What does Paul mean by 'I was alive without the law once' in Romans 7:9?
Paul means that as a self-righteous Pharisee, the law was not convicting him; he functioned as a religious zealot and the law rolled off him like water off a duck. He was alive and above the law, unaware of being a lawbreaker, until the commandment came and old Adam woke up.
Les explains that Paul was writing as a Pharisee, a religious, self-righteous man who paid no attention to the law because he thought he was above it. He had no conviction that he was a lawbreaker; the law was not convicting him as he went on his religious way. So 'I was alive without the law once' means Paul was functioning as a Pharisee and religious zealot, and the law was not even touching him—it rolled off him like water off a duck. But when the commandment came, old Adam woke up, which is what 'revived' means. As soon as the law came down on the Adamic part of Paul and woke him up, Paul's old Adam died. Les also points to Acts chapter 9 and chapter 26 to give a picture of what Paul really was as a fanatical religious Jew and what he is referring to in Romans 7.
For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
More Questions
Why did Paul say he was alive without the law in Romans 7:9?
When Paul wrote 'I was alive without the law' in Romans 7:9, he did not mean he had never heard the law; he had known it since childhood and it had been enforced for 1,500 years, but he was part of the Jewish religious system and had never understood what the law actually said, so the words were just so many words to him.