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Romans 7:5
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3 So then aif, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.  
4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become adead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bbear fruit to God.  
5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law awere at work in our members bto bear fruit to death.  
6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve ain the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.  

Sin’s Advantage in the Law

7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, aI would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, b“You shall not covet.”  
8 But asin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For bapart from the law sin was dead.  
9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
10 And the commandment, awhich was to bring life, I found to bring death.  
11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.
12 Therefore athe law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.  

Law Cannot Save from Sin

13 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, asold under sin.  
15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. aFor what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.  
16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.
17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
18 For I know that ain me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.  
19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.
20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
Book Notes:
Robertson's Book Notes (NT)

Romans

The genuineness of the Epistle is so generally admitted by scholars that it is unnecessary to prove it here, for Loman, Steck, and the Dutch scholars (Van Manen, etc.) who deny it as Pauline are no longer taken seriously. He wrote it from Corinth because he sent it to Rome by Phoebe of Cenchreae (Romans 16:2) if chapter 16 is acknowledged to be a part of the Epistle. Chapter 16 is held by some to be really a short epistle to Ephesus because of the long list of names in it, because of Paul's long stay in Ephesus, because he had not yet been to Rome, and because, in particular, Aquila and Priscilla are named (Romans 16:3-5) who had been with Paul in Ephesus. But they had come from Rome before going to Corinth and there is no reason for thinking that they did not return to Rome. It was quite possible for Paul to have many friends in Rome whom he had met elsewhere. People naturally drifted to Rome from all over the empire. The old MSS. (Aleph A B C D) give chapter 16 as an integral part of the Epistle. Marcion rejected it and chapter 15 also for reasons of his own. Renan's theory that Romans was a circular letter like Ephesians sent in different forms to different churches (Rome, Ephesus, Thessalonica, etc.) has appealed to some scholars as explaining the several doxologies in the Epistle, but they cause no real difficulty since Paul interjected them in his other epistles according to his moods (II Corinthians 1:20, for instance). That theory raises more problems than it solves as, for example, Paul's remarks about going to Rome (Romans 1:9-16) which apply to Rome. Lightfoot suggests the possibility that Paul added Romans 16:25-27 some years after the original date so as to turn it into a circular letter. But the MSS. do not support that theory and that leaves Romans 15:22-33 in the Epistle quite unsuitable to a circular letter. Modern knowledge leaves the Epistle intact with occasional variations in the MSS. on particular points as is true of all the N.T.

The Time And Place The place is settled if we accept Romans 16:1. The time of the year is in the spring if we combine statements in the Acts and the Epistle. He says: "I am now going to Jerusalem ministering to the saints" (Romans 15:25). In Acts 20:3 we read that Paul spent three months in Corinth. In II Corinthians we have a full account of the collection for the poor saints in Jerusalem. The account of the journey from Corinth to Jerusalem is given in Acts 20:3-21:17. It was in the spring between passover at Philippi (Acts 20:6) and pentecost in Jerusalem (Acts 20:16; Acts 21:17). The precise year is not quite so certain, but we may suggest AD 57 or 58 with reasonable confidence.

The Purpose Paul tells this himself. He had long cherished a desire to come to Rome (Acts 19:21) and had often made his plans to do so (Romans 1:13) which were interrupted (Romans 15:22), but now he definitely plans to go from Jerusalem, after taking the contribution there (Romans 15:26), to Rome and then on to Spain (Romans 15:24, Romans 15:28). Meanwhile he sends this Epistle that the Romans may know what Paul's gospel really is (Romans 1:15; Romans 2:16). He is full of the issues raised by the Judaizing controversy as set forth in the Epistles to Corinth and to Galatia. So in a calmer mood and more at length he presents his conception of the Righteousness demanded by God (Romans 1:17) of both Gentile (Romans 1:18-32) and Jew (Rom. 2:1-3:20) and only to be obtained by faith in Christ who by his atoning death (justification) has made it possible (Rom. 3:21-5:21). This new life of faith in Christ should lead to holiness of life (sanctification, chapters 6-8). This is Paul's gospel and the remaining chapters deal with corollaries growing out of the doctrine of grace as applied to practical matters. It is a cause for gratitude that Paul did write out so full a statement of his message. He had a message for the whole world and was anxious to win the Roman Empire to Christ. It was important that he go to Rome for it was the centre of the world's life. Nowhere does Paul's Christian statesmanship show to better advantage than in this greatest of his Epistles. It is not a book of formal theology though Paul is the greatest of theologians. Here Paul is seen in the plenitude of his powers with all the wealth of his knowledge of Christ and his rich experience in mission work. The church in Rome is plainly composed of both Jews and Greeks, though who started the work there we have no way of knowing. Paul's ambition was to preach where no one else had been (Romans 15:20), but he has no hesitation in going on to Rome.

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