[metmom]

Studying God’s Word ping

[Jim W N]

Besides death, the only solution to sin is the grace of Christ.

For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace.

Romans 6:14.

Law strengthens sin and makes it worse.

the strength of sin is the law

1 Corinthians 15:56.

[boatbums]

When he exclaimed, “Who will set me free from the body of this death?” Paul referred to his physical body that was subject to sin and death. It is there that the battle with sin is joined. The verb translated “set me free” was used to speak of a soldier rescuing a wounded comrade in the midst of battle. Paul longed to be rescued from his sinful, unredeemed flesh.

I remember learning about a Roman punishment that chained a dead body to the condemned man which then decomposed and rotted and eventually infected and killed the living one. This may be what Paul was even likening his/our struggle with the old sin nature.

The answer to Paul’s dilemma was a “who,” not a how. It was a person who would deliver him from the condition of defeat. Paul could not do this by himself. He knew that he needed outside help to deal with the overpowering influence of the sin capacity.

The issue in chapter seven is not pardon but deliverance. The question concerns indwelling sin as a power, not sins committed at some point. Romans eight answers that deliverance from the body of this death (sin capacity) is found in the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. The law does not provide the power to overcome sin. We are “not under the law but under grace” (Ro 6:14).

God through Christ delivers us from sin in three phases: (1) from the penalty of sin when we become Christians, (2) from the power of sin daily, (3) and from the presence of sin in heaven. Our verse deals with deliverance from the daily influence of the sin capacity.

The “body of death” of the sin capacity pictures us dragging around a corpse on our human body all day. There was a Roman system of punishment whereby the authorities chained the body of the murdered person to the murderer. The murdered body stayed chained to the murderer as long as he lived. This corpse constantly interferes with our highest desire to please God. The sin capacity is a deadly weight.

“Death” here is the miserable condition of being out of fellowship with the Lord in time. It is a state of allowing the sin capacity to control or dominate us. Paul did not cry out for deliverance from his body in physical death here, but from defeat in the Christian life.

PRINCIPLE:

The spiritual battle in the believer never ceases until he meets the Lord in glory.

APPLICATION:

Every genuine child of God will struggle with the battle of his two capacities. Non-Christians do not go through this internal conflict.

Sanctification is incomplete for the believer in terms of the believer’s experience, but it is complete in terms of Christ’s work for him positionally. The believer died to sin when Christ died on the cross (Ga 2:20, 21). His justification was complete when he put his trust in the finished work of Christ on the cross. We will see this soon: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (8:2). Complete deliverance from the presence of sin will not happen until the believer enters the eternal state. Christians who seek perfection in their lives will end frustrated and discouraged. We need to accept the daily struggle with sin as a point of reality in Christian living. (https://versebyversecommentary.com/2012/05/02/romans-724/)