Romans Chapter 7 Breakdown

1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?

Paul says outright, before he begins this statement, he is speaking to those who KNOW YHWH’s law, and which particular parts of it he is discussing. Therefore, anyone who is not familiar with His law may very well end up confused by his following statements or take this portion out of his intended context. The law ruled over us while He still was alive. What law, is it the whole Torah law as is commonly taught in churches today? Let’s let Paul elaborate, shall we?

2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.

This next verse is absolutely stunning. Paul tells us exactly what law he is referring to the marriage law. A woman is bound to her husband by the law of YHWH as long as he lives. If the husband dies, she is released from the law which held her to him. This, I believe is one of the mystery Peter speaks about.

1 Peter 1:1-1, 12

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into.

The very things the apostles are reporting to you by the Holy Spirit are the things even the angels did not understand. What would the angels not understand? I would submit it is the mystery concerning the loophole of the HOW YHWH had planned to bring the divorced wife back to Him.

3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.

If she goes out and becomes intimate with another, or marries another while her husband is still alive it is considered adultery. If he is dead, it is not adultery and she is free to remarry whomever. This is the reason Christ had to die. Yeshua was YHWH in the flesh. He was the one who married all of Israel, and later divorced the Northern Kingdom. While divorced, He was still alive and she was an adulterous wife due to the worship of other gods. With His death, she became free from that marriage covenant that bound her to Him. Now, with His rising again from the dead, Israel is free to remarry Him without it being considered an abomination unto the Lord.  

4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.

Paul is directly linking the “brethren” to the divorced wife. The law the wife is freed from is the marriage covenant, not the law which brings blessings, that is the whole of Torah. This is the very same thing believers are freed from, specifically the Northern Kingdom of Israel, or the adulterous wife. The Northern Kingdom became the gentiles, because once divorced they were scattered among the nations and eventually assimilated into these gentile nations. These gentiles are us, who are believers today. So to be freed from this marriage covenant means they are now allowed to return to YHWH because they are not bound by another law that coincides with the marriage law. We can now bear fruit, or show our good deeds (explained below) to YHWH.

Here is the whole marriage law, which Paul says the reader should know before proceeding.

Deuteronomy 24:1-4

“When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, when she has departed from his house, and goes and becomes another man’s wife, if the latter husband detests her and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her as his wife, then her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

The following is where YHWH divorced the Northern Kingdom.

Jeremiah 3:8

Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also.

Here we have exactly what Paul is talking about. YHWH has divorced Israel, which is the Northern Kingdom of Israel. This means he cannot take her back because she has went out and committed adultery with another, in the sense of worshipping other gods. The key here is the former husband has now died which releases her from the original marriage covenant and allows her to return to YHWH. This is the only way possible for the Northern Kingdom to return to YHWH due to the divorce. Without His death, the wife is still bound by the marriage law. With no way of knowing who is a descendent of the Northern Kingdom, all gentiles fall into this category. Therefore, by His death we can be saved because of our sinful behavior of worshipping other gods, He died because of our sin.

Think about that for a moment. You’re married and you love your husband/wife. You find out he/she has been repeatedly cheating on you. You still love that person but decide there is no other way but divorce. Because of that divorce you can never remarry that person. Years pass and you still love that person more than anything else you have ever loved. While that person continues to be with multiple others, you lay down your own life for him/her, because it is the only way for there ever to be a chance they can come back to you.

5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.

Before we knew YHWH, being “in the flesh” sin reigned in us. We were under the law of sin and death. Paul goes into this idea in next chapter. To be under this law simply means we continuously break YHWH’s law for whatever reason. Then Paul says something very interesting, he equates our sinful behavior to us bearing fruit. That being said we can say our sinful, non-law obeying actions bore bad fruit. If that is the case then the opposite must be true as well. That is, our lawful actions, which is of course our obeying of YHWH’s law, bears good fruit. It is our actions which are the fruit we bear.

6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

With Yeshua’s death and our faith, we have died to the law of sin and death. Because of this death, we no longer will choose to serve the law of sin, but the law of YHWH, which is spiritual. Paul says this outright later in this chapter. Another thing to remember is the Jews had been teaching salvation through the keeping of YHWH’s law. But this was not what it was intended to do.

7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”

Is YHWH’s law sin? Paul exclaims it is not. If it were not for YHWH’s law, no one would know what sin is because the law defines sin. Paul then quotes from Torah.

Exodus 20:17

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Deuteronomy 5:21

‘You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.

Paul talks about seven different laws within his letters. We have to know YHWH’s law, and use it to help decide what context Paul is using when he discusses “the law”.

 8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.

Before faith, we are all bound by the law of sin and death, which causes evil desires. Apart from this law, sin is dead.

9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.

Paul claims to have been alive without YHWH’s law, meaning he was full of sin. Then, when he learned the law and discovered what sin was, but he died, due to keeping the law for salvific purposes.

10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.

Paul is discussing how keeping the law for salvation is actually adding to the law, ultimately making it sinful to keep the law. But this is only the case when keeping the law believing it can save you.

11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.

He was tricked into believing the law would save him, but really it was killing him.

12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

Do not be deceived, YHWH’s law is holy and His commandments are holy, just and good.

13 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.

YHWH’s law is not death. It is sin, which we know by that law, which produces death. It is because of YHWH’s law that sin becomes extremely sinful.

14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.

Paul says it is the law of YHWH that is spiritual. Men are carnal and are bound and sold under sin.

15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.

The sinful things I do, I do not understand. Because of sin the things I want to do, I don’t do them, but the things I hate, I do them.

16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

If I do what I do not want to do, the law is good, because it tells me what is sin. Therefore, I know what I do when it is sin and I can try to avoid it. Without the law, I would not know these things are wrong, so the law is good.

17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

Because I do not want to do these things now that I know they are sinful, it is no longer me who is doing them, but sin because sin resides in the flesh.

18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.

It is sin within my flesh. I want to do the good deeds found in the Law of YHWH, I just do not know how.

19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.

Paul repeats the good he wants to do, he does not do, but the evil he wants to avoid is what he does.

20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

It is the sin within him/us which causes us to do the evil things we want to avoid.

21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.

Paul speaks about the law of YHWH. There is evil within men, but the law wills to do good.

22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.

Paul says right here, “I delight in the law of YHWH”. We cannot claim Paul taught against keeping YHWH’s law when he says right here he finds happiness in it.

23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Paul outright shows another law he is speaking of that is within his body, but not his mind. This law is the law of sin and this law is within our bodies.

24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

The law of sin is the law in which all men are under with our flesh.

25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

The mind, which is the spiritual mind, Paul says he serves the law of YHWH, but sins because of the law of sin. He never claims to or teaches anyone to disobey YHWH’s law. He says we should uphold His law, knowing because of our flesh we will sin.