Leader: This is another difficult passage and is helpful to summarize before going into discussion questions.
So, Paul defends grace before, now he defends the law. The “Pharisee” types reading the letter start to think in their minds, “wait, Paul seems to say that the Law arouses sins in us, is he saying the Law is bad? that it’s sinful?” Paul answers, no, the complete opposite is true, the Law lets us know what are sins are.
Discussion question: So, is there sin apart from the Law?
Ch 2 talks about the Gentiles who don’t have the Law yet will perish.
Discussion question: What does “for apart from the Law sin is dead” mean?
It means that a sin isn’t defined as a sin without a standard of measurement. If a white person only saw white people all his life, he wouldn’t consider himself white, it’s only until a black guy comes along that he realizes what he is. We need a standard, The Law is our standard.
Leader: for your review:
What’s interesting here is that, our standard, the standard that every person uses to measure himself before believing, is dead wrong. This is a key to all modern/ancient religions. All religions measure themselves by their own standard or a standard of a very good man (Buddha). What is the flaw in this thinking? Who is the judge in this line of thinking, us or God? God will judge us according to our own standard? May it never be!
Discussion question: So, if the Law is required to expose sin, how are we exposed to our sin considering we’ve never studied the Law?
John 16:8 the Spirit comes to convict
Discussion question: What does Paul mean that he was once alive apart from the Law?
Phil 3:6 – blameless with respect to the Law
He was a Pharisee, he was never apart from the Law, he knew it quite well. It must have meant that he didn’t truly understand it.
Discussion question: What does when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died mean?
Lev 18:5 – if you keep my statutes and judgements, you shall live.
So at some point in his life, Paul was at ease and not convicted of his sin. Once conviction came and sin had a headway, it came in (alive) and Paul died (sentanced like 6:23). 1 Cor 15:56 – Hosea 13:14 – Rom 3:20, 4:15, 7:8
Discussion question: If we keep the Law, would we be saved?
Gal 3
Heb 2
Rom 3 would make God a liar….
Sin deceived Paul, just like it did Eve (Gen 3)
1 Tim 1:8 – the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully
Ps 119:39 – your laws are good
Nehemiah 9:13
Ps 19:7
Ps 119:72
Leader: for your review:
Before, Paul had to defend grace, now he has to defend the Law, what is it about humans that we will always try and find a loophole to do what we want? How can we see this and avoid it?
Discussion question: How can we look for the signs that we are trying to get around something we know is right in everyday life?
The gate is small and the path is narrow Matt 7:14
Discussion question: Verses 14-20 seem to be one long run-on sentence. Try to summarize what Paul is describing here.
Discussion question: Some have tried to summarize this passage as Paul talking about himself before he became a believer or very shortly thereafter, the reason for this is that they believe that perfection, no sin, is possible in this life and this passage would seem to disagree with that. What do you think?
Discussion question: What is Paul talking about in verse 23, what is the law in his members verses the law of his mind?
[...] Romans 7:5-25 [...]