December 3, 2012
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A STUDY ON ROMANS CHAPTER SEVEN:
The Context:
Paul lays down his argument in Romans 1-11 as he builds to three peaks. The first peak is found in Romans 3:21-26 where in verse 21 Paul, with great joy and enthusiasm, presents the good news: God has provided the righteousness which all men lack and which God requires for eternal life. In Romans 8:1-17, we come to the second peak of the book when Paul tells the Christian that God has provided the means for righteous living which all Christians lack. Finally, in Romans 11, Paul tells us of God’s work among His people, the Jews, in bringing about their righteousness by means of the Gentiles in His sovereign program for His people. In each case, only after Paul demonstrates the need for righteousness and man’s inability to produce it by his own works does Paul introduce the righteousness which God provides and produces. In Romans 1:18–3:20, Paul demonstrates the universal sinfulness of all men, Jews and Gentiles. Man’s desperately sinful condition is summarized in Romans 3:10-18, where Paul employs the Old Testament Scriptures themselves to prove his point that all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. Romans 7:14-25 is similar to Romans 3:10-18. These verses sum up the Christian’s utter inability to live righteously, in his own strength. Rather than citing the Old Testament Scriptures here, Paul refers to his own experience as we read of his final cry of despair in Romans 7:24. The darkest hour of Romans 5-7 comes just before the dawn of Romans 8.Romans 5 begins by assuring the Christian of the certainty of salvation and of its many blessings in which we boast. The basis for our struggle with sin (in Adam), as well as the basis for our victory over sin (in Christ), is exposed in the last half of chapter 5. Romans 6 stresses the necessity of living righteously, not in sin as we once lived before our salvation. Romans 7:1-6 speaks of our death to the Law and the freedom this grants us to be joined to Christ and to produce the fruit of righteousness. In Romans 7:7-13, Paul establishes the goodness of God’s Law and the wickedness of sin. Now, in Romans 7:14-25, Paul brings us to the root of the problem, the cause of our constant defeat by sin: our own flesh, the “body of this death” (verse 24).
I shall return with more; please share if you like, thanks.
