Romans 7:1 Know you not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law, how that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?

Paul is pointing out in this chapter that when of higher consciousness, that is, 'in Christ', one is dead to the law; what law? read the chapter and follow the links you feel you should.

Romans 7:2 For the woman which has an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he lives, but if the husband be dead.(can also mean metaphorical death), she is loosed from the law of her husband..(*)

Romans 7:3 So then if, while her husband lives, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

Romans 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

Romans 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law.(the law showed not where mercy was but where condemnation was:.John 1:17; Romans 8:2; Hebrews 7:19).by the body of Christ.(*), that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

Romans 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

Romans 7:5 For when we were in the flesh.(the law of sin & death), the motions of sins.(the world is in you evidenced by actions one takes; it's talking about a law of the flesh.{law of the flesh is the ego level of relating to others and to life, a way that keeps people on an overall dark pathway}.wherein the motions of sin {motions are actions; what is sin?} were harbored), which were by the law.(what law produced negative results in our lives?.Romans 8:2), did work in our members.('work in our members' is the effect our actions had upon us regarding our future thinking and actions; we walked here, we drove there, we took a plane where, we typed this, we wrote that, all the things we did for reasons of the ego).to bring forth fruit unto death.(the Mosaic Law was to show us the evils of our normal natures bathed in the low consciousness of the mass mind:.Romans 6:23; Romans 8:8; but they don't separate us from God's love, only from becoming and being as He is in character, which is being of His high consciousness, which takes us out of the result most people experience in their lives, death).

Romans 7:6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

Romans 7:6 But now we are delivered.(original 'removed from', 'apart from', 'away from', severed from').from the law.(Paul here and with verse 5, equates law with the flesh; law has nothing to do with the spiritual heart, only regulation of the physical:.Romans 8:9), that being dead.(dead because, really, how much good did the way we were locked into, as it were, ever do to enliven us spiritually? That required Christ:.Colossians 3:3).wherein we were held.(didn't know of a better way, blinded and unknowingly on the ego pathway of death being cut off from the Soul by the ego); that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

Galatians 3:26.

Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law. For I had not known lust, except the law had said, You shall not covet.

Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid.(the law, speaking of the Old Testament law, called the Mosaic Law, wasn't wrong; it was just wholly inadequate in things dealing with the higher consciousness spiritual things of life, as it was focused on physical obebience, because the people, not being a spiritual people as yet, couldn't and didn't want anything to do with it:.Jeremiah 44:16,17. They had no heart for all that stuff. And so it was done away with. The principles are still good to apply both to a physical society.and beyond:.Romans 3:20 and.*). Nay, I had not known sin (1Corinthians 10:6), but by the law. For I had not known lust, except the law had said, You shall not covet.

This is the law (Exodus 20:17) for those in the ego level so they can become aware of those motivations in life they have taken for granted but which nevertheless cause the world they have made for themselves:.Romans 13:10).

Romans 7:8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment.(see previous verse; if we don't know something can affect us one way, we are generally.curious to find out once we hear about it), wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

So now, we are without the law of rules and regulations and sin is dead. As far as God is concerned sin no longer counts.

The law of these rules and regulations were to show us that something else was needed:.Romans 8:1-10; 1Corinthians 15:22; Ephesians 2:10,13; Philippians 2:5; 3:3,14.

Romans 7:9 For I was alive without the law once but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.

Romans 7:9 For I was alive without the law once.(just like us today not realizing that we are in the grips of the ego level when we live our lives getting by as best we can with the knowledge we have acquired along the way).but when the commandment came.(something had to show us that a better way is available; what commandment was this? the commandment didn't show up delivered to his door like a letter, it came to his mind, he became illumined, became a new individual, came to see by becoming convicted that his normal way of living was off track), sin revived.(he saw clearly his nature which was so off base from being spiritual).and I died."

Paul realized it was the normal nature of the uneducated consciousness we all came with that made us subject to dark side influences and that he needed to learn how to move away from that way of death:.Colossians 3:3.

Romans 7:10 And the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

1Peter 2:11.

He found it to be to death because it showed how enveloped he was in ego (which is death based) living.

Romans 7:10.

Romans 7:11 For sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and by it slew me.

Romans 7:11 For sin.(sin is us missing the mark of happiness in life).taking occasion by the commandment.(this was the commandment that he came to understand to be of a higher standard than what the ego standard was).deceived me and by it slew me."

The ego is our established way of relating to life and feels fear when threatened by anything it interprets as unsafe to its selfish ways.

Romans 7:12.Wherefore the law is holy.(what law is Paul talking of here, not the abolished Mosaic Law which was a curse in itself {Galatians 3:10-14}, but this law:.Romans 8:2; this is the law that cuts the bonds to the old consciousness ways).and the commandment holy and just and good.

The Old Testament Mosaic was abolished:.Galatians 3:24,25. Why?.Hebrews 10:9. So this is talking about what law Paul here knew was now good. What law was that? Being brought up with the natures that we now use and not knowing any better way, we have come to realize that the ego was our only lifeline to daily living. We know we deserve something better but how to find that elusive 'something' we just can't put our finger on? So, God helps! And the kingdom of God, that kingdom of all good is now dawning upon the entire physical world.

Romans 7:13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

Romans 7:13 Was then that which is good made death unto me.(because he knew what was the good way, but had trouble making what he knew to be true in his heart a reality in his daily life)? God forbid. But sin that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good.(the light in him was illuminating the darkness in him), that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

Seeing the darkness in himself more clearly now, he saw just how terrible it really was.

Romans 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual. But I am carnal, sold under sin.

Romans 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual.(this was the law of love and its correlates, because the Old Testament Mosaic Law was not the law Paul was here talking about; why? The Old Testament law had to go, in order to make way for something far better:.Hebrew 7:12,19,22; 7:28; 8:6; John 1:17; Romans 8:2; Galatians 3:19; {*}; what was better?.Matthew 22:36-40). But I.(Paul).am carnal, sold under sin.

Romans 7:15 For that which I do I allow not, for what I would, that do I not, but what I hate that do I.

Romans 7:15 For that which I do I allow not.(I don't really understand nor approve of why I am the way that I am and why it is that how I want to be, I have such a hard time being that way), for what I would, that do I not, but what I hate that do I.

We don't want to be the way that has contributed problems to our life, but it takes effort to escape the grasp of our selfish 'pleasure for me' egos. One has to believe in a better way for all. David Straight's advice to help people afflicted with PTSD, can be helpful here.

Romans 7:16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law.(verse 14 just above shows what law) that it is good.

Romans 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin.(the natural way of humanity leads him down a river of no return, no return that is, until he reunites with his soul and grows spiritually thereby).that dwells in me.

Romans 7:18 For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing.(he came to see what living from the ego level, the natural human natures we have is all about), for to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not.

Paul understands that something better is needed consistently;. How to get it.

Romans 7:19 For the good that I would I do not. But the evil which I would not, that I do.

Romans 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.

Romans 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.

Paul recognized that there is a spiritual man developing and a self-centered tempted man that is dying.(*), that his real heart was to love God, that though he still had sin (don't we all and what is sin?), he knew that he was a new creation in and by Christ:.1Corinthians 15:22,31,36; Ephesians 2:10; Romans 8:2.

Romans 7:21 I find then a law that when I would do good evil is present with me.

Romans 7:21 I find then a law.(the law of ordinary consciousness and what was that?.Romans 8:2).that when I would do good evil is present with me.

Paul here came to see that he was in a prison. The ego feeds the mass mind.thus giving power to the evil in the collective consciousness:.2Timothy 3:13; Ecclesiastes 9:3:."...the heart of the sons of men is full of evil and madness is in their heart while they live and after that they go to the dead."

The end result of the ego life is death:.Genesis 3:19 "...dust you are and unto dust shall you return."

Romans 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the.inward man.(*).

The inward man is the subconscious, out of which comes our lives, how we act and what comes to us in life; the subconscious can be affected for bringing eternal life or, by default, living one's life from an ego consciousness.

Romans 7:23 But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Romans 7:23 But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind.('the law in my members' is the human nature he and us was born with, our natural human nature, that of selfishness {the all for me advantage}, greed and the other things of the ordinary consciousness of man; the law of his mind was what Paul decided was the way he now wanted to live and that was the way of love, the way of high consciousness; the 'law of sin' equates to the 'law in his members').and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Our egos are why we all are so concerned about the physicality of daily life:.Matthew 6:33. The ego of each of us deems the things of true spirituality as useless for its purposes of selfishness. The ego has no interest in escaping the idols of avarice and worldly gain:.Luke 16:13. It has to believe in a better way for that to happen.

Romans 7:24 O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Paul realizes that the ego has him in a prison delivering him to death; it's just the way the human nature is.

Romans 7:25 I thank God through Emmanuel the Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

Romans 7:25 I thank God.(thank God for what? what's he thanking God for after explaining his conundrum in verses 14-25? this).through Emmanuel the Christ our Lord.(Paul found the answer). So then with the mind I myself.(his soul).serve the law of God.(his heart was for reality, the higher consciousness things of the Infinite One), but with the flesh the law of sin.

Paul's daily living was still being overridden by the ordinary consciousness ego level, example..Paul.sees that the way out is of the mind being in higher consciousness and that the ego will always be with him in the physical, so reconciling the opposites is key. Similar to how to help those in PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Paul sees that one needs always to be on the alert for his own ego ways cropping up. It was always a choice to make regarding what was in front of him in his daily life. Paul finally found the way out.

The question to use in choicemaking?

....continues to Chapter 8

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