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Finding life and freedom, parts 1 and 2

Lynne Baab • Thursday March 26 2026

Finding life and freedom, parts 1 and 2

Overall theme for the next few months: God’s law is love

Lesson 6: Finding life and freedom, parts 1 and 2 (Romans 7:1-25)

Key verse: Now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit. Romans 7:6.

Stepping into the Word

Think back on your childhood. Can you remember moments when you felt ornery? When your parents or teachers asked you to do something, you did the exact opposite. Perhaps you knew that what they were asking was the best thing to do. Perhaps only a part of you agreed with them, but another part of you just couldn’t bring yourself to obey. That feisty, bad tempered, noisy part of you had such a strong voice, and you simply had to disobey.

People who struggle with addictions are familiar with this sense of having a divided self. One part of the mind or heart wants to do the healthy thing, but another part simply has to engage in the addictive behavior. Even people who do not view themselves as addicts can at times find themselves bemused by their tendency to do things that they really don’t want to do, actions that they know are unhealthy for themselves or for those they love. We are frail humans with many clamorous voices inside us.

Romans 7:15-18 is one of the most comforting passages in the Bible for those who are aware of their tendency to do the very thing they know isn’t good for them: “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. . . . I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.” The apostle Paul argues that the divisions we experience in our inner being are caused by sin at work within us. We are attracted to the purity of God’s law, but the sin active within us pulls us in another direction. Praise God that Jesus has delivered us from the power of sin. Praise God that Jesus’s teaching in the Gospels, as well as the many letters in the New Testament, help us figure out how to live in freedom from sin.

Jesus our liberator, continue your process of freeing us from counterproductive forces. Through your Holy Spirit dwelling in us, cleanse us and transform us so that we can live as whole beings and embrace your values.

No longer bound

Paul begins Romans 7 with an analogy drawn from marriage. Wedding vows are no longer binding after the death of a spouse, and in the same way Christians are no longer bound to obey God’s law, as described in the Old Testament, after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Before knowing Christ, we lived our old lives “in the flesh,” but now we experience “the new life of the Spirit” (v. 6). The Greek word used for “flesh” here (sarx) is not the same as the Greek word for body (soma). Paul is not proposing a dualistic view of life, where the body is evil and the spirit is good. Instead, he is using the phrase “in the flesh” (sarx) as a way to describe living in slavery to sin. Elsewhere, Paul speaks of the “physical body,” which will be transformed into a “spiritual body” at the final resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:44), and soma is used in that verse for both kinds of bodies.

Paul argues that “if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin” (Romans 7:7). He is not saying that the law is the source of sin. Instead, the law is “holy,” and God’s commands are “holy and just and good” (v. 12). God’s law acts like a spotlight, illuminating our feelings, thoughts, and actions. The law enables us to look inside at our motives and decisions. Therefore, without the law, we would not have known what sin is. Sin working in us is the source of the disobedience, and sin works death through the good commandment (v. 13). Paul argues that in saying that we do not do what we want (that is, keeping God’s law) we are admitting that the law is good (v. 16). Again, the law is not the problem in itself; it is sin that keeps us from being able to keep the law. A part of us recognizes the goodness in God’s commands, but sin working within us urges us to disobey.

When Paul uses the first person “I,” he speaks not only of his own situation, but of the universal plight we all experience. This tension between good and evil is thus found within each individual. “With my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin” (v. 25). Paul’s question, “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (v. 24) finds its answer in the next verse: “Jesus Christ our Lord!” (v. 25).

In what ways do you resonate with the idea of being or having been a slave to sin? In what ways do you resist that idea?

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Next week: Finding life and freedom, parts 3 and 4. Illustration by Dave Baab:

Previous posts about freedom:

This lesson appeared in the Fall 2023 edition of The Present Word adult Bible study curriculum published by the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Used with permission.

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