Romans · 25 verses
Romans 7
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
A commandment meant to bring life becomes the instrument of death, while sin turns what is good into its opportunity.
Released from the old bondvv. 1–6
The law’s authority is compared to marriage: a woman is bound to her husband while he lives, but his death releases her. The comparison then takes an abrupt turn, as those addressed are said to have died to the law through Christ’s body and now belong to the One raised from the dead. The old way has given way to service in the new way of the Spirit.
The good commandment and its sinister opportunityvv. 7–13
The law is not sin; indeed, it makes sin recognisable, even naming coveting. Yet sin seizes that commandment as an opportunity, produces every kind of covetous desire, deceives the speaker, and puts him to death. The commandment remains holy, righteous, and good—the very goodness of it exposes how utterly sinful sin has become.
The divided speakervv. 14–25
The law is spiritual, but the speaker is unspiritual and sold as a slave to sin. Desire and action part company: the good remains wanted, the hated deed keeps appearing, and sin is described as living in him and doing it. The inner being delights in God’s law while another law wages war in the body. A cry for rescue is answered with thanks through Jesus Christ, though the final sentence leaves both services standing: the mind serves God’s law, and the flesh serves sin.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Rom 7:1Do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives?
Rom 7:2For instance, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.
Rom 7:3So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.
Rom 7:4Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.
Rom 7:5For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death.
Rom 7:6But now, having died to what bound us, we have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
Rom 7:7What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”
Rom 7:8But sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, sin is dead.
Rom 7:9Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
Rom 7:10So I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought death.
Rom 7:11For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death.
Rom 7:12So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.
Rom 7:13Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Certainly not! But in order that sin might be exposed as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
Rom 7:14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
Rom 7:15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.
Rom 7:16And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good.
Rom 7:17In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Rom 7:18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
Rom 7:19For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do.
Rom 7:20And if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Rom 7:21So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
Rom 7:22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.
Rom 7:23But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me.
Rom 7:24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Rom 7:25Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 419 passages were voted onto 25 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 15Galatians 5:17For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want.
- 2Genesis 2:23–24And the man said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of man she was taken.”
- 41 Peter 2:24He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.”
- 3Exodus 20:14You shall not commit adultery.
- 4Galatians 5:22–23But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
- 4Isaiah 54:5For your husband is your Maker—the LORD of Hosts is His name—the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; He is called the God of all the earth.
- 22Psalms 1:2But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night.
- 22Psalms 119:35Direct me in the path of Your commandments, for there I find delight.
- 21 Corinthians 7:4The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife.
- 6Galatians 3:23–25Before this faith came, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.
- 15Romans 7:19–20For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do.
- 22Psalms 119:47–48I delight in Your commandments because I love them.
- 21 Corinthians 7:39A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, as long as he belongs to the Lord.
- 62 Corinthians 3:6And He has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
- 15Ecclesiastes 7:20Surely there is no righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
- 22Job 23:12I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread.
Onward