Romans 7 Law and the Sin Nature

“For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death.” Rom 7:5

In Romans 7, Paul continues to answer the question “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” (6:15) The concept of “law” carries with it the idea of awarding and punishing actions. A law-based relationship with God would intuitively seem conducive to sinning less. A grace-based relationship with God would intuitively seem conducive to sinning more. In a grace-based relationship, God deals with us with favor regardless of our actions.

The problem with law is it arouses our sinful passions. Humans literally react to law by becoming more sinful and that is the corrupt nature of every human. Paul said “For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘Do not covet.’ But sin seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire.” Paul goes on to talk about how a person in a law-based relationship with God is ruled by the sin nature, causing a person to do the very things they don’t want to do. This is the root of the struggle and defeat described in v.14-24 where Paul says “For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”

So Paul begins chapter 7 by illustrating how a law-based relationship can legally be changed with death. A woman who leaves her husband and joins another is committing adultery. However, if there is a death (i.e. her husband’s), she can join herself to another man legally. Our water baptism is a statement that we died to the sin nature as our master and it is also a statement that we died to something else. We died to a relationship with God based on law so that we could legally be joined to Jesus in a relationship based on grace. “So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.” (7:4)

The grace-based relationship is conducive to moral purity and righteousness and it is conducive to bearing fruit for God. Get ready for a struggle if you insist on a law-based relationship with God. Get ready to bear fruit if you think in terms of a grace.

Ponder this and give thanks!