Romans Chapter Seven (part 2)

Application:

The discussion in Romans chapter 7 is not about whether or not Paul (or any individual) is converted or unconverted. The apostle is speaking about the broader concept of the sinning nature in contrast to the righteous law of God. He is addressing the universal problem of our fallen and condemned condition, and the remedy for it.

The illustration in Romans 7:1-3 is intended to clarify what Paul has been talking about in chapter 6 about "the old man," slavery to sin, and freedom from sin through the death of Christ as our sacrificial Lamb. In 6:6 Paul tells us that "our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." This idea is paralleled by chapter seven’s marriage metaphor and the necessity of the first husband’s death. There are four elements in chapter seven’s illustration — the law, the woman, and the first and second husbands.

Some have defined the first husband as the Ten Commandment law of God, basing their opinion on verses 1 through 3 in which Paul states "the law has dominion" over the woman, and that the woman must be "loosed from the law of her husband," that "if her husband be dead, she is free from the law." Superficially, these verses seem to correlate the law and husband as one element of the story. However, from Paul’s own declaration, we cannot charge the law with being the faulty husband, because Paul states that "the law is holy" (vs. 12). There is no fault to be found in any aspect of the law, which is a transcript of God’s holy character.

Paul defines what he means by the law in verse 7 showing that he is referring to the Ten Commandments of God in which lust and covetousness are condemned. The righteous law of God is impersonal, detached, high and lifted up, condemning our "marriage" to first husband. The law has no grace, no mercy, and no power to forgive. By itself, it can not justify or "make right" our crooked character; it can only condemn that which is in opposition to it. But this does not make the law evil or necessitate its removal or change.

Let’s examine the remaining three elements. It is understood that we (corporately speaking) are the woman involved in the bad marriage. The second husband (the "good husband") is obviously Christ, as Paul indicates in verse 4 ("even to Him that is raised from the dead"). Paul makes it clear that we cannot marry the second husband so long as the first husband is living; to attempt to do so is adultery. All through the Bible God has declared that He will not participate in a meretricious relationship.

But, who is the first husband?

Contextual evidence indicates that Paul is drawing his imagery in chapter 7 from what he previously said about slavery to sin in chapter 6. The force of sin is metaphorically called the "law in my members" (vs. 23). It is the "old man" spoken of in chapter 6 working through the sinful nature (that every person is born with), seeking to express itself through acts of rebellion against God (see James 4:1-4). He has identified "the old man" as that which needs to die. It is the old man that keeps us in bondage to sin and death.

From this morbid discussion in chapter 6, Paul quickly moves on to proclaim the glorious news that the old man, our “body of sin,” should not have dominion over us (vs. 14). We have been set free from bondage to sin, and by faith in Christ, we will serve Him in righteousness (vs. 22). From this declaration of our freedom from sin’s power — through death to sin — and to come at the same point from a different angle, Paul then transitions into his illustration using marriage as his metaphor.

In chapter 7 Paul says the first husband needs to die so that the woman can be released from a marriage which produces bondage (vs. 3). What the first husband represents in this metaphor is indicated in verse 5: "for when we were in the flesh [i.e. yielding to the clamors of the sinful nature; these words do not imply that there is ever a deliverance from the sinful nature prior to the second coming of Christ], the motions of sins [sinful passions which produce sinful acts], which were by the law [i.e. defined by the Ten Commandments; see vss. 7-8], did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." It is our succumbing to the demands of the flesh (i.e. sinning nature; see discussion above) that brings forth the "fruit" of the second death (James 1:14-15).

Since both the old man and the first husband bring bondage, and both must die, the first husband and the "old man" emerge as parallel concepts in Paul's thinking.

The Biblical concept of marriage is that the two parties should become one flesh (Genesis 2:24; Mark 10:8). To be bound in such a manner (for it to be a happy union) means that the two are of one mind. If they are to walk together peaceably, they must be in agreement about how life should be lived (Amos 3:3). This is precisely the condition Paul speaks of between the woman and the first husband. We are born in sinful flesh with inclinations and propensities toward sin and rebellion against God. Indulgence of these inclinations and propensities ripens into a sinning nature as habits of sin are developed and our character is deranged. We become married to the sinning nature, enjoying the "pleasures of sin" that come from this carnal union.

There is no hint in verses 1-3 that the woman is unhappily married to her first husband. It is Paul’s outside observation that such a marriage is an illicit one and should be dissolved, though he admits that this dissolution can only come about through the death of the parties involved. The plot thickens when Paul reveals that there is a second Man who wishes to marry the woman, but He cannot while the first husband lives (introduced here, Paul expounds this idea in chapter 8).

The whole of chapter 6 speaks of the necessity of death to an old way that is slavery and misery under bondage to sin (vss. 6, 7, 11-12, 14). As Paul stated in these verses, in order to be free from sin and death, we must reckon ourselves dead to sin. The old man must die. But we must die also. In Galatians 2:20, Paul makes this point emphatically clear when he states, "I am crucified with Christ." When we die to sin, our old man (the sinning nature) also perishes. Thus, by faith in Christ’s power over sin, we surrender to Him; we identify with Christ in His death on the cross (vs. 3). Through baptism, which is a public declaration of our willingness to die to sin and self (vs. 4), we are found alive in Christ (vs. 5, 8). We are become His servants in righteousness, and are no longer earning the wages of sin (vss. 22-23).

Paul admonishes us to "let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." The carnal (sinning) nature and the mind of Christ are in bitter opposition to one another. "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans 8:7).

Paul put it this way in his letter to the Ephesians: "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard Him, and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." (Ephesians 4:17-24). [return to part one]

Sources:

E.J. Waggoner — Waggoner on Romans (1895-1896)
E.J. Waggoner — The Glad Tidings (1972 edition)
Alexander Balmain Bruce — St. Paul’s Conception of Christianity (1896)
Harry Johnson — The Humanity of the Saviour (1962)
James D.G. Dunn — Word Biblical Commentary on Romans 1-8 (1988)
C.E.B. Cranfield — International Critical Commentary on Romans, vol. 1 (1998)
Pulpit Commentary on Romans
Robert J. Wieland — Knocking at the Door
Dennis Priebe — Thought papers "What Is Sin?" and "How Did Christ Live?"
Download the PDF of the original sermon notes by Alexander Snyman

Originally written: December 27, 2007 © cfi