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Romans for Youth
Commentary by Pastor Ron
Beckham
Romans Chapter 7
Verse 1. “Or
do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who
know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person
as long as he lives?”
Paul wrote
the Book of Romans especially to those who know about God’s
Law (commandments), such as the Jewish-Christian believers
of his time. Paul reminds his readers that we are under
God’s Law as long as we live.
Verse 2.
“For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while
he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from
the law concerning the husband.”
Under God’s
Law, a woman must stay with her husband as long as HE
lives. But if he dies, she is free from the Law that she
must be married to him.
Verse 3. “So
then, if while her husband is living she is joined to
another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her
husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not
an adulteress though she is joined to another man.”
If the
wife’s husband is still alive, she cannot marry somebody
else because she is married to her husband. But if her
husband dies, she can marry another man and it is not sin.
Verse 4.
“Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the
Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined
to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order
that we might bear fruit for God.”
Like the
“woman” of verses 2 and 3 --- when Jesus died, WE died with
Him to the Law. We are FREE from the Law and can belong to
Christ. In Him we can do good works for God.
Verse 5.
“For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which
were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our
body to bear fruit for death.”
Before we
believed in Christ, we did what we wanted to do. We were
sinners, lawbreakers and what we were doing would have
caused us to die.
Verse 6.
“But now we have been released from the Law, having died to
that by
which we were bound, so that we
serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the
letter.”
In Christ,
we have died to God’s Law and are no longer held by it. We
are now ALIVE in God’s Holy Spirit like none of us ever
expected or thought.
Verse 7.
“What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On
the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except
through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting
if the Law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’”
Is the Law a
bad thing? NO! The Law is GOOD because it shows us we are
sinners. “You shall not
covet” is the 10th
commandment, telling us: we must not want what is not ours.
Verse 8. “But
sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in
me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is
dead.”
Paul found
that the more he tried to NOT “covet”
(want what was not his), the more he wanted it! The more he
tried to be good and obey the Law, the more he wanted to
break it!
Verse 9. “I
was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment
came, sin became alive and I died;”
Paul had
felt he was a pretty good person, but the more he thought
about God’s Law, the worse he got! The Law was showing him
the truth about himself. It felt like his sin had “killed”
him.
Verse10. “and
this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to
result in death for me;”
Paul thought
that he could easily keep God’s Law, which would make him
feel good (more alive). But in trying, he felt like he had
been destroyed by the very thing that was supposed to help
him!
Verse 11.”
for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment,
deceived me and through it killed me.
All of us
are sinners and the more we try to keep God’s Law, the more
we will understand that we are not good. The commandments
of God show us our sin.
Verse 12. “So
then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and
righteous and good.”
The Law of
God is “holy”
(pure), just and good. It does in us what it was meant to
do – show us our need of the Lord!
Verse 13.
“Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death
for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it
might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that
which is good, so that through the commandment sin would
become utterly sinful.”
Is the it
Law that brings “death” to us? NO! It is our SIN that
ruins our lives, because we are all sinners! God’s Laws
(the commandments) just show us what we really are.
Verse 14.
“For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh,
sold into bondage to sin.”
The Law is
spiritual. It is given by God and it is good. But we are
NOT good. We are like slaves to sin.
Verse 15.
“For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not
practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very
thing I hate.”
It confused
Paul that the more he tried to be good, the more he did what
he did not want to do. He was not the person he wanted to
be.
Verse 16.
“But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree
with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.”
The Law was
designed to show us that we are sinners and in need of the
Lord. When we try to be good and fail, it shows us that the
Law is good – it does its job by showing us what we really
are.
Verse 17. “So
now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells
in me.”
It’s like
we’re watching ourselves do wrong and we can’t help it! As
Paul said in verse 14 - it is like we are slaves to the sin
that lives inside of us all.
Verse 18.
“For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my
flesh; for the
willing is present in me, but the
doing of the good is not.”
Paul
discovered that he was not really good. He wanted to be a
good person who did good things, but he still had bad
thoughts and did the wrong things.
Verse 19.
“For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the
very evil that I do not want.”
He wanted to
be good, but he couldn’t do it, and he found himself doing
exactly the bad things that he did not want to do.
Verse 20.
“But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no
longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.”
If we keep
on doing what we do not want to do, it show us that we are
in the power of something called “sin” that is in all of us.
Verse 21. “I
find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one
who wants to do good.”
Paul (who
wrote these words in Romans) wanted to be good, but he saw
that “evil” (a desire to be bad) was also in him.
Verse 22.
“For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner
man,”
Paul LOVED
God’s Law and just the THOUGHT of it made him happy. He
knew God’s Law is good.
Verse 23.
“but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging
war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of
the law of sin which is in my members.”
But somehow
it was like his body was at war with his mind and it was
like he was the prisoner of the bad thoughts that were
inside of him.
Verse 24.
“Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body
of this death?”
“Help me,”
Paul called out! He was ashamed and unhappy. He hoped
someone would change him; help him be FREE from sin and
death!
Verse 25.
“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on
the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of
God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.”
God answered
Paul and He also answers you and me: He sent Jesus Christ
our Lord to us. And just like Paul, yes we are still
sinners, but the Lord has set us free from our sin. Let’s
THANK God for the Lord Jesus Christ:
Thank You,
Father, for the Lord Jesus Christ. I confess to You that I
am a sinner. I receive the Lord Jesus as my Savior. I
praise Your Holy Name. Thank You for setting me free from
sin and death. In Jesus Name. Amen.
Ron Beckham, Pastor
Friday Study Ministries
www.fridaystudy.org
ron@fridaystudy.org
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