Romans 7:5-7
1599 Geneva Bible
5 [a]For when we [b]were in the flesh, the [c]affections of sins, which were by the [d]law, had [e]force in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death,
6 But now we are delivered from the Law, he [f]being dead [g]in whom we were [h]holden, that we should serve in [i]newness of Spirit, and not in the oldness of the [j]letter.
7 [k]What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? God forbid. Nay, I knew not sin, but by the Law: for I had not known [l]lust, except the Law had said, (A)Thou shalt not lust.
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- Romans 7:5 A declaration of the former saying: for the concupiscences (saith he) which the law stirred up in us, were in us as it were an husband, of whom we brought forth very deadly and cursed children. But now since that husband is dead, and so consequently being delivered from the force of that killing law, we have passed into the governance of the spirit, so that we bring forth now, not those rotten and dead, but lively children.
- Romans 7:5 When we were in the state of the first marriage, which he calleth in the next verse following the oldness of the letter.
- Romans 7:5 The motions that egged us to sin, which show their force even in our minds.
- Romans 7:5 He saith not, of the law, but by the law, because they spring of sin which dwelleth within us, and take occasion to work thus in us, by reason of the restraint that the law maketh, not that the fault is in the law, but in ourselves.
- Romans 7:5 Wrought their strength.
- Romans 7:6 As if he said, The bond which bound us, is dead, and vanished away, insomuch, that sin which held us, hath not now wherewith to hold us.
- Romans 7:6 For this husband is within us.
- Romans 7:6 Satan is an unjust possessor, for he brought us in bondage of sin and himself deceitfully: and yet notwithstanding so long as we are sinners, we sin willingly.
- Romans 7:6 As becometh them, which after the death of their old husband are joined to the spirit: as whom the spirit of God hath made new men.
- Romans 7:6 By the letter he meaneth the law, in respect of that old condition: for before that our will be framed by the holy Ghost, the law speaketh but to deaf men, and therefore it is dumb and dead to us, as touching the fulfilling of it.
- Romans 7:7 An objection: what then? are the law and sin all one, and do they agree together? nay, saith he: Sin is reproved and condemned by the law. But because sin cannot abide to be reproved, and was not in a manner felt until it was provoked and stirred up by the law, it taketh occasion thereby to be more outrageous, and yet by no fault of the law.
- Romans 7:7 By the word, Lust, in this place he meaneth not evil lusts themselves, but the fountain from whence they spring: for the very heathen philosophers themselves condemned wicked lusts, though somewhat darkly, but as for the fountain of them, they could not so much as suspect it, and yet it is the very seat of the natural and unclean spot and filth.
Geneva Bible, 1599 Edition. Published by Tolle Lege Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles, reviews, and broadcasts.
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