Romans 7

Or don’t you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives?

For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband.

So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man.

Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might produce fruit to God.

For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law worked in our members to bring out fruit to death.

But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”

But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead.

I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.

The commandment which was for life, this I found to be for death;

for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.

Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, righteous, and good.

Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, was producing death in me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful.

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin.

For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I don’t practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do.

But if what I don’t desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good.

So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.

For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good.

For the good which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practice.

But if what I don’t desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.

I find then the law that, while I desire to do good, evil is present.

For I delight in God’s law after the inward person,

but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.

What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?

I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve God’s law, but with the flesh, sin’s law.

Chapter overviewAI-generated

Overview. This chapter explores the believer’s relationship to the Mosaic Law, showing that its power to condemn has been broken through union with Christ. Paul uses the image of marriage to illustrate how death to the law enables a new, life-bearing union with the risen Christ. He then confronts the paradox that while the Law is holy and good, it also exposes and intensifies sin in fallen humanity, leading to death. The chapter culminates in a deeply personal struggle with indwelling sin and a cry for deliverance, finally answered in Jesus Christ.

Flow.

Begins by arguing that the law’s authority over a person ends with death, illustrated by the marital bond that dissolves at death.
Applies this principle to believers: they have died to the law through Christ’s body, now joined to Him for the purpose of bearing fruit to God.
Distinguishes between the law’s goodness and sin’s exploitation of the commandments, especially seen in the prohibition against coveting.
Descends into a first-person account of moral failure—knowing and approving the good, yet powerless to practice it—ending in a cry for rescue, answered by thanksgiving through Christ.

Connections. Following chapter 6, which establishes union with Christ in His death and resurrection as the basis for freedom from sin’s dominion, chapter 7 now clarifies the believer’s release from the law’s condemning power. It deepens the discussion of sanctification by confronting the ongoing struggle with sin, which chapter 8 resolves by pointing to the liberating power of the Spirit. Where chapter 6 ends with slavery to righteousness, chapter 7 exposes the inner conflict that remains, preparing the way for chapter 8’s declaration of life and freedom in the Spirit.

What it teaches. The law is holy, spiritual, and good (WCF 19.2), serving to reveal sin and stir it to action, but it cannot deliver from sin’s power. Believers are no longer under the law’s authority because they have died with Christ and are raised to a new life of service in the Spirit (WCF 20.1; HC LD 47). Indwelling sin produces internal conflict even in the regenerate, who delight in God’s law inwardly yet remain subject to fleshly corruption (WCF 13.2; HC LD 19). Deliverance comes not through the law, but through Jesus Christ alone (WCF 8.5), whose righteousness answers the law’s demands and secures freedom from its condemnation.

Apply. Union with Christ puts the old covenant’s condemning power to death, so that obedience now flows not from external obligation but from spiritual renewal in Him.

AI-generated. Not a substitute for Scripture, your pastor, or the confessions.