In this chapter, we continue the fellowship that we began in the previous chapter. Let us first read some verses that will be a foundation to our fellowship.
And the law entered in alongside that the offense might abound; but where sin abounded, grace has super-abounded. (Rom. 5:20)
For sin will not lord it over you, for you are not under the law but under grace. (6:14)
So then, my brothers, you also have been made dead to the law through the body of Christ so that you might be joined to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the passions for sins, which acted through the law, operated in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held, so that we serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter. (7:4-6)
Please notice the phrase the law entered in alongside in 5:20. This means that the law came in alongside, or in addition to, Adam and Christ. Romans 6:14 goes on to tell us that we are not under the law. Then in 7:4-6, we encounter two more thoughts: being dead to the law and having been discharged from the law. We must remember the following four sentences: “The law entered in alongside Adam and Christ”; “we are not under the law”; “we are dead to the law”; and “we are discharged from the law.”
What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! But I did not know sin except through the law; for neither did I know coveting, except the law had said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, worked out in me coveting of every kind; for without the law sin is dead. And I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was unto life, this very commandment was found to me to be unto death. For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. (7:7-11)
For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death. For that which the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit. For those who are according to the flesh mind the things of the flesh; but those who are according to the spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace. Because the mind set on the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, for neither can it be. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you. (8:2-11)
The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God. (v. 16)
Moreover, in like manner the Spirit also joins in to help us in our weakness, for we do not know for what we should pray as is fitting, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. But He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to God. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers; and those whom He predestinated, these He also called; and those whom He called, these He also justified; and those whom He justified, these He also glorified. (vv. 26-30)
But in all these things we more than conquer through Him who loved us. (v. 37)