Verses 1-3
-
A helpful, side-note insight about marriage here. A person is free to remarry if their spouse dies. It is adultery to remarry if your spouse has not died (there is one exception) (see Matthew 19:8-9). In this sense, freedom requires a death.
Verses 1,4-6
-
In the same way, unless Jesus had died, we would not have been freed, but stuck under God's wrath and stuck in sinful habits. Why?
-
Verse 4. The law required that we die and go to hell for our sins. As long as we were under the law, we could not escape that punishment. When Jesus died, He satisfied that requirement. Now we can go free.
-
Verse 5. The law only made us think of sinning even more (Romans 3:20). For this reason, the law kept us stuck in sin.
-
-
Verse 6. Now that we are free from the law, we belong to Jesus, and we have power from the Holy Spirit to live a life not controlled by sin.
Verses 7-13
-
The law is good (verse 12), but it does these two things:
-
Verse 7,13-14. First, it makes you aware of sin that you didn't know you had (it proves how sinful you really are).
-
Verse 8. Second, it makes you want to sin even more. How? As soon as you're told that you can't do something, that's when you think of doing it. The law reveals our rebellious nature.
-
Verses 14-25
-
Verses 15-23,25b. Before we're saved, and once we know about God's law, we realize that we do not have the power to stop sinning by ourselves. Even if we don't want to sin, and even if we try to love God's law, we keep sinning anyway.
- This proves that the law cannot save anyone from sin. Without salvation and without understanding of God's grace, we stay stuck in sin.
-
Verses 24-25a. The law forces us to cry out to God to free us from the control of the sinful nature that causes us to sin.
-
And we can praise God that the solution to our sinful nature is found in Jesus Christ, by believing in Him.
-
*Remember that if you are saved and understand the gospel, you do not have to struggle anymore with the turmoil described in verses 7-24. We know this because Romans 8:2 says that Jesus frees us from the sin and the body of death that is complained about in Romans 7:24.