themuzicman
Well-known member
7:1 Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. 3 So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.
4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
First, we have to take note that this is for any who are under the law. We might interpret this to be referring to the Jews, but we could also look at Romans 2 and that all are under the law in one way or another.
Second, if we look carefully at verse 5, we find that is isn't the flesh that causes sin, but rather the flesh when exposed to law aroused sinful passions. It would seem that Paul isn't making the case that the flesh itself is inherently corrupted, but rather that the flesh is corrupted by the presence of law.
If we go back to verse 4, we see that dying is the key to being released from the law, just as in verse 6, when we live according to the Spirit, we are released from what corrupts the flesh.
And if we keep reading, we see the same ideas:
7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.
Notice that it is the presence of the law that creates the atmosphere of sin.
9 Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
Notice that Paul was once alive apart from the law. But then the presence of law came, and then the flesh was corrupted with sinful passions.
Yes, this flesh, this human nature is passed from person to person by birth, but the presence of law is continuous, and when one becomes aware of law, then sinful passions come.
This is how Paul can state that all die because we sinned, even though law (and as a result death) entered the world through Adam.
15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Once we understand this idea that it is flesh plus law that brings corruption, we can better understand this passage, where we do desire to do good, but the combination of flesh and law brings sinful passions, and we sin.
And from these things, we have the corruption of the mind in adopting the patterns of the world.
This is why, in Romans 12, Paul instructs us:
12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Faith in Christ should result in the renewing of our minds, as Christ has freed us from the law which brings sin through His death. (Which is one reason Christ had to die for us, so we could be free from the law, see Romans 6.)
So, the nature of the human being isn't corrupted in the sense that it needs to be repaired, but rather it is corrupted because of the presence of law, and the presences of law and the resulting sinful passions created worldly and sinful patterns in our minds. Thus, the solution is for Christ to die, not only so we can be justified before God, but as a corollary, we become dead to the law, and once we are free from the law, to renew our minds to conform to God's ways, and as we are freed from the law and become Christ like, the flesh is freed from the corruption of the law.
So, there is "original sin" in the sense that sin brought law, and the flesh is corrupted by the presence of law, but when the law is removed, the flesh is no longer corrupt, even though our minds must still be renewed.