Audio commentary on this verse

Note 1 at Rom. 7:7: Remember that in context, the sin that is being spoken of here is not an individual act of sin but rather the sin nature that compelled us to sin (see note 9 at Rom. 5:21, p. 775). Paul is saying, "Is it the law that compelled us to sin?" The answer to this is no.

Paul had just spoken of being "loosed from", "free from", "dead to", and "delivered from" the law (see note 11 at Rom. 7:6, p. 786). Now Paul is clarifying his statements so that someone doesn't think that he is saying that the law is the thing that drove us to sin. The law of God simply made clear to us that we already had a depraved nature. When the law said, "thou shalt not covet", that commandment didn't make covetousness come, but it made the lust that was already present revive (v.9), and strengthened it (1 Cor. 15:56), so that we could not be deceived any longer into thinking that we could produce salvation on our own (see note 4 at Rom. 3:19, p. 757).

God's commandments are holy, just, and good (v. 12), but man apart from God is sinful. Therefore, it was impossible that a revelation of God's true standards could change our nature; only the new birth can do that. The law simply stripped our sinful nature of its disguise so that we could properly assess how bad the situation was.

Note 2 at Rom. 7:7: As explained in note 2 at Romans 1:18, page 744, there is an intuitive knowledge of right and wrong inside every person. How does that harmonize with Paul's statement here? The answer is that the law brought sin into focus.

Every person has an intuitive picture of what sin is but the hardness of our hearts caused this image to become blurred. Once the law comes to an individual, all blindness is removed and it is very clear what God's standard of right and wrong is.