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.
Was then that which is good made, х gegonen (G1096)] - 'Has then that which is good become.' But the true reading evidently is, 'Did then that which is good become' х egeneto (G1096)]
Death unto me? God forbid - q.d., 'Does the blame of my death, then, lie with the good law? Away with such a thought.'
But sin (became death unto me) (to the end), that it might appear sin - a rare and pregnant expression, meaning, 'that it might be seen in its true light,' in all its naked deformity,
Working death in (rather, 'to') me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful, х kath (G2596) huperboleen (G5236) hamartoolos (G268)] - 'that its enormous turpitude might stand out to view, through its turning God's holy, just, and good law into a provocative to the very thing which it forbids.
So much for the law in relation to the unregenerate, of whom the apostle takes himself as the example-first, in his ignorant, self-satisfied condition; next, under humbling discoveries of his inability to keep the law, through inward contrariety to it; finally, as self-condemned, and already, in law, a dead man. Some inquire to what period of his recorded history these circumstances relate. But there is no reason to think they were worked into such conscious and explicit discovery at any period of his history before he "saw the Lord in the way;" and though, "amidst the multitude of his thoughts within him" during his memorable three days' blindness immediately after that, such views of the law and of himself would doubtless be tossed up and down until they took shape much as they are here described (see Acts 9:9), we regard this whole description of his inward struggles and progress rather as the finished result of all his past recollections and subsequent reflections on his unregenerate state-which he throws into historical form only for greater vividness. As indwelling sin was too powerful for the law to control while wewere under it, so our subjection to the law even in our regenerate state is due, not to the law itself, but wholly to the gracious renovation of our inner man (Romans 7:14-25)
We have observed that while the apostle speaks in his own person from Romans 7:7 to the end of the chapter, he speaks in the past tense down to the end of Romans 7:13, and thereafter, from Romans 7:14 to the end of the chapter, in the present tense. We believe that this forms the key to the true sense of those two much controverted divisions of the chapter respectively; Romans 7:7-13 depicting his unregenerate state and experience, while in Romans 7:14 to end we have a vivid picture of what he felt and how he acted in his renewed character. The best evidence of this will be found, not in any single verse or isolated statement in this portion, but in the whole strain of it, to which we request very careful attention.