Discovery BoxRomans 7:7--8:4
Context7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I 1 would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else 2 if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” 3 7:8 But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. 4 For apart from the law, sin is dead. 7:9 And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment sin became alive 7:10 and I died. So 5 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death! 6 7:11 For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died. 7 7:12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.
7:13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual – but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin. 8 7:15 For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want – instead, I do what I hate. 9 7:16 But if I do what I don’t want, I agree that the law is good. 10 7:17 But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me. 7:18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it. 11 7:19 For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want! 7:20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me.
7:21 So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. 7:22 For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. 7:23 But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 7:25 Thanks be 12 to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, 13 I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but 14 with my flesh I serve 15 the law of sin.
8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 16 8:2 For the law of the life-giving Spirit 17 in Christ Jesus has set you 18 free from the law of sin and death. 8:3 For God achieved what the law could not do because 19 it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 8:4 so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
[7:7] 1 sn Romans 7:7-25. There has been an enormous debate over the significance of the first person singular pronouns (“I”) in this passage and how to understand their referent. Did Paul intend (1) a reference to himself and other Christians too; (2) a reference to his own pre-Christian experience as a Jew, struggling with the law and sin (and thus addressing his fellow countrymen as Jews); or (3) a reference to himself as a child of Adam, reflecting the experience of Adam that is shared by both Jews and Gentiles alike (i.e., all people everywhere)? Good arguments can be assembled for each of these views, and each has problems dealing with specific statements in the passage. The classic argument against an autobiographical interpretation was made by W. G. Kümmel, Römer 7 und die Bekehrung des Paulus. A good case for seeing at least an autobiographical element in the chapter has been made by G. Theissen, Psychologische Aspekte paulinischer Theologie [FRLANT], 181-268. One major point that seems to favor some sort of an autobiographical reading of these verses is the lack of any mention of the Holy Spirit for empowerment in the struggle described in Rom 7:7-25. The Spirit is mentioned beginning in 8:1 as the solution to the problem of the struggle with sin (8:4-6, 9).
[7:7] 2 tn Grk “I would not have known covetousness.”
[7:7] 3 sn A quotation from Exod 20:17 and Deut 5:21.
[7:10] 5 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “So” to indicate the result of the statement in the previous verse. Greek style often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” but English style generally does not.
[7:10] 6 tn Grk “and there was found in/for me the commandment which was for life – this was for death.”
[7:11] 7 tn Or “and through it killed me.”
[7:15] 9 tn Grk “but what I hate, this I do.”
[7:16] 10 tn Grk “I agree with the law that it is good.”
[7:18] 11 tn Grk “For to wish is present in/with me, but not to do it.”
[7:25] 12 tc ‡ Most
[7:25] 13 tn There is a double connective here that cannot be easily preserved in English: “consequently therefore,” emphasizing the conclusion of what he has been arguing.
[7:25] 14 tn Greek emphasizes the contrast between these two clauses more than can be easily expressed in English.
[7:25] 15 tn The words “I serve” have been repeated here for clarity.
[8:1] 16 tc The earliest and best witnesses of the Alexandrian and Western texts, as well as a few others (א* B D* F G 6 1506 1739 1881 pc co), have no additional words for v. 1. Later scribes (A D1 Ψ 81 365 629 pc vg) added the words μὴ κατὰ σάρκα περιπατοῦσιν (mh kata sarka peripatousin, “who do not walk according to the flesh”), while even later ones (א2 D2 33vid Ï) added ἀλλὰ κατὰ πνεῦμα (alla kata pneuma, “but [who do walk] according to the Spirit”). Both the external evidence and the internal evidence are compelling for the shortest reading. The scribes were evidently motivated to add such qualifications (interpolated from v. 4) to insulate Paul’s gospel from charges that it was characterized too much by grace. The KJV follows the longest reading found in Ï.
[8:2] 17 tn Grk “for the law of the Spirit of life.”
[8:2] 18 tc Most
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