Book of Romans Study: Romans 7:1-25

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I.     Released from the Law  (Rom 7:1-6)

II.    Revelation of the Law    (Rom 7:7-13)

                III.  Reaction to the Law       (Rom 7:14-25)

We are released from the Law so that we can be joined to Christ and bear fruit for God.

Study Questions for Romans 7:1-23

1. To whom is Paul addressing his question? How long does the law have jurisdiction over a person? (7:1)

(DOC) To what law is Paul referring?

2.  What example does Paul use to illustrate the truth in 7:1 that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? (7:2-3)

(A) How does the death of Christ make you spiritually free as the death of a husband makes a woman free in regard to marriage?

           

3.  What is “therefore” there for? (7:4)

For what purpose were Paul’s brethren made to die to the Law through the body of Christ? (7:4)

To Whom would they be joined? For what purpose would they be joined to Him? (7:4)

4.  While we were in the flesh, what was at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death? By what were they aroused? (7:5)

(A)  Give examples of the sinful passions that were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. Why would the Law arouse these sinful passions?

5.  From what have we now been released, having died to that by which we were bound? (7:6a)

For what purpose have we been released from the Law? (7:6b)

(A) Give examples of how you serve in newness of Spirit rather than in oldness of the letter.

6.  How does Paul defend the goodness of the Law? (7:7) Explain how the Law’s revelation of sin proves that the Law is never sinful.

(A) Give other examples of things that are sinful that you would not have known were sinful apart from commands not to do them.

7.  How could Paul have once been alive apart from the Law? (7:9)

What happened when the commandment came? (7:9)

What was the intended result of the command? What was its proven result? (7:10)

8.  How is the Law described? How is the commandment described? (7:12)

9.  How does Paul answer his own rhetorical question, “Therefore did that which is good became a cause of death for me?”? (7:13)

What was the cause of Paul’s death? For what purpose did it become death for Paul? Through the commandment, what would sin become? (7:13)

10.  What do we know about the Law? How does Paul describe himself? (7:14)

           

11.  What does Paul not understand? Why is this confusing Paul? (7:15)

12.  With what does Paul agree and what does he confess if he does the very thing he does not want to do? (7:16)

Who is doing the thing that Paul does not want to do? (7:17)

(A)  What do you do that you do not want to do? According to Paul, who is doing it?

13.  How does Paul evaluate what is dwelling inside his flesh? What is present in Paul? What is not present in him? (7:18)

(A) What good intentions do you have that you are powerless to accomplish?

14.  What does Paul not do? What does he practice? (7:19)

(A) Give a personal example of how you can relate to what Paul is describing.

15.  If Paul is doing the very thing that he does not want, who is doing it? (7:20)

16.  What principle does Paul find? (7:21)

To what does Paul joyfully concur? What does he see in the members of his body? To what is he made a prisoner, which is in his members? (7:22-23)

17.  How does Paul describe himself? Who will set him free from the body of this death? To Whom and through Whom does Paul give thanks? (7:24-25a)

What does Paul conclude? (7:25b)

(A)  Describe what is at war in this passage. How have you experienced this same battle? In Whom will you trust and Who will you thank for setting you free?

18.  What do you learn about God in Rom 7:1-25? How could you apply this truth to your life?

Write a prayer response to Rom 7:1-25.

TEXT (NASB)

Rom. 7:1   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?  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.  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. 

Rom. 7:4   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.  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.  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. 

Rom. 7:7    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.”  ⁸ But sin,  taking opportunity  through the commandment, produced in me  coveting of every kind; for  apart  from the Law sin is dead.  ⁹ I was once alive apart  from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died;  ¹⁰ and this commandment, which was   to result in life, proved  to result in death for me;  ¹¹ for sin,  taking an opportunity  through the commandment,  deceived me and through it killed me.  ¹²  So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 

Rom. 7:13   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. 

Rom. 7:14   For we know that the Law is  spiritual, but I am  of flesh,  sold   into bondage to sin.  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.  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.  ¹⁷ So now,  no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.  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.  ¹⁹ For  the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.  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. 

Rom. 7:21   I find then  the  principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.  ²² For I joyfully concur with the law of God  in  the inner man,  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.  ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from   the body of this  death?  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.