◄ Romans 7 Devotional Commentary ►

Romans 7:2

In Romans chapters 3 to 8, Paul makes many contrasts between living under the Law and living under grace. While the Law most certainly is the tool God has used to identify sin in our lives, the Law is powerless to save us from our sin. Sinning and breaking God's Law are two sides of the same coin. 

Living under any law means that we are bound by certain rules and regulations, confined to certain legal codes of practice, and must read more...

Romans 7:4

In the previous chapter, Paul had contrasted the relationship of the Christians' 'new-life-in-Christ' with the 'old life-in-Adam'. He explained that before salvation we were dead IN sin but after salvation we are dead TO sin. Before we were saved we were separated from Christ by sin, but after having been saved by grace through faith, we were forgiven of our sin, joined to Christ, and positioned in Him

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Romans 7:6

When a woman's husband dies, she is no longer bound by her marriage vows, but while he is alive, she is obligated by their wedding contract. It is death that released this woman from the marriage pledge, for once her husband dies, the legal ties that fasten them inseparably together are immediately broken, and she is freed from her binding contract.

The marriage agreement between this woman and her husband is likened by Paul to read more...

Romans 7:7

Knowledge of sin comes through the Law. It is the consummate tool that identifies and exposes sin. Once we have a knowledge of the Law, we have no alternative but to admit we are wretched sinners in need of forgiveness, which only comes by faith in Christ. It is as we come face to face with the perfect Law of God, that the horror of sin is exposed and our desperate need of God's gift of salvation becomes clear.

Earlier in Romans, read more...

Romans 7:18

Romans chapter 7, gives a most thorough treatise on the Law and its place in the life of a believer. Though delivering a simple lesson, it has profound and far-reaching implications for all believers, both Jew and Gentile, who foolishly try to place themselves back under the Law. 

It starts by comparing a Christian's connection to the Law with a married woman's relationship to her husband - who dies. Before his death, read more...

Romans 7:22

Believers that are living in the flesh, are submitting to the old sin-nature which cannot please God. The old sin nature (the old man in Adam) and the works that emanate from the flesh, cannot delight in the law of the Lord nor can they rejoice in the truth of His Word, for the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. The old sin-nature is at enmity with the new, born-again spirit of God, and the new life in Christ is at enmity with the old read more...

Romans 7:23

As Christians, we are sojourners and pilgrims passing through this world on our way to our eternal home. We have a great inheritance, which is reserved for us in heaven, and this glorious, future perspective is to encourage us and to lead us to a godly life and holy living, which will result in our internal victory.

Our vocation is to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, but too often our fleshly tendency is to follow a different path. We read more...

Romans 7:24

Paul was stopped in his tracks on the road to Damascus by the risen, ascended, glorified Lord Jesus. Having been saved by grace through faith on that epic journey... his entire outlook on life and his understanding of the Law was radically changed.

Before his conversion, Paul could boast of his unsurpassed confidence in his own good works and his strict, stringent law-keeping. As an orthodox Jew, he was circumcised on the eighth read more...

Romans 7:25

While the first 5 chapters of Romans deals with how to be saved: justification, the next chapters deal with how to live the Christian life: sanctification. Chapters 6 and 8 explain how to live the Christian life, how to grow in grace, how to progress in holiness, and mature in the faith. They show how a believer can have victory over slavery to sin; how they can grow in mature in the faith and progress in their Christian walk. read more...