Romans 7

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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? ✦ 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. ✦ 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, even if she marries another man. ✦ 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. ✦ 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. ✦ 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. ✦ 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.” ✦ ⁸But sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, sin is dead. ✦ ⁹Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. ✦ ¹⁰So I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought death. ✦ ¹¹For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death. ✦ ¹²So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. ✦ 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. ✦ ¹⁴We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. ✦ ¹⁵I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do. ✦ ¹⁶And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good. ✦ ¹⁷In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. ✦ 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. ✦ ¹⁹For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do. ✦ 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. ✦ ²¹So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ✦ ²²For in my inner being I delight in God’s law. ✦ 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. ✦ ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ✦ 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. ✦

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Where this chapter connects

Rom 7 ·45 Ps 119 ·41 Rom 6 ·23 Rom 8 ·11 Gal 5 ·11 Matt 5 ·7 Gal 3 ·7 Phil 3 ·6

Christ at the center

Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.

How Romans 7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereVideoBibleProject — video overviews & word studiesBibleProject · 5–10 min · Free · evangelical
Free animated overviews of every book of the Bible, plus themes and Hebrew/Greek word studies — the best visual on-ramp to any book. (Biblical-theology, broadly evangelical, not distinctly Reformed.)
★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.
VideoMike Winger — BibleThinkerMike Winger · Free · reformed
Free verse-by-verse studies through whole books plus careful apologetics — "learn to think biblically about everything." (Reformed-leaning, non-denominational.)

Pastoral

★ Start hereSermonMLJ Trust — Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermonsMartyn Lloyd-Jones · Free · reformed
1,600+ free sermons from "the Doctor," including landmark verse-by-verse series (Romans, John, Ephesians, Acts) — a gold standard of expository preaching.
SermonGrace to You — John MacArthurJohn MacArthur · Free · reformed
Decades of careful verse-by-verse expository sermons, especially through the New Testament. (MacArthur, d. 2025; archive remains free.)
SermonGospel in Life — Tim KellerTim Keller · Free · reformed
Tim Keller's gospel-centered preaching — sermons stream free (the complete downloadable archive is paid).
ArticleRecommended NT commentaries (9Marks / Schreiner)Thomas R. Schreiner · Free · reformed
A trusted pastor-oriented guide to the best commentary on each New Testament book.
SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.
VideoVerse By Verse Ministry InternationalVerse By Verse Ministry Int'l · Free · evangelical
In-depth, verse-by-verse expository teaching book-by-book — strong for working straight through a whole New Testament book.
VideoLook at the Book — John PiperJohn Piper · Free · reformed
Watch Piper trace the logic of a passage phrase by phrase on screen — a model of close reading.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Romans videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Romans 7YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Romans 7David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on RomansMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Romans 7Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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