7:4. Literally, “bear fruit for God.” for God. 5While we were controlled by old nature, our sinful desires (as revealed by the law) were at work within us and resulted in death. 6But now we've been set free from the law, and have died to what kept us in chains, so that we can serve in the newness of the spirit and not the old letter of the law.
7So what do we conclude? That the law is sin? Of course not! I wouldn't have known what sin was unless the law defined it. I wouldn't have realized that wanting to have other people's things for myself was wrong without the law that says, “Don't desire for yourself what belongs to someone else.”#7:7. Quoting Exodus 20:17 or Deuteronomy 5:21. 8But through this commandment sin found a way to stir up in me all kinds of selfish desires—for without law, sin is dead. 9I used to live without realizing what the law really meant, but when I understood the implications of that commandment, then sin came back to life, and I died. 10I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life brought death instead, 11because sin found a way through the commandment to deceive me, and used the commandment to kill me!
12However, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, right, and good. 13Now would something that is good kill me? Of course not! But sin shows itself to be sin by using good to cause my death. So by means of the commandment, it's revealed how evil sin really is. 14We realize that the law is spiritual; but I'm all-too-human,#7:14. Literally, “flesh.” a slave to sin. 15I really don't understand what I'm doing. I do the things I don't want to do, and what I hate doing, that's what I do! 16But if I'm saying that I do what I don't want to, this shows that I admit the law is good and right. 17So it's no longer me who does this, but sin living in me— 18for I know that there's nothing good in me as far as my sinful human nature is concerned. Even though I want to do good, I'm just not able to do it. 19The good I want to do, I don't do; while the evil I don't want to do, that's what I end up doing! 20However, if I'm doing what I don't want to, then it's no longer me doing it, but sin living in me.
21This is the principle I've discovered: if I want to do what's good, evil is always there too. 22My inner self is delighted with God's law, 23but I see a different law at work within me that is at war with the law my mind has decided to follow, making me a prisoner of the law of sin that is within me. 24I'm totally miserable! Who will rescue me from this body that's causing my death?#7:24. Literally, “body of death.” Thank God—for he does this through Jesus Christ our Lord! 25Here's the situation: while I myself choose with my mind to obey God's law, my human nature obeys the law of sin.
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Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com
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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