Romans 7:5-6 | |
5. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. | 5. Quum enim essemus in carne, affectus peccatorum qui sunt per Legem, in membris nostris operabantur ad fructificandum morti: |
6. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the old ness of the letter. | 6. Nunc vero soluti sumus a Lege, mortui ei in qua detinebamur; ut serviamus in novitate spiritus, et non in vetustate literæ. |
5.
In describing our condition during the time we were subject to the dominion of the law, he says, that we were
6.
1 To be "in the flesh" has two meanings, -- to be unrenewed, and in our natural Corrupt state, as Calvin says, see Romans 8:8, -- and to be subject to external rites and ceremonies as the Jews were, see Galatians 3:3; Philippians 3:4. Its meaning here, according to Beza and Pareus, is the first; according to Grotius and Hammond, the second; and according to Turrettin and Hodge, both are included, as the context, in their view, evidently shows. -- Ed.
2 "Affectus peccatorum -- affections of sins;"
These "emotions" are said to be through the law, -- "made known by the law," says Chrysostom; but "occasioned by the law," is more correct, as it appears from Romans 7:8, or, "made to abound by the law," as in Romans 5:20. The law, instead of making men holy, made them, through the perversity of human nature, to sin the more. "Emotions of sins" is an Hebraism for "sinful emotions" -- "The members" are those of the "old man," and not those of the material body, though it is commonly thought that they are the latter, and mentioned, because they are employed as the instruments of sin: but there are many sins, and those of the worst kind, which are confined to the mind and heart. It is therefore more consistent to regard them as the members of "the body of sin," Romans 6:6. -- Ed.
3 That the moral, and not the ceremonial law, is meant here, is incontestably evident from what the Apostle adds in the following verses. He quotes the moral law in the next verse; he calls this law, in Romans 7:10, the commandment,
4 Our common version is evidently incorrect as to this clause. The pronoun
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