Les Feldick Bible Study

What is Romans 7 dealing with?

Romans 7 deals with the believer's struggle between old Adam and the new divine nature, and how the law's dominion lasts only as long as a person lives. Paul explains that death severs the law's control, just as death ends government authority.

Les explains that in Romans 7, Paul is dealing with the same issue he has been talking about: how to deal with old Adam as over against the new divine nature that Christ places in us at salvation. When Adam is crucified, something had to immediately replace him, or we would be an empty entity. God replaces old Adam with the new nature, the divine nature that comes from God by a creative work. Les notes that chapter 7 opens with the principle that law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. This is not just the Mosaic law but law as it governs society. For example, Americans live under the Constitution, and that constitutional law controls them until they die; after death, the government loses all control and cannot tax or do anything to a dead person. That is what Paul is driving at: the only way to sever some things is by death.