The Mosaic Law is not God’s present provision for victory over sin (Romans 7). Rather, the means of our victory over sin is the provision of the Holy Spirit through Messiah Jesus.

In chapter 7, Paul turns his attention to Messianic Jews in Rome who are still clinging to their identity in Moses and advocating the Mosaic Law. Paul wants to persuade these Jewish Christians to not foist the Mosaic Law upon the Gentile Christians as a means of constraining their behavior. The Law is both inappropriate and inadequate for such constraint.

Paul wants it to be unmistakably understood: Just because we are justified by grace doesn’t mean our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors don’t matter. He writes in order to continue to clarify our understanding of who we are through faith in Jesus. He writes to empower us in our battle with sin.

In chapters 1-5, Paul fully describes how we are justified (declared right with God) by faith in Christ Jesus alone, not by our works of obedience. In chapter 6, he moves on to address four questions that reasonably flow from what he has already affirmed.

The death, resurrection, and reign of Christ Jesus means that, however difficult this life may become for God’s people, we will always be the objects of His loving care.

In this potentially confusing text, Paul sets Adam alongside Jesus. By contrasting and comparing the two, Paul tunnels into the depths of our sin in order to continue to enhance our experience of the infinite beauty, power, and glory of Christ.

In his ongoing effort to deepen our faith and increase our joy, Paul continues to unpack the depth and significance of what it means that we are “justified through faith in Jesus.”