Romans 7:9-11 - Exposition

For I was alive without (or, apart from ) law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived (or, sprang into life ) , and I died. And the commandment, which was unto life, this I found to be unto death, For sin, taking occasion, through the commandment deceived me, and through it slew me . If, in saying, "I was alive once," the writer is at all remembering his own experience, the reference may be to the time of the innocence of childhood, before he had any distinct consciousness of the behests of law. Or it may be that he is only imagining a possible state without any consciousness of law, so as to bring out more forcibly the operation of law. On the general drift of Romans 7:9 , Calvin says tersely, "Mors peccati vita est hominis: rursum vita peccati mors hominis." In Romans 7:11 the conception of sin's action is the same as in Romans 7:8 ; but the verb now used is ἐξηπάτησε , with obvious reference to Eve's temptation, which is regarded as representing ours (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:3 ). The view of the origin of human sin presented to us in Genesis is that man at first lived at peace with God; but that the command ment," Thou shalt not eat of it, lest thou die," was taken advantage of by the "serpent" (answering to personified ἁμαρτία in the passage before us), inspiring sinful lust; and that so the commandment ( i.e. law ), though in itself holy, became the occasion of sin, and of death as its consequence; and further, that all this came about through delusion ( ἐξηπάτησε ). The thing desired was not really good for man; but the ἐπιθυμία inspired by the tempter caused it to seem so. One great purpose of regenerating grace is to dispel this delusion; to bring us back to the true view of things as they are, and so to peace with God. Thus, in part, does the apostle teach us to regard the inscrutable mystery of sin, and the remedy for it in Christ.