7th Chapter

^{Verse 1} Know you not brethren, that the Law [Decalogue of Commandments] has dominion [influence] over a man as long as he shall live?

The 10 Commandments of God are warning signs that reveals the corruption of sin that is death to humanity: Therefore, unless the heart is completely hardened by sin, the warning Commandments of God, when they are broken, influences the conscience of mankind as long as the person normally lives. In Romans chapter 6 verse 4 and 6, Paul wrote about our struggle with sin, for he wrote in Romans 6:

⁴ Do you not know that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ  were baptized into His death [for our sin]? Therefore we were buried with Christ by baptism into His Death, that as Christ Jesus was raised from the dead by the Glory [LIFE] of His Father, even so we should walk in the newness of [God's Spirit of] LIFE. 
⁶ Knowing this that our old man is crucified with Him [Christ Jesus] that the body of sin might be destroyed, that hence forth we should not serve sin [but that we should serve God though His Spirit of LIFE]. 

Christ Jesus absolutely died for the sins of mankind, and by the unknowable Power of the Eternal God, it is by unseen Faith that the believer died vicariously IN Christ's death.  Now it is IN the Body of Christ Jesus that the believers are to be dead to sins and sin's corruptive power. However, if the self proclaimed believer continues in the dictates of sin and death, then he is not a believer IN Christ but a traitor to the Resurrected only Begotten Son of God.  Why would the Eternally Holy Yahweh Lord God Almighty resurrect the selfish corruption of Man that was laid to rest IN the One Body of our Salvation Hope?  If Holy Yahweh God contradicts Himself, then Christ, the Man has died in the vanity of His Father, and the supreme vanity of sin cannot resurrect Christ from the deadness of sin.  So then, if Christ was not raised from the dead through Yahweh God's Spirit of LIFE, then we remain dead in our sins without hope. 

But Now, by unadulterated Faith, the newness of LIFE that we are to walk IN, is in man's unabated Faith IN the Glorious Resurrection of the crucified dead Body of Jesus Christ into the Eternal LIFE of His Holy Father Yahweh God. God's axiom to LIFE, is you must be born again of Yahweh's Spirit of LIFE, and then choose to follow in the WAY of the LIFE of His Son Yeshua, by mortifying the deadly deeds of the flesh. Take and Drink, all of you for this is My Blood of the New Covenant [of Yahweh] given to you for the remission of sin. Now Jesus says to His disciples: If any man will come after Me, he is to deny himself, taking up his cross daily, and then follow Me. For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; and whosoever will loose his life for My Sake shall find [My] LIFE. ^{(See Matthew 16 verse 24 thru 26, etc.)}  Holy Lord Yahweh God Almighty is not mocked by fools who continue to remain fixated in their sin, for in the end they will reap their own death that they have planted in the earth of their flesh. ^{(See Galatians 6 verse 4 thru 8.)}

Paul, in his writings, provides a continuing analogy that continually supports his logic IN God's Salvation Gift of His Son: For in Christ's death for mankind's rebellious sin, there is Yahweh's Eternal Righteousness that is settled IN His Lamb, slain for sin before the foundation of the World,  The Lamb of God is Yahweh's Word, for His Lamb would be born the Son of Man; for in His death, burial, and Resurrection, the Christ of God provides LIFE for the baptized believer IN Him, for the true believer sees death workings in his body of flesh.

Romans 7:

² For the woman which has a husband is bound by the law [of adultery] to her husband so long as he lives; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law [of adultery] that binds her to her husband.

³ So then if, while her husband lives and she be married to another man, then she shall be called an adulteress: But if her husband be dead, she is free from that binding law; so that she is not an adulteress, though she be married to another man.

⁴ Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the binding law by the [dead] body of Christ; that you may be [free to] be married to another, even to Him [Christ Jesus] Who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God [bear fruit unto God].

⁵ For when we were in [led by] the flesh, the motions [acts] of sins, which were [revealed] by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. [death to the body]

⁶ But now we are delivered from the Law [Decalogue], [being dead wherein we were held prisoners,] that we should serve [Yahweh God] in newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the written letter of the Law.

7 What shall we say now? That the Law is sin? God forbid: For I had not known sin except by the Law: For I had not known lust except the Law [in the warning Commandments] said: "You shall not covet [desire evil]!"

In Paul's writings in the 7th chapter of Romans, he asks a rhetorical question in verse 7: Is the Law [in the Decalogue] sin? And again Paul answers with: God forbid: Rather I had not known sin except by the Law [the Ten warning Commandments reveled in the Torah].  For I had not known 'lust' except that the [Decalogue] Law said, You shall not covet.  The Law [Decalogue] with in the Torah remains effectual for its original purpose of revealing to mankind the innate nature of sin that when it is succumbed to, it  reinforces the knowledge of death in the offender. 

In the beginning, Elohim warned Adam not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, for Elohim knew that unseen death was hidden in the eating of the Tree's unseen rebellious fruit of death.  After the first Man's self willed insurrection, then his willful rebellion was set in motion in the genetic flesh of all of mankind.  From the beginning of His creation, the Almighty God knew that when He gave free will to His creation of Man that sin's rebellion into death and the cessation of life was inevitable. In His foreknowledge of His creation of all things, Elohim would circumvent Man's sin and death with His Gift of Resurrection LIFE IN His very own Word of Salvation, for Jesus was slain before Elohim's creation of the world.   In His Grace, Elohim gave His 10 Commandments to warn the Hebrews of the unseen sin and death that was seeded within their now willful flesh. In Yahweh God's Infinite Planning, sin and death would not continue to have rule over His creation of mankind, but with His enabling Sacrificial Love, then mankind, IN following Christ Jesus, would be able to choose the Good and eschew the Evil.  Therefore the Law [Decalogue] is Holy, and the Commandments are Holy, and Good, and Just. ^{(Romans 7 verse 9 thru 12.)} In Holy God's Wisdom, He set forth His spiritual Law in the  10 Commandments to give warning to humanity of the unseen Law of Sin that only breeds death.

The Lord of Creation Declared: Think not that I come to destroy the Law [Torah] or the prophets: I have not come to destroy the Torah, but to fulfill [and establish righteousness]. For TRULY I Say unto you, until heaven and earth pass away, Not one jot or one tittle shall in no way pass from the Torah until all things [written] are accomplished. Understand that the jot and the tittle are markers in the Hebrew language, therefore the Lord is TRULY referencing the Hebrew Torah and its righteous instructions.

The Spirit of Yahweh God witnesses the TRUTH in Paul's hearing ears of Faith in the Word of God.

9 For I was alive once without [the revelation of the] Law, but when the Commandment came, sin was revealed and sin killed me.

 It would appear to us that in Spiritual reality, Paul was once alive in his new birth of faith IN Christ Jesus, but when Paul's prideful sin found him out [through the revealing Commandment], he knew he was spiritually dead in his trespasses. Self Idolatry, in one way or another, inevitably comes to the surface of our persona: Thou shall not have any gods before Me.

10 And the Commandment, which I thought was given for life, I found it to be of death.

Paul's Jewish teachings in the Torah, even at the seat of the noted rabbi Gamiel, conveyed the continuing error that adherence to the Commandments would give life, but, now he knows that the Law in the Ten Commandments, condemned him,  for it revealed sin and death in his flesh, and that the Commandments could never give life to the spiritually dead.  Paul's New born experience brings him to understand that the goodness of the Law in the Ten Commandments revealed that he was already dead because of sin's curse of death that innately resides in his flesh.

11 For sin, [revealed by the Commandment], had deceived me, and sin slew me.

The Comforter, Who is the Spirit of Yahweh God, brings conviction to the spiritual mind of Paul.  For when He, (Yahweh) the Spirit of TRUTH  is come, He will guide you into all TRUTH^{. (See John 16 verse 13 thru 14.)}

¹² Therefore the Law [the  warning Decalogue] is Holy, and the Commandments are Holy, and Good, and Just. ^{(Romans 7 verse 9 thru 12.)
13} Then was that which was good [in the revealing Ten Commandments] made death unto me?  God forbid. But that sin would appear to be working death in me by that which is good [revelation]. so that sin, revealed by the Commandments, would be seen as exceedingly sinful.
¹⁴ For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am carnal sold under [the bondage or slavery] of sin.
¹⁵ For that which I do, I do not approve, and what I should do, I do not do.
¹⁶ If I do that which I would not do, then I consent unto the [revealing] Law [in the Commandments] that the Law is good [because of the Commandment's revelation of sin and death that I desire to avoid].
¹⁷ Now if it is no more I that sins, then it is sin [lust] that lives in me.

For the longest of time, I had thought that Paul was copping out with his statement that: "If I do that which I would not do then it is no longer I that do it, but sin that lives in me". We know the natural man's disclaimer to be: "The devil made me do it". Paul's spiritual rational for 'it is no longer I that do it', was established in the previous chapter 6 of Romans:

4 Therefore we are buried with Him [Christ] by baptism into [His] death: That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the Glory of the Father [Yahweh God], even so we also should walk in newness of [His] LIFE.
⁵ For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, [so then] we shall also be in the likeness of His Resurrection:
⁶ Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

⁷ For he that is dead is freed from sin.

If a person is dead, then sin no longer has dominion over the dead, for the dead IN Christ Jesus, cannot be held accountable for sin.  Paul understood in his revelation of the TRUTH IN Christ Jesus that Death had essentially taken place in him, and in all those that are born of Adam's flesh that rebels against the Almighty God.  Although the essence of sin is not seen, sin's spiritual nature is to propagate death in the flesh of all of the natural born of mankind.  Sin's force is that of death, and the stench of death, smells of sin's corruption.   The stench of death remains innately in the flesh of mankind even though mankind may claim through their one time incantation that they are born again and free from sin's stench of death.

But Paul, in his new birth IN Christ Jesus, came to recognize that two things exist in his flesh.  First it is in his flesh, where he resides, and it is in his flesh, where sin and death also resides.  It is a conundrum in Paul's mind of  flesh, for Paul and the sin that he hates, both reside in his flesh and it is sin that makes him accountable for the death that sin causes in all relationships.  O wretched man that I am, who shall save me from this body of death.  The ungodly force of sin that breeds the stench of death in mankind is to be reckoned with in the knowledge of the believer, and then the revealed sin is to be submitted to the renewing LIFE IN the Blood of our Savior, Yeshua haMashiach.

The Law of Sin and Death:

¹⁸ For I know that in me ^{(that is my flesh)} dwells no good thing: For my will to do good is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I am at a loss. 

The parenthetical words (that is in my flesh) should not be attributed to Paul, even though the inserted parenthetical thought may be of assistance to the readers understanding. The parenthetical in this verse is quite unnecessary, for when Paul discovers this other Law of Sin and Death, then he will declare in verse 23 that sin and death remains in his flesh.

¹⁹ For I do not do the good that I desire to do: But the evil which I would not do, that I do.

²⁰ Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that sin, but sin that dwells in me.

²¹ I find then this to be another law, that, when I would do good, evil is present within me.

²² For I delight in the Law of God [in the 10 Commandments] after the inward man:

Paul agrees with the psalmist, and has already declared in Romans 7 verse 12, that God's 10 warning Commandments in the Torah are Good, Holy and Just. Nevertheless, the Good, Holy and Just 10 Commandments that reveal sin can not save him from sin, for the Commandments are designed to be warnings signs that when transgressed, would reveal a person to be spiritually dead because his own flesh innately follows after the idolatrous dictates of sin. Paul begins to understand in his own flesh, how devastating sin is to mankind, because stealthy sin always brings forth its corruption and stench of death.

²³ But I see another law in my members of the flesh, warring against the law of my mind [conscience], and bringing me into captivity to this other law of sin [and death] which is in my flesh.

²⁴ O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?

Let's consider 1st Corinthians 6:19-20

19 Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost Which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own?

20 For you are bought with a price [the LIFE Blood of Christ]: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit [mind], which are God's.

Deuteronomy 18 verse 17 thru 20:

¹⁷ And the Lord Yahweh said to Moses: They have well spoken, that they have spoken. ¹⁸ I Will raise them up a Prophet, like unto you, and I Will put My Words in His Mouth, and He shall Speak unto them all that I Command Him.  ¹⁹ It shall come to pass  that whosoever will not hearken unto MY Words, Which HE shall Speak IN MY Name, I Will require it of him. ^{(See Deuteronomy 18 verse 17 thru 20:)}

Peter echoes the same warning Word of God in Acts 3 verse 21 thru 24.

God is Eternally Holy and calls for His people to be holy (separate from sin) even as He is Holy. ^{(See Leviticus 11 verse 45.)} In the Hebrew and Greek languages, to be holy is to be set apart from all that is evil.   Holy God inhabits His Holy Eternity and also with the person of a contrite and humble spirit.  God will park the rebellious sinner and will wait to see how the sinner handles the sin that has found him out to be dead because of his trespass. When the Lord sees a correction in the person's way,  then Yahweh God will apply His healing mercies to that soul and direct the person in the only WAY he should go. ^{(See 1st Corinthians 10 verse 14 thru 17.)}

²⁵ I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I [delight to] serve the Law of God; but with the flesh, [I innately serve] the law of sin. [the separate law of sin and death]

Let us think on the unlimited Power and Wisdom of the timeless Eternal God. The Perfection of God was in His perfect Lamb that was slain, and His everlasting Covenant was established even before the world was created in time.  The Lamb of God, Who was to become, in time as the Son of Man Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah, was the perfect genetic Son of the first Adam, even as the Word of God is Perfect as the Alef and Tav, Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. Hear and understand what Isaiah says concerning the Word of God: The grass withers, the flower fades; but the Word of our God shall stand for ever. ^{(Isaiah 40 verse 8.)}

Now Note for surety, that God's Lamb of TRUTH was Yahweh God's Eternal Covenant existing even before the foundation of the world: For God's temporary Covenant was in the life blood of sacrificial animals, and would be changed into Yahweh's Eternal Covenant IN the LIFE giving Blood of His Only Begotten Son, the Man Christ Jesus.  It is impossible for the life of animals, with their shed blood, to take away the sin of mankind, for sin and death came to all by one Man, the first Adam; and so IN Holy God's Justice it was absolutely necessary that the Perfect Life of one Man, the last of Adam's perfect genetics, Jesus/Yeshua, would suffer death for the sins of mankind, and through His Resurrection IN the LIFE of His Father, He would  overturn the sin and death that came by the first Adam. ^{(See Roman's 5 verse 12, and verse 18 thru 21.)}

Sin is the source of death in man, for sin and death is innate in the flesh of all of mankind, and God's Decalogue of Commandments reveals sin to be death to our flesh.  And what can be done with this lethal infection in the flesh of man when the burden of sin is revealed to exist in our weakened flesh?  God's Comforter will convict our conscience of the enormous weight of sin, and provide His WAY of Righteousness in the LIFE Blood of His Holy Son, Jesus Christ.

The sinner Paul cries out: O wretched man that I am; who shall save me from this body of death. Paul's own sin, inextricably committed by his own free thinking mind, has found him out, and he understands that death yet reigns in his flesh. I thank the Yahweh God through Jesus, Yeshua haMashiach our Lord.  So then with the mind I [will to] serve God; but with the flesh, I serve the Law of Sin and Death. Mind you, the Good, Holy, and Just warning Laws of God in His 10 Commandments, is not sin, but exposes the separate renegade Law of Sin and Death that is innate to our bodies of flesh.  Now this  I say to you brethren, that flesh and blood [of our humanity] cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, for neither does corruption inherit incorruption. ^{(1st Corinthians 15 verse 50.)}

For with the heart, [the core being, the inner man's conscience], man believes unto Righteousness. The righteousness that we come to believe IN, is Jesus the Christ, for He is the Lord our personal Righteousness. Without Faith IN Christ's Righteousness, we remain naturally dead in the clutches of our sins and trespasses IN our flesh.  No doubt, mankind may do many deeds of righteousness, but the evil of sin in our flesh, offsets our efforts to be completely good, because we are already dead in sin.  Our own conscience, like that of the redeemed Paul, convinces us of sin, and now our righteousness is voided in the shame of sin.  We have no righteousness of our own, but by Faith IN Christ Jesus we live IN the Righteousness of Christ Jesus: For the Christ of Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty always did that which was right and good IN the Eyes of His Father Yahweh God, and the Messiah never committed the evil of sin.  

O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death.
I thank Yahweh God through Jesus Christ!

With the distress in his flesh, Paul says that three times he called unto the Lord to save him from the sever discomfort he was experiencing. In Hebrew Numerology, according to R. Baruch, PhD, the number Three, is known as the Gimel and represents: Testing, revealing, proving, documenting, victory and if applied to G-d, it represents holiness. After Paul's 3 cries for relief, it was then that Jesus answered Paul, and Declared: My strength is made perfect in your weakness.  Paul's weakness was the result of the  innate sin in his flesh.  He called upon the Lord Jesus 3 times to save him, but the Lord waited until the 3rd time to emphasize the thorn of sin that was in Paul's sinful flesh.  Paul was weak in his sin, but the Lord our Savior Yeshua Said: My Grace is sufficient for you: For My Strength is [made] Perfect in [your] weakness [do to sin and death in his flesh]. ^{(See 2nd Corinthians 12 verse 6 thru 11.)}

With all of the revelations given to Paul, he became prideful and desired the adulation of his followers, but the Spirit of Christ revealed the sin of Paul's prideful flesh of self idolatry that showed him to be dead and without power in his idolatrous sin.  Paul humbles himself and acknowledge his prideful sin to those that would be affected by his sin of self idolatry.

Ezekiel 33:13 When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousness shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he has committed, he shall die for it.

O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death.

I AM the WAY, I AM the TRUTH, I AM the LIFE of men. No one comes to the Father except by Me.

²⁵ I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I desire to serve the Law of God; but with the flesh, the separate law of sin and death desires too control me. ^{(Romans 7 verse 21 thru 25.)}