Hello nebula,
Yeah, but I can't start any threads at this point, only post. This one asks a good question and because it only has one reply to it, and one I disagree with at that, I thought I would jump start it back up. Even if the original poster may be gone, it's still a good topic that many question.
Romans 7 is one of those chapters that is very misunderstood. Most see it as a saved man, but that is not the case.
Paul gives us an analogy here in Romans 7:1-6 of a woman/wife and 2 husbands. If the woman marries another while the first is still alive she would be an adultress, but if the first husband dies and then she marries another she would not be an adultress. Many believe the first husband Paul speaks of is representing the law and because the first husband/law dies we are then free from the law. But that is not the case.
As we study through Romans we see Paul has contrasted many things; sin to righteousness, flesh to Spirit/spirit, Jews to Gentiles, law to faith, Adam to Christ, life to death, and so on. In seeing that law and faith is contrasted and Adam and Christ is contrasted it would be out of line to the flow of Romans to say the fist husband is the law. The first husband is not the law, but rather Adam is the first husband. All of mankind springs from the loins of Adam. Adam is the head of the human race, but when we are born again Christ becomes our head. Before we are born again we are of Adam, but now that we are born again we are of Christ.
Paul's analogy is not just something thrown in to start talking about marriage, but is a picture of everything he is talking about from Romans 5 to Romans 8.
Romans 7:2 and 3 is about Romans 5. In Romans 5 we see that our problem was, we were in Adam, but then the cure for that was to be placed in Christ. Adam is the first husband, Christ is the second husband.
Romans 7:4 is about Romans 6. This is a one verse summary of Romans 6.
Romans 7:5 is about Romans 7. Just as we see this verse is speaking of when we were in the flesh, we see the man of Romans 7 is in the flesh. This verse is a summary of Romans 7.
Romans 7:6 is about Romans 8. This is a one verse summary of Romans 8.
As you will notice the tenses in 7:4-6 go from present tense to past tense back to present tense.
Paul contrasts the unregenerate man to the regenerate man all throughout Romans and to miss that is to miss how chapter 7 fits in as a lost man. Many see chapter 7 as one part of a chronological order of sinner (1:18-3:20) to saint (3:21-chapter 6), to struggling saint (7), to overcoming saint (8). But just as we see Paul is continually bring the lost man in the picture it makes it much esier to see he does the same here.
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.
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.
In Christ,
Dell
