Bird's-eye view
In this crucial section of Romans, the Apostle Paul anticipates a potential misunderstanding that could arise from his teaching. Having just declared that believers are dead to the law (Rom. 7:4-6), the natural question arises: is the law itself the problem? Is the law sin? Paul’s response is an emphatic and immediate denial. He then proceeds to explain the true function of God's law. It is not the source of sin, but rather the instrument that reveals sin. The law is like a diagnostic tool, a divine MRI that shows the cancer already present in the heart. It doesn't cause the disease, but it makes the disease manifest. Paul uses his own experience, likely as a representative man, to show how the commandment, far from producing life, actually provoked the latent sin within him, causing it to burst forth and bring about death. The passage concludes with a ringing affirmation of the law's true character: it is holy, righteous, and good. The fault lies not with the perfect standard, but with our sinful nature which rebels against that standard.
This passage is a masterful defense of God's law that simultaneously demonstrates its utter inability to save. Paul is showing why justification must be by faith alone. The law has a necessary and good purpose, which is to shut every mouth and declare the whole world guilty before God (Rom. 3:19). It is the straight edge that shows how crooked we are. It is the light that, when flipped on, reveals the cockroaches scattering in every direction. The problem is not the light; the problem is the roaches. And so Paul vindicates the law in order to highlight the true villain of the story: sin, that malevolent, opportunistic power dwelling within us.
Outline
- 1. The Law Vindicated (Rom 7:7-12)
- a. The Law is Not Sin (Rom 7:7a)
- b. The Law Reveals Sin (Rom 7:7b)
- c. The Law Provokes Sin (Rom 7:8-11)
- i. Sin's Opportunity in the Commandment (Rom 7:8)
- ii. Sin's Revival and Man's Death (Rom 7:9-10)
- iii. Sin's Deception and Execution (Rom 7:11)
- d. The Law is Holy, Righteous, and Good (Rom 7:12)
Context In Romans
Romans 7:7-12 serves as a crucial hinge in Paul's argument. In chapter 6, he established that believers, united with Christ in His death and resurrection, are freed from the dominion of sin. In the opening of chapter 7, he uses the analogy of marriage to show that we are also freed from our obligation to the law as a covenant of works. We have "died to the law" so that we might be joined to another, namely the risen Christ (Rom. 7:4). This kind of talk could easily lead his readers to conclude that the law must be a bad thing, an oppressive taskmaster from which we are thankfully delivered. Paul, being a good teacher, anticipates this very objection. This section, therefore, is a necessary clarification. Before he can move on to the glorious freedom of life in the Spirit in chapter 8, he must first set the record straight about the nature and purpose of the law. He is clearing the ground, ensuring that no one walks away thinking that God gave Israel a sinful thing at Sinai. The law is glorious, but its glory is in revealing our need for a Savior, not in providing a ladder for us to climb to God.
Key Issues
- The Function of God's Law
- The Nature of Sin as a Rebellious Power
- The Experience of Conviction
- The Meaning of "Alive Apart From the Law"
- The Goodness of the Commandment
- The Distinction Between the Law and Sin
The Straightedge and the Crooked Line
Imagine you have drawn a line on a piece of paper and you believe it to be perfectly straight. It looks straight to your naked eye. But then someone lays a precision-machined straightedge next to it. Suddenly, all the wobbles, curves, and imperfections in your line are glaringly obvious. Did the straightedge make your line crooked? Of course not. It was always crooked. The straightedge simply revealed the crookedness that was there all along.
This is what Paul is arguing about the law of God. Our lives, our hearts, our desires are the crooked line. The law is God's perfect straightedge. When God places His law next to our lives, it doesn't introduce sin; it exposes sin. It provides the objective standard that makes our subjective rebellion undeniable. More than this, as Paul will argue, the very presence of the straightedge, the very command "Do not touch," awakens a rebellious impulse within us to do that very thing. The law, then, has this twofold effect on the unregenerate heart: it reveals sin and it provokes sin. This is not a flaw in the law, but rather a revelation of the depth of our depravity. The law is doing its job perfectly, and its job is to drive us to the end of ourselves and to the foot of the cross.
Verse by Verse Commentary
7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! Rather, 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.”
Paul begins with a rhetorical question that he fully expects his readers to be asking. If we died to the law because it aroused sinful passions (7:5), then isn't the law the problem? He answers with his characteristic, emphatic rejection: May it never be! In the Greek, it is a phrase of absolute horror at the suggestion. God forbid. To even think such a thing is blasphemous. The law is from God, and God is not the author of sin. Having rejected the false conclusion, he provides the true one. The law's function is not to create sin, but to define it. It gives sin its name. Paul says he would not have "known" sin apart from the law. This is not to say he would have been innocent, but that his sin would have remained a vague, undefined sense of unease. The law makes it specific. He uses the tenth commandment as his prime example. He would not have known that the restless, grasping desire in his heart was the specific sin of coveting unless the law had put a label on it. The law turns the lights on in a dark room, and for the first time, you see the filth for what it is.
8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, worked out in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the Law sin is dead.
Here Paul personifies sin as a cunning, enemy agent. Sin is not a passive weakness; it is an active, malevolent power that dwells within us. This power, sin, sees the commandment as an "opportunity," a base of operations from which to launch an attack. The very prohibition, "You shall not," becomes a dare to our rebellious nature. It's like a "Wet Paint" sign that seems to invite a curious finger. The commandment came, and sin, which was lying dormant, used the commandment to produce coveting of every kind. The statement "apart from the Law sin is dead" does not mean sin is non-existent. It means it is inactive, dormant, like a sleeping dragon. The law comes and pokes the dragon with a sharp stick, and it wakes up roaring. The law doesn't create the dragon, but it certainly riles it up.
9 Now I was once alive apart from the Law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died;
Paul describes a state of being "alive apart from the Law." This is likely a reference to the innocence of early childhood, before the moral demands of the law are understood and have taken root in the conscience. A young child lives in a world of simple experience, not yet wrestling with the categories of divine prohibition. He is "alive" in the sense that he is not yet crushed by the knowledge of his own guilt. But then "the commandment came." This is the moment of moral awakening. The child learns "Thou shalt not." And at that moment, two things happen simultaneously. Sin "revived", the dormant dragon woke up and asserted its power. And "I died", the former state of blissful ignorance was shattered. This is spiritual death, the recognition of guilt and condemnation before a holy God. The very thing that was supposed to guide him to life became the instrument of his death sentence.
10 and this commandment, which was to lead to life, was found to lead to death for me.
This verse expresses the great paradox of the law. The law was given "to lead to life." As Moses said, "You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them" (Lev. 18:5). In principle, the law lays out the path of life. If a man could keep it perfectly, he would live. The problem is that no sinful man can. So for us, in our fallen state, the commandment that points to the way of life actually functions as an instrument of death. It doesn't just pronounce the death sentence; it shows us why we deserve it. It was found to be death for me. The problem was not the commandment, but the "me" who received it.
11 For sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
Paul repeats the central idea of verse 8 for emphasis, but adds a new word: deceived. How does sin deceive? It promises freedom and pleasure in the breaking of the commandment. It whispers the same lie the serpent told Eve in the garden: "You will not surely die." It suggests that God is holding out, that true life is found in transgression. Sin presents the prohibition as an arbitrary restriction on our happiness. So, duped by this ancient lie, we transgress. And the result is not life, but death. Sin uses the good commandment as the murder weapon. It is the ultimate treachery. The law is the gun, sin pulls the trigger, and we are the victims.
12 So, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
This is the grand conclusion of the argument. Having shown how sin masterfully uses the law for its own wicked purposes, Paul brings us back to the ultimate truth about the law itself. The fault is not in the law. The law is holy because it comes from a holy God and reflects His character. The commandment is holy, set apart and sacred. It is righteous (or just) because its demands are perfectly fair and true. And it is good because its ultimate design is for our well being. The law is perfect. The problem is us. This verse is the final vindication. Paul has successfully defended the law against any charge of being sinful, while at the same time demonstrating with devastating clarity why it cannot save us. It is a perfect tool, but it is a diagnostic tool, not a surgical one. It can show you the cancer, but it cannot cut it out.
Application
There are two great errors we can fall into regarding the law of God. The first is legalism, which is the attempt to use the law as a means of earning God's favor. This is the error of the Pharisees, and Paul has just shown us why it is a fatal one. The law, when applied to sinful flesh, can only produce death and condemnation. If you are trying to be saved by your obedience to the law, you are using a tool designed to kill you as though it were a life-preserver. It will not work. It will only show you how much you need a savior.
The second error is antinomianism, the belief that because we are saved by grace, the law no longer has any relevance to the Christian life. This is the error Paul is directly combating in this passage. He insists that the law is holy, just, and good. For the believer, the law is no longer a covenant of works that condemns, but it is a guide for life that instructs. It is the "rule of life," as the old theologians used to say. It shows us what pleases the God who has saved us. It teaches us what love for God and neighbor looks like in practice. We do not obey the law in order to be saved, but because we are saved. Gratitude, not fear, is our motivation. The law that once was a ministry of death (2 Cor. 3:7) now becomes, for the one in Christ, a roadmap for righteousness, a delight, and a guide to walking in a way that is pleasing to our Father.
Therefore, we must learn to love God's law without trusting in our law-keeping. We must affirm its goodness while confessing our inability to keep it. We must let it drive us to Christ for justification, and then receive it from Christ as a guide for our sanctification. It is the perfect reflection of the character of our God, and as we are conformed to the image of His Son, we will find ourselves loving what He loves and delighting in the law of God from the heart.