Chapter 7:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Johnson
| Luther
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
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| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Acts 1 Corinthians
Romans 7
Verse 1. The apostle continues the comparison between the former and
the present state of a believer, and at the same time endeavours to
wean the Jewish believers from their fondness for the Mosaic law.
I speak to them that know the law - To the Jews chiefly here. As
long - So long, and no longer. As it liveth - The law is here
spoken of, by a common figure, as a person, to which, as to an
husband, life and death are ascribed. But he speaks indifferently
of the law being dead to us, or we to it, the sense being the same.
Verse 2. She is freed from the law of her husband - From that law which
gave him a peculiar property in her.
Verse 4. Thus ye also - Are now as free from the Mosaic law as an
husband is, when his wife is dead. By the body of Christ - Offered
up; that is, by the merits of his death, that law expiring with him.
Verse 5. When ye were in the flesh - Carnally minded, in a state of
nature; before we believed in Christ. Our sins which were by the
law - Accidentally occasioned, or irritated thereby. Wrought in
our members - Spread themselves all over the whole man.
Verse 6. Being dead to that whereby we were held - To our old husband,
the law. That we might serve in newness of spirit - In a new,
spiritual manner. And not in the oldness of the letter - Not in a
bare literal, external way, as we did before.
Verse 7. What shall we say then - This is a kind of a digression, to the
beginning of the next chapter, wherein the apostle, in order to
show in the most lively manner the weakness and inefficacy of the
law, changes the person and speaks as of himself, concerning the
misery of one under the law. This St. Paul frequently does, when
he is not speaking of his own person, but only assuming another
character, chap. iii, 5, 1 Cor. x, 30, 1 Cor. iv, 6. The character here
assumed is that of a man, first ignorant of the law, then under it
and sincerely, but ineffectually, striving to serve God. To have
spoken this of himself, or any true believer, would have been
foreign to the whole scope of his discourse; nay, utterly contrary
thereto, as well as to what is expressly asserted, chap. viii, 2. Is
the law sin - Sinful in itself, or a promoter of sin. I had not known
lust - That is, evil desire. I had not known it to be a sin; nay,
perhaps I should not have known that any such desire was in me:
it did not appear, till it was stirred up by the prohibition.
Verse 8. But sin - My inbred corruption. Taking occasion by the
commandment - Forbidding, but not subduing it, was only fretted,
and wrought in me so much the more all manner of evil desire.
For while I was without the knowledge of the law, sin was dead -
Neither so apparent, nor so active; nor was I under the least
apprehensions of any danger from it.
Verse 9. And I was once alive without the law - Without the close
application of it. I had much life, wisdom, virtue, strength: so I
thought. But when the commandment - That is, the law, a part put
for the whole; but this expression particularly intimates its
compulsive force, which restrains, enjoins, urges, forbids,
threatens. Came - In its spiritual meaning, to my heart, with the
power of God. Sin revived, and I died - My inbred sin took fire,
and all my virtue and strength died away; and I then saw myself to
be dead in sin, and liable to death eternal.
Verse 10. The commandment which was intended for life - Doubtless it
was originally intended by God as a grand means of preserving
and increasing spiritual life, and leading to life everlasting.
Verse 11. Deceived me - While I expected life by the law, sin came
upon me unawares and slew all my hopes.
Verse 12. The commandment - That is, every branch of the law. Is holy,
and just, and good - It springs from, and partakes of, the holy
nature of God; it is every way just and right in itself; it is designed
wholly for the good of man.
Verse 13. Was then that which is good made the cause of evil to me;
yea, of death, which is the greatest of evil? Not so. But it was sin,
which was made death to me, inasmuch as it wrought death in me
even by that which is good - By the good law. So that sin by the
commandment became exceeding sinful - The consequence of
which was, that inbred sin, thus driving furiously in spite of the
commandment, became exceeding sinful; the guilt thereof being
greatly aggravated.
Verse 14. I am carnal - St. Paul, having compared together the past and
present state of believers, that "in the flesh," ver. 5, and that "in
the spirit," ver. 6, in answering two objections, (Is then the law
sin? ver. 7, and, Is the law death? ver. 13,) interweaves the whole
process of a man reasoning, groaning, striving, and escaping from
the legal to the evangelical state. This he does from ver. 7, to the
end of this chapter. Sold under sin - Totally enslaved; slaves
bought with money were absolutely at their master's disposal.
Verse 16. It is good - This single word implies all the three that were
used before, ver. 12, "holy, just, and good."
Verse 17. It is no more I that can properly be said to do it, but rather sin
that dwelleth in me - That makes, as it were, another person, and
tyrannizes over me.
Verse 18. In my flesh - The flesh here signifies the whole man as he is
by nature.
Verse 21. I find then a law - An inward constraining power, flowing
from the dictate of corrupt nature.
Verse 22. For I delight in the law of God - This is more than "I consent
to," ver. 16. The day of liberty draws near. The inward man -
Called the mind, ver. 23, 25.
Verse 23. But I see another law in my members - Another inward
constraining power of evil inclinations and bodily appetites.
Warring against the law of my mind - The dictate of my mind,
which delights in the law of God. And captivating me - In spite of
all my resistance
Verse 24. Wretched man that I am - The struggle is now come to the
height; and the man, finding there is no help in himself, begins
almost unawares to pray, Who shall deliver me? He then seeks
and looks for deliverance, till God in Christ appears to answer his
question. The word which we translate deliver, implies force. And
indeed without this there can be no deliverance. The body of this
death - That is, this body of death; this mass of sin, leading to
death eternal, and cleaving as close to me as my body to my soul.
We may observe, the deliverance is not wrought yet.
Verse 25. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord - That is, God will
deliver me through Christ. But the apostle, as his frequent manner
is, beautifully interweaves his assertion with thanksgiving;' the
hymn of praise answering in a manner to the voice of sorrow,
"Wretched man that I am!" So then - He here sums up the whole,
and concludes what he began, ver. 7. I myself - Or rather that I,
the person whom I am personating, till this deliverance is
wrought. Serve the law of God with my mind - My reason and
conscience declare for God. But with my flesh the law of sin - But
my corrupt passions and appetites still rebel. The man is now
utterly weary of his bondage, and upon the brink of liberty.
Chapter 7:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Johnson
| Luther
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Acts 1 Corinthians
This version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible is a derivative of an electronic version, Copyright 1997, by Sulu D. Kelley. All rights reserved. Used by permission. It may not be modified or used commercially without permission of Wesleyan Heritage Publishing and Sulu Kelley. A special thanks to Mr. Kelley and Wesleyan Heritage Publishing for permission to create and post this version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible.
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