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■ 로마서 7장
1. 형제들아 내가 법 아는 자들에게 말하노니 너희는 율법이 사람의 살 동안만 그를 주관하는 줄 알지 못하느냐
Know ye not , brethren , (for I speak to them that know the law ,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth ?
2. 남편 있는 여인이 그 남편 생전에는 법으로 그에게 매인 바 되나 만일 그 남편이 죽으면 남편의 법에서 벗어났느니라
For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth ; but if the husband be dead , she is loosed from the law of her husband .
3. 그러므로 만일 그 남편 생전에 다른 남자에게 가면 음부라 이르되 남편이 죽으면 그 법에서 자유케 되나니 다른 남자에게 갈지라도 음부가 되지 아니하느니라
So then if , while her husband liveth , she be married to another man , she shall be called an adulteress : but if her husband be dead , she is free from that law ; so that she is no adulteress , though she be married to another man .
4. 그러므로 내 형제들아 너희도 그리스도의 몸으로 말미암아 율법에 대하여 죽임을 당하였으니 이는 다른 이 곧 죽은 자 가운데서 살아나신 이에게 가서 우리로 하나님을 위하여 열매를 맺히게 하려 함이니라
Wherefore , my brethren , ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ ; that ye should be married to another , even to him who is raised from the dead , that we should bring forth fruit unto God .
5. 우리가 육신에 있을 때에는 율법으로 말미암는 죄의 정욕이 우리 지체 중에 역사하여 우리로 사망을 위하여 열매를 맺게 하였더니
For when we were in the flesh , the motions of sins , which were by the law , did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death .
6. 이제는 우리가 얽매였던 것에 대하여 죽었으므로 율법에서 벗어났으니 이러므로 우리가 영의 새로운 것으로 섬길 것이요 의문의 묵은 것으로 아니할지니라
But now we are delivered from the law , that being dead wherein we were held ; that we should serve in newness of spirit , and not in the oldness of the letter .
7. 그런즉 우리가 무슨 말 하리요 율법이 죄냐 그럴 수 없느니라 율법으로 말미암지 않고는 내가 죄를 알지 못하였으니 곧 율법이 탐내지 말라 하지 아니하였더면 내가 탐심을 알지 못하였으리라
What shall we say then ? Is the law sin ? God forbid . Nay , I had not known sin , but by the law : for I had not known lust , except the law had said , Thou shalt not covet .
8. 그러나 죄가 기회를 타서 계명으로 말미암아 내 속에서 각양 탐심을 이루었나니 이는 법이 없으면 죄가 죽은 것임이니라
But sin , taking occasion by the commandment , wrought in me all manner of concupiscence . For without the law sin was dead .
9. 전에 법을 깨닫지 못할 때에는 내가 살았더니 계명이 이르매 죄는 살아나고 나는 죽었도다
For I was alive without the law once : but when the commandment came , sin revived , and I died .
10. 생명에 이르게 할 그 계명이 내게 대하여 도리어 사망에 이르게 하는 것이 되었도다
And the commandment , which was ordained to life , I found to be unto death .
11. 죄가 기회를 타서 계명으로 말미암아 나를 속이고 그것으로 나를 죽였는지라
For sin , taking occasion by the commandment , deceived me , and by it slew me.
12. 이로 보건대 율법도 거룩하며 계명도 거룩하며 의로우며 선하도다
Wherefore the law is holy , and the commandment holy , and just , and good .
13. 그런즉 선한 것이 내게 사망이 되었느뇨 그럴 수 없느니라 오직 죄가 죄로 드러나기 위하여 선한 그것으로 말미암아 나를 죽게 만들었으니 이는 계명으로 말미암아 죄로 심히 죄되게 하려 함이니라
Was then that which is good made death unto me ? God forbid . But sin , that it might appear sin , working death in me by that which is good ; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful .
14. 우리가 율법은 신령한 줄 알거니와 나는 육신에 속하여 죄 아래 팔렸도다
For we know that the law is spiritual : but I am carnal , sold under sin .
15. 나의 행하는 것을 내가 알지 못하노니 곧 원하는 이것은 행하지 아니하고 도리어 미워하는 그것을 함이라
For that which I do I allow not : for what I would , that do I not ; but what I hate , that do I .
16. 만일 내가 원치 아니하는 그것을 하면 내가 이로 율법의 선한 것을 시인하노니
If then I do that which I would not , I consent unto the law that it is good .
17. 이제는 이것을 행하는 자가 내가 아니요 내 속에 거하는 죄니라
Now then it is no more I that do it , but sin that dwelleth in me .
18. 내 속 곧 내 육신에 선한 것이 거하지 아니하는 줄을 아노니 원함은 내게 있으나 선을 행하는 것은 없노라
For I know that in me (that is , in my flesh ,) dwelleth no good thing : for to will is present with me ; but how to perform that which is good I find not .
19. 내가 원하는 바 선은 하지 아니하고 도리어 원치 아니하는 바 악은 행하는도다
For the good that I would I do not : but the evil which I would not , that I do .
20. 만일 내가 원치 아니하는 그것을 하면 이를 행하는 자가 내가 아니요 내 속에 거하는 죄니라
Now if I do that I would not , it is no more I that do it , but sin that dwelleth in me .
21. 그러므로 내가 한 법을 깨달았노니 곧 선을 행하기 원하는 나에게 악이 함께 있는 것이로다
I find then a law , that , when I would do good , evil is present with me .
22. 내 속 사람으로는 하나님의 법을 즐거워하되
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man :
23. 내 지체 속에서 한 다른 법이 내 마음의 법과 싸워 내 지체 속에 있는 죄의 법 아래로 나를 사로잡아 오는 것을 보는도다
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 .
24. 오호라 나는 곤고한 사람이로다 이 사망의 몸에서 누가 나를 건져내랴
O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?
25. 우리 주 예수 그리스도로 말미암아 하나님께 감사하리로다 그런즉 내 자신이 마음으로는 하나님의 법을, 육신으로는 죄의 법을 섬기노라
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 .
■ 주석 보기
【롬7:1 JFB】롬7:1-25. Same Subject Continued.
Relation of Believers to the Law and to Christ (롬7:1-6).
Recurring to the statement of 롬6:14, that believers are "not under the law but under grace," the apostle here shows how this change is brought about, and what holy consequences follow from it.
1. I speak to them that know the law—of Moses to whom, though not themselves Jews (see on 롬1:13), the Old Testament was familiar.
【롬7:1 CWC】1. "Wherefore" leads back to chapter 3, where the apostle is referring to the sinful condition of all men. It was by one man that sin entered the world bringing physical death as a penalty, and that all have sinned is proven by the fact that all have paid that penalty (v. 12). To be sure the law was not given to Moses till Sinai, but as "death reigned from Adam to Moses," it is evident that there was a transgression of another law than that written on stone, for "sin is not imputed when there is no law" (v. 13). For the nature of this other law compare again 2:15.
2. But as sin came through the first Adam, so the gift of righteousness came through the second Adam. It was just one offence that brought the condemnation, but the gift of righteousness covers "many offences" (vv. 16, 19). It was the giving of the law at Sinai that revealed how many these offences were (v. 20) for "by the law is the knowledge of sin" (3:20). Nevertheless, though sin was thus seen to abound, yet "grace did much more abound" (v. 20). "Sin" as used here is different from "sins," the former referring to our fallen nature, and the latter to manifestations of that nature.
3. What Paul had said about grace abounding where sin abounded, might lead an uninstructed mind to infer that it put a premium on sin. Or in other words, if man were justified by faith only, what provision was made for a change of character? How did salvation by grace affect one's experience as well as his standing before God? Chapters 6 to 8 work out this thought as follows:
(a) The believer is identified with Christ in His death and resurrection (6:1-10). The baptism into Jesus Christ (verse 3), is the pentecostal experience which becomes the birthright of every believer the moment he believes. He is then baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of which Christ is the Head (고전12:13); and being so baptized he is considered as one with Christ as any member of a human body is one with the head of that body. This means of course, that he is regarded in God's sight as having died when Christ died -- he was "baptized into His death." The sequel however, must be equally true, and he is regarded as having risen from the dead when Christ rose. Hence he is now in a legal or judicial sense walking before God "in newness of life." Being dead he "is freed from sin" (v. 7), i. e., having legally died in Christ when Christ died just as every member of a body dies when its head dies, he has paid the penalty of his sin in Christ, and having now arisen in Christ after the payment of that penalty, "death hath no more dominion over him" (v. 9), he has not again to pay the penalty of sin.
(b) It is now his duty to reckon this to be true, and no longer to allow sin to reign in his "mortal body" (v. 11). The way to accomplish this is not by efforts and resolutions on his part, but by yielding his new life unto God. He yields his new life by yielding the members of his body unto God -- his eyes, ears, tongue, hands, feet, brain, etc. (v. 13).
(c) The result will be his deliverance from the dominion of sin -- God will see to it (v. 14). The old relation of the man to the law of sin, and his new relation to Christ are illustrated by the effect of death upon servitude (vv. 16-23). The old servitude was rendered to sin the end of which was death. But death in another form, i. e., crucifixion with Christ, has now intervened to free the servant from sin, and enable him to become the servant of God, with "fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life" (v. 22). The relationship is next illustrated by marriage (7:1-6). Death dissolves the marriage relationship, and as natural death frees a wife from the law of her husband, so crucifixion with Christ sets the believer free from the law, or rather its penalty resting upon him on account of his sin.
"Newness of spirit" and "oldness of the letter" (v. 6) are expressions requiring a word of comment as we meet with them again in another epistle. By the "letter" is meant the Mosaic law, and by the "spirit" the powers and relationships of the new life in Christ Jesus (cf. 고후3:6).
【롬7:1 MHCC】So long as a man continues under the law as a covenant, and seeks justification by his own obedience, he continues the slave of sin in some form. Nothing but the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, can make any sinner free from the law of sin and death. Believers are delivered from that power of the law, which condemns for the sins committed by them. And they are delivered from that power of the law which stirs up and provokes the sin that dwells in them. Understand this not of the law as a rule, but as a covenant of works. In profession and privilege, we are under a covenant of grace, and not under a covenant of works; under the gospel of Christ, not under the law of Moses. The difference is spoken of under the similitude or figure of being married to a new husband. The second marriage is to Christ. By death we are freed from obligation to the law as a covenant, as the wife is from her vows to her husband. In our believing powerfully and effectually, we are dead to the law, and have no more to do with it than the dead servant, who is freed from his master, has to do with his master's yoke. The day of our believing, is the day of being united to the Lord Jesus. We enter upon a life of dependence on him, and duty to him. Good works are from union with Christ; as the fruitfulness of the vine is the product of its being united to its roots; there is no fruit to God, till we are united to Christ. The law, and the greatest efforts of one under the law, still in the flesh, under the power of corrupt principles, cannot set the heart right with regard to the love of God, overcome worldly lusts, or give truth and sincerity in the inward parts, or any thing that comes by the special sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit. Nothing more than a formal obedience to the outward letter of any precept, can be performed by us, without the renewing, new-creating grace of the new covenant.
【롬7:2 JFB】2, 3. if her husband be dead—"die." So 롬7:3.
【롬7:3 JFB】3. she be married—"joined." So 롬7:4.
【롬7:4 JFB】4. Wherefore … ye also are become dead—rather, "were slain."
to the law by the body of Christ—through His slain body. The apostle here departs from his usual word "died," using the more expressive phrase "were slain," to make it clear that he meant their being "crucified with Christ" (as expressed in 롬6:3-6, and 갈2:20).
that ye should be married to another, even to him that is—"was."
raised from the dead—to the intent.
that we should bring forth fruit unto God—It has been thought that the apostle should here have said that "the law died to us," not "we to the law," but that purposely inverted the figure, to avoid the harshness to Jewish ears of the death of the law [Chrysostom, Calvin, Hodge, Philippi, &c.]. But this is to mistake the apostle's design in employing this figure, which was merely to illustrate the general principle that "death dissolves legal obligation." It was essential to his argument that we, not the law, should be the dying party, since it is we that are "crucified with Christ," and not the law. This death dissolves our marriage obligation to the law, leaving us at liberty to contract a new relation—to be joined to the Risen One, in order to spiritual fruitfulness, to the glory of God [Beza, Olshausen, Meyer, Alford, &c.]. The confusion, then, is in the expositors, not the text; and it has arisen from not observing that, like Jesus Himself, believers are here viewed as having a double life—the old sin-condemned life, which they lay down with Christ, and the new life of acceptance and holiness to which they rise with their Surety and Head; and all the issues of this new life, in Christian obedience, are regarded as the "fruit" of this blessed union to the Risen One. How such holy fruitfulness was impossible before our union to Christ, is next declared.
【롬7:5 JFB】5. For when we were in the flesh—in our unregenerate state, as we came into the world. See on 요3:6 and 롬8:5-9.
the motions—"passions" (Margin), "affections" (as in 갈5:24), or "stirrings."
of sins—that is, "prompting to the commission of sins."
which were by the law—by occasion of the law, which fretted, irritated our inward corruption by its prohibitions. See on 롬7:7-9.
did work in our members—the members of the body, as the instruments by which these inward stirrings find vent in action, and become facts of the life. See on 롬6:6.
to bring forth fruit unto death—death in the sense of 롬6:21. Thus hopeless is all holy fruit before union to Christ.
【롬7:6 JFB】6. But now—On the same expression, see on 롬6:22, and compare 약1:15.
we are delivered from the law—The word is the same which, in 롬6:6 and elsewhere, is rendered "destroyed," and is but another way of saying (as in 롬7:4) that "we were slain to the law by the body of Christ"; language which, though harsh to the ear, is designed and fitted to impress upon the reader the violence of that death of the Cross, by which, as by a deadly wrench, we are "delivered from the law."
that being dead wherein we were held—It is now universally agreed that the true reading here is, "being dead to that wherein we were held." The received reading has no authority whatever, and is inconsistent with the strain of the argument; for the death spoken of, as we have seen, is not the law's, but ours, through union with the crucified Saviour.
that we should—"so as to" or "so that we."
serve in newness of spirit—"in the newness of the spirit."
and not in the oldness of the letter—not in our old way of literal, mechanical obedience to the divine law, as a set of external rules of conduct, and without any reference to the state of our hearts; but in that new way of spiritual obedience which, through union to the risen Saviour, we have learned to render (compare 롬2:29; 고후3:6).
【롬7:7 JFB】False Inferences regarding the Law Repelled (롬7:7-25).
And first, 롬7:7-13, in the case of the UNREGENERATE.
7, 8. What … then? Is the law sin? God forbid!—"I have said that when we were in the flesh the law stirred our inward corruption, and was thus the occasion of deadly fruit: Is then the law to blame for this? Far from us be such a thought."
Nay—"On the contrary" (as in 롬8:37; 고전12:22; Greek).
I had not known sin but by the law—It is important to fix what is meant by "sin" here. It certainly is not "the general nature of sin" [Alford, &c.], though it be true that this is learned from the law; for such a sense will not suit what is said of it in the following verses, where the meaning is the same as here. The only meaning which suits all that is said of it in this place is "the principle of sin in the heart of fallen man." The sense, then, is this: "It was by means of the law that I came to know what a virulence and strength of sinful propensity I had within me." The existence of this it did not need the law to reveal to him; for even the heathens recognized and wrote of it. But the dreadful nature and desperate power of it the law alone discovered—in the way now to be described.
for I had not known lust, except, &c.—Here the same Greek word is unfortunately rendered by three different English ones—"lust"; "covet"; "concupiscence" (롬7:8)—which obscures the meaning. By using the word "lust" only, in the wide sense of all "irregular desire," or every outgoing of the heart towards anything forbidden, the sense will best be brought out; thus, "For I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not lust; But sin, taking ('having taken') occasion by the commandment (that one which forbids it), wrought in me all manner of lusting." This gives a deeper view of the tenth commandment than the mere words suggest. The apostle saw in it the prohibition not only of desire after certain things there specified, \ but of "desire after everything divinely forbidden"; in other words, all "lusting" or "irregular desire." It was this which "he had not known but by the law." The law forbidding all such desire so stirred his corruption that it wrought in him "all manner of lusting"—desire of every sort after what was forbidden.
【롬7:7 CWC】That part of chapter 7 on which we now enter is biographical, giving Paul's experience at a period when, though, regenerated, he was still living under the law and in ignorance of the deliverance to be had in Christ. It is a revelation that the believer possesses two natures -- that of the first Adam received at his physical birth, and that of the second Adam received in regeneration by the Holy Spirit through faith. The man here described has been baptized into Jesus Christ, is judicially free from the law, and is walking in newness of life, and yet sin reigns more or less in his mortal body. How is he to be delivered from it? In chapter 6 Paul taught that it was by yielding oneself to God, as the result of which sin would not have dominion over him. In chapter 7 he shows in his own person the need of doing this, while in chapter 8 he describes the Divine process by which the change from defeat to victory is thus produced.
1. He makes clear that the Christian believer is not made holy by the law (7:7-14). There was a time when, as a Jew, he thought he had kept the law (빌3:6), but now as a regenerated Christian he had come to see the law in a new light, i. e., as spiritual, and that which was not sin theretofore now became so. Then he had thought himself "alive" in a spiritual sense, but now he perceived that he was really dead.
2. He shows the conflict of the two natures under the law (vv. 15-25). He spoke of himself as "carnal" (v. 14), by which he meant that, as a believer, he was still more or less under the power of his fallen nature, i. e., he did things that were wrong and yet it was not the new Paul that was doing them but the old Paul, "sin that dwelleth in me" (vv. 17, 20). This "sin," this "old man" was like a dead body lashed to his back, was there no deliverance from it? He thanked God that there was such deliverance through Jesus Christ.
3. This deliverance he now reveals (8:1-27). (a) It is through the Holy Spirit dwelling in the believer who sets him "free from the law of sin and death" (vv. 2-4). In his fallen state he was subject to a bias or tendency towards sin, the outcome of which was death. But now as a regenerated man that bias or tendency is broken. (b) The Holy Spirit also gives him a spiritual mind to desire this new freedom (vv. 5-10). (c) And the spiritual power to exercise the desire (vv, 11-13). (d) And the spiritual motive to lay hold of the power (vv. 14-25). (e) And the spiritual wisdom to appreciate the motive (vv. 26, 27). The spiritual motive to lay hold of the power of the Holy Spirit for a life of victory, is that of our relationship to God as His children, which implies joint heirship with Christ. This heirship is so glorious in its full manifestation that the whole creation is groaning for it, because it means its deliverance from bondage.
4. The practical conclusion to be drawn from all this on the part of the believer is stated in verse 28, -- a conclusion which reaches into the glorified state (vv. 29, 30). The man Whom God has called in Christ to be his, is already considered "glorified," so certain is that event to follow in his experience. No wonder that the challenges of verses 31-35 should follow. Read them in the Revised Version.
【롬7:7 MHCC】There is no way of coming to that knowledge of sin, which is necessary to repentance, and therefore to peace and pardon, but by trying our hearts and lives by the law. In his own case the apostle would not have known the sinfulness of his thoughts, motives, and actions, but by the law. That perfect standard showed how wrong his heart and life were, proving his sins to be more numerous than he had before thought, but it did not contain any provision of mercy or grace for his relief. He is ignorant of human nature and the perverseness of his own heart, who does not perceive in himself a readiness to fancy there is something desirable in what is out of reach. We may perceive this in our children, though self-love makes us blind to it in ourselves. The more humble and spiritual any Christian is, the more clearly will he perceive that the apostle describes the true believer, from his first convictions of sin to his greatest progress in grace, during this present imperfect state. St. Paul was once a Pharisee, ignorant of the spirituality of the law, having some correctness of character, without knowing his inward depravity. When the commandment came to his conscience by the convictions of the Holy Spirit, and he saw what it demanded, he found his sinful mind rise against it. He felt at the same time the evil of sin, his own sinful state, that he was unable to fulfil the law, and was like a criminal when condemned. But though the evil principle in the human heart produces sinful motions, and the more by taking occasion of the commandment; yet the law is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good. It is not favourable to sin, which it pursues into the heart, and discovers and reproves in the inward motions thereof. Nothing is so good but a corrupt and vicious nature will pervert it. The same heat that softens wax, hardens clay. Food or medicine when taken wrong, may cause death, though its nature is to nourish or to heal. The law may cause death through man's depravity, but sin is the poison that brings death. Not the law, but sin discovered by the law, was made death to the apostle. The ruinous nature of sin, and the sinfulness of the human heart, are here clearly shown.
【롬7:8 JFB】8. For without the law—that is, before its extensive demands and prohibitions come to operate upon our corrupt nature.
sin was—rather, "is"
dead—that is, the sinful principle of our nature lies so dormant, so torpid, that its virulence and power are unknown, and to our feeling it is as good as "dead."
【롬7:9 JFB】9. For I was alive without the law once—"In the days of my ignorance, when, in this sense, a stranger to the law, I deemed myself a righteous man, and, as such, entitled to life at the hand of God."
but when the commandment came—forbidding all irregular desire; for the apostle sees in this the spirit of the whole law.
sin revived—"came to life"; in its malignity and strength it unexpectedly revealed itself, as if sprung from the dead.
and I died—"saw myself, in the eye of a law never kept and not to be kept, a dead man."
【롬7:10 JFB】10, 11. And—thus.
the commandment, which was, &c.—designed
to—give
life—through the keeping of it.
I found to be unto death—through breaking it.
For sin—my sinful nature.
taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me—or "seduced me"—drew me aside into the very thing which the commandment forbade.
and by it slew me—"discovered me to myself to be a condemned and gone man" (compare 롬7:9, "I died").
【롬7:12 JFB】12, 13. Wherefore—"So that."
the law is—"is indeed"
good, and the commandment—that one so often referred to, which forbids all lusting.
holy, and just, and good.
【롬7:13 JFB】13. Was then that which is good made—"Hath then that which is good become"
death unto me? God forbid—that is, "Does the blame of my death lie with the good law? Away with such a thought."
But sin—became death unto me, to the end.
that it might appear sin—that it might be seen in its true light.
working death in—rather, "to"
me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful—"that its enormous turpitude might stand out to view, through its turning God's holy, just, and good law into a provocative to the very things which is forbids." So much for the law in relation to the unregenerate, of whom the apostle takes himself as the example; first, in his ignorant, self-satisfied condition; next, under humbling discoveries of his inability to keep the law, through inward contrariety to it; finally, as self-condemned, and already, in law, a dead man. Some inquire to what period of his recorded history these circumstances relate. But there is no reason to think they were wrought into such conscious and explicit discovery at any period of his history before he "met the Lord in the way"; and though, "amidst the multitude of his thoughts within him" during his memorable three day's blindness immediately after that, such views of the law and of himself would doubtless be tossed up and down till they took shape much as they are here described (see on 행9:9) we regard this whole description of his inward struggles and progress rather as the finished result of all his past recollections and subsequent reflections on his unregenerate state, which he throws into historical form only for greater vividness. But now the apostle proceeds to repel false inferences regarding the law, secondly: 롬7:14-25, in the case of the REGENERATE; taking himself here also as the example.
【롬7:14 JFB】14. For we know that the law is spiritual—in its demands.
but I am carnal—fleshly (see on 롬7:5), and as such, incapable of yielding spiritual obedience.
sold under sin—enslaved to it. The "I" here, though of course not the regenerate, is neither the unregenerate, but the sinful principle of the renewed man, as is expressly stated in 롬7:18.
【롬7:14 MHCC】Compared with the holy rule of conduct in the law of God, the apostle found himself so very far short of perfection, that he seemed to be carnal; like a man who is sold against his will to a hated master, from whom he cannot set himself at liberty. A real Christian unwillingly serves this hated master, yet cannot shake off the galling chain, till his powerful and gracious Friend above, rescues him. The remaining evil of his heart is a real and humbling hinderance to his serving God as angels do and the spirits of just made perfect. This strong language was the result of St. Paul's great advance in holiness, and the depth of his self-abasement and hatred of sin. If we do not understand this language, it is because we are so far beneath him in holiness, knowledge of the spirituality of God's law, and the evil of our own hearts, and hatred of moral evil. And many believers have adopted the apostle's language, showing that it is suitable to their deep feelings of abhorrence of sin, and self-abasement. The apostle enlarges on the conflict he daily maintained with the remainder of his original depravity. He was frequently led into tempers, words, or actions, which he did not approve or allow in his renewed judgement and affections. By distinguishing his real self, his spiritual part, from the self, or flesh, in which sin dwelt, and by observing that the evil actions were done, not by him, but by sin dwelling in him, the apostle did not mean that men are not accountable for their sins, but he teaches the evil of their sins, by showing that they are all done against reason and conscience. Sin dwelling in a man, does not prove its ruling, or having dominion over him. If a man dwells in a city, or in a country, still he may not rule there.
【롬7:15 JFB】15, 16. For, &c.—better, "For that which I do I know not"; that is, "In obeying the impulses of my carnal nature I act the slave of another will than my own as a renewed man?"
for, &c.—rather, "for not what I would (wish, desire) that do I, but what I hate that I do."
【롬7:16 JFB】16. If then I do that which I would not—"But if what I would not that I do,"
I consent unto the law that it is good—"the judgment of my inner man going along with the law."
【롬7:17 JFB】17. Now then it is no more I—my renewed self.
that do it—"that work it."
but sin which dwelleth in me—that principle of sin that still has its abode in me. To explain this and the following statements, as many do (even Bengel and Tholuck), of the sins of unrenewed men against their better convictions, is to do painful violence to the apostle's language, and to affirm of the unregenerate what is untrue. That coexistence and mutual hostility of "flesh" and "spirit" in the same renewed man, which is so clearly taught in 롬8:4, &c., and in 갈5:16, &c., is the true and only key to the language of this and the following verses. (It is hardly necessary to say that the apostle means not to disown the blame of yielding to his corruptions, by saying, "it is not he that does it, but sin that dwelleth in him." Early heretics thus abused his language; but the whole strain of the passage shows that his sole object in thus expressing himself was to bring more vividly before his readers the conflict of two opposite principles, and how entirely, as a new man—honoring from his inmost soul the law of God—he condemned and renounced his corrupt nature, with its affections and lusts, its stirrings and its outgoings, root and branch).
【롬7:18 JFB】18. For, &c.—better, "For I know that there dwelleth not in me, that is in my flesh, any good."
for to will—"desire."
is present with me; but how to perform that which is good—the supplement "how," in our version, weakens the statement.
I find not—Here, again, we have the double self of the renewed man; "In me dwelleth no good; but this corrupt self is not my true self; it is but sin dwelling in my real self, as a renewed man."
【롬7:18 MHCC】The more pure and holy the heart is, it will have the more quick feeling as to the sin that remains in it. The believer sees more of the beauty of holiness and the excellence of the law. His earnest desires to obey, increase as he grows in grace. But the whole good on which his will is fully bent, he does not do; sin ever springing up in him, through remaining corruption, he often does evil, though against the fixed determination of his will. The motions of sin within grieved the apostle. If by the striving of the flesh against the Spirit, was meant that he could not do or perform as the Spirit suggested, so also, by the effectual opposition of the Spirit, he could not do what the flesh prompted him to do. How different this case from that of those who make themselves easy with regard to the inward motions of the flesh prompting them to evil; who, against the light and warning of conscience, go on, even in outward practice, to do evil, and thus, with forethought, go on in the road to perdition! For as the believer is under grace, and his will is for the way of holiness, he sincerely delights in the law of God, and in the holiness which it demands, according to his inward man; that new man in him, which after God is created in true holiness.
【롬7:19 JFB】19, 21. For, &c.—The conflict here graphically described between a self that "desires" to do good and a self that in spite of this does evil, cannot be the struggles between conscience and passion in the unregenerate, because the description given of this "desire to do good" in 롬7:22 is such as cannot be ascribed, with the least show of truth, to any but the renewed.
【롬7:22 JFB】22. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man—"from the bottom of my heart." The word here rendered "delight" is indeed stronger than "consent" in 롬7:16; but both express a state of mind and heart to which the unregenerate man is a stranger.
【롬7:23 JFB】23. But I see another—it should be "a different"
law in my members—(See on 롬7:5).
warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members—In this important verse, observe, first, that the word "law" means an inward principle of action, good or evil, operating with the fixedness and regularity of a law. The apostle found two such laws within him; the one "the law of sin in his members," called (in 갈5:17, 24) "the flesh which lusteth against the spirit," "the flesh with the affections and lusts," that is, the sinful principle in the regenerate; the other, "the law of the mind," or the holy principle of the renewed nature. Second, when the apostle says he "sees" the one of these principles "warring against" the other, and "bringing him into captivity" to itself, he is not referring to any actual rebellion going on within him while he was writing, or to any captivity to his own lusts then existing. He is simply describing the two conflicting principles, and pointing out what it was the inherent property of each to aim at bringing about. Third, when the apostle describes himself as "brought into captivity" by the triumph of the sinful principle of his nature, he clearly speaks in the person of a renewed man. Men do not feel themselves to be in captivity in the territories of their own sovereign and associated with their own friends, breathing a congenial atmosphere, and acting quite spontaneously. But here the apostle describes himself, when drawn under the power of his sinful nature, as forcibly seized and reluctantly dragged to his enemy's camp, from which he would gladly make his escape. This ought to settle the question, whether he is here speaking as a regenerate man or the reverse.
【롬7:23 MHCC】This passage does not represent the apostle as one that walked after the flesh, but as one that had it greatly at heart, not to walk so. And if there are those who abuse this passage, as they also do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction, yet serious Christians find cause to bless God for having thus provided for their support and comfort. We are not, because of the abuse of such as are blinded by their own lusts, to find fault with the scripture, or any just and well warranted interpretation of it. And no man who is not engaged in this conflict, can clearly understand the meaning of these words, or rightly judge concerning this painful conflict, which led the apostle to bemoan himself as a wretched man, constrained to what he abhorred. He could not deliver himself; and this made him the more fervently thank God for the way of salvation revealed through Jesus Christ, which promised him, in the end, deliverance from this enemy. So then, says he, I myself, with my mind, my prevailing judgement, affections, and purposes, as a regenerate man, by Divine grace, serve and obey the law of God; but with the flesh, the carnal nature, the remains of depravity, I serve the law of sin, which wars against the law of my mind. Not serving it so as to live in it, or to allow it, but as unable to free himself from it, even in his very best state, and needing to look for help and deliverance out of himself. It is evident that he thanks God for Christ, as our deliverer, as our atonement and righteousness in himself, and not because of any holiness wrought in us. He knew of no such salvation, and disowned any such title to it. He was willing to act in all points agreeable to the law, in his mind and conscience, but was hindered by indwelling sin, and never attained the perfection the law requires. What can be deliverance for a man always sinful, but the free grace of God, as offered in Christ Jesus? The power of Divine grace, and of the Holy Spirit, could root out sin from our hearts even in this life, if Divine wisdom had not otherwise thought fit. But it is suffered, that Christians might constantly feel, and understand thoroughly, the wretched state from which Divine grace saves them; might be kept from trusting in themselves; and might ever hold all their consolation and hope, from the rich and free grace of God in Christ.
【롬7:24 JFB】24. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?—The apostle speaks of the "body" here with reference to "the law of sin" which he had said was "in his members," but merely as the instrument by which the sin of the heart finds vent in action, and as itself the seat of the lower appetites (see on 롬6:6, and 롬7:5); and he calls it "the body of this death," as feeling, at the moment when he wrote, the horrors of that death (롬6:21, and 롬7:5) into which it dragged him down. But the language is not that of a sinner newly awakened to the sight of his lost state; it is the cry of a living but agonized believer, weighed down under a burden which is not himself, but which he longs to shake off from his renewed self. Nor does the question imply ignorance of the way of relief at the time referred to. It was designed only to prepare the way for that outburst of thankfulness for the divinely provided remedy which immediately follows.
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웹 브라우저 주소창에 'https://foreverorkr.tistory.com/pages/' 다음에 '창1' 처럼 성경 약자와 장 번호를 입력하면 해당 장으로 바로 이동할 수 있다. 상단의 '한글듣기'와 '영어듣기' 우측의 플레이 아이콘을 누르면 읽는 성경을 들으며 읽을 수 있다.(읽는 성경의 출처는 https://mp3bible.ca , https://www.wordproject.org 이다) 성경 번역본은 개역 한글과 킴제임스 버전(KJV)이다. 주석은 세 가지로 CWC는 Christian Workers' Commentary, MHCC는 Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary, JFB는 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible을 의미한다.