Romans 7

Man, born into sin, is incapable of living a life without sin. Man, with Christ within, can be sanctified by the Holy Spirit and can be freed from the law of sin and death. He will take from Jesus and teach us, precept upon precept. The way to the Father is through the Son and we are transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our part is to accept the free gift of salvation that the Father offers to us in Jesus, the rest is up to the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life. In the measure that we trust and listen to Him is the measure that we will be changed. Make no mistake if we endure to the end, we will be changed, the easy way or the hard way, but we will be changed.

Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? 2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. 6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet." 8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. 9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. 12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

13 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 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 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 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.

The NKJV Study Bible says this: Shall we continue to sin while under grace? Paul's answer is no, and now he illustrates his negative answer by a comparison with marriage. Marriage is lifelong. But if one partner dies, the other is no longer bound by the law and is free to marry someone else. An exact application of the illustration would be that the law died, and now the believer is free to "marry" grace. Paul's words are that believers died to the law. Having died to the law, the believer is now free to marry God and bear fruit for Him. Out of the marriage relationship comes children. So out of intimacy with Christ comes the fruit of practical righteousness. In the flesh refers to the period before the believer's conversion. In this context, those in the flesh are unregenerate, or not born again, and those in the Spirit are regenerate. On the other hand, both believers and unbelievers may walk according to the flesh, but only believers can walk according to the Spirit. The law aroused sinful desires that were expressed through the members of the body and resulted in death. At conversion, believers died to the law, with the result that they are now able to serve in newness of life. They have a new life in the Holy Spirit, not in the old way of the letter, the old way of trying to gain life by means of the law. The law reveals sin. Without standards of right and wrong, there can be no judgment of what is sin and what is not. The law, however, with its commands against certain behaviors, can arouse the desire to perform those evil behaviors. There was a time when Paul was alive to God and without the law. Then sometime after his conversion, when he was enjoying fellowship with God, he was confronted by the law, and he died. This is a figurative way of saying that his sin nature broke his fellowship with God. Since the law points out the path of righteousness, it points to life. But since sin reigns in our natures, the law means judgment and death for us. When we focus on the law we are deceived into sinning, which thus "kills" our spiritual lives. The conclusion is that the law as a whole and the individual commandments are holy. Our problem with sin is not the fault of the holy law of God, only of how our sinful nature responds to the law. Sin used the good law to produce evil, that is, death. But through the law, sin is shown for what it is, and its evil and tragic consequences are clearly revealed. Even though Paul was a Christian dedicated to serving God, he continued to fall short of God's moral standards. Being fleshly, sold over to sin, involves a conflict that mystifies Paul and other believers. Paul feels he does not understand himself. He finds himself defeated, not doing what he wants to do, and doing what he hates to do. The conflict indicates that there is battle between two identities in the believer. First there is something that acknowledges that the law … is good. Second there is something within, called sin, which produces evil. The problem is the flesh, the part of the believer in which there is nothing good. The will is the desire to do good. Yet the ability to perform is lacking. The inward man is virtually synonymous with the mind, and it finds delight in the law of God. This delight causes believers in Christ to want to align themselves with the new nature God has imparted to them. The law of sin is a reference to the sinful nature's rejection of the law of the mind that seeks after God. The sinful nature seeks to draw us away from following God's work in us. The wretched, or "distressed, miserable," man is the believer whenever he or she is defeated by sin. This defeat occurs whenever the believer fails to live in the power supplied by the Spirit. Paul wants to be freed from sin, which leads to death. Paul breaks forth in jubilant praise to God that there is victory through Jesus Christ, who delivers believers from the body of death, the flesh. Paul concludes that the problem is not the law; the problem is the flesh. From this argument, Paul moves into the solution, salvation found in Jesus Christ. Paul, like all other believers, needed another law to overcome "the law of sin." This is "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," which makes us "free from the law of sin and death". By following this law, believers can actually fulfill the righteous requirements of God's law —which is the third law in this section; it is the standard for human action that corresponds to the righteous nature of God.