Romans Chapter 7: Dead to the Law.
I speak to those who know the law.
Here Paul is addressing proselytes [when Paul preached in Antioch in a Synagogue he did so among both Jews and Gentiles [proselytes- Converts to Judasim] “So when the Jews went out of the Synagogue the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them next Sabbath” Acts 13:42. Paul through this epistle speaks of the Jews in a third person. Neither was he known to the Jewish community in Rome, [though this sect [branch] was evil spoken of [ Acts 28:21-22].
Paul uses an analogy of Marriage to make his point. [Expressing the covenant of the law through which Israel was married to God.]That you have to be free from one in order to to belong to the other. As such one married to the Law has to die to the law through the body of Christ [which is the fulfilment of the law] that he might be married to the One who is raised to life that you should bear fruit to God. This he expresses in two states of being, in conjunction of service to God [worship of God]:
Two states of being:
- In the flesh: Sinful passions awakened by [The Law] were working in our body bearing fruit to death.
- In the Spirit: Now we are freed [made exempt] from the law and having died to what we were held by [sin] so we serve in the newness of the Spirit and not the old way of the letter.
We are made exempt from the law by first being delivered from sin. Since the law is given to the lawless. If we being in sin therefore lawless have need of the law. However, having died to Sin [sinful passion described ] through Christ Jesus and are made new, we have no need of the Law but are in the Spirit. Therefore we offer worship to God in newness of Spirit and no longer through the Law.
In the following discourse Paul answers questions for the one who has laboured under the law.
Question: Is the law sin? if we need to die to it and be delivered from it?
No: If it was not for the law, I would not have known sin. The sinful acts I committed in ignorance, resulting in death though not imputed. The law exposed the sinful nature that has always been present with me. But I did not recognise it to be so. What I deemed to be a normal aspect of my nature was revealed to be sin through the law. Since I have always practiced covetousness, but now I know that to be sin therefore wrong. Sin taking opportunity [of the law] produced in me all manners of evil desires — apart from the law sin was dead.
I was alive once without the law [since sin is not counted [not imputed] where there is no law] – but when the commandment came sin revived and I died. How is it considered alive? Were the Gentiles who do not have the law considered alive? Since it is written, “those outside the law will perish without law and those under the law will be judged by the law.?”
I was alive in the sense, that I was free from the judgment of the law. Since, sin is not imputed apart from the law. Yet, I was forever estranged from God because of the sinful nature that resided within me. When the law came, sin revived: because in my nature I was not able to do the law, therefore I died. Sin through the law killed me, by bringing judgment upon me. Therefore those outside the law, were estranged from God, yet free from the law and those under the Law, were brought near to God through the law but were under its judgment.
The commandment [law] which was meant to bring life, brought death to me. Though I was once free from the judgment of the Law but when the commandment came sin was imputed and it became alive. Now I know sin I died, SIN using the very law intensified my sinful nature and killed me by the judgment of the law. For the law did not enable me to perform its precepts, but only to reveal what is wrong: “through the law is knowledge of sin.” The law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good.
Question: So, what is good become death to me? did I die through what is good?
No. But for the exposing of sin; that sin might appear as sin. Sin Itself was working through the law to produce death in me. That SIN through the commandment might be exceedingly sinful [the more the law specified what is good: the more transgressions abounded]. For the Law is spiritual but I am carnal [of the flesh] sold under sin [under its domain]. Here, Paul contrast the law vs the old flesh nature to expose the working of sin within us.
The Flesh Nature [Ruled by Sin]: Conflict within, “What I will, I do not do, but the evil I hate, that I keep doing.” If I know and agree the law is good but I find myself doing the very thing I object to and hate THEN it is not me as in my conscience who do it but another nature [SIN] that is present within me. [SIN is Exposed, through the Law]. In my flesh nothing good dwells: to will is present within me but how to perform that is good I do not find.
The law of the mind: [knowing what is good and agreeing with the law of God: “even gentiles who do not have the law know what is good by nature” Against the law at work in my body [the law of sin] to which I am a captive slave. A slave have no power or say, except to be subject to the one who rules.
So then with my mind I serve the law of God but with my flesh the law of sin. My mind knowing what is good and agreeing with the law of God but sold as a slave to sin in my flesh to do its lust. That is the sinful nature knowing the Law of God: While speaking to gentiles speaks of in remembrance of the things done in the body to which you are now ashamed. To those who know the Law: he speaks of knowing the good and perfect will of God yet falling to do them.
Therefore, Paul is not addressing the struggles of a saved person, but expressing the state from which a person [who knows the law] was delivered from. That is deliverance from the body of death in Christ Jesus. And he explains [the why and the hows] questions such a person might have for labouring under the law only to be delivered from it.
Bread Bait. 
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