What Does Romans 7 Mean? The Man Under the Law
In this book's reading, Romans 7 is not a born-again believer losing a daily war with sin. Paul speaks in the first person for a spiritually dead man under the Law of Moses, who agrees with God in his mind but has no righteous nature to draw from. Romans 8 then shows the new man living from the spirit.
What is Romans 7 about?
"Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God."Romans 7:4 (KJV)
Romans 7 opens with an illustration about marriage. A wife is bound to her husband for as long as he lives but is free to marry another once he dies (Romans 7:2-3), and Paul applies that to us. The old husband died, which is exactly what Romans 6 has been telling you, and that is why you are free.
I want to be clear that I am teaching this chapter the way this book reads it, and I know many Christians read it differently. I am not arguing with anyone, only telling you what I believe Paul wrote and why it matters for how you see yourself. I first saw this reading through the teaching of Dave Roberson, and it is the reading I give in Chapter 13.
What does Paul mean when he says "the law"?
"Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith."Galatians 3:24 (KJV)
In Romans 7 the law is the Law of Moses, the holy commandments given to Israel, and Paul tells us in the first verse who he is talking to when he says that he speaks to them that know the law (Romans 7:1). The book teaches that God gave those commandments knowing that a spiritually dead people could not keep them. The law was a schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, and it was given that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God (Romans 3:19).
So the law is not bad, since Paul himself says that it is spiritual, but it asks a man to produce righteousness from a nature that has none. When he turns inward for the strength to obey a commandment such as Thou shalt not covet, there is only a dead spirit and a sin nature to draw from. That is the weakness of the law, and it is why it could never save anyone.
Who is the "I" in Romans 7?
"For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin."Romans 7:14 (KJV)
This is the heart of the matter. In Romans 6 Paul has just said that our old man is crucified with Christ, that we are dead to sin, and that we have been set free from sin, and then in Romans 7:14 he says that he is carnal, sold under sin. That does not make sense if he is describing himself as a born-again believer, so the book teaches that he is using an illustration, speaking in the first person on behalf of someone else.
That someone is the man with a dead spirit and a sin nature who has been handed a holy law and told to keep it. In his mind he genuinely agrees with God, for he says, "I delight in the law of God after the inward man" (Romans 7:22). But the harder he tries, the more the sin in him stirs up, until he says, "it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me" (Romans 7:17).
Then he cries out, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24), and he answers in the very next breath, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 7:25). In Chapter 13 I put it this way: Romans 7 is the old man trying to abide in the law. If you have been born again, you are not the wretched man, because the wretched man is the one who died with Christ.
What is a famous verse from Romans 7?
"For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I."Romans 7:15 (KJV)
The verse most people quote is Romans 7:15, where Paul says that what he would, that he does not, and what he hates, that he does. It is easy to see why, because it sounds like the most honest description of the Christian struggle ever written, and generations of believers have read it and concluded that this is simply what the Christian life will feel like until heaven.
The book asks you to read the verse in the flow of everything Paul has just finished saying. If the man in verse 15 were a believer, he would be contradicting Romans 6, which says that you have died to sin and been set free. Reading him as the man under the law removes the contradiction, and I believe the other reading locks up the whole book of Romans.
Why is Romans chapter 8 so important?
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit."Romans 8:1 (KJV)
Romans 8 is where Paul answers the cry of Romans 7, and the book teaches that it is not the next stage of the same struggle but a completely different covenant. In verse 2 he says that the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. The man who was crying out under the law is answered by a man who lives from a new law, the law of the spirit of life.
The condemnation in view, as I read it, is the death sentence the law handed down to a man who could never keep it. The man who walks after the flesh is the spiritually dead man under the law, and the man who walks after the spirit is the believer whose own human spirit has been born again. That is why I print spirit with a small s in verse 1, because the Greek did not use capital letters to tell the Holy Spirit from the human spirit, and in this verse I believe the translators' choice was wrong.
So when you read that there is no condemnation to them which walk after the spirit, you are not reading a standard you have to reach, but a description of who you already are. Romans 7 is the old man trying to abide in the law, and Romans 8 is the new man living from the spirit.
Do other Christians read Romans 7 differently?
Yes, and I want to say that plainly. Many believers read Romans 7 as Paul describing his own ongoing struggle, or the struggle of every Christian, and I respect that they hold that reading as they read the Scriptures. I am not trying to argue with anyone about it, and I only ask that you read Romans 6, 7, and 8 together and see which reading fits the whole flow.
What this book teaches is that the pull you feel is not the cry of a nature sold under sin but the old training of a dead man's habits. Your flesh was trained by the old nature, and it can be retrained, which I walk through in habitual sin. If you want to see what happened to the old man, read what Romans 6:6 means.
And if Romans 7 has been the reason you assumed you would always lose, I hope you see that you can thank God, as Paul did, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
From the book
This page is drawn from New Creation, Old Habits by Benjamin Riggins. Read more in:
- Chapter 13: You Don't Have to Fall
Questions people ask
What does Paul mean when he says "the law"?
In Romans 7 it is the Law of Moses, the holy commandments given to Israel. The book teaches that God gave it knowing a spiritually dead people could not keep it, so it was a schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, not a way to produce righteousness.
Why is Romans chapter 8 so important?
In this book's reading, Romans 8 answers the cry of Romans 7 with a completely different covenant, where the new man lives from the spirit. It tells you that there is no condemnation left for you, which is a description of who you already are and not a standard to reach.
What is a famous verse from Romans 7?
The most quoted is Romans 7:15, where Paul says that what he hates, that he does. Verse 24, the cry of the wretched man, is also well known, and the book teaches that both belong to the man under the law, who is answered in verse 25 and in Romans 8.
Is Romans 7 describing a Christian?
This book teaches that it is not, and that the man in Romans 7 is a spiritually dead man under the law, with the first person used as an illustration. Many Christians read the chapter differently, and I only ask that you read Romans 6 through 8 together.
Who answers the cry "O wretched man that I am"?
Paul answers it in the very next breath with the words "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 7:25). The book teaches that the wretched man is the one who died with Christ, and the answer is Jesus.