Romans 7:5 - Arno Geneva Study Bible

Bible Comments

(3) For when we (e) were in the flesh, the (f) motions of sins, which were by the (g) law, did (h) work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

(3) A declaration of the former saying: for he says that the fleshly desires which the law stirred up in us were in us as if they were a husband, from whom we brought forth very deadly and cursed children: but now that husband is dead, and so consequently, being delivered from the force of that killing law, we have passed into the control of the Spirit, so that we bring forth now, not those rotten and dead children, but rather living children.

(e) When we were in the state of the first marriage, which he calls in the following verse the oldness of the letter.

(f) The motions that urged us to sin, which show their force even in our minds.

(g) He does not say "of the law" but "by the law", because they spring from sin which dwells within us, and take occasion to work in us in this way, by reason of the restraint that the law makes, not that the fault is in the law, but in ourselves. (h) Worked by their strength.

Romans 7:5

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