Romans 7:16 NLT,NIV,ESV

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Romans 7:16

I consent unto the law - The very struggle with evil shows that it is not loved, or approved, but that the Law which condemns it is really loved. Christians may here find a test of their piety. The fact of struggling against evil, the desire to be free from it, and to overcome it, the anxiety and grief which it causes, is an evidence that we do not love it, and that there. fore we are the friends of God. Perhaps nothing can be a more decisive test of piety than a long-continued and painful... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Romans 7:16-17

Romans 7:16-17. If then I do that which I would not, &c. In willing not to do it, I do so far, though to my own condemnation, consent to the law, and bear my testimony to it that it is good And do indeed desire to fulfil it; though when temptations assault me, contrary to my resolution, I fail in my practice. This is an inference from the former verse, the obvious sense of which is, that men, even in an unconverted state, approve of the law of God: they see its propriety and equity,... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Romans 7:1-25

The law cannot help (7:1-25)Through Christ, believers have not only died to sin, they have died to the law also, which means that their lives are now different. Paul gives an example. If a husband dies, the wife is no longer bound to him and is free to marry again. Likewise believers have died to the law so that the bond between them and the law is broken. However, they have been raised to new life and are now united to another, the living Christ (7:1-4). Formerly, they found that the more the... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Romans 7:16

If . . . not = But if what I do not wish, this I do. If . App-118 . consent . Greek. sumphemi. Only here. read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Romans 7:16

But if what I would not, that I do, I consent unto the law that it is good.This is an appeal to the conscience as a witness that God's law is holy and good, as affirmed in Romans 7:12. When people violate God's law, the inevitable feelings of guilt are sufficient evidence that the law is spiritual and holy. Hodge made the consent mentioned in this verse, the consent that the law is good, to be the ground of supposing the person in view was a Christian; but Paul had already revealed that even... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Romans 7:16

16. If then I do that which I would not—"But if what I would not that I do," I consent unto the law that it is good—"the judgment of my inner man going along with the law." read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Romans 7:13-25

3. The law’s inability 7:13-25In Romans 7:13-25 Paul continued to describe his personal struggle with sin but with mounting intensity. The forces of external law and internal sin (i.e., his sinful nature) conflicted. He found no deliverance from this conflict except through the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 7:25). Many students of this passage, including myself, believe what Paul was describing here was his own personal struggle as a Christian to obey the law and so overcome the promptings of his... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Romans 7:16

The apostle’s attitude toward the Law was not the reason for his dilemma. read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Romans 7:1-25

The Inadequacy of the Law to save1-6. St. Paul had spoken of the Law in a way which would offend an earnest Jew: cp. Romans 3:20-21; Romans 4:15; Romans 5:20. In this chapter (Romans 7:7-25) he shows that the Law is divine in its character and beneficent in its work, but unable to free a man from the power of sin. Indeed, though not the cause, it is the occasion of sin. But first, in Romans 5:1-6, the statement in Romans 6:14, that Christians are not under law, is enforced and explained. Law... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Romans 7:14-25

(14-25) Further and detailed proof why it was that though the Law appealed to all that was best in man, still he could not obey it. read more