Romans 7:5-6 Romans 7:5-The Law Aroused Sinful Passions In ...

Romans 7:5-6

Romans 7:5-The Law Aroused Sinful Passions In The Unregenerate Jew
Producing Personal Sin And Spiritual Death

Thus far in our studies of Romans chapter seven, we have noted the following:
In Romans 7:1-6, the apostle Paul uses the analogy of marriage and argues that the
Christian’s bondage to the Law has been severed because they have died with
Christ and have been freed from the Law and placed in union with Christ.
Therefore, the Christian is no longer obligated to keep the Law because of his
union with Christ.

In Romans 7:1, Paul poses a rhetorical question to the Jewish Christians in
Rome and asks if they are ignorant of the fact that the Mosaic Law has jurisdiction
over a person as along as he lives. Then, in Romans 7:2-3, he employs the
marriage analogy by teaching that according to the Mosaic Law, a woman is not
bound legally to her husband if he dies. Then, in Romans 7:4-6, he makes an
application for his readers by stating that in the same way the Christian is freed
from the Law and is thus no longer under its authority since He died with Christ
and has been placed in union with Him.

In Romans 7:1, in which Paul poses a rhetorical question to the Jewish
Christians in Rome and asks if they are ignorant of the fact that the Mosaic Law
has jurisdiction over a person as along as he lives.

Romans 7:1, “Or, are some of you in a state of ignorance concerning this
fact spiritual brothers (specifically, I am now addressing those who are very
familiar with the Law through instruction), namely, that the Law does, as an
eternal spiritual truth, have jurisdiction over a person during the entire extent
of time they do live?”

That Paul is addressing the Jewish Christians in Rome specifically in this
passage, which is indicated in his parenthetical statement “I am now addressing
those who are very familiar with the Law through instruction.” Thus, when he
uses the term “Law” he is referring specifically, to the Mosaic Law, i.e. the Jewish
law and not to an axiom of political justice both Jewish and Roman. Then, in
Romans 7:2, Paul presents the principle found in the Mosaic Law that a woman is
bound to her husband as long as he lives but if he dies, she is discharged from her
marriage contract with her husband.

Romans 7:2, “For example, the married woman is always bound by
contract to the husband while he does live. However, if the husband dies, then
she is, as an eternal spiritual truth, discharged from the contract with respect
to her husband.”

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Paul teaches in Romans 7:3 that if a Jewish woman’s husband dies, then she is
not an adulteress if she remarries.

Romans 7:3, “Therefore, based upon what has been previously stated, if
while her husband does live she enters into marriage with another man, then
she will, as a certainty, cause herself to be known publicly as an adulteress.
However, if her husband dies then she is, as an eternal spiritual truth free
from the contract with the result that she is, as an eternal spiritual truth not
an adulteress if she enters into marriage with another man.”

In Romans 7:4, Paul teaches that in the same way that a Jewish wife is
discharged from the marriage contract with her deceased husband and free to
marry another so the Christian has been discharged from the Law and was married
to Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 7:4, “Therefore, my spiritual brothers, all of you without
exception have also been put to death by means of Christ’s body with the
result that all of you have been entered into marriage with another, the one
who was raised from the dead ones in order that we might produce fruit for
the benefit of God the Father.”

In Romans 7:4a, he teaches that the Jewish Christians in Rome were dead with
respect to the Mosaic Law through the body of Christ or in other words their
identification with Christ in His physical death. Then, in Romans 7:4b, the apostle
teaches that the Jewish Christians in Rome and all Christians for that matter have
been married to Christ in order to bear fruit for God the Father.

Next, we will note Romans 7:5, in which the apostle Paul teaches the Roman
believers that prior to their conversion to Christianity, when they were in bondage
to the sin nature, the sinful passions of their sin natures produced personal sin as a
result of their permitting these desires to be operative in their human bodies.

This passage describes the Roman Christians prior to their conversion to
Christianity whereas Romans 7:6 describes their present status of having been
freed from the Law, having died to it and now having the capacity to serve in
newness of the Spirit.

Romans 7:5, “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which
were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear
fruit for death.”

“For” is the “explanatory” use of the post-positive conjunction gar (garv ),
which introduces Romans 7:5-6 together as an “explanation” of Paul’s statement in
Romans 7:4. Therefore, Romans 7:5-6 explains why the Roman Christians were
dead with respect to the Mosaic Law through their identification with the death of
the physical body of Christ with the result that they were married to Christ in order
to produce Christ-like character, which is a benefit to the Father. We will translate
gar, “for you see.”

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Romans 7:5, “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which
were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear
fruit for death.”

“While” is temporal conjunction hote (ot% i) (hot-eh), which is employed with
the indicative mood of the verb eimi, “we were” in order to form a temporal clause
that is adverbial meaning that the clause functions as an adverb and is modifying
the verb eimi.

This temporal conjunction serves to identify the time when the Jewish Roman
Christians were unregenerate and under real spiritual death and condemned by the
requirements of the Mosaic Law. It introduces a clause that describes their
unregenerate status prior to being declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ as
their Savior. We will translate the word, “when.”

Romans 7:5, “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which
were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear
fruit for death.”

“We were” is the first person plural imperfect active indicative form of the verb
eimi (ei)mi)v (i-mee), which means, “to exist in a particular state or condition.”

This particular state or condition is described by the prepositional phrase en te
sarki, “in the flesh.”

This prepositional phrase denotes being under the control or dominion and
authority of the indwelling sin nature.

As we noted in our study of the verb karpophoreo in Romans 7:4, Paul switches
from the second person plural form to the first person plural form, which is an
“inclusive we.” Here in verse 5, he maintains the first person plural form by using
in the verb eimi. This “inclusive we” means that it is referring to Paul and his
audience, who like himself, who have been identified with Christ in His physical
death through the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a result of being declared justified
by the Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. He switches to the first person
plural form since he wants to emphasize with his readers that the purpose of
entering the Jewish Christians into a marriage relationship with Jesus Christ is true
of not only them but also all believers whether Jew or Gentile. He also is switching
to the first person plural form since he wants to identify with his Jewish Christian
readers.

The imperfect tense of the verb is a “stative customary imperfect,” which refers
to an ongoing state that continued for some time in the past. Therefore, it denotes
that prior to being declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior,
the Jewish Christians in Rome existed in the “perpetual” or “ongoing” state of
being bondage to the indwelling Adamic sin nature whose sinful passions were
stimulated by the Mosaic Law. This resulted in perpetuating their status of being
under real spiritual death.

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The active voice is “stative” emphasizing that prior to being declared justified
through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior, the Roman Christians, as the subject,
“existed in a perpetual state of being” in bondage the sin nature.

The indicative mood of the verb is “declarative” presenting this assertion as an
unqualified statement of fact.

We will translate eimi, “we were once in a perpetual state of being.”
Corrected translation thus far of Romans 7:5: “For you see, when we were
once in a perpetual state of being…”
Romans 7:5, “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which
were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear
fruit for death.”
“In the flesh” is composed of the preposition en (e)n), “in” and the articular
dative feminine singular form of the noun sarx (sarv c) (sarx), “the flesh.”
This is the sixth time that the noun sarx has appeared in our studies of the book
of Romans. The word appears in Romans 1:3 for the human nature of Jesus Christ.
Romans 1:1-3, “Paul, a slave owned by Christ who is Jesus, called as an
apostle, set apart for the gospel originating from God, which He promised
beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning His Son,
who was born as a descendant of David with respect to His human nature.”
In Romans 2:28, the noun sarx refers to the human body.
Romans 2:28, “Therefore, as an eternal spiritual truth, he is absolutely
never a Jew who is one by means of the external, nor, as an eternal spiritual
truth, is circumcision, that which is by means of the external in the human
body.”
The word appears again in Romans 3:20 where it refers to the entire human race
under the power of the old Adamic sin nature.
Romans 3:20, “Because each and every member of sinful humanity will
never be justified in His judgment by means of actions produced by obedience
to the Law for through the Law there does come about an awareness of the sin
nature.”
This points back to the noun hamartia, “sin” that appears in Romans 3:9 and
refers to the old Adamic sin nature.
Romans 3:9, “What shall we conclude then? Are we (Christians) as an
eternal spiritual truth, superior? By all means, absolutely not! Since, we have
already previously indicted both Jew and Greek, with the result that each and
every one is under the power of the sin nature.”
Paul doesn’t employ hamartia in Romans 3:20 but rather sarx since he wants to
emphasize that every human being is under the power of the sin nature and doesn’t
want to simply emphasize the sin nature itself. Also, Paul could have used the noun
anthropos to refer to the entire human race as he does in Romans 3:4.

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Romans 3:3-4, “So then, what if-and let us assume for the sake of argument
some did not believe, then will their unbelief render inoperative God’s
faithfulness? No! Absolutely not! God must be acknowledged as true but each
and every member of the human race a liar. Just as it stands written, for all of
eternity, ‘that You will be acknowledged as righteous by means of Your
pronouncements so that You will be victorious while You are undoubtedly
being accused of injustice.’”

However, instead he uses the noun sarx instead since he wants to emphasize not
simply the human race but rather the human race under the power of the sin nature.
Therefore, in Romans 3:20, Paul uses the noun sarx rather than hamartia or
anthropos in order to emphasize the entire human race under the power of the sin
nature.

Then, we saw the word in Romans 4:1 where it refers to the genealogical or
biological or racial descent of the Jews.

Romans 4:1, “Therefore, what is the conclusion that we are forced to with
respect to Abraham’s experience, our forefather with respect to genealogical
descent?”

Lastly, the word appeared in Romans 6:19 where it denotes that the genetic
structure of the human body is the location of the old Adamic sin nature.

Romans 6:19, “I am speaking according to your human frame of reference
because of the weakness, which is your flesh. Therefore, just as all of you
placed your members as slaves at the disposal of and with respect to that
which is impurity and in addition with respect to that which is lawlessness
resulting in further lawlessness, in the same way, now, I solemnly charge all of
you to place your members as slaves at the disposal of and with respect to
righteousness resulting in sanctification and do it now!”

Thus, far in Romans chapter six, Paul has used various expressions for the sin
nature with each emphasizing the sin nature from a different perspective.

In Romans 6:6, the apostle Paul employed three different terms to designate the
sin nature with each having a different emphasis.

Romans 6:6, “This we are very familiar with through instruction, namely,
that our old man was crucified with Him in order that the sinful body would
be deprived of its power with the result that we are no longer in a perpetual
state of being slaves to the sin nature.”

The first expression ho palaios anthropos, “the old man” referred to the sin
nature but from the perspective of its point of origin, namely, the transgression of
Adam.

The second is to soma tes hamartias, “the sinful body,” which speaks of the sin
nature from the perspective of its location, namely, in the genetic structure of the
human body.

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The third is te hamartia, “the sin nature,” which is personified and speaks of
the sin nature from the perspective of its rulership over the sinner.

This third use in Romans 6:6 appears also in Romans 6:7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16,
17 and 18.

Romans 6:7, “For you see the one who has died is freed from the power of
the sin nature.”

Romans 6:10, “For you see, the physical death that He died, He died for the
destruction of the sin nature once and for all but the life that He now lives, He
lives forever for the benefit of God the Father.”

Romans 6:11, “In the same way, also, on the one hand, all of you without
exception make it your habit to regard yourselves as dead ones with respect to
the sin nature while on the other hand those who are, as an eternal spiritual
truth, alive with respect to God the Father, in union with Christ, who is
Jesus.”

Romans 6:12, “Therefore, do not make it a habit to let the sin nature reign
as king in your mortal body with the result that you habitually obey its lusts.”

Romans 6:13, “Nor, all of you place the members of your body at the
disposal and benefit of the sin nature as instruments, which produce
unrighteousness but rather I solemnly charge all of you to place yourselves at
the disposal and benefit of God the Father as those who are, as an eternal
spiritual truth, alive from the dead ones and in addition your members as
instruments, which produce righteousness for the benefit of God the Father
and do it now!”

Romans 6:14, “For the sin nature, will, as a certainty, never again, have
dominion over all of you for all of you, as an eternal spiritual truth, are by no
means under the authority and dominion of the Law but rather under the
authority and dominion of grace.”

Romans 6:16, “Are you totally unaware concerning this fact, namely that
the one whom you desire to place yourselves at the disposal of as slaves for
obedience, you will be slaves for the benefit of this one whom you desire to
obey, either the sin nature resulting in temporal spiritual death or obedience
to the Father’s will resulting in righteousness?”

Romans 6:17, “But now, thank God! Because all of you were once in a
perpetual state of being slaves to the sin nature but then all of you obeyed
from the heart that particular doctrinal standard with respect to which all of
you were taught.”

Romans 6:18, “And also, because having been set free from the tyranny of
the sin nature, all of you became slaves of righteousness.”

The second expression that appears in Romans 6:6, to soma tes hamartias, “the
sinful body,” which speaks of the sin nature from the perspective of its location is

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synonymous with the noun sarx in Romans 6:19 and in Romans 7:5. Therefore, in
Romans 6:19 and in Romans 7:5, the noun sarx means, “flesh” is synonymous with
the expression to soma tes hamartias, “the sinful body” that appears in Romans
6:6 and denotes that the sin nature is located or resident in the genetic structure of
the human body.

Also, as was the case in Romans 3:20, Paul uses the noun sarx rather than
hamartia in order to emphasize the entire human race under the power of the sin
nature.

In Romans 7:5, the preposition en is a marker of a state or condition indicating
that the prior to their conversion to Christianity, the Jewish Christians in Rome
existed perpetually in a state of being in bondage to the indwelling Adamic sin
nature whose sinful passions were stimulated by the Mosaic Law. This resulted in
perpetuating their status of being under real spiritual death.

The context clearly indicates that the article preceding the noun sarx, “flesh”
functions as a “possessive pronoun” and should be translated “our.”

We will translate the prepositional phrase en te sarki, “in bondage to our
flesh.”

Corrected translation thus far of Romans 7:5: “For you see, when we were
once in a perpetual state of being in bondage to our flesh…”

Romans 7:5, “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which
were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear
fruit for death.”

“Passions” is the articular nominative neuter plural form of the noun pathema
(paqv hma) (path-ay-mah).

In classical Greek, the noun pathema is used from the time of the tragedians and
is related to the verb pascha. Pascho was used from Homer on and basically means
“to experience something” which comes from without (adversity) and which has to
be suffered. Its use in Homer shows plainly that its original sense was “to suffer
evil.”

Like pathos, pathema, though less common, shared the history of pascha. It
first denotes that which befalls a man and has to be accepted by him. It is mostly
used in malam partem, “misfortune, suffering (often plural).”

In combination with mathema it denotes what is experienced as distinct from
what is learned (e.g. Xenophon Cyr. III, 1, 17; Aristophanes Thes. 199, 906, 19;
IV, 316, 12 ff. It also refers to the bodily or spiritual condition induced by external
events, usually in malam partem: “state of suffering, sorrowful mood, sorrow,
grief.”

Liddell and Scott list the following classical meanings for the noun pathema
(page 1285): (1) That which befalls one, suffering, misfortune (2) Emotion or
condition, affection (3) In plural, incidents, happenings, properties, accidents.

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Pathema does not occur in the Septuagint (LXX) (or other translations), nor in
Ep. Ar., Test. XII, Gr. En. The noun pathema appears only 16 times in the Greek
New Testament.

Louw and Nida list the following NT meanings (Greek-English Lexicon of the
New Testament Based on Semantic Domains volume 2): (1) To suffer pain – ‘pain,
suffering’ (page 285). (2) To experience strong physical desires, particularly of a
sexual nature – ‘passion, lust, lustful desire’ (page 292).

Bauer, Gingrich and Danker have compiled the following meanings from their
research (A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early
Christian Literature page 602): (1) That which is suffered or endured, suffering,
misfortune, in our lit. almost always in plural (2) Passion.

Thayer’s New Greek-English Lexicon lists the following meanings (page 472):
(1) That which one suffers or has suffered (2) Externally, a suffering, misfortune,
calamity, evil, affliction; also the afflictions which Christians must undergo in
behalf of the same cause for which Christ patiently endured. (3) Of an inward state,
an affection, passion (4) An enduring, undergoing, suffering.

Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words has the following article,
“pathema, from pathos, “suffering, signifies ‘affliction.’ The word is frequent in
Paul's epistles and is found three times in Hebrews, four in 1 Peter; it is used (a) of
‘afflictions,’ (Rom. 8:18), etc.; of Christ’s ‘sufferings,’ (1 Pet. 1:11; 5:1; Heb. 2:9);
of those as shared by believers, (2 Cor. 1:5; Phil. 3:10; 1 Pet. 4:13; 5:1); (b) of ‘an
evil emotion, passion,’ (Rom. 7:5; Gal. 5:24). The connection between the two
meanings is that the emotions, whether good or evil, were regarded as consequent
upon external influences exerted on the mind (cf. the two meanings of the English
‘passion’). It is more concrete than No. 1, and expresses in sense (b) the
uncontrolled nature of evil desires, in contrast to epithumia, the general and
comprehensive term, lit., ‘what you set your heart upon’ (Trench, Syn. Sec.
lxxxvii). Its concrete character is seen in (Heb. 2:9).

The noun pathema appears in the Greek New Testament in relation to Christ’s
undeserved suffering (Hebrews 2:9-10; 1 Peter 1:11). It was also used of the
Christian sharing in Christ’s undeserved suffering (2 Corinthians 1:5-7; Philippians
3:10; 1 Peter 4:13). Pathema was used of Christian undeserved suffering in relation
to persecutions (Romans 8:11; 2 Timothy 3:11; Hebrews 10:32; 1 Peter 5:9). The
word is also used in a negative senses of the desires of the sin nature that wage war
against the human soul (Galatians 5:24; Romans 7:5).

In every instance that the word is used in the New Testament, spoke of either
undeserved suffering or sinful desires that are external or outside the human soul.
Originally, pathema as we noted expressed the view that the source of feelings and
affections was external to man (Michaelis, Theological Dictionary of the New
Testament volume 5, page 930). When man was affected by such external

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influence certain positive or negative “emotions” were produced. Therefore these
feelings could be experienced in one way as suffering, anxiety, need or in another
way as lusts and demands of different kinds.

Now, in Romans 7:5, the noun pathema refers to the “lustful desires” or
“impulses” that originate from the sin nature. The fact that these “lustful desires”
or “impulses” originate from the sin nature is indicated by the prepositional phrase
en te sarki, “in bondage to our flesh” that appears in the temporal clause, which
refers to the unregenerate state of the Jewish Roman Christians prior to their
conversion to Christianity.

As we noted earlier in this verse with our study of the noun sarx, the expression
to soma tes hamartias, “the sinful body,” that appears in Romans 6:6 speaks of the
sin nature from the perspective of its location and is synonymous with the noun
sarx in Romans 6:19 and in Romans 7:5. Therefore, in Romans 6:19 and in
Romans 7:5, the noun sarx means, “flesh” is synonymous with the expression to
soma tes hamartias, “the sinful body” that appears in Romans 6:6 and denotes that
the sin nature is located or resident in the genetic structure of the human body.

The fact that the sin nature resides in the genetic structure of the physical body
is why the justified sinner needs a resurrection body to replace his sinful body.
This is why Christ had to die physically and rise from the dead in a resurrection
body because the sin nature resides in the human body. Therefore, the human body
is inherently sinful, which is the result of the curse that the Lord put on Adam and
his posterity (See Genesis 3:18-19).

The fall of Adam not only affected his fellowship with God but also it effected
his environment and his physical body!

Genesis 3:18-19, “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you
will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till
you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; For you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”

The physical body of human beings eventually ceases to function and
decompose into the dust of ground because they are inherently sinful. They are
inherently sinful because of the curse the Lord put on Adam and his posterity. The
fact that the sin nature resides in the human body is further indicated in that Jesus
Christ’s human body was not the result of the sexual union between Mary and
Joseph but rather the result of the Holy Spirit impregnating Mary (Luke 1:35; cf.
Hebrews 10:5-7). He could not have a human body that was the result of human
copulation because the sin nature is passed down in this manner and resides in the
body. This is significant in that it makes clear that Jesus Christ did not have the
principle of the sin nature residing in Him since the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary.

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He did not have a human father who could pass down the sin nature in sex. This
makes clear that our Lord was not under the headship of Adam like the rest of the
human race.

Every member of the human race is under the headship of Adam due to
physical birth. However, Jesus Christ did not have a sin nature because He did not
receive a human body as a result of human copulation.

Now, because He did not have a human father and that His human body did not
have a sin nature residing in it, it is then, clear that the rest of the human race are
sinners due to the fact that they possess a sin nature that resides in their physical
bodies since it is passed down through copulation. The human body of Adam
became corrupted as a result of his disobedience, which he passed down to his
posterity.

These sinful desires that originate from the sin nature wage war against the
human soul according to 1 Peter 2:11.

1 Peter 2:11, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from
fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.”

When a person commits a mental, verbal or overt act of sin he is giving in to the
desires of the sin nature.

James 1:13-15, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by
God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt
anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his
own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is
accomplished, it brings forth death.”

Therefore, in Romans 7:5, the noun pathema refers to desires or passions that
originate from the sin nature and wage war against the human soul and when the
human soul gives into these sinful desires of the sin nature, personal sin is
committed whether mental, verbal and overt acts of sin.

So pathema speaks of “influences, desires” or “impulses” that are outside the
human soul or in other words, they are external and originate from the indwelling
sin nature. They result in personal sin as a result of the human soul through the
function of volition acting on these sinful impulses or desires.

The articular construction of the noun pathema indicates that it is functioning as
a “nominative subject” meaning that it is producing the action of the verb energeo,
“were at work.” We will translate the articular form of the noun pathema, “the
desires.”

Corrected translation thus far of Romans 7:5: “For you see, when we were
once in a perpetual state of being in bondage to our flesh, the desires…”

Romans 7:5, “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which
were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear
fruit for death.”

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“Sinful” is the articular genitive feminine plural form of the noun hamartia
(am( artiav ) (ham-ar-tee-ah), “sinful.”

We have noted this word in exhaustive detail throughout the first six chapters of
the book of Romans. Therefore, we will only note briefly its usage in the Greek
New Testament and in particular its usage here in Romans 7:5.

In the Greek New Testament, the word hamartia is used in the plural for acts of
personal sin, whether, mental, verbal or overt (Mt. 1:21; Mk. 2:10; Lk. 7:48; Jn.
8:24; Eph. 2:1; 1 Jn. 1:9). It is used in the singular at times for personal sin (Jn.
8:34; 16:8; 1 Jn. 1:7). The majority of the time that hamartia is employed in the
singular it signifies the indwelling old Adamic sin nature, which is the source of
personal sin (Jn. 8:34; Rm. 6:1-2; 1 Jn. 1:8).

Here in Romans 7:5, the word should be translated like an attributive adjective
modifying the noun pathema since it is functioning as a “genitive of quality,”
which is also known as an “attributive genitive.” This type of genitive is where the
genitive substantive hamartia specifies an attribute or innate quality of the head
noun pathema. Therefore, hamartia should be translated “sinful” since it is
modifying the noun pathema.

As a “attributive” genitive, hamartia is emphasizing the innate quality of these
desires in that they originate from the sin nature. The word is in the plural because
pathema is in the plural and it modifying it. It does not function as a “genitive of
product,” in which the genitive substantive is the “product” of the noun to which it
stands related. If hamartia functions as a “genitive of product” then this means that
it is the “product” of the noun pathema, “sinful desires” to which it, hamartia,
stands related. This indicates that these sinful desires denoted by the noun pathema
“produce” personal acts of sin, which is denoted by the plural form of the noun
hamartia. This makes perfect sense.

However, it is redundant when we consider the prepositional phrase eis to
karpophoresai to thanato, which means, “resulting in the production of fruit
related to (real) spiritual death.” These desires that originate from the sin nature
and were aroused by the Law and were through the function of the volition allowed
to be operative in the bodies of the Roman believers when they were unsaved
resulted in the production of fruit related to spiritual death. This fruit refers to all
types of personal sin. Therefore, we can see that it would be redundant to interpret
hamartia as a “genitive of product.” Rather, it makes better sense to interpret
hamartia as a “genitive of quality,” which is also known as an “attributive
genitive” meaning that the genitive substantive hamartia specifies an attribute or
innate quality of the head noun pathema. This would mean that we could interpret
the expression ta pathemata ton hamartion, “the sinful passions,” which is how
the New American Standard Updated Version, The New International Version,
Amplified Bible and New King James Version and others translate it.

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Paul’s emphasis is upon the innate quality or attribute of pathema, “desires”
rather than upon what these desires produce since the prepositional phrase eis to
karpophoresai to thanato, “resulting in the production of fruit related to (real)
spiritual death” indicates the latter.

The definite article preceding the noun hamartia has anaphoric force in that it
points back to the noun pathema with which it has concord.

We will translate hamartia, “sinful.”
Corrected translation thus far of Romans 7:5: “For you see, when we were
once in a perpetual state of being in bondage to our flesh, the sinful desires…”
Romans 7:5, “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which
were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear
fruit for death.”
“Which were aroused” is the nominative neuter plural form of the definite
article ho (o)( (ho), which functions as a “substantiver” meaning it nominalizes (i.e.
converts to a noun) and conceptualizing the prepositional phrase dia tou nomou,
“by the Law.”
Translating the article in this manner accurately reflects the intent of this
passage where the Mosaic Law stimulated or aroused the sin nature to influence
the human soul to commit sin against the revealed will of God.
The idea in Romans 7:5 is that in their unregenerate state, the Roman Christians
were in perpetual bondage to their sin natures, with the sinful desires of the sin
nature being “stimulated or aroused” by means of the Mosaic Law.
In Romans 7:5, the article before the prepositional phrase dia tou nomou, “by
the Law” functions as a “nominative in simple apposition” meaning that it stands
in apposition to the nominative noun pathema and further describes that these
sinful desires are aroused by means of the Mosaic Law. Therefore, we will
translate the article “which were aroused.”
Corrected translation thus far of Romans 7:5: “For you see, when we were
once in a perpetual state of being in bondage to our flesh, the sinful desires
which were aroused…”
Romans 7:5, “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which
were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear
fruit for death.”
“By the Law” is composed of the preposition dia (dia)V (dee-ah), “through”
and the articular genitive masculine singular form of the noun (nomv o$) (nom-os),
“the Law.”
The articular construction of the noun nomos is “anaphoric” indicating that the
word was used in a previous context, namely, Romans 7:4. It also indicates that
the word’s meaning in Romans 7:4 is being retained here in Romans 7:5. The fact
that nomos in Romans 7:1-6 refers to the Mosaic Law is indicating by Paul’s

©2008 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 12

parenthetical statement “I am speaking to those who know the Law” in Romans
7:1. Thus, when he uses the term “Law” he is referring specifically, to the Mosaic
Law, i.e. the Jewish law and not to an axiom of political justice both Jewish and
Roman.

The context indicates quite clearly that Paul has had the Mosaic Law in mind
since Romans 5:20 and that it has never left his thought process. Paul’s slavery
analogy in Romans 6:15-23 was in response to any false inference that might be
concluded from his teaching in Romans 6:14 that the Christian is no longer under
the Law but under grace. He employs this analogy to illustrate that even though the
Christian is no longer under the Law but under grace this does not give him a
license to sin but rather frees him and obligates him to obey God instead.

Furthermore, the conjunction e, “or” in Romans 7:1 clearly indicates that Paul’s
statements in Romans 7:1-6 are related to his slavery analogy in Roman chapter 6.
His statements in Romans 6:1-14a were motivated by any possible false inference
from his statements in Romans 5:20 that where sin increased, grace abounded all
the more. His statements in Romans 6:15-23 were motivated by any possible false
inference from his statement in Romans 6:14b that the Christian is no longer under
the Law but under grace. Therefore, it is clear from the context that the Mosaic
Law has never left Paul’s mind.

Also, the articular construction of nomos in Romans 7:5 signifies that this
particular law would be “well-known” to Paul’s Jewish readership since their
parents taught them the Law and they were taught it by their rabbis in their
synagogues.

In Romans 7:5, the preposition dia functions as a marker of means and the noun
nomos, “the Law” as a “genitive of means.” A “genitive of means” is where a
genitive substantive indicates the means or instrumentality by which the verbal
action implicit in the head noun or adjective or explicit in the verb is accomplished
and answers the question, “How?” This indicates that the Mosaic Law was the
“means” by which the sinful desires originating from the sin nature were aroused
in the Jewish Roman Christians prior to their conversion to Christianity.

The apostle Paul uses nomos in the genitive case rather than in the dative case
to denote means since the former is closer to a causal idea than the latter. He
wishes to emphasize that the Mosaic Law was not only the means by which the
sinful desires of the sin nature were aroused in the Jewish Roman Christians prior
to their conversion to Christianity but also its cause.

That the Law aroused the sin nature in the Christian and manifested that
unregenerate man is spiritually dead is further implied in Romans 3:20, 4:15, 5:20,
1 Corinthians 15:56, 2 Corinthians 3:5-9, Galatians 3:10, and James 2:9-10.

Romans 3:19-20, “Now, we know for certain that whatever the Law says, it
speaks for the benefit of those under the jurisdiction of the Law in order that

©2008 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 13

each and every mouth may be silenced and in addition all the unsaved
inhabitants of the cosmic system may be demonstrated as guilty in the
judgment of God. Because each and every member of sinful humanity will
never be justified in His judgment by means of actions produced by obedience
to the Law for through the Law there does come about an awareness of the sin
nature.”

Romans 4:15, “For, the Law, as an eternal spiritual truth, produces
righteous indignation but where there is, at any time, the total absence of the
Law, neither, is there, as an eternal spiritual truth, violation.”

Romans 5:20, “Now, the Law was an addendum in order that the
transgression might increase but where personal sin increased, grace infinitely
abounded.”

1 Corinthians 15:56, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the
law.”

2 Corinthians 3:5-9, “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider
anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also
made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the
Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. But if the ministry of death,
in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could
not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as
it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? For
if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of
righteousness abound in glory.”

Galatians 3:10, “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a
curse; for it is written, ‘CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE
BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO
PERFORM THEM.’”

James 2:9-10, “But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are
convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law and
yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.”

The fact that the Mosaic Law aroused the sinful desires of the sin nature can be
illustrated by the effects of the Laws of Prohibition in the 1920’s. The law that
banned alcohol stimulated the old flesh nature and the sinful passions were aroused
so that men’s appetite for alcohol increased. The results of this were deadly fruit so
that the twenties were euphemistically referred to as the “Roaring 20’s.” It was a
tragic chapter in American History. The Mosaic Law affected the nation of Israel
much like the Law of Prohibition affected America.

Therefore, we will translate the preposition dia, “by means of” and the articular
form of the noun nomos, “the Law.”

©2008 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 14

Corrected translation thus far of Romans 7:5: “For you see, when we were
once in a perpetual state of being in bondage to our flesh, the sinful desires
which were aroused by means of the Law…”

Romans 7:5, “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which
were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear
fruit for death.”

“Were at work” is the third person singular imperfect middle indicative form
of the verb energeo (e)nergewv ) (en-erg-eh-o).

The verb energeo intransitively means “to be active, to be at work,” and
transitively it means “to effect or to do something.” It is a compound verb
composed of the preposition en, “in,” and ergo, “work.” Thus, energeo literally
means “to work in.”

The word means to be active or efficient, to work effectually in or to be
operative. Moulton and Milligan observe that in papyri manuscripts energeo
always has the idea of “effective working.”

Liddell and Scott list the following meanings for energeo in classical literature:
(1) to be in action or activity, operate especially of divine or supernatural action.
(2) to be efficacious of drugs (3) to be effective of troops (4) (passive) to be the
object of action (5) to be actualized (6) (transitively), effect, execute (7)
(transitively) (passive) to be actively carried on (8) medically of sexual intercourse
(9) operate in surgery.

In the Septuagint, the word group is employed with the whole range of meaning
of the classical Greek usages, serving frequently to translate the Hebrew words: (1)
`asah (hcu), “to do, to make.” (2) pa`al (lup), to make, to do.” (3) `abad (dbu),
“to work, to serve.”

The Septuagint reveals that the Hebrew contained no precise equivalent to the
Greek energeo since it translates out of four canonical appearances three Hebrew
terms and one additional form.

The verb energeo appears 22 times in the Greek New Testament. It is found 18
times in the Pauline corpus. The word occurs in Matthew 14:2, Mark 6:14 and
James 5:16.

The Analytical Greek Lexicon Revised lists the following meanings for the
verb: (1) to effect (2) to put into operation (3) to be active (4) to communicate
energy and efficiency (5) passive or middle, to come into activity, be actively
developed; to be active, to be in operation, towards a result; to be an active power
or principle; instinct with activity; in action, operative; earnest (page 139).

Bauer’s lists the following New Testament meanings for energeo (A Greek-
English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature page
265): (1) (Intransitive), “to work, to be at work, operate, be effective” (2)
(Transitive), “to work, produce, effect.”

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Louw and Nida list the following meanings for the word in the New Testament
(Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains): (1)
to be engaged in some activity or function, with possible focus upon the energy or
force involved - ‘to function, to work, to be at work, practice’ (volume 2 page
511). (2) to cause or make possible a particular function - ‘to cause to function, to
grant the ability’ (volume 2 page 511). (3) to cause a state to be - ‘to cause to be,
to make to be, to make, to result in, to bring upon, to bring about’ (volume 2
page 150).

The New Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon lists the following New Testament
meanings (page 215): (1) (intransitive) “to be operative, to be at work, to put forth
power” (2) (transitive) “to effect” (3) “to display one’s activity, show one’s self
operative.”

Vine commenting on the verb, writes, “Energeo literally means, ‘to work in,’
‘to be active, operative,’ is used of (a) God, 1 Cor 12:6; Gal 2:8; 3:5; Eph 1:11,20;
3:20; Phil 2:13 a; Col 1:29; (b) the Holy Spirit, 1 Cor 12:11; (c) the Word of God,
1 Thess 2:13 (middle voice; KJV, ‘effectually worketh’); (d) supernatural power,
undefined, Matt 14:2; Mark 6:14; (e) faith, as the energizer of love, Gal 5:6; (f) the
example of patience in suffering, 2 Cor 1:6; (g) death (physical) and life (spiritual),
2 Cor 4:12; (h) sinful passions, Rom 7:5; (i) the spirit of the Evil One, Eph 2:2; (j)
the mystery of iniquity, 2 Thess 2:7.” (Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical
Words, Copyright (c)1985, Thomas Nelson Publishers)

The word was used of the humanity of Christ for the “miraculous” powers
producing our Lord’s miracles (Matt. 14:2; Mark 6:14). Energeo is used of the
work of God the Holy Spirit in relation to spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:6, 11). It is used
in relation to the undeserved suffering for the Christian, which is ultimately for
blessing (2 Cor. 1:6; 4:12).

The word is used by Paul in regards to the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit
in Peter’s ministry to the Jews and his to the Gentiles (Gal. 2:8). Energeo is used of
the miracles performed by the apostle Paul by means of the omnipotence of the
Holy Spirit (Gal. 3:5). It is used in relation to the importance of faith and God’s
love working through the believer (Gal. 5:6). The word is use of the work of God
the Father in eternity past (Eph. 1:11). It is used of the omnipotence of God the
Father which was at work in the humanity of Christ during His first advent (Eph.
1:20).

The verb is also used of Satan in relation to the unbeliever (Eph. 2:2). Energeo
is used of the omnipotence of God working through the Christian (Eph. 3:20; Phil.
2:13; Col. 1:29). The word is used of the omnipotence of the Word of God (1
Thess. 2:13). It is used of Satan and his cosmic system (2 Thess. 2:7). The verb is
used of “effectual” prayer (James 5:16).

©2008 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 16

Lastly, in Romans 7:5, the verb denotes that these sinful desires or impulses
“were operative” in the various parts of the human body of the Jewish Roman
Christians prior to their becoming Christians.

The imperfect tense of the verb is a “stative customary imperfect,” which refers
to an ongoing state that continued for some time in the past. Therefore, it denotes
that prior to being declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior,
the sinful desires originating from the sin nature of the Jewish Christians in Rome
existed in the “perpetual” or “ongoing” state of being operative in the various parts
of their human bodies.

The middle voice is a “permissive” middle that the subject allows something to
be done for or to himself or herself. Here it emphasizes that prior to becoming
Christians, the Jewish Christians in Rome “permitted” the sinful desires to become
operative in the various parts of the human bodies. It emphasizes that the
unregenerate sinner is responsible for his actions in that he or she made a choice to
“allow” these sinful desires to become operative in their physical body. This is not
a “direct” middle where the subject is also the actor. Rather, it is a “permissive”
middle where the subject does not perform the action. This means that the sinful
desires perform the action of being operative in the bodies of the Jewish Roman
Christians prior to their conversion. However, the “permissive” middle means that
they “allowed” these desires to become operative or active in their bodies.

The indicative mood of the verb is “declarative” presenting this assertion as an
unqualified statement of fact and Bible doctrine.

Therefore, we will translate the verb energeo, “were perpetually allowed to be
operative.”

Corrected translation thus far of Romans 7:5: “For you see, when we were
once in a perpetual state of being in bondage to our flesh, the sinful desires
which were aroused by means of the Law were perpetually allowed to be
operative…”

Romans 7:5, “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which
were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear
fruit for death.”

“In the members of our body” is composed of the preposition en (e)n) (en),
“in” and the dative neuter plural form of the noun melos (melv o$) (mel-os), “the
members…body” and the genitive first person plural personal pronoun hemeis
(hm( ei$~ ) (hay-mice), “of our.”

Up to this point in the Roman epistle, we have seen the noun melos in Romans
6:13 and 19.

Romans 6:12-13, “Therefore, do not make it a habit to let the sin nature
reign as king in your mortal body with the result that you habitually obey its
lusts. Nor, all of you place the members of your body at the disposal and

©2008 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 17

benefit of the sin nature as instruments, which produce unrighteousness but
rather I solemnly charge all of you to place yourselves at the disposal and
benefit of God the Father as those who are, as an eternal spiritual truth, alive
from the dead ones and in addition your members as instruments, which
produce righteousness for the benefit of God the Father and do it now!”

Romans 6:19, “I am speaking according to your human frame of reference
because of the weakness, which is your flesh. Therefore, just as all of you
placed your members as slaves at the disposal of and with respect to that
which is impurity and in addition with respect to that which is lawlessness
resulting in further lawlessness, in the same way, now, I solemnly charge all of
you to place your members as slaves at the disposal of and with respect to
righteousness resulting in sanctification and do it now!”

As we can see, the word melos appears twice in each passage. In each instance,
it is used in a literal sense for the different parts of the human body. Also, in each
instance it is used with reference to the old Adamic sin nature, which resides in the
genetic structure of the human body. It is used in this manner in other portions of
the New Testament.

Romans 7:22-23, “For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner
man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against
the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my
members.”

Colossians 3:1-5, “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep
seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set
your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you
have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our
life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore
consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity,
passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.”

James 3:1-6, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing
that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many
ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to
bridle the whole body as well. Now if we put the bits into the horses' mouths
so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. Look at the ships
also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still
directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires.
So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things.
See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a
fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that
which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set
on fire by hell.”

©2008 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 18

James 4:1, “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not
the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?”

In Romans 7:5, the noun melos is used once again in a literal sense for the
different parts of the human body and is used with reference to the old Adamic sin
nature, which resides in the genetic structure of the human body.

We will translate melos, “the members…body.”
The definite article the preceding the noun melos is employed with the
possessive personal pronoun hemeis as a function marker to denote possession.
The personal pronoun hemeis functions as a possessive genitive emphasizing these
members are “possessed by” the Jewish Christians in Rome. The personal pronoun
hemeis refers of course to Paul and his fellow Christian readers in Rome. We will
translate hemeis, “our.”
The preposition en is a marker of location specifying that the various parts of
the human bodies of the Jewish Christians in Rome prior to their conversion to
Christianity was the “location” in which these sinful desires from their sin natures
were permitted to operate. We will translate en, “in.”
Therefore, we can translate the prepositional phrase en tois melesin hemon, “in
the members of our body.”
Corrected translation thus far of Romans 7:5: “For you see, when we were
once in a perpetual state of being in bondage to our flesh, the sinful desires
which were aroused by means of the Law were perpetually allowed to be
operative in the members of our body…”
Romans 7:5, “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which
were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear
fruit for death.”
“To bear fruit” is composed of the preposition eis (ei$) ) (ice) and the
accusative neuter singular form of the definite article definite article ho (o)( (ho),
which is modifying the aorist active infinitive form of the verb karpophoreo
(karpoforewv ) (kar-pof-or-eh-o).
The verb karpophoreo appeared in Romans 7:4 where it was used in a
figurative sense for fruit bearing or in other words, producing or bearing the
character of Christ in one’s life.
Romans 7:4, “Therefore, my spiritual brothers, all of you without
exception have also been put to death by means of Christ’s body with the
result that all of you have been entered into marriage with another, the one
who was raised from the dead ones in order that we might produce fruit for
the benefit of God the Father.”
In Romans 7:5, the verb is used again in a figurative sense and means, “to
produce fruit” but unlike the word’s usage in verse 4, in verse 5, it refers to the

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production of fruit with respect to real spiritual death. This fruit refers to all types
of personal sins whether mental, verbal and overt acts of sin.

The articular infinitive form of the verb karpophoreo is governed by the
preposition eis and functions as an “infinitive of result.” It indicates the “outcome”
produced by the controlling verb energeo, “were perpetually allowed to be
operative.” The “infinitive of result” places emphasis on “effect” which may or
may not have been intended.

This is also specifically an infinitive of “actual” result rather than “natural”
result. “Actual” result is indicated in the context as having occurred whereas
“natural” result is what is assumed to take place at a time subsequent to that
indicated in the context. Clearly, Paul is speaking with reference to his Jewish
Christians readers’ unregenerate condition prior to their conversion to Christianity.
Therefore, the infinitive of “actual” result is in view indicating that the production
of fruit related to real spiritual death, which is personal sins, had already taken
place among Paul’s Jewish Christian readers prior to their becoming born-again
when they permitted the desires of the sin nature to be operative in their bodies.

We will translate the prepositional phrase eis to genesthai, “resulting in the
production of fruit.”

Corrected translation thus far of Romans 7:5: “For you see, when we were
once in a perpetual state of being in bondage to our flesh, the sinful desires
which were aroused by means of the Law were perpetually allowed to be
operative in the members of our body resulting in the production of fruit…”

Romans 7:5, “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which
were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear
fruit for death.”

“For death” is the articular dative masculine singular form of the noun
thanatos (qanv ato$) (than-at-os), which refers to real spiritual death.

As we have noted in previous studies, there are at least eight different
categories of death mentioned in the Bible. One of these is related to the Lord
Jesus Christ exclusively and rest are related the human race.

(1) Spiritual death is the imputation of Adam’s sin to our genetically formed old
sin nature at the moment of physical birth resulting in spiritual death or the total
inability to have a relationship with God in time (Gen. 2:17; Prov. 14:12; Ezek.
18:20; Rom. 5:12; 6:23; 1 Cor. 15:22; Eph. 2:1, 5).

(2) Physical death is the separation of the human soul (and in the case of the
believer, the human spirit also) from the body (Matt. 8:22; Rom. 8:38-39; 2 Cor.
5:1-8; Phil. 1:20-21; 2:27, 30).

(3) Second death is the perpetuation of spiritual death into eternity or eternal
separation from God and it is the final judgment of the unbelievers in the human

©2008 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 20

race and fallen angels whereby they are cast in the Lake of Fire (Matt. 25:41; Heb.
9:27; Rev. 20:12-15).

(4) Positional death is part of the Baptism of the Spirit, which identifies all
believers with Christ in His death on the Cross and specifically with His rejection
of human good and evil (Rom. 6:3-4; Col. 2:12; 3:3).

(5) Operational death is failure to produce divine good on the part of the
reversionistic believer under the influence of evil (James 2:26; 1 Tim. 5:6; Eph.
5:14; Rev. 3:1).

(6) Temporal death is the status of carnality or the believer out of fellowship
through personal sin (Rom. 8:6, 13; Eph. 5:14; 1 Tim. 5:6; James 1:15; Luke
15:24).

(7) Sexual death is the inability to copulate (Rom. 4:17-21; Heb. 11:11-12).
(8) Unique voluntary substitutionary spiritual death of the impeccable humanity
of Christ in hypostatic union on the cross (Matt. 27:45-46; Mark 15:34; Phlp. 2:8;
Hb. 2:9, 14).
In Romans 7:5, the noun thanatos refers to “real spiritual death” or in other
words the “spiritual death” that is exclusive to the unbeliever since in context Paul
is writing concerning the unregenerate condition of the Jewish Christians in Rome.
“Real spiritual death” means that each and every member of the unregenerate
humanity, without exception, is separated from a holy God in that they absolutely
no merit with Him and have absolutely no capacity whatsoever to establish and
experience a relationship and fellowship with Him as well.
In the same way, a deadly contagious virus can spread completely throughout
an entire population causing physical death so spiritual death spread throughout the
entire human race resulting in physical death.
Spiritual death infected the entire human race because each person receives a
sin nature that is received through imputation at the moment of physical birth and
is passed down by the male in copulation (sex). Therefore, the fact that every
person is born with a sin nature guarantees that every person is under real spiritual
death.
This sin nature is the result of Adam’s original sin in the Garden of Eden and
manifests itself through the function of human volition.
Spiritual death manifests itself through mental, verbal and overt acts of sin. In
fact, personal sin serves to perpetuate the unbeliever’s status of being spiritual
dead. Therefore, “real spiritual death” is result of the imputation of Adam’s sin to
our genetically formed old sin nature at the moment of physical birth resulting in
spiritual death or the total inability to have a relationship with God in time (Gen.
2:17; Prov. 14:12; Ezek. 18:20; Rom. 5:12; 6:23; 1 Cor. 15:22; Eph. 2:1, 5).
“Real spiritual death” in the human race resulted in three other categories of
death: (1) Physical death is the separation of the human soul (and in the case of the

©2008 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 21

believer, the human spirit also) from the body (Matt. 8:22; Rom. 8:38-39; 2 Cor.
5:1-8; Phil. 1:20-21; 2:27, 30). (2) Second death is the perpetuation of spiritual
death into eternity or eternal separation from God and it is the final judgment of the
unbelievers in the human race and fallen angels whereby they are cast in the Lake
of Fire (Matt. 25:41; Heb. 9:27; Rev. 20:12-15). (3) Unique voluntary
substitutionary spiritual death of the impeccable humanity of Christ in hypostatic
union on the cross (Matt. 27:45-46; Mark 15:34; Phlp. 2:8; Hb. 2:9, 14).

There are five major consequences for “real spiritual death”: (1) Slavery to the
sin nature and the devil and his cosmic system. (2) Physical death (Genesis 5:5).
(3) Imprisonment in Torments after physical death prior to the Great White Throne
Judgment (Luke 16:19-31). (4) Eternal condemnation in the Lake of Fire
(Revelation 20:11-15). (5) Unique voluntary substitutionary spiritual death of the
impeccable humanity of Christ in hypostatic union on the cross (Matt. 27:45-46;
Mark 15:34; Phlp. 2:8; Hb. 2:9, 14).

Spiritual death in the human race resulted in the Father sending His Son to die
spiritually as a substitute for members of the human race in order to deliver them
from spiritual death.

Christ’s spiritual death was needed to resolve the first three categories of death
since physical death and the second death are the result of spiritual death.

The problem of “real spiritual death” is resolved when God gives life to those
members of the human race who exercise faith alone in Christ alone (John 3:16-
18).

The articular construction of thanatos in Romans 7:5 can be interpreted as
“generic” meaning that it is distinguishing this death from the categories of death.
Or, it can be interpreted as indicating that this death is “well-known” to Paul’s
readers. Or, since thanatos is an abstract noun, it can be interpreted as
particularizing a general quality of this death.

In Romans 7:5, the noun thanatos functions as a “dative of reference” which
occurs when the dative substantive is that in reference to which something is
presented as true. Therefore, the noun thanatos, which refers to real spiritual death
is that in reference to which the Jewish Christians in Rome produced fruit, i.e.
personal sin is presented as true.

We will translate the articular dative form of the noun thanatos, “related to
spiritual death.”

Completed corrected translation of Romans 7:5: “For you see, when we were
once in a perpetual state of being in bondage to our flesh, the sinful desires,
which were aroused by means of the Law were perpetually allowed to be
operative in the members of our body resulting in the production of fruit
related to spiritual death.”

©2008 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 22

Romans 7:6a-The Jewish Christian Has Been Discharged From the Law As A
Result Of Being Identified With Christ In His Physical Death

Thus far in our studies of Romans chapter seven, we have noted the following:
In Romans 7:1-6, the apostle Paul uses the analogy of marriage and argues that the
Christian’s bondage to the Law has been severed because they have died with
Christ and have been freed from the Law and placed in union with Christ.

In Romans 7:1, Paul poses a rhetorical question to the Jewish Christians in
Rome and asks if they are ignorant of the fact that the Mosaic Law has jurisdiction
over a person as along as he lives. Then, in Romans 7:2-3, he employs the
marriage analogy by teaching that according to the Mosaic Law, a woman is not
bound legally to her husband if he dies. In Romans 7:4-6, he makes an application
for his readers by stating that in the same way the Christian is freed from the Law
and is thus no longer under its authority since He died with Christ and has been
placed in union with Him.

In Romans 7:1, in which Paul poses a rhetorical question to the Jewish
Christians in Rome and asks if they are ignorant of the fact that the Mosaic Law
has jurisdiction over a person as along as he lives.

Romans 7:1, “Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those
who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he
lives?”

That Paul is addressing the Jewish Christians in Rome specifically in this
passage, which is indicated in his parenthetical statement “I am now addressing
those who are very familiar with the Law through instruction.” Thus, when he
uses the term “Law” he is referring specifically, to the Mosaic Law, i.e. the Jewish
law and not to an axiom of political justice both Jewish and Roman.

Now, even though Paul’s comments in verses 1-6 are specifically directed
towards the Jewish Christians in Rome, these comments would also be of benefit
for the Gentile Christians as well in that it would protect them from the Judaizers’
legalistic teaching, which the Galatian church fell victim to (See Galatians 5).

Then, in Romans 7:2, Paul presents the principle found in the Mosaic Law that
a woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives but if he dies, she is
discharged from her marriage contract with her husband.

Romans 7:2, “For the married woman is bound by law to her husband
while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law
concerning the husband.”

Paul teaches in Romans 7:3 that if a Jewish woman’s husband dies, then she is
not an adulteress if she remarries.

Romans 7:3, “So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to
another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is

©2008 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 23

free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to
another man.”

In Romans 7:4, Paul teaches that in the same way that a Jewish wife is
discharged from the marriage contract with her deceased husband and free to
marry another so the Christian has been discharged from the Law and was married
to Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 7:4, “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the
Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to
Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for
God.”

In Romans 7:4a, he teaches that the Jewish Christians in Rome were dead with
respect to the Mosaic Law through the body of Christ or in other words their
identification with Christ in His physical death. Then, in Romans 7:4b, the apostle
teaches that the Jewish Christians in Rome and all Christians for that matter have
been married to Christ in order to bear fruit for God the Father.

Next, in Romans 7:5, Paul taught the Roman believers that prior to their
conversion to Christianity, when they were in bondage to the sin nature, the sinful
passions of their sin natures produced personal sin as a result of their permitting
these desires to be operative in their human bodies.

Romans 7:5, “For you see, when we were once in a perpetual state of being
in bondage to our flesh, the sinful desires, which were aroused by means of the
Law were perpetually allowed to be operative in the members of our body
resulting in the production of fruit related to spiritual death.”

This passage describes the Roman Christians prior to their conversion to
Christianity whereas Romans 7:6 describes their present status of having been
freed from the Law, having died to it and now having the capacity to serve in
newness of the Spirit.

Next, we will complete the first paragraph contained in Romans chapter seven
by noting verse 6. In this passage, Paul teaches the Jewish Christians in Rome that
they have been discharged from their legal and moral obligations to the Mosaic
Law as a result of being identified with Christ in His physical death. Consequently,
he teaches that they are forever in a state of being slaves for the benefit of the
Father. This he teaches was by means of the extraordinary work of the Holy Spirit
the moment they trusted in Jesus Christ as their Savior and never by means of the
useless observance of the letter of the Law.

This passage summarizes Paul’s teaching in verses 1-5 of this chapter.
Romans 7:6, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to
that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and
not in oldness of the letter.”

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“But” is the “adversative” use of the conjunction de (de)V (deh), which
introduces a statement that presents a contrast with Paul’s statement in Romans
7:5.

Therefore, in Romans 7:6, the conjunction de is setting up a contrast between
the effects of being under the authority and dominion of the Mosaic Law with that
of obeying the gospel and being placed in union with Christ and under the
authority and dominion of the Holy Spirit.

In Romans chapter eight, Paul illustrates in greater detail his statement here in
Romans 7:6. The remainder of chapter seven is concerned with Paul’s statement in
verse 5, which speak of the effects of being under the Law.Therefore, Paul is in
effect “postponing” temporarily his contrast between the sin nature and the Spirit
until chapter eight in order that he might emphasize the Christian’s deliverance
from the jurisdiction and condemnation of the Mosaic Law as well as the
implications of his teaching concerning the Law itself in verses 7-25.

The contrast is both “temporal” and “logical.” It is “temporal” in that Paul is
clearly contrasting the state of the Roman Christians when they were unsaved with
their present status of being born-again, in union with Christ. It is also “logical” in
that if the Jewish Christian is released from the jurisdiction of the Law and dead to
it because of his identification with Christ in His physical death and placed in
union with Him, then the Jewish Christian, logically speaking is forever a servant
of God. We will translate de, “but.”

Romans 7:6, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to
that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and
not in oldness of the letter.”

“Now” is the adverb of time nuni (nuni)v (noo-nee), which is the Attic form of
the adverb nun that appeared in Romans 6:19 and 21.

Like nun, nuni is an adverb of time. The demonstrative suffix i simply gives it
greater emphasis. That is true of both the adverb and the conjunction nuni. When
accompanied by de, nuni designates a clear contrast.

In the Koine papyri, nuni appears as frequently as nun but in the Biblical Koine
it is less frequent, being found primarily in the Pauline epistles and Hebrews with
some additional usage in Acts.

Nuni is found most extensively with the present tense, literally of time (Acts
24:13; Romans 15:23; 2 Corinthians 8:22) but is also found with the perfect tense
to indicate continuance (Romans 3:21; 6:22) (A Greek-English Lexicon of the New
Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, page 546). It occurs with the
future tense in Acts 22:1 and can also introduce a real situation following an unreal
statement (Hebrews 9:26) (A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and
Other Early Christian Literature, page 546).

We saw nuni in Romans 6:22 where it was used with de.

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Romans 6:22, “But now, at the present time, because all of you have been
set free from the tyranny of the sin nature and because all of you have become
slaves to God the Father all of you at the present time possess your benefit (of
being a servant of God) resulting in sanctification and the result, eternal life.”

In Romans 6:22, the apostle Paul does not employ nun but nuni with the
conjunction de since he wants to place greater emphasis upon the present
regenerate state of the Roman Christians in contrast to the previous unregenerate
state under the tyranny of the sin nature.

Here in Romans 7:6, he also employs nuni rather than nun with de since he
wants to place greater emphasis upon the present regenerate state of the Roman
Christians in contrast to their previous unregenerate state under the Mosaic Law.

The expression nuni de, “but now” appeared in Romans 6:22 where it
contrasted the Roman Christians’ pre-Christian days of serving the old sin nature
with their present status as Christians that are in union with Christ and serving
God. It contrasts the Roman Christians status of being unregenerate with that of
being regenerate.

In Romans 6:22, the conjunction de introduces a statement that presents a
contrast with Paul’s statements in Romans 6:20-21. In Romans 6:20, the apostle
Paul teaches the Roman Christians that prior to being declared justified through
faith in Christ, when they were in a perpetual state of being slaves to the sin nature,
they were free with respect to righteousness.

Romans 6:20, “For you see, when all of you were once in a perpetual state
of being slaves to the sin nature, all of you were in a perpetual state of being
free with respect to righteousness.”

Then, in Romans 6:21, Paul poses a rhetorical question to the Christians in
Rome reminding them that prior to their conversion to Christianity that their
actions of which they now were ashamed only served to perpetuate their status of
being spiritually dead.

Romans 6:21, “Therefore, what benefit were all of you at that time in a
perpetual state of possessing because of those things, which all of you are now
at the present time ashamed of? In fact, the result produced by these things is,
as an eternal spiritual truth spiritual death.”

Paul is describing his readers unregenerate condition prior to their becoming
born again in which they were perpetually slaves to the sin nature, which
perpetuated their status of being under real spiritual death. Therefore, in Romans
6:22, the conjunction de introduces a statement that stands in contrast with these
statements in Romans 6:20-21.

In verse 22, Paul teaches that because they have been freed from the sin nature
and enslaved to God through the baptism of the Spirit, the benefit that the Roman

©2008 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 26

Christians now possess is being a servant of God resulting in sanctification and the
outcome eternal life.

So the conjunction de contrasts the Roman Christians’ pre-Christian days of
serving the old sin nature with their present status as Christians that are in union
with Christ and serving God. It contrasts the Roman Christians status of being
unregenerate with that of being regenerate.

This is how the word is used in Romans 7:6.
2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature;
the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
However, instead of contrasting the Roman Christians’ pre-Christian days of
serving the sin nature with their present status as Christians, he contrasts their pre-
Christian days of being under the Mosaic Law with their present status as
believers.
In Romans 6:22, the adverb of time nuni places greater emphasis upon the
present regenerate state of the Roman Christians in contrast to the previous
unregenerate state. This is how it is used in Romans 7:6.
In Romans 6:22, the adverb of time nuni is used in contrast with temporal
conjunction tote, “when” that appears in Romans 6:20, which began a series of
statements in verses 20-21 that describe the Roman Christians’ unregenerate state
prior to becoming Christians. It is used to identify the fact that in verse 22, Paul is
now describing the Roman Christians’ present regenerate state and present
relationship to God and the sin nature.
In Romans 6:22, the adverb of time nuni was used in contrast with temporal
conjunction tote, “when” that appears in Romans 6:20, which began a series of
statements in verses 20-21 that describe the Roman Christians’ unregenerate state
prior to becoming Christians.
Here in Romans 7:6, the adverb of time nuni is used in contrast again with the
temporal conjunction tote, “when” that appears in Romans 7:5.
In Romans 6:22, Paul teaches that the Christians is freed from the tyranny of the
sin nature whereas in Romans 7:6, he is emphasizing that the Christian is now free
from the jurisdiction of the Mosaic Law.
In Romans 6:22, Paul teaches the Roman Christians that they now possess the
benefit of being servants of the Father. Whereas in Romans 7:6 he not only teaches
that they are forever servants of God but that this came about by means of the
extraordinary character and nature of the work produced by the Spirit and never by
observing the letter of the Law.
We will translate nuni, “now…in our present state” in order to reflect the
meaning of the word since it places greater emphasis on the present state than nun
does.

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Romans 7:6, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to
that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and
not in oldness of the letter.”

“We have been released” is the first person plural aorist passive indicative
form of the verb katargeo (katargewv ) (kat-arg-eh-o).

This verb is a compound word composed of the verb argeo, “to be idle, linger,
delay” whose meaning is intensified by the preposition kata, thus the word literally
means, “to reduce to inactivity.”

This is the seventh time that we have seen this verb in the book of Romans. The
word appeared in Romans 3:3.

Romans 3:3, “So then, what if-and let us assume that it’s true for the sake
of argument some did not believe, then will their unbelief render inoperative
God’s faithfulness? No!”

In this passage, the verb’s meaning is negated by the negative particle me (mh)v
(may), “not.” The word does “not” mean, “to cancel,” or “to nullify” since the
word is used in direct relation to a function of one of God’s attributes, which Paul
identifies for us as His “faithfulness.” The word carries the idea of God’s
faithfulness being rendered inoperative.

Paul is saying with this word that the unbelief of some Jews does not render
inoperative the faithfulness of God or in other words, it does not keep Him from
being faithful to His covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to bless the
nation that would descend from them.

Romans 3:31, “Are we then attempting to render useless at the present
time the Law by means of faith? Absolutely not! On the contrary, we do
uphold the Law.”

The verb’s exact meaning in Romans 3:31 can be determined by being aware
that Paul is addressing the purpose of the Law. Also, the meaning of katargeo can
be determined by understanding the meaning of the antithetical verb histemi, which
means, “to establish.” Therefore, the verb katargeo means, “to render useless.”

Thus, Paul is asking, “Do we then render useless the Law?” Paul was accused
of antinomianism by the Judaizers, thus he felt it necessary to present this
rhetorical question.

Katargeo is also found in Romans 4:14.
Romans 4:14, “For, if-and let us assume that it’s true for the sake of
argument, those who by means of obedience to the (Mosaic) Law are, as an
eternal spiritual truth, heirs, then faith is useless and in addition, the promise
is meaningless.”
The verb in this passage is used in relation to the promises of the Abrahamic
covenant and therefore, means, “to render meaningless.” Therefore, the word
denotes that if the promise of inheriting the earth was based upon obedience to the

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Law, then the promise is “meaningless” since a holy God and His holy Law
requires perfect obedience, which sinful mankind has no capacity whatsoever to do
because of the sin nature.

Then, we saw katargeo in Romans 6:6.
Romans 6:6, “This we are very familiar with through instruction, namely,
that our old man was crucified with Him in order that the sinful body would
be deprived of its power with the result that we are no longer in a perpetual
state of being slaves to the sin nature.”
In Romans 6:6, the verb katargeo does “not” mean that the old Adamic sin
nature has been permanently eradicated since that will not take place until the
believer receives his resurrection body (1 Corinthians 15:50-58). Rather, the word
means that the believer’s old Adamic sin nature has been “deprived of its power”
over the believer since it was crucified with Christ in His death, which broke its
power.
Some translate the word “rendered powerless” or “impotent.” However, the old
Adamic sin nature still has the ability to exercise power over the believer since it
will not be permanently eradicated until the believer receives his resurrection body.
Some translate it “rendered inoperative.” However, the old Adamic sin nature is
still in operation in the believer since it resides in the genetic structure of his
physical body. It is more accurate to translate the word as “deprived of its power”
since the crucifixion of the believer’s old Adamic sin nature with Christ has
deprived the sin nature of its power over the believer and gives the believer an
alternative to obeying the sin nature.
In Romans 6:6, Paul is speaking of the ruling power of the sin nature being
“positionally” broken and not “permanently” or “experientially.”
The last instance in which we saw katargeo was in Romans 7:2 where it is used
in relation to the obligations between a Jewish man and woman who have entered
into a marriage contract in accordance with the conditions set forth in the Mosaic
Law.
Romans 7:2, “For example, the married woman is always bound by
contract to the husband while he does live. However, if the husband dies, then
she is, as an eternal spiritual truth, discharged from the contract with respect
to her husband.”
Katargeo is used in Romans 7:2 of a Jewish woman in relation to her husband
and means, “to be discharged in a legal sense” from her marital obligations to her
husband as set forth in the Mosaic Law. Therefore, the word implies that the
marriage contract is “rendered as completely null and void.” It denotes not only the
legal act of releasing a Jewish woman from her legal obligation to her husband
upon his decease but that her obligations to her deceased husband are rendered
legally by the Mosaic Law as completely null and void.

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In Romans 7:6, the verb is used in relation to the Jewish Christian’s relationship
to the Mosaic Law and means, “to be discharged in a legal and moral sense” from
the Law. The verb is used in the context of Paul’s marriage analogy. Therefore,
katargeo implies that just as a Jewish woman’s marriage contract with her husband
is “rendered as completely null and void” once her husband dies so the Jewish
Christians’ relationship to the Law is “rendered as completely null and void” since
he has died to the Law through the death of Christ.

In Romans 7:6, the verb katargeo means that the Jewish Christian is
“discharged in a legal and moral sense” from his obligation as a citizen of Israel to
obey the Law just as a Jewish wife is discharged from her martial obligations to
obey her husband when he dies. Of course, the Jew could not render perfect
obedience to the Mosaic Law, which the Law demanded because of the presence of
the sin nature. Only Jesus Christ rendered perfect obedience to the Law.

James 2:10, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one
point, he has become guilty of all.”

What the Law could not do through sinful mankind, God the Father did through
the Person and Work of His Son on the Cross.

Romans 8:1-8, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are
in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free
from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it
was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the
requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to
the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh
set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the
Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the
mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is
hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not
even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Therefore, the Jewish Christians in Rome Paul says have been discharged from
the Mosaic Law in the sense that they are free from being condemned by the Law
because they could not keep it perfectly. The believer is never saved by keeping
the Law (Galatians 2:21) and he is not under the Law as a rule of life, i.e.,
sacrifice, Sabbath keeping, tithing (Rev. 6:14; Acts 15:5, 24). Therefore, he does
not walk by the Law but by the Spirit, which is the new law for the New Testament
saint (Romans 8:4; Galatians 5:5), which is law of liberty through faith in the
power of God. The believer is dead to the Law (Rom. 7:1-6; Gal. 2:19) by virtue of
his identification with Jesus Christ in His death, who fulfilled the Law.

Christ fulfilled the Ten Commandments by living a perfect and sinless life and
so when man trusts in Christ as his Savior, Christ’s righteousness is imputed to that

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individual so we have justification (Romans 4) resulting in the fact that the Law
can’t condemn us (Romans 8:1; 7:1-6; Romans 5:1; 4:4-8). Christ fulfilled the
ceremonial ordinances, the shadows and types of His person and work, by dying on
the cross for us and in our place, which demonstrated that God was also perfect
justice and sin must be judged, but God provided His Son, the precious Lamb of
God. The penalty, which the Law exercised, was paid in full at the Cross. Again
there is no condemnation because the believer is “in Christ” (Col. 2:14; Romans
3:24-25).

Christ also fulfilled the Social Law, but now He replaces it with a new way of
life fitting to our new salvation. He gives provision for the inner man, namely, the
indwelling Holy Spirit who provides us the capacity to experience sanctification so
that we may experience also the righteousness of the Law (Romans 8:2-4).

Christ is the end of the Law and church believers are not under the Mosaic Law
but under grace (Rom. 6:14). Since the Lord Jesus Christ fulfills the Law by His
person and work at the Cross, church age believers are under a new law, namely,
the obligation to walk by the Spirit of Life through faith in the Word of God
(Romans 8:2-4). If we are led by the Spirit, then we are not under the Law
(Galatians 5:18). Against such, i.e., the fruit of the Spirit, there is no law because
the believer is then operating under the highest law, the standards are met as we
walk by the Holy Spirit and grow in the Word (Gal. 5:22).

The Law demanded perfect obedience, which sinful mankind did not have the
capacity to render, thus the Law served to condemn men. As J. Hampton Keathley
Jr. states, “Like the blood-alcohol test is designed to prove men are drunk, so the
Law is designed to prove men are sinners, under the wrath of God.”

The Law provided a standard of righteousness, not that men could ever attain
such human righteousness, but to demonstrate they are incapable of doing so and
must find a source of righteousness outside themselves. This is the point of all of
the sacrifices of the Old Testament.

When the Law revealed a man’s sin, God provided a way of sacrifice so that a
man would not need to bear the condemnation of God. The Law was never given
to save a man, but to show man that he needed a Savior. The Jews were under the
jurisdiction of the written form of God’s Law whereas as the Gentiles were under
the jurisdiction of the inherent moral code that is written by the Lord Jesus Christ
into the soul of every human being. The Jew was condemned by the written form
of the Law whereas the Gentile was condemned by the inherent form of the Law
written into the soul of every human being and which manifests itself through the
function of the conscience (Romans 2:11-15).

The fact that the Gentiles did not adhere to this inherent law is evidenced by
their sinful conduct recorded by Paul in Romans 1:18-32. Therefore, since the
Gentiles did not obey perfectly the inherent law that was given to the Jews in

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written form in the Ten Commandments of the Mosaic Law brings them under
condemnation just as the Jews.

The Word of God emphatically teaches us that the Law brings a curse since
sinful mankind cannot render perfect obedience to the Law and also because the
Law exposes man’s sinfulness and thus condemns him (Galatians 3:10-12). It
brings death since it is a killer (2 Corinthians 3:6-7; Romans 7:9-10). The Law
brings condemnation (2 Corinthians 3:9), makes offenses abound (Romans 5:10;
7:7-13). It declares all men guilty (Romans 3:19), and holds men in bondage to sin
and death (Galatians 4:3-5, 9, 24; Romans 7:10-14). This is because man possesses
an old Adamic sin nature that can never fulfill the righteousness of the Law,
especially in the spirit of the Law. Therefore, mankind always falls short as
Romans 3:23 tells us, and becomes condemned or guilty before a Holy God
(Romans 3:19).

Sinful mankind could not produce the perfect obedience required by the Law in
order to establish a relationship and fellowship with a holy God. The unbeliever
must first be declared righteous by God through faith in Jesus Christ before God
will approve of their obedience to His Word.

For the believer, his obedience to the Word of God expresses his faith in the
Lord. However, for the unbeliever, his obedience expresses his arrogance in that he
seeks to be accepted by God or establish a relationship with God or be on a par
with God, like Satan, based upon his own merits.

The unbeliever can never have merit with God through obedience to His Word
since God requires perfect obedience in order for a person to be declared righteous
by Him. The unbeliever has no capacity to be perfectly obedient since he is under
the dominion of the sin nature and Satan. The unbeliever can only be accepted by
God or establish a relationship with God based upon the merits of the impeccable
Person of Jesus Christ and His death on the Cross since God will only accept
perfection.

Exercising faith in Jesus Christ expresses the sinner’s acknowledgement that he
has no merit with God and that Jesus Christ does have merit with God and that he
can only be accepted by God based upon the merits of Jesus Christ and His death
on the Cross. After exercising faith in Jesus Christ as Savior, the sinner now has
the capacity to please God through his obedience to His Word since the sinner has
acknowledged he has no merit with God and that he stands before God on the
merits of Jesus Christ and His death on the Cross.

The believer has the capacity to please God with his obedience since he
received at salvation a new nature, the nature of Christ.

Now, we have noted that obedience to God’s Word demonstrates one’s faith in
the Lord. This is true of only the believer and not the unbeliever. The reason that
the unbeliever’s obedience does “not” demonstrate his faith in the Lord is that he is

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seeking to have a relationship with God based upon his own merits rather than the
merits of Jesus Christ. Whereas the believer’s obedience to the Word of God
demonstrates his faith in the Lord since he is not attempting to establish a
relationship with God based upon his own merits but rather has sought to establish
a relationship with God based upon the merits of Jesus Christ and His death on the
Cross. Therefore, obedience to God’s Word demonstrates faith only when the
person has already established a relationship with God based upon the merits of
Jesus Christ and His death on the Cross.

Faith in Jesus Christ means that the sinner is seeking to establish a relationship
with God based upon the merits of Jesus Christ and His death on the Cross. The
object of the sinner’s faith, Jesus Christ has merit with God. When the sinner
exercises faith in Jesus Christ, he is acknowledging that he has no merit with God
and that Christ has all the merit with God. Therefore, God declares the sinner
justified based upon the merits of Jesus Christ and His death on the Cross.

The unregenerate Jews’ efforts to obey the Law were simply an attempt to
establish a relationship with God and be accepted by Him based upon their own
merits. Their attempt to obey the Law was an attempt to be justified by God based
upon their own merits.

Faith in the Lord is an acknowledgment by the sinner that he has no merit and
the Lord has all the merit. Therefore, the sinner’s obedience to the Word of God is
not a demonstration or an expression of his faith in the Lord “until” he has trusted
in the Lord Jesus Christ as His Savior, which is an acknowledgement that he has
no merit with God. Therefore, in Romans 7:6, the Jewish Christian is discharged
from the Mosaic Law in the sense that he is no longer condemned by it because he
could not render the perfect obedience required by the Law.

The first person plural form of the verb katargeo is an “inclusive we.” In
context, it means that it is referring to Paul and his Jewish Christian audience, who
like himself, have been identified with Christ in His physical death through the
baptism of the Holy Spirit as a result of being declared justified by the Father
through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. Remember, in context, Paul is addressing
specifically the Jewish Christians in Rome. However, although he is writing to
them directly, his comments would protect the Gentile Christians who read this
epistle from the Judaizers’ attempts to put them under the Law.

The aorist tense of the verb is a “culminative” or “consummative” aorist tense,
which is used to emphasize the cessation of an act or state. This type of aorist
views an event in its entirety but regarding it from the viewpoint of its existing
results. Therefore, the “culminative” aorist views the Jewish Christian as having
been discharged from his obligations to the Law through his identification with
Christ in His physical death. But, it regards this from the standpoint of its existing
results, which is that they are forever servants of God by the extraordinary

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character and nature of the work produced by the Spirit when they were declared
justified through faith in Christ.

The passive voice means that the sinner who trusts in Jesus Christ as their
Savior as the subject received the action of being discharged from the Law through
their identification with Christ in His physical death by the unexpressed agency of
God the Holy Spirit.

Although the Holy Spirit is not explicitly mentioned as the agency as
identifying the believer with Christ in His physical death, a comparison of Romans
6:4, and 1 Corinthians 12:13 make clear that He was the member of the Trinity that
performed this act.

1 Corinthians 12:13, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to
drink of one Spirit.”

Romans 6:4, “Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism
with respect to His physical death in order that just as Christ was raised from
the dead ones through the glory of the Father, in the same way, we, ourselves
will also walk in the realm of an extraordinary life.”

The indicative mood of the verb is “declarative” presenting this assertion as an
unqualified statement of Bible doctrine.

We will translate katargeo, “we have been discharged.”
Corrected translation thus far of Romans 7:6: “But now in our present state,
we have been discharged…”
Romans 7:6, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to
that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and
not in oldness of the letter.”
“From the Law” is composed of the preposition apo (a)po)v , “from” and the
articular genitive feminine singular form of the noun nomos (nomv o$) (nom-os),
“the Law.”
The articular construction of the noun nomos is “anaphoric” indicating that the
word was used in a previous context, namely, Romans 7:5. The article also
indicates that the word’s meaning in Romans 7:5 is being retained here in Romans
7:6.
Romans 7:5, “For you see, when we were once in a perpetual state of being
in bondage to our flesh, the sinful desires, which were aroused by means of the
Law were perpetually allowed to be operative in the members of our body
resulting in the production of fruit related to spiritual death.”
The fact that nomos in Romans 7:1-6 refers to the Mosaic Law is indicated by
Paul’s parenthetical statement “I am speaking to those who know the Law” in
Romans 7:1. Thus, when he uses the term “Law” he is referring specifically, to the

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Mosaic Law, i.e. the Jewish law and not to an axiom of political justice both
Jewish and Roman.

The context indicates quite clearly that Paul has had the Mosaic Law in mind
since Romans 5:20 and that it has never left his thought process. Paul’s slavery
analogy in Romans 6:15-23 was in response to any false inference that might be
concluded from his teaching in Romans 6:14 that the Christian is no longer under
the Law but under grace. He employs this analogy to illustrate that even though the
Christian is no longer under the Law but under grace this does not give him a
license to sin but rather frees him and obligates him to obey God instead.

Furthermore, the conjunction e, “or” in Romans 7:1 clearly indicates that Paul’s
statements in Romans 7:1-6 are related to his slavery analogy in Roman chapter 6.
His statements in Romans 6:1-14a were motivated by any possible false inference
from his statements in Romans 5:20 that where sin increased, grace abounded all
the more. His statements in Romans 6:15-23 were motivated by any possible false
inference from his statement in Romans 6:14b that the Christian is no longer under
the Law but under grace. Therefore, it is clear from the context that the Mosaic
Law has never left Paul’s mind.

Also, the articular construction of nomos in Romans 7:5 signifies that this
particular law would be “well-known” to Paul’s Jewish readership since their
parents taught them the Law and they were taught it by their rabbis in their
synagogues.

In Romans 7:6, the preposition apo is a marker of separation and dissociation
and the noun nomos functions as a “genitive of separation” in which the genitive
substantive is that from which the verb or sometimes the head noun is separated
indicating point of departure. Thus, the noun nomos functions as a “genitive” or
“ablative of separation” indicating that upon the Jewish Christian was discharged
“totally and completely separated from” his obligation to the Mosaic Law and its
condemnation.

We will translate the prepositional phrase apo tou nomou, “from the Law.”
Corrected translation thus far of Romans 7:6: “But now in our present state,
we have been discharged from the Law…”
Romans 7:6, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to
that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and
not in oldness of the letter.”
“Having died” is the nominative masculine plural aorist active participle form
of the verb apothnesko (a)poqnhsv| kw) (ap-oth-nace-ko), which refers to “retroactive
positional truth.”
“Retroactive positional truth” refers to the fact that when Christ died physically
on the Cross, God considers the believer to have died with Him as well through the
baptism of the Holy Spirit. Paul is speaking of the believer’s identification with

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Christ in His physical death and not His spiritual death since in context Paul is
speaking of the Jewish believer being dead to the Mosaic Law.

Christ died physically in order to deprive the indwelling sin nature its power
over the justified sinner (Romans 6:6). He also died physically in order to
discharge the Jewish sinner from the condemnation of the Law and his
responsibilities to it to render perfect obedience, which the Jew and no human
except Jesus Christ was able to do. Our Lord was raised from the dead to
permanently eradicate the indwelling sin nature.

Our Lord died spiritually to deal with the consequences of the sinner possessing
a sin nature and being spiritually dead as well as for the consequences of the sinner
committing personal sins, which perpetuated their status of being spiritually dead.
Therefore, Paul is speaking in the context of the believer’s identification with
Christ in His physical death and not His spiritual death.

In Romans 7:6, the verb apothnesko denotes that the Jewish Christian is no
longer under the authority and dominion of the Mosaic Law because he died with
Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

“Retroactive positional truth” is one of two different aspects related to
“positional sanctification” the other being “current” positional truth. The former
means that when Christ died on the Cross, God views the justified sinner as having
died with Christ as well. The latter means that when Christ was raised from the
dead, God views the justified sinners as having been raised from the dead with
Christ. Both are accomplished through the baptism of the Spirit.

The first person plural form of the verb is an “inclusive we” referring to Paul
and his Jewish Christian audience, who like himself, have been identified with
Christ in His physical death through the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a result of
being declared justified by the Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ

The aorist tense of the verb is a “culminative” or “consummative” aorist tense,
which is used to emphasize the cessation of an act or state. This type of aorist again
views an event in its entirety but regarding it from the viewpoint of its existing
results. Therefore, the “culminative” aorist views the justified Jewish sinner as
having died with Christ two thousand years ago through the baptism of the Holy
Spirit the moment they exercised faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior. But regards it
from the standpoint of its existing results, which is that the Jewish Christian is
discharged from his responsibilities to the Law.

The active voice denotes that the subject, the Jewish Christian, produces the
action of the verb of having died with Christ through the baptism of the Spirit. This
emphasizes that the Jewish Christians died with Christ through the baptism of the
Holy Spirit, the moment they exercised faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.

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The participle form of the verb apothnesko is a “result” participle, which is used
to indicate the actual outcome or result of the action of the main verb. The main
verb in our passage is katargeo, “we have been discharged.”

The participle of result will “follow” in word order the main verb, which is the
case here in Romans 7:6.

Now, some interpret apothnesko in Romans 7:6 as a “causal participle.”
However, the “causal” participle normally, it “precedes” the verb it modifies. In
Romans 7:6, the verb apothnesko follows the main verb katargeo. Thus, making it
unlikely, that apothnesko is functioning as a “causal participle.” Therefore, as a
participle of “result,” apothnesko indicates that the Jewish Christians in Rome
were discharged from the Mosaic Law in the sense of being condemned by it “as a
result of” or “subsequent to” having died to it through their identification with
Christ in His physical death.

We will translate apothnesko, “as a result of having died.”
Corrected translation thus far of Romans 7:6: “But now in our present state,
we have been discharged from the Law as a result of having died…”
Romans 7:6, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to
that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and
not in oldness of the letter.”
“That by which” is composed of the preposition en (e)n) and the dative
masculine singular form of the relative pronoun hos (o$^ ) (hos).
The preposition en functions as a marker of an area of activity which bears
some relation to something else. The object of the preposition en is the relative
pronoun hos, which agrees in gender and number with its antecedent. Its
antecedent is the masculine singular form of the noun nomos, “the Law,” which as
we noted refers to the Mosaic Law.
The word functions as a “dative of association,” which occurs when the dative
substantive is that in reference to which something is presented as true. It is
employed with the verb apothnesko, “as a result of having died.” Therefore, the
relative pronoun hos as a “dative of association” means that the Mosaic Law is that
in reference to which the Jewish Christian are dead to, is presented as true.
Therefore, the prepositional phrase en ho indicates that the Jewish Christians in
Rome had died “in relation to” or “with respect to” the Mosaic Law as a result of
being identified with Christ in His physical death through the baptism of the Holy
Spirit. We will translate the prepositional phrase en ho, “with respect to that
which.”
Corrected translation thus far of Romans 7:6: “But now in our present state,
we have been discharged from the Law as a result of having died with respect
to that which…”

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Romans 7:6, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to
that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and
not in oldness of the letter.”

“We were bound” is the first person plural imperfect passive indicative form of
the verb katecho (katexv w) (kat-ekh-o), which is a compound word that is
composed of the verb echo, “to have, hold, possess” whose meaning is intensifies
by the preposition kata, thus word literally means, “to hold fast, to possess.”

In Romans 7:6, the verb refers to being “bound” to the Mosaic Law in a legal
and moral sense. In order to understand the meaning of this verb we must
understand the context in which it is used. Therefore, we saw in Romans 7:1 that
Paul poses a rhetorical question to the Jewish Christians in Rome and asks if they
are ignorant of the fact that the Mosaic Law has jurisdiction over a person as along
as he lives.

Romans 7:1, “Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those
who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he
lives?”

Then, in Romans 7:2, Paul presents the principle found in the Mosaic Law that
a woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives but if he dies, she is
discharged from her marriage contract with her husband.

Romans 7:2, “For the married woman is bound by law to her husband
while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law
concerning the husband.”

Paul teaches in Romans 7:3 that if a Jewish woman’s husband dies, then she is
not an adulteress if she remarries.

Romans 7:3, “So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to
another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is
free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to
another man.”

In Romans 7:4, Paul teaches that in the same way that a Jewish wife is
discharged from the marriage contract with her deceased husband and free to
marry another so the Christian has been discharged from the Law and was married
to Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 7:4, “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the
Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to
Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for
God.”

Next, in Romans 7:5, Paul taught the Roman believers that prior to their
conversion to Christianity, when they were in bondage to the sin nature, the sinful
passions of their sin natures produced personal sin as a result of their permitting
these desires to be operative in their human bodies.

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Romans 7:5, “For you see, when we were once in a perpetual state of being
in bondage to our flesh, the sinful desires, which were aroused by means of the
Law were perpetually allowed to be operative in the members of our body
resulting in the production of fruit related to spiritual death.”

Up to this point in our study of Romans 7:6, the apostle Paul has taught that the
Jewish Christians in their present regenerate in contrast to their previous
unregenerate state have been discharged from the Law as a result of having died to
the Law through the death of Christ.

Corrected translation thus far of Romans 7:6: “But now in our present state,
we have been discharged from the Law as a result of having died with respect
to that which…”

Therefore, in Romans 7:6, the verb katecho means, “to be bound” to the Law in
the sense of being morally and legally obligated to it just as a Jewish wife is bound
to her husband legally and morally. It refers to the fact that prior to their
conversion to Christianity, the Jewish Christians were bound legally and morally to
the Mosaic Law. However, through their identification with Christ in His death,
they have been discharged from their marriage to the Law or their obligations to
obey the Law just as a Jewish wife is free from her marital obligations to her
husband when he dies.

Some interpreters contend that the verb means, “to hold in bondage” or “to hold
captive” since they view Paul using the verb in the context of his slavery analogy.
However, Paul is presenting a marriage analogy in order to illustrate that the
Jewish Christian is no longer bound in a legal and moral sense to the Law just as a
Jewish wife is no longer bound legally and morally to her husband when he dies.

There is no bondage or captivity in view here. That would be reading too much
into the meaning of the verb or actually interpreting katecho as saying something
that the author never intended.

The first person plural form of the verb is an “inclusive we” referring to Paul
and his Jewish Christian audience, who like himself, have been identified with
Christ in His physical death through the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a result of
being declared justified by the Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.

Again, Paul is identifying with his Jewish Christian readers. Also, even though
he is writing to them directly, his statement would protect the Gentile Christians
from the Judaizers’ who sought to put the Gentiles under the Law.

The imperfect tense of the verb is a “stative customary imperfect,” which refers
to an ongoing state that continued for some time in the past. Therefore, it denotes
that in their unregenerate state, the Jewish Christians in Rome existed in the
“perpetual” or “ongoing” of being bound legally and morally to the Mosaic Law.

The passive voice of the verb means that the subject receives the action of the
verb from either an expressed or unexpressed agency. Therefore, the passive voice

©2008 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 39

means that the Jewish Christians in Rome as the subject receive the action of being
bound by an expressed agency, which is identified as being the Mosaic Law by the
prepositional phrase en ho, “with respect to that which.”

The indicative mood of the verb katecho is “declarative” presenting the
assertion that the Jewish Christians in Rome were bound in a legal and moral sense
to the Law in their unregenerate state as an unqualified statement of Bible doctrine.

We will translate the verb, “we were once in a perpetual state of being
bound.”

Corrected translation thus far of Romans 7:6: “But now in our present state,
we have been discharged from the Law as a result of having died with respect
to that which we were once in a perpetual state of being bound…”

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Romans 7:6b-The Jewish Christian Is Forever A Servant Of God By The
Extraordinary Work Of The Spirit And Never By The Useless Observance
The Letter Of The Law

Corrected translation thus far of Romans 7:6: “But now in our present state,
we have been discharged from the Law as a result of having died with respect
to that which we were once in a perpetual state of being bound…”

Romans 7:6, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to
that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and
not in oldness of the letter.”

“So that” is the conjunction hoste (ws% te) (hoce-teh), which is employed with
the infinitive form of the verb douleuo, “serve” and functions as a marker of result
introducing a dependent adverbial result clause.

The conjunction hoste plus the infinitive is the most frequent structure for a
result infinitive. This result clause presents the “actual” result of the Jewish
Christians in Rome having died with respect to the Mosaic Law through their
identification with Christ in His physical death. We will translate hoste,
“Consequently.”

Corrected translation thus far of Romans 7:6: “But now in our present state,
we have been discharged from the Law as a result of having died with respect
to that which we were once in a perpetual state of being bound.
Consequently…”

Romans 7:6, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to
that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and
not in oldness of the letter.”

“We” is the accusative first person plural form of the personal pronoun hemeis
(hm( ei$~ ), which refers to Paul and his fellow Jewish Christian readers since in
context in Romans 7:1, Paul makes clear that he is addressing them.

The word refers to Paul and his fellow Jewish Christian readers, who like
himself, are sinners and have been declared justified by God through faith in Jesus
Christ. The word functions semantically as the subject of the infinitive douleuo.
We will translate hemeis, “we.”

Corrected translation thus far of Romans 7:6: “But now in our present state,
we have been discharged from the Law as a result of having died with respect
to that which we were once in a perpetual state of being bound. Consequently
we…”

Romans 7:6, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to
that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and
not in oldness of the letter.”

©2008 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 41

“Serve” is the present active infinitive form of the verb douleuo (douleuwv )
(dool-yoo-o), which refers to the status or the condition of a servant of God, thus it
denotes the Jewish Christian’s “position” of being a servant of God.

The douleuo word group refers to the status or the condition of a slave or the
attitude of one whereas the douloo word group refers to “enslaving” someone,” or
“to make another or oneself a slave.”

Douleuo refers to carrying out the duties of a slave, or to the relationship
between a slave and his master. The verb douleuo to the Greeks of the ancient
world meant to be a slave to someone. It meant to perform the duties of a slave.

The verb also meant to serve, to be subject to someone. It could also mean to
make oneself a slave to one’s land. It also meant to render service.

The Septuagint attests to extensive use of douleuo, usually as an equivalent of
the Hebrew `avadh (dbu), “serve,” or one of its derivatives. The verb douleuo is
the most usual Septuagint word to describe worship in relation of God and man
(Jdg. 2:7; 2 Ch. 30:8).

The emphasis of the words with the doul- stem lies on the service being that of
a slave, i.e., on a repressive or at least dependent form of service under the
complete control of a superior.

In the Greek world and in Hellenism the word group has, because of the high
evaluation of personal freedom, almost exclusively a demeaning, scornful
significance. On this basis and because God was not considered the absolute Lord,
the word group plays no role in the religious realm.

A totally different understanding is expressed in the Old Testament and in
Judaism: God is the absolute Lord. The individual knows he is dependent on God.
To be chosen by God, to be able to serve Him, is not demeaning; on the contrary, it
is an honor.

In Gnostic dualism the word group serves to express slavery to matter and to
the world powers.

The verb douleuo appears 27 times in the Greek New Testament.
Alfons Weiser commenting on the verb’s usage in the New Testament, states
that “Douleuo is used of relationship: to be a slave, to be subjugated, John 8:33;
Acts 7:7; Rom. 9:12; 1 Tim. 6:2. As a designation of conduct it means to do the
work of a slave, serve: Matt. 6:24 par. Luke 16:13; Luke 15:29; Eph. 6:7...douleuo
expresses the serving which people exercise toward the following ruling powers: to
God as the absolute Lord: Matt. 6:24 par. Luke; 1 Thess. 1:9; Jesus Christ as Lord:
Acts 20:19; Rom. 12:11; 14:18; 16:18; Eph. 6:7; Col. 3:24; 7:6 to the law of God:
Rom. 7:25; to the gospel: Phil. 2:2; to the idols: Gal. 4:8 f.; to sin: Rom. 6:6; 7:25;
to the desires: Titus 3:3; of people to each other: a son to his father, Luke 15:29;
service to each other in love, Gal. 5:13. Douleuo appears in an allegorical sense for

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the condition of Israel as that which rejects the realm of the sovereignty of Christ:
Gal. 4:25” (Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament volume 1, page 350).

The New Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon lists two categorical usages for the
verb (page 157): (1) prop. to be a slave, serve, do service (2) metaph. to obey,
submit to (a) in a good sense: absol. to yield obedience, to obey one’s commands
and render to him the services due (b) in a bad sense, of those who become slaves
to some base power, to yield to, give one’s self up to

Bauer, Gingrich and Danker list the following NT usages (A Greek-English
Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature page 205): (1)
of relationship be a slave, be subjected (2) of action or conduct perform the duties
of a slave, serve, obey.

Louw and Nida list the following New Testament meanings (Greek-English
Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains volume 1): (1) to be a
slave of someone - ‘to be a slave’ (page 741) (2) to be under the control of some
influence and to serve the interests of such - ‘to be a slave to, to be controlled by’
(page 475). (3) to serve, normally in a humble manner and in response to the
demands or commands of others - ‘to serve’ (page 461).

Moulton lists the following New Testament meanings (The Analytical Greek
Lexicon Revised page 107): (1) to be a slave or servant; to be in slavery or
subjection (2) to discharge the duties of a slave or servant (3) to serve, be occupied
in the service of, be devoted, subservient (4) metaphorically, to be enthralled,
involved in a slavish service, spiritually or morally.

The word means, “to fulfill the duties of a slave, for whom there was no choice
either as to the kind and length of his service.”

In Romans 6:6, the verb douleuo means, “to become a slave to another” and is
used with reference to the justified sinner’s relationship with his old Adamic sin
nature and its meaning is negated by the adverb meketi, “no longer.” Therefore, it
means that the believer no longer needs to be a slave to his old Adamic sin nature
and subject himself or yield himself to its desires since his old Adamic sin nature
was crucified with Christ and has thus been deprived of its power over his life. He
now has the capacity to reject being a slave to the desires of the sin nature and the
alternative now to reject its desires.

In Romans 6:6, the verb douleuo was “personifying” the noun hamartia, “sin”
as a cruel master or tyrant over the sinner.

Romans 6:6, “This we are very familiar with through instruction, namely,
that our old man was crucified with Him in order that the sinful body would
be deprived of its power with the result that we are no longer in a perpetual
state of being slaves to the sin nature.”

In Romans 7:6, the verb douleuo refers to Paul’s Jewish Christian readers’
status or the condition of being servants of God. It emphasizes their “position” of

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being a servant of God rather than their experience since Paul is contrasting the
Jewish Christians’ former position of being married to the Mosaic Law with that of
their new position in Christ as servants of Christ and the Father.

Paul does not employ the verb douloo but rather douleuo. The former
emphasizes the “act” of being made a slave whereas the latter emphasizes the
“relationship” between the slave and the master and the “position” of being a slave.
Therefore, Paul chooses douleuo here because he wants to emphasize the
“position” that the Jewish Christians in Rome possess and all Christians for that
matter of being slaves of God. It emphasizes their “relationship” to God.

In Romans 7:6, the infinitive form of the verb is employed with the conjunction
hoste, “with the result that” in order to function as an “infinitive of actual result.”
An “infinitive of result” indicates the outcome produced by the controlling verb,
which in our context is katargeo, “we have been discharged.” It is similar to the
infinitive of purpose, which is used to indicate the purpose or the goal of its
controlling verb.

The infinitive of purpose puts an emphasis on intention, which may or may not
culminate in the desired result while the infinitive of result places emphasis on
effect, which may or may not have been intended.

In Romans 7:6, the verb functions as an “infinitive of result” emphasizing the
“effect” of the Jewish Christians in Rome being discharged from the Law through
their identification with Christ in His physical death. He is not emphasizing God’s
purpose since Paul is emphasizing with the Jewish Christians in Rome what God
has already done for them through the baptism of the Spirit.

We must remember that in Romans 7:1-6, Paul is writing to the Roman
believers regarding positional truth or in other words, what God has already done
for them in identifying them with Christ in His death and resurrection through the
baptism of the Holy Spirit. One of the results of God the Holy Spirit identifying the
Jewish Christians in Rome with Christ in His physical death is that they are now,
in a “positional” sense, servants of God who serve in newness of the Spirit rather
than the oldness of the letter of the Law. Therefore, it is incorrect to translate the
word “serve” as the New American Standard does because the verb douleuo is not
emphasizing the “act” of serving God but simply the “position” that the Christians
in Rome possess.

By “positional” I mean what God has done for them through the baptism of the
Spirit in identifying them with Christ in His physical death and that this is now
God’s viewpoint of the Christian. Paul is emphasizing their position as servants of
God in contrast with their former position being married to the Law since they are
now under a new rule of life, which he presents in Romans chapter eight, namely,
the Spirit of life.

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Romans 8:1-4, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are
in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free
from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it
was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the
requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to
the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

The verb douleuo in Romans 7:6 is an infinitive of “actual” result. “Actual”
result is indicated in the context as having occurred whereas “natural” result is
what is assumed to take place at a time subsequent to that indicated in the context.
Clearly, Paul is speaking with reference to his Jewish Christians readers’ present
regenerate status or current position in Christ in contrast to their unregenerate
condition. Thus, he is speaking as to what has already taken place among the
Jewish Christians in Rome through the baptism of the Spirit the moment they were
declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior. Therefore, the
infinitive of “actual” result is in view indicating what has already taken place
among the Jewish Christians in Rome through the baptism of the Spirit.

The active voice meaning is “stative” meaning that the subject exists in the state
indicating by the verb. The subject is Paul and his fellow Christians. Therefore, the
active voice indicates that Paul and his fellow Jewish Christians “exist in the state
of being” servants of God.

The present tense of the verb is “customary” or “stative” present signifying an
“ongoing state” or “unbroken process.” This indicates that Paul and his fellow
Jewish Christians in Rome “forever” exist in a state of being slaves to God.

The present tense is also a “gnomic” present indicating that it is an “eternal
spiritual truth” that the Jewish Christians in Rome are forever slaves to God.

We will translate douleuo, “are, as an eternal spiritual truth, forever slaves.”
Corrected translation thus far of Romans 7:6: “But now in our present state,
we have been discharged from the Law as a result of having died with respect
to that which we were once in a perpetual state of being bound. Consequently,
we are, as an eternal spiritual truth, forever slaves…”
This section of Romans 7:6 is “elliptical” meaning that Paul deliberately omits
the articular dative masculine singular form of the noun theos (qeo$v ), “God,”
which refers to the first member of the Trinity, God the Father although it is
implied.
The articular construction of the noun theos also signifies theos refers to God
the Father since it is used in contrast to the Son, Jesus Christ. Also, the articular
construction is commonly used to indicate that theos is a reference to the Father.
The noun functions as “dative of advantage” meaning that producing fruit or the
character of Christ in the Christian’s life “benefits” the Father.

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We will translate the articular dative form of theos, “for the benefit of God the
Father.”

Corrected translation thus far of Romans 7:6: “But now in our present state,
we have been discharged from the Law as a result of having died with respect
to that which we were once in a perpetual state of being bound. Consequently,
we are, as an eternal spiritual truth, forever slaves for the benefit of God the
Father…”

Romans 7:6, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to
that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and
not in oldness of the letter.”

“In newness” is composed of the preposition en (e)n), “in” and the dative
feminine singular form of the noun kainotes (kainotv h$) (kahee-not-ace),
“newness.”

The noun kainotes appeared in Romans 6:4.
Romans 6:4, “Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism
with respect to His physical death in order that just as Christ was raised from
the dead ones through the glory of the Father, in the same way, we, ourselves
will also walk in the realm of an extraordinary life.”
The noun kainotes belongs to a word group that principally denotes “that which
is new in nature and essence, that which is superior to the old.” There is a
distinction between this word and neos, which emphasizes newness in time. Thus,
in Romans 6:4, this word denotes that eternal life is “new in nature and essence” to
the believer’s life prior to trusting in Christ as Savior and is “superior to the old”
manner in which he lived prior to salvation.
The word kainotes denotes the “extraordinary” character and nature of this life
since it is the very life of God, which has no beginning and no end since God is an
ever present now. Thus, the implication of this word is that this life of God, which
the believer can now live in, “transcends” time, matter and space.
This word has the implication that this life is “superior” to the life under the
tyranny of the sin nature and spiritual death.
In Romans 6:4, the noun zoe functions as an “attributed genitive,” which means
that the head noun kainotes rather than the genitive functions in sense as an
attributive adjective. In this construction, you can convert the noun to which it
stands related into a mere adjective.
In Romans 6:4, kainotes stands related to the noun zoe and can be converted to
an adjective. The word functions as the object of the preposition en functions as a
“marker of sphere” and the noun zoe as a “locative of sphere” signifying the
believer walking “in the sphere of” an extraordinary life, which is eternal life.
In Romans 6:4, Paul is saying that since the believer has been identified with
Christ in His death, he has entered into a new sphere or realm of existence that is

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extraordinary and transcendent and superior to the old way of living under the
dominion of the sin nature and spiritual death.

Now, in Romans 7:6, we see once again the noun kainotes used as the object of
the preposition en but this time its adjunct is the genitive form of the noun pneuma,
which as we will note refers to the work of the Holy Spirit on behalf of the sinner
who is declared justified by the Father the moment they trust in Jesus Christ.

The word is modifying the noun pneuma and is used in a double contrast with
noun palaiotes, “oldness,” which modifies the noun gramma, “letter” a reference
to the Mosaic Law. It is a “double” contrast because pneuma is contrasted with
gramma and kainotes with palaiotes.

As was the case in Romans 6:6, here in Romans 7:6, the noun kainotes
principally denotes “that which is new in nature and essence, that which is superior
to the old.”

The word is functioning as an adjective describing pneuma since the latter
functions as an “attributed genitive” meaning that the head noun kainotes is
functioning in sense as an attributive adjective.

The noun pneuma contains the figure of “metonymy” where the Spirit is put for
the work of the Spirit on behalf of Paul and his fellow Jewish Christians the
moment they were declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Therefore, in Romans 7:6, the noun kainotes describes the work of the Holy Spirit
on behalf of the Jewish Christians the moment they were declared justified through
faith in Christ as “extraordinary in its character and nature.”

The preposition en functions as a “marker of means,” which is used to indicate
the means or instrument by which the verbal action is accomplished. Therefore, it
indicates that the extraordinary work of the Holy Spirit was “the means by which”
Paul and his fellow Jewish Christians in Rome forever became slaves of God.

In Romans 7:6, Paul is saying that as a result of being identified with Christ in
His death, Paul and his fellow Jewish Christians in Rome are forever servants of
God by means of the extraordinary character and nature of the work produced by
the Holy Spirit the moment they were declared justified through faith in Christ. He
goes on to state that it was never accomplished by means of observing the letter of
the Law.

We will translate the prepositional phrase en kainoteti, “by means of the
extraordinary.”

Corrected translation thus far of Romans 7:6: “But now in our present state,
we have been discharged from the Law as a result of having died with respect
to that which we were once in a perpetual state of being bound. Consequently,
we are, as an eternal spiritual truth, forever slaves for the benefit of God the
Father by means of the extraordinary…”

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Romans 7:6, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to
that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and
not in oldness of the letter.”

“Of the Spirit” is the genitive neuter singular form of the noun pneuma
(pneum~ a), which refers to the Holy Spirit.

This is only the second reference to the Holy Spirit up to this point in the
Roman epistle. The first time that Paul mentioned the Holy Spirit was in Romans
5:5.

Romans 5:5, “In fact, this confidence, as an eternal spiritual truth, never
disappoints because God’s love is always being poured out within our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who was given to us for our benefit.”

The Greek term pneuma is derived from the root pneu-, “breath, wind.” The
verbal noun pneuma denotes the dynamic movement of air. It means the elemental
natural and vital force which, matter and process in one, acts as a stream of air in
the blowing of the wind and the inhaling and exhaling of breath. Hence, this
elemental natural and vital force is transferred as the breath of the spirit which, in a
way may be detected both outwardly and inwardly, fills with inspiration and grips
with enthusiasm.

Whether visibly or not there resides in the word an effective and directed power
which it owes not so much to the –ma, but rather to the basic idea of energy
contained in the root pneu-. This finds cosmologically representative expression in
Plato (Phaed. 112b) when in the myth about the constitution of the earth movement
of the wind and the process of breathing are compared.

From this there are logically developed and expanded the various occasional
uses and nuances, both literally and figuratively according to the sphere or context
of reality. Within these the force of pneuma may be seen in its varied nature and
strength.

The noun pneuma denotes the result of the result of the dynamic movement of
air or air set in motion. It was considered by the Greeks as a special substance and
with an underlying stress on its inherent power.

When it first occurred (no proven instances before the pre-Socratic school) it
therefore meant wind or breath, but it increasingly took on the functions of related
concepts, so that by the Hellenistic period it was a term of some importance,
though still with a somewhat materialistic connotation. The air that men breathe
was considered to be the bearer of life (thus to discontinue breath means to die,
Aeschylus (Pers. 507).

From the 5th century onward Greek physicians developed a physiology based
on this and soon drew a distinction between man’s inward, innate pneuma and the
air he breathed. In Aristotle this pneuma was the formative power which, from the

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embryo onwards, gradually produced the mature individual and then, in the case of
man, became the instrument whereby the soul controlled the body.

Already, therefore, it was approaching the meaning held by psuche, the
distinction being that the latter was a purely functional term, while pneuma was
regarded as a substance. In Stoic philosophy, however, pneuma took over the
function of psuche in relation to the senses and to thought and speech (some Stoic
philosophers even came to identify it with nous, the specifically human power of
intellect). Stoicism also regarded it as an elemental principle which gave coherence
to the different entities in creation, while at the same time differentiating them one
from another. Thus, as an ethereal, fire-like, extremely fine-textured substance, it
arranged the world in terms of a descending scale, without which the world’s very
existence would have been an impossibility.

In its purely ethereal form it was the Logos or God; as spiritual fire it was the
soul of man; as physical pneuma it fashioned the plants, and as “habitual” pneuma
it gave coherence to inanimate objects. Hence, it came to be regarded as the 5th
element (or “quintessence”), having already been used, instead of “air”, as one of
the 4 elements.

Probably under Stoic influence, Plutarch and several others abandoned the
widely used functional term epipnoia (afflatus), which had formed the basis of
Plato’s theory concerning the various types of ecstatic inspiration (Phdr. 244 ff.; cf.
265b). In its place, and in obvious dependence upon Plato, they used pneuma to
denote inspiration, regarding it as a material substance which filled a man and
enabled him to prophesy. This prophetic pneuma was considered in turn to be
“enthusiastic”, played in popular religion (always given to magic and soothsaying).

In the so called Mithras Liturgy (ed. A. Dieterich, Eine Mithrasliturgie, 19233,
4, 14, 21) it appears among the four elements, being described as “holy” and
“immortal” and as elevating its recipient above mortal nature, probably by analogy
with prophetic ecstasy.

Finally, it is found in the sense of “spirit”, “demon”, in Hellenistic inscriptions
and papyri (also in later writers, e.g. Iamblischus, De Mysteriis 2, 3, 10).

There is certainly Near Eastern influence here, and possibly some Jewish
influence.

Hermann Kleinknecht lists the following meanings for pneuma (Theological
Dictionary of the New Testament volume 6, pages 335-339): (1) Wind: the breath
of wind in its movement as a blowing force and also according to its distinctive
invisibly rarefied materiality as an element. (2) Breath: the breath which, again
both process and matter, is either inhaled or exhaled in breathing, or medically, in
distinction from aer as outside air, the “gas” or “flatulence” which circulates inside
the organism. (3) Life: breath may be discerned only in movement, and it is also a
sign, condition and agent of life, which seems to be especially tied up with

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breathing. (4) Soul: takes on the meaning of psuche, “soul” and by virtue of its
related character as the breath or principle of life. (5) Spirit: metaphorically of the
blowing of the wind or breathing express corresponding experiences of mental or
spiritual activity and a transferred sense of any kind of breath or spirit which blows
in interpersonal relations or from the invisible world of the divine. (6) Inspiration:
a breath which inspires, stirs, enthuses and fills. (7) Speech: technical term for
lofty speech in ancient rhetoric and literary aesthetics and denotes the expressive
and captivating flow of the orator or poet from whom the onrushing “breath” or
poetry or address comes forth neither physically, spiritually, nor technically. (8)
Power: Used by the Stoics of a cosmic and universal power or substance and used
linguistically for the being and manifestation of deity itself. (9) God:
transcendentally spiritualized, and hypostatized and personified as an independent,
personally living and active cosmological and soteriological Spirit or God, whether
of supreme or lower rank. (10) Demonic spirits: supernatural spirits or
intermediaries, whether good or evil which inhabit the air they do good or harm by
means of the demonic magical power which emanates from them and with which
the magician or prophet must fill himself or his object if he is to be able to carry
out his practices, whose supreme goal is the deifying and immortality of the
initiate.

There is no instance of the concept of a pneuma hagion (Holy Spirit) in secular
Greek. In spite of Stoicism, pneuma has only slight and secondary significance in
Greek thought as a whole.

The constitutive factor of pneuma in the Greek world is always its subtle and
powerful corporeality. Because of its material character it is never spiritual in the
strict sense, as in the Greek New Testament. It is never wholly outside the realm of
sense.

Whether in terms of Aristotelian noeticism, modern idealism or the NT
understanding, it is never set in antithesis to matter as the supernatural, wonder-
working spiritual gift or manifestation of a transcendent personal God. Where all
have pneuma, it is a vital force, immanent and impersonal. As a mode or action of
the air, it constantly indwells the organism of the cosmos in all its parts.

Both essence and instrument, in its purest and most rarefied form as a substance
of the soul it can be the seat and agent of the higher intellectual and spiritual
functions. But unlike psuche, phronesis, logos or nous, it cannot be the true subject
of these.

The noetic concept of spirit and the epistemology of the Greeks (except in Ps.
Plat. Ax., 370c) are orientated to and developed around, not the pragmatic
experience of pneuma, but that of the light of day which rises upon the world. Only
Stoic monism consistently predicates as pneuma the essence and efficacious power
of deity inasmuch as this permeates the universe, giving it life and unity.

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