Editor’s note - Today I am doing something a bit different in the study. I am going to include the actual study notes by the Puritan readers of the Geneva Translation. It never ceases to amaze me how the Word of God, is always consistent in it’s message. So dear member be prepared for a long study today.
15 For I allow not that which I do: for what I
would, that do I not: but what I hate, that do I. (a)
20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I
that do it, but the sin that dwelleth in me.
21 I find then that when I would do good, I am
thus yoked, that evil is present with me. (b)
22 For I delight in the Law of God, concerning
the inner man. (c)
23 But I see another Law in my members, rebelling
against the law of my 1mind, and leading me captive
unto the law of sin, which is in my members. (d)
24 O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death! (e)
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Then I myself in my mind serve the Law of God,
but in my flesh the law of sin. (f)
(a) 7:15 1 He setteth himself, being regenerate, before us, for an example,
in whom may easily appear the strife of the Spirit and the flesh, and
therefore of the Law of God, and our wickedness. For since that the
Law in a man not regenerate bringeth forth death only, therefore in
him it may easily be accused: but seeing that in a man which is regenerate,
it bringeth forth good fruit, it doth better appear that evil actions
proceed not from the Law, but from sin, that is, from our corrupt nature:
And therefore the Apostle teacheth also, what the true use of the Law
is, in reproving sin in the regenerate, unto the end of the chapter, as
a little before (to wit, from the seventh verse unto this fifteenth) he
declared the use of it in them which are not regenerate.
2 The deeds of my life, saith he, answer not, nay they are contrary
to my will: Therefore by the consent of my will with the Law, and
repugnancy with the deeds of my life, it appeareth evidently, that the
Law and a right ruled do persuade one thing, but corruption which
hath her seat also in the regenerate, another thing.
3 It is to be noted, that one selfsame man is said to will and not to will,
in divers respects: to wit, he is said to will, in that, that he is regenerate
by grace: and not to will, in that, that he is not regenerate, or in that, that
he is such an one as he was born. But because the part which is regenerate,
at length becometh conqueror, therefore Paul sustaining the part
of the regenerate, speaketh in such sort as if the corruption which sinneth
willingly, were something without a man: although afterward he
granteth that this evil is in his flesh, or in his members.
(b) 7:21 1 The conclusion: As the Law of God exhorteth to goodness,
so doth the Law of sin (that is, the corruption wherein we are born)
force us to wickedness: but the Spirit, that is, our mind, in that that it
is regenerate, consenteth with the Law of God: but the flesh, that is,
the whole natural man, is bondslave to the Law of sin. Therefore to
be short, wickedness and death are not of the Law, but of sin, which
reigneth in them that are not regenerate: for they neither will, nor do
good, but will, and do evil: But in them that are regenerate, it striveth
against the Spirit or law of the mind, so that they cannot either live so
well as they would, or be so void of sin as they would.
(c) 7:22 1 The inner man, and the new man are all one, and are answerable
and set as contrary to the old man: neither doth this word, Inner
man, signify man’s mind and reason, and the old man, the powers
that are under them, as the Philosophers imagine, but by the outward
man is meant whatsoever is either without or within a man, from top
to toe, so long as that man is not born anew by the grace of God.
(d) 7:23 1 The law of the mind in this place, is not to be understood of
the mind as it is naturally, and as our mind is from our birth, but of the
mind which is renewed by the Spirit of God.
(e) 7:24 1 It is a miserable thing to be yet in part subject to sin, which
of its own nature maketh us guilty of death: but we must cry to the
Lord, who will by death itself at length make us conquerors as we are
already conquerors in Christ.
2 Wearied with miserable and continual conflict.
(f) 7:25 1 He recovereth himself, and showeth us that he resteth only
in Christ.
2 This is the true perfection of them that are born anew, to confess
that they are imperfect.
Additional related study scriptureJob 15:16;
Psalm 1:1-2;
Psalm 112:1;
Psalm 128:1;
Isaiah 64:6;
Zechariah 3:4;
Romans 6:13, 19;
Romans 7:19;
1 Corinthians 15:51-52, 57;
2 Corinthians 4:16;
Ephesians 3:16;
Galatians 5:17;
1 Peter 3:4;
