Romans 7
7
An Illustration from Marriage
1Certainly you will understand what I am about to say, my brothers and sisters, because all of you know about law. The law rules over people only as long as they live. 2A married woman, for example, is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if he dies, then she is free from the law that bound her to him. 3So then, if she lives with another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is legally a free woman and does not commit adultery if she marries another man. 4That is how it is with you, my sisters and brothers. As far as the Law is concerned, you also have died because you are part of the body of Christ; and now you belong to him who was raised from death in order that we might be useful in the service of God. 5For when we lived according to our human nature, the sinful desires stirred up by the Law were at work in our bodies, and all we did ended in death. 6Now, however, we are free from the Law, because we died to that which once held us prisoners. No longer do we serve in the old way of a written law, but in the new way of the Spirit.
Law and Sin
7 #
Ex 20.17; Deut 5.21 Shall we say, then, that the Law itself is sinful? Of course not! But it was the Law that made me know what sin is. If the Law had not said, “Do not desire what belongs to someone else,” I would not have known such a desire. 8But by means of that commandment sin found its chance to stir up all kinds of selfish desires in me. Apart from law, sin is a dead thing. 9I myself was once alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life, 10and I died. And the commandment which was meant to bring life, in my case brought death. 11#Gen 3.13Sin found its chance, and by means of the commandment it deceived me and killed me.
12So then, the Law itself is holy, and the commandment is holy, right, and good. 13But does this mean that what is good caused my death? By no means! It was sin that did it; by using what is good, sin brought death to me, in order that its true nature as sin might be revealed. And so, by means of the commandment sin is shown to be even more terribly sinful.
The Conflict within Us
14We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15#Gal 5.17I do not understand what I do; for I don't do what I would like to do, but instead I do what I hate. 16Since what I do is what I don't want to do, this shows that I agree that the Law is right. 17So I am not really the one who does this thing; rather it is the sin that lives in me. 18I know that good does not live in me — that is, in my human nature. For even though the desire to do good is in me, I am not able to do it. 19I don't do the good I want to do; instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do. 20If I do what I don't want to do, this means that I am no longer the one who does it; instead, it is the sin that lives in me.
21So I find that this law is at work: when I want to do what is good, what is evil is the only choice I have. 22My inner being delights in the law of God. 23But I see a different law at work in my body — a law that fights against the law which my mind approves of. It makes me a prisoner to the law of sin which is at work in my body. 24What an unhappy man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is taking me to death? 25Thanks be to God, who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ!
This, then, is my condition: on my own I can serve God's law only with my mind, while my human nature serves the law of sin.
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Good News Bible with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
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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