Глава VII

How Christians were freed from subjection to the law and what were the consequences of this liberation (1–6). Being under the law, a person could not be righteous, because the law only further aroused the power of sin (7-13). The reason for this phenomenon was man’s natural powerlessness in relation to good (14–25). Rom.7:1. Do you not know, brothers (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has power over a person while he lives? Rom.7:2. A married woman is bound by law to her living husband; and if her husband dies, she is freed from the law of marriage. The Apostle left insufficiently explained the position of the 14th verse of the sixth chapter: “you are not under the law, but under grace.” He now gives this explanation, comparing the position of readers before they accepted Christianity with the position of a married woman. The law binds the wife to her husband - she cannot leave him while he is alive. Only death breaks a marriage. Something similar happened to the readers of the message. They died to the law and thereby freed themselves from all dependence on it. Now they can truly belong to Christ. This new union or marriage is incomparably more useful for them, because here they no longer serve their passions, as before, but do good deeds. First of all, the Apostle establishes the position, recognized by everyone, that the law, every law - both Jewish and pagan - is written for the temporary life of man. In particular, this is why the law on the indissolubility of marriage, on the “attachment” of a wife to her husband, again means only temporary life and does not extend its rights any longer: if one spouse dies, the widowed wife, of course, becomes a free being and can enter into a new marriage. "To those who know the law". Here, of course, the law in general is not just that of Moses. In particular, the Apostle could call this the Romans, who were well acquainted with the laws 24. “While he is alive” – he, that is, a person. A person - a man and a woman - while he is a member of society, until then he must obey the law that regulates the relations of members of society to each other. - If my husband dies. The Apostle mentions only one case when a second marriage was possible for a woman - the death of her husband. The Apostle does not say that a wife could get married even when her husband gave her a divorce because he portrays the wife as the active party, but in the divorce she was not such (Deut. 24:1). - “Freed from the law of marriage,” that is, she ceases to exist as a wife, is freed from the power (law) of her husband. Rom.7:3. Therefore, if she marries another while her husband is alive, she is called an adulteress; if her husband dies, she is free from the law, and will not be an adulteress if she marries another husband. Here the Apostle draws a conclusion from the provision of the law given in verse 2 in order to prove the right of the wife to enter into a second marriage. Rom.7:4. So you too, my brothers, died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, who was raised from the dead, so that we may bear fruit to God. Now applying what was said to Christians, the Apostle says that they have died to the law and therefore can belong to Christ. – “Died” – more precisely: killed (εθανατώθητε). The form of the verb used here (aorist passive voice) denotes the highest degree of passivity. Jesus Christ draws believers with extraordinary power to participate in His suffering and death. - “For the law.” Although the Romans had not previously lived under the law of Moses, they nevertheless experienced, together with Christ, a preliminary submission to the law of Moses (in death with Christ) and then liberation from it (in the resurrection). - “Body of Christ”. This expression indicates the actual death of Christ and, consequently, the actual resurrection. The Apostle does not speak about the death of a husband - the law, but about the death of a wife - people because, as John Chrysostom puts it, he did not want to offend the Jews who confessed Christ and at the same time kept the law of Moses (Apostle James, etc.). In addition, since the new spouse is Christ, who died and rose again, the wife must also be depicted as having died, so that later, after her resurrection, she can be united with the risen Christ. This is an alliance concluded as if on the other side of the coffin. “Let us bear fruit to God.” The apostle here completes the image of the marriage union he began. Believers, depicted by the Apostle as a woman who has entered into a new marriage, now bear fruit to God, that is, from a new marriage children are born for God or good deeds. Thus, the best results are obtained from that new order of life in which the law no longer matters. Rom.7:5. For when we lived according to the flesh, then the passions of sin, revealed by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit in death; Previously, completely different results were obtained. – Living according to the flesh, that is, satisfying the demands of our self, we were subject to passions or sinful affects (παθήματα αμαρτιών). The law stimulated their active force even more (cf. Art. 7 et seq.). And the result of this was the fruits brought to death, that is, bad deeds leading to spiritual death. Rom.7:6. but now, having died to the law by which we were bound, we have been freed from it, so that we could serve God in the renewal of the spirit, and not according to the old letter. Liberation from the law does not mean liberation from all dependence. On the contrary, the believer freed from the law has the highest and best service in the renewal of the spirit. This new state into which the Holy Spirit leads believers is a state of complete harmony between the inclinations of the heart and moral obligations, when a person joyfully undertakes feats of self-sacrifice out of love for God. This state is the opposite of the previous one, which the Apostle calls life “according to the old letter.” Here, by an old letter, of course (cf. Heb 8:13), the Apostle means the old law of Moses, which he called a letter because it paid attention mainly to the external state of man and remained with its prescriptions something external, alien to man. - There is no doubt that the Apostle here, as well as further, has in mind readers - natural Jews or proselytes of Judaism (Tzan). Rom.7:7. What shall we say? Is it really sin from the law? No way. But I knew sin no other way than through the law. For I would not understand desire if the law did not say: do not desire. In what sense, however, did the law serve as a hindrance to man on the path to righteousness? Of course, it is not that he allegedly gave rise to sins that a person would not have committed without him. No, with his demands he aroused the power of resistance in sin, which lay latent in human nature, and this sin killed man. It means that it is not the law, but sin that is guilty of a person’s death (spiritual death). The law had only the most sacred purposes in relation to man. Apostle in 1-6 v. Chapter VII put the law and sin in very close relations with each other, so that a suspicion of this kind could arise: is the law something bad in itself? (“Sin comes from the law” – more precisely: “is the law really a sin”)? The apostle answers this question in the negative. The law is not a sin, but only makes it known that a person is in sin; it only reveals the sinfulness of man. - “I knew sin in no other way,” that is, I discovered the existence of sin in myself in no other way (cf. Rom. 3:20). - “For I would not understand even the wishes.” The apostle points out a particular fact here to prove the general position he has just expressed. He learned about the existence of sin in him through the law precisely because one of the commandments of the law clearly pointed out to him a desire, the existence of which, as something abnormal, would otherwise forever remain unknown to him. – “I wouldn’t understand” – more correctly: I wouldn’t notice (ούκ ήδειν). – A wish, i.e. the desire of the soul for objects that can give it satisfaction is so characteristic of the human heart that it (the desire) does not strike the eye of a person’s conscience at all, if the law did not speak against it, did not point out it as a sign of resistance to God. Thus, only the 10th commandment of God’s law defined desire as something abnormal, and, thanks to this, the Jew (the Apostle speaks as a Jew) recognized his sinful state. So, according to the Apostle, a Jew discovered the presence of sin and desires in himself only when a certain commandment of the law was brought before his consciousness, prohibiting desires. Doesn’t such a statement contradict the observation that even among the pagans, who did not have the commandments of the Law of Moses, there was still an idea of ​​the sinfulness of man? For example, Thucydides, Diodorus, Epictetus, Seneca and others speak about this sinfulness (see Myshtsyn, pp. 41 and 42 notes). But the difference between the pagan view of sin and the teaching of Paul is very large. It was the pagans who did not recognize that sin lives in human nature, and did not think that this sinfulness arouses the wrath of the deity. The commandment, which prohibits not only free decisions that go against the law of God, but even condemns the immediate, unconscious desires of the heart that precede these decisions, was not yet known to the pagan world. Government law and philosophical morality condemned either external crimes or actions committed by virtue of the decisions of a person’s free will. They did not penetrate into the depths of the human being, where free will does not yet manifest itself (I. Chrysostom to the 13th art.). Rom.7:8. But sin, taking occasion from the commandment, produced in me every desire: for without the law sin is dead. With the advent of the 10th commandment of the law, sin through this commandment gave rise to many desires in man (Jew), and until that time he was in a dead state. – The Russian translation of this verse is somewhat inaccurate. It is better to read this way: “sin then took the occasion and produced in me through the commandment (διά τ. εντυλής, and not “from the commandment”, as in the Russian translation) all kinds of desires.” Reason - more precisely from the Greek. strong point (αφορμή) – these are various objects prohibited by the commandment, on which a person’s attention stops. - Through the commandment. It is known that everything forbidden seems especially desirable and enviable to a person. This thought was expressed by Ovid in the words: “we strive for the forbidden” (Amores II, I4.17). Of course, such a seductive effect is produced by a prohibition on a nature already corrupted by sin, in which selfish aspirations are strong. The prohibition in itself did not have a harmful effect on the pure nature of the first people - the death of the first people came not from their hearts, but from the devil - the seducer, and therefore from an alien force. – “Dead”, i.e. inactive, like a disease that exists only in its infancy and needs favorable conditions for its development. Rom.7:9. I once lived without law; but when the commandment came, sin came to life, Rom.7:10. and I died; and thus the commandment given for life served me to death, Rom.7:11. because sin, taking a pretext from the commandment, deceived me and killed me with it. The Apostle contrasts the state of man before the law with the state under the law. There, one might say, a person lived, but here he became dead. – “Once upon a time” – precisely in a state of childish innocence. The law with its prohibitions at that time had not yet reached Paul’s consciousness, and the sinful principle was therefore not effective. The Apostle calls this state life (lived). “Every man,” says Origen, “once lived without law when he was a child.” - “The commandment has come,” that is, it became clear to my consciousness that many apparently natural desires were impermissible through the commandment of the Mosaic Law. - “He came to life”, that is, he began to show his life force, which until then had been insensitive. He seemed to be sleeping, but now he woke up. - “I died,” that is, I fell into a state that cannot be called life. This is a state of constant fear of the Heavenly Judge. Man began to relate to God not as a son, but as a slave who obeys the master only out of captivity, out of necessity. Is this life?! The effect of the commandment indicated above was completely unexpected for man. It can only be explained by the influence of sin. - “The commandment given for life.” Life, that is, external well-being combined with internal, based on close communication with Jehovah, was promised to the executor of the law in general (Lev. 18:5; Deut. 5:33), in particular to the executor of the 10th commandment. - “Served.” The pronoun this (αύτη) is missing here, which strengthens the idea. Instead of served, it would be more correct to translate: it turned out (ευρέθη). John Chrysostom sees in this expression a hint of the unexpectedness and strangeness of the outcome of the giving of the commandment to people. According to his explanation, the people themselves were to blame for this outcome. – “To death” – closest to temporary spiritual death, since only such death actually occurred; but then this expression can also mean eternal death, as opposed to the eternal life that the law wanted to give its executors. - “Because it’s a sin.” The true cause of the now indicated circumstance was sin. The Apostle now repeats this thought, expressed back in the 8th article, with greater force. - “Seduced me.” Just as the serpent deceived Eve, presented himself as her friend, and God as her enemy, so sin deceives every person, painting before him the forbidden in the most rainbow of colors, although in reality it is not so. - “Dead,” that is, alienated me from true life. Rom.7:12. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Here the Apostle draws a conclusion from verses 7-11. The law, considered as a whole, and each of its commandments are holy in themselves, that is, they elevate a person above the sinful world and require devotion to God from the whole heart. The commandment, in addition, the Apostle calls righteous, as establishing correct relationships between individual beings, and, therefore, directly opposite to sin, and good, that is, beneficent, “preparing life for those who keep it” (Theodoret). Rom.7:13. So, has what is good become deadly to me? No way; but sin, which turns out to be sin because through good it causes death to me, so that sin becomes extremely sinful through the commandment. The apostle feels the need to formulate even more precisely the solution to the problem he poses. Could something good, saving in its essence, become the cause of death, that is, the highest evil? (in the sense of verse 10). No, the Apostle answers, death was caused to man by sin, and not by good. Sin did this in order to appear, to appear (ίνα φανή - in Russian inaccurately: “turning out to be sin”) as sin, that is, in its true nature, and this is how it appeared, causing death, that is, the highest evil, through what is in itself good. This was a necessary preparation for the work of redemption, which was accepted by people when all the harmful influence of their former leader and friend - sin - became clear to them. Sin turned God's blessing - the law - into a curse! Was it possible to remain in communication with him after that? - “So sin becomes” - more correct: to appear (ίνα γένηται) - an expression parallel to the previous one: to appear. Sin had to appear before the eyes of man in all its vileness (“extremely sinful”), and here he is, having abused the commandment of God (through the commandment). Rom.7:14. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. The reason why the law brought a curse to man instead of a blessing lay in the depravity of human nature. Man is a carnal being, and his flesh has completely fallen under the dominion of sin, which has become the law of his will. However, in a natural person, in addition to the flesh, there is “a soul (or, as the Apostle puts it, a mind), and the soul cannot but recognize the benefit of God’s law” and wants to fulfill it. But, unfortunately, this true self of a person is powerless in its aspirations for good. The actual active principle is the flesh, which in turn is a weak-willed instrument of sin. And since, after all, the soul is the bearer of self-consciousness, the result of all this is that the same person both strives for good and does evil. Under such conditions, a natural person cannot at all observe the law, and the latter, without giving a person justification, can only lead him to the consciousness of his powerlessness. "The law is spiritual" (πνευματικός). This word (πνευματικός) means the origin of the law from the divine spirit (cf. Rom. 1:11). “The law was written by the spirit of God” (Theodoret). Because of this, he is “the mentor of virtue and the enemy of vice” (Zlat.). - “But I am carnal” (σάρκινος), that is, I, like every other person, unregenerate, unredeemed, by nature (therefore the Apostle uses the present tense everywhere from the 14th article to describe his condition) I seek only what is pleasant. He also has good inclinations, but these natural inclinations are barely visible - they are weakened and muffled. The expression carnal is not the same, however, with the expression carnal (σαρκικός). The latter indicates a state in which a person is determined in his decisions and actions only by the flesh (σαρξ) and when good inclinations are no longer noticeable at all, and the former only denotes the predominance of the lower, physical life (cf. 1 Cor 3:1, 3). – Sold for sin, that is, I am completely dependent on the power of the sinful principle, just as a slave depends on his master. But this does not indicate the necessity of sin, but only its strength. “In reality, it happens that a person who sins for the sake of selfishness and passions always does it freely, self-willingly decides to do such things... Sin represents the matter in such a way that a person considers it more suitable to act against the law than according to the law - and he sins. A person may not sin, but he only loves sins so much that he does not even look at the demands of truth” (Theophanes). Rom.7:15. For I don’t understand what I’m doing: because I don’t do what I want, but what I hate, I do. The apostle explains exactly what man's slavery to sin consists of. - “I don’t understand what I’m doing.” The slave does not know what his master actually means when he forces him to do something. Likewise, a person who has given himself over to sin acts according to a blind instinct, which forces him to do something that the person never thought of; a person does something that he would never do on his own. - “I don’t do what I want.” From this it is clear that the Apostle speaks in this entire section from the 7th Art. about unregenerate man, for a regenerate man, thanks to the help of the grace of God, can always bring his will to fulfillment, “God,” says the Apostle to the Philippian Christians, “works in you both to will and to do according to His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). - It is remarkable that the image of spiritual discord, which is given here by the Apostle, agrees with the observations of pagan philosophers who depicted their state of mind as downright tragic. So Epictetus said: “what (the sinner) wants, he does not do, but does what he does not want” (Euchir. II, 26, 4), and Ovid exclaimed: “I see the best and approve, but I follow the worst!” (Metam. VII, 19). Rom.7:16. If I do what I do not want, then I agree with the law that it is good, The apostle is aware that his actions are not in accordance with his inner inclinations. Although he acts against the law of God, nevertheless he cannot help but realize that the law is actually worthy of all respect (good - in Greek καλός - actually: beautiful). Rom.7:17. therefore it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. Here the Apostle does not want to justify himself at all - he says this only in order to more clearly depict his disastrous state. His personality, his self - has already ceased to be the master in his own house! Only sin rules there. What could be more intolerable than such submission? Rom.7:18. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; because the desire for good is in me, but I don’t find it to do it. The apostle reveals even more thoroughly to his readers the whole misery of his condition. - “Does not live in me, that is, in my flesh.” Having said that good does not live in him, the Apostle immediately limits what he said with the expression “that is,” so that they would not think that in him at all, in his entire being, there is no good thought, good feeling or desire. He says that it is in his flesh that goodness does not live. It is obvious that he distinguishes two sides in himself: I and the flesh (corporeal-material side). His self, as he said above, appreciates the law of God and strives for good, but the flesh does not make it possible to satisfy such a desire. The flesh here, thus, acts as the seat and area of ​​domination of sin in man. Sin lives in the flesh and from here it strives to lead to the destruction of the whole person. An alien - obviously dark, demonic - force has taken possession of the carnal side of the human being and does not allow good inclinations to live and develop. So a flower planted among nettles is quickly drowned out by nettles and fades! - “The desire for good is in me.” The apostle, as it were, looks around, in the sphere of his inner life, and sees that he has good desires and intentions, but no wonderful deeds! (according to the newest editions, this passage reads like this: “but there is no doing good!” - The word “I find” is considered an unnecessary addition, since it is not in most of the most ancient codes. See ed. Tishendorf a Novum Fest gr. 1872), Rom.7:19. I don’t do the good that I want, but I do the evil that I don’t want. Rom.7:20. If I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin living in me. Rom.7:21. So I find a law that when I want to do good, evil is present to me. The apostle here repeats the thoughts expressed above (vv. 15-17), since he attaches extreme importance to them. - “I find the law.” The Apostle even admits that such a disastrous state, such mental discord has become something normal for him, as if it has become part of the law or order of life. - “Adheres to me.” Even when he decides to do something good, he is surprised to notice that in his hand instead of good he finds evil, instead of gold - a stone! Some force turns every good undertaking into evil - and this force, obviously, is a demonic force that has built a nest for itself in a person’s flesh 25 Rom.7:22. For according to the inner man I delight in the law of God; Rom.7:23. but in my members I see another law, warring against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. The apostle, according to his inner man, sympathizes with the requirements of the law of God, but this sympathy can never be expressed practically, because on the way to this it encounters a serious obstacle - in the law of the members. - “According to the inner man.” As can be seen from Art. On the 23rd, the Apostle considers it possible to replace this expression with another - mind (νους). What is mind, according to the Apostle? This is not only the ability to distinguish between truth and falsehood, good and evil, but at the same time a moral feeling that attracts a person to fulfill the law of God, which finds pleasure in this law. The apostle calls the mind the internal man because, with the dominion of sin over the external man or over the flesh, this internal side or force cannot find a way for itself to be detected externally. – In my members it is the same as in the flesh, that is, in the corporeal-material side of the human being. "Confronting the Law of the Mind". Here begins a comparison taken from the sphere of military operations. The Apostle sees two opponents: 1) the law of the mind (or, what is the same, the inner man) and 2) the law of the members (or, as the Apostle further calls it, the law of sin). The first attracts a person to fulfill the law of God, shows him the path to heaven, the second distracts a person from this and drags him to hell. The second law prevails in this struggle, and it is it that captivates a person and, as a captive, forces him, of course, to do whatever he, the law of sin, pleases 26 . Rom.7:24. Poor man I am! who will deliver me from this body of death? Rom.7:25. I thank my God Jesus Christ our Lord. So with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh the law of sin. A cry of suffering is uttered by a person captivated by sin. - “Poor me”! Although man himself is to blame for giving himself over to the power of sin, nevertheless, the basis of his suffering lies in the guilt he inherited from his ancestor, Adam, for which all humanity must suffer. - “Who will deliver me” - more precisely: who will rush (ρύσεται) to fight for me and deliver me from captivity?! - “From this body of death.” You can, of course, translate the phrase this way: έκ τ. σώματος τ . θ. τούτου, - from a grammatical point of view there is no error here. But if we take into account the fact that earlier the Apostle did not say anything about the qualities of the body (σώμα), then such a translation should be considered inappropriate here. It is therefore better to translate this: “from the body of this death.” This phrase will therefore denote a body that has fallen under the influence of sin and serves it (cf. Rom. 6:6 - the body of sin). The Apostle would like to get rid of such and such a body (cf. Col. 2:11). - “I thank God.” The apostle cannot refrain from expressing his joy at the deliverance received through Christ from such a painful discord. But he does not go into the details of this salvation, because he spoke about them in both Chapters III and V. - "So" . Here is a conclusion to the entire section, beginning with the 14th and ending with the 24th verse. - “The same” is more correct: “and I myself,” that is, a person left to his own strength, without the help of Christ. Such a person serves the law of God with his mind, and the law of sin with his flesh. - “The law of God” is not the Mosaic law, but the law of the mind (v. 23), which prompts the mind of unregenerate man to rejoice in the law of God (v. 22) and which is called God’s because God specifically requires such an attitude from man to His law. The service which is meant here is an internal service, since the external service of man is dedicated to the law of sin. Note: In the explanation proposed here, the view of those interpreters is adopted who, throughout the entire section from Art. 7 to 25, They see an image of the state of a person who is under the law, intemperate. Against such an interpretation, accepted, in particular, by St. John Chrysostom, Theodoret and others, other interpreters (Blessed Augustine, Anselm, Thomas Aquinot, Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin and many others) objected, but all their objections are extremely petty. On the contrary, the first understanding has serious grounds for itself, namely: 1) the state of a regenerated person, as described in Chapter VI, is the direct opposite of what the Apostle says here. For example, according to Chapter VI. the person’s personality rises and comes to life (vv. 7, 11), but here it dies (vv. 10); 2) if here the Apostle depicts a regenerated man, then what would the expression mean: “but I lived without the law”? (9 items); 3) the regenerate cannot be called carnal (σάρκινος): he is called spiritual by the Apostle (Rom. 8:9; Gal.6:1); Nor can he be called “sold for sin” (cf. 1 Cor 6:20, 7:23); finally, 4) how could a regenerate person wonder who would deliver him from serving sin (v. 24), when he had already received this deliverance in Christ Jesus?! Thus the Apostle - as Bonnet rightly explains (Comm. p. 85) - is not speaking here of natural man in his state of ignorance and voluntary sin, not of a child of God regenerated by the grace of God, but of a man whose conscience, awakened by the law, with earnestness, with fear and trembling, but still of its own strength, began a doubtful struggle against evil. Of course, such a struggle had to end in failure for a person... It also ends for the reborn, when he becomes in the position of the person depicted in Chapter VII. Ap. Pavel. If he forgets about Christ and His gracious help, then there can be no hope for success for him, no matter how ideal the goals to which he strives are. Therefore, the complaints of Ap. Paul on the spiritual discord, which he experienced in the Pharisaism, can again be heard from the lips of a Christian without Christ. Tsang insists that the Apostle here means only the law of Moses, since this is required by the connection of this place with Rom. 5:20, 6:14-15 and since the Jews could not escape anywhere from the law of Moses during their lifetime, while from any other law people during their lifetime could go under the authority of another law, to a foreign country. But, firstly, there is no need to necessarily understand the law in Art. 1–2. Chapter VII absolutely in the same sense in which this word is mentioned in Romans 5 and Romans 6:14–15, and secondly, even in a foreign country a person remains under some kind of law until his death, which is what the Apostle wanted to express here. We consider the explanation that Theodore Simon gives to the position of the Apostle “On the Dominion of Sin in the Flesh” to be very successful. He cited many passages from the Epistles of St. Paul, where the expression “sin” denotes not only the action of Satan and demons, but also Satan himself and his kingdom. For example, the desire for any sin is depicted by the Apostle as giving room to the devil (Eph 4:27). The action of sin and the action of the devil in relation to man are the same (cf. Rom 7 and 2 Cor 4:4). The devil, being in the flesh, acts through it on the human soul, since it is an undoubted fact that the body influences the soul, just as the soul influences the body. (See Simon, pp. 60 et seq.). What is mind according to Ap. Paul - Simon speaks about this quite thoroughly. The highest principle in man is the spirit (πνεύμα), the god-like side of the human being. Mind (νους) is something narrower than spirit. It can be called the function of the spirit. In the present (unregenerate) state, he is weak and often defiled, unfit for activity. The functions of the mind are thinking and will; between the sphere of thinking (intellect) and will, as if forming a bridge, there is a moral judgment, which, however, presupposes a certain “skill” of the mind (Rom. 1:28). The activity of the mind is directed to the soul (ψυχή) - it is not a function of it, but a force that in a certain way organizes the activity of spiritual forces. You might be interested in: