---
title: "Romans 7 - Study King James Bible with calvins commentary on the bible"
description: "Read Romans 7 with calvins commentary on the bible commentary. 1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 2 For the woman which ha"
image: "/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/calvins-commentary-on-the-bible/romans/7"
---

[ Read](/kjv/romans/7)[ Commentary](/study/romans/7)[ Interlinear](/interlinear/romans/7) Audio

 1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

 2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to *her* husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of *her* husband.

 3 So then if, while *her* husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

 4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, *even* to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

 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.

 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 oldness of the letter.

 7 What shall we say then? *Is* the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

 8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin *was* dead.

 9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

 10 And the commandment, which *was ordained* to life, I found *to be* unto death.

 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew *me*.

 12 Wherefore the law *is* holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

 13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

 14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

 15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

 16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that *it is* good.

 17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but *how* to perform that which is good I find not.

 19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

 20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

 21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

 24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
 
[Romans 6](/study/romans/6) [Romans 8](/study/romans/8)

## Commentary

 To verse 1
 
Though he had, in a brief manner, sufficiently explained the question respecting the abrogation of the law; yet as it was a difficult one, and might have given rise to many other questions, he now shows more at large how the law, with regard to us, is become abrogated; and then he sets forth what good is thereby done to us: for while it holds us separated from Christ and bound to itself, it can do nothing but condemn us. And lest any one should on this account blame the law itself, he takes up and confutes the objections of the flesh, and handles, in a striking manner, the great question respecting the use of the law. (201) 

**1.***Know ye not, etc.* Let the general proposition be that the law was given to men for no other end but to regulate the present life, and that it belongs not to those who are dead: to this he afterwards subjoins this truth — that we are dead to it through the body of Christ. Some understand, that the dominion of the law continues so long to bind us as it remains in force. But as this view is rather obscure, and does not harmonize so well with the proposition which immediately follows, I prefer to follow those who regard what is said as referring to the life of man, and not to the law. The question has indeed a peculiar force, as it affirms the certainty of what is spoken; for it shows that it was not a thing new or unknown to any of them, but acknowledged equally by them all. 

*(For to those who know the law I speak.)* This parenthesis is to be taken in the same sense with the question, as though he had said — that he knew that they were not so unskilful in the law as to entertain any doubt on the subject. And though both sentences might be understood of all laws, it is yet better to take them as referring to the law of God, which is the subject that is discussed. There are some who think that he ascribes knowledge of the law to the Romans, because the largest part of the world was under their power and government; but this is puerile: for he addressed in part the Jews or other strangers, and in part common and obscure individuals; nay, he mainly regarded the Jews, with whom he had to do respecting the abrogation of the law: and lest they should think that he was dealing captiously with them, he declares that he took up a common principle, known to them all, of which they could by no means be ignorant, who had from their childhood been brought up in the teaching of the law. 

(201) The connection of the beginning of this chapter with [Romans 6:14](/kjv/romans/6/14) deserves to be noticed. He says there, that sin shall not rule over us, *because* we are not under law, but under grace. Then he asks, in [Romans 6:15](/kjv/romans/6/15), 

“Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace?” 

This last subject, according to his usual mode, he takes up *first*, and discusses it till the end of the chapter: and then in this chapter he reassumes the first subject — freedom from the law. This is a striking instance of the Apostle’s manner of writing, quite different from what is usual with us in the present day. He mentions two things; he proceeds with the last, and then goes back to the first. — *Ed.*

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