OrthJBC - Romans - 7

7:1  Do you not know, Achim b'Moshiach, for I speak to those who know the Torah, that the Torah exercises marut (authority, rule) over a man so long as he lives?

7:2  For the agunah is bound by the Torah to her husband while he lives; but if her husband dies she is released from the Torah of her husband.

7:3  Accordingly she will be named no'eh-fet (adulteress) if, while her husband lives, she becomes another man's. But if her ba'al (husband) dies, she is free from the Torah, so that she is no no'eh-fet (adulteress) if she becomes another man's.

7:4  So then, Achim b'Moshiach, you also were put to death in relation to the Torah through the basar of Moshiach (Tehillim 16:9-10; ), in order that you might become another's, bound to the One who was raised from the mesim, so that we might bear p'ri for Hashem.

7:5  For when we were in the basar (in the fallen condition of the old humanity), the ta'avat besarim, the sinful passions through the Torah were working in our natural capacities, so as to bear p'ri for mavet (death).

7:6  But now we have been released from the dominating ownership of the Torah, having died to that by which we were confined, so that we might serve in hitkhadeshut haRuach [haKodesh] (the newness of the Holy Spirit) and not in the oldness of the chumra (strict adherence to the letter of the law, legalism) (see 2:29). THE PROBLEM OF INDWELLING CHET AND ITS EXISTENTIAL POWER; FOR WITHOUT THE MAVET OF THE OLD HUMANITY AND THE HITKHADESHUT OF THE NEW HUMANITY IN MOSHIACH, THE CHUKIM OF THE TORAH AROUSES THE TA'AVOT HACHET, FOR MY BASAR, MY FALLEN HUMANITY, IS NOT MERELY PLAGUED BY THE YETZER HARAH, THE EVIL INCLINATION; IT IS BLIND AND HOSTILE TO G-D, SOLD UNDER THE POWER OF (SLAVEMASTER) CHET, UNSPIRITUAL (7:14), WITHOUT ANY GOOD (7:18), UNDER THE INBORN SWAY OF BONDAGE TO SIN (7:14), AND BEETZEM (IN FACT) CONSTITUTES THE CONDITION WHEREIN THE SINFUL LUSTS ARE IN OPERATION (7:5).

7:7  What then shall we say? That the Torah is considered as chet (sin)? Chas v'shalom! Nevertheless, I would not have experienced chet (sin) except through the Torah; for I would not have known chamdanut (covetousness/greediness) if the Torah had not said, LO TACHMOD ("Thou shalt not covet"--SHEMOT 20:17).

7:8  But Chet (Sin), seizing its opportunity through the mitzvoh (commandment), stirred up all manner of chamdanut (covetousness) in me. For in the absence of the Torah, Chet (Sin) is dead.

7:9  And in the absence of the Torah I was once alive. But when the mitzvoh (commandment) came, Chet (Sin) became alive,

7:10  and I died. The mitzvoh (commandment) intended as the Derech L'Chayim (Way to Life) proved for me a means to mavet (death).

7:11  For Chet (Sin), seizing its opportunity through the mitzvoh (commandment), deceived me and, through the mitzvoh (commandment), killed me.

7:12  So that the Torah is kedosha (holy) and the mitzvoh (commandment) is kedosha and yasharah and tovah.

7:13  Did that which is good, then, become mavet (death) to me? Chas v'shalom! But Chet (Sin), it was Chet, working mavet (death) in me through that which is good, in order that Chet might be shown as Chet (Sin), and in order that Chet through the mitzvoh (commandment) might become chata'ah gedolah ad-m'od (utterly sinful).

7:14  For we know that the Torah is Ruchanit (Spiritual, of the Ruach Hakodesh); but I am of the basar (fallen humanity) sold under the power of (slavemaster) Chet.

7:15  For I do not know what I do/what I bring about. For that which I commit is not what I want; but what I hate, that I do.

7:16  But if that which I do is what I do not want, I agree with the Torah that the Torah is good.

7:17  But now it is no longer I doing this/bringing this about, but [the power of] Chet (Sin) which dwells within me.

7:18  For I know that there dwells in me, that is, in my basar (my fallen humanity) no good thing; for the wish (to do what is right) lies ready at hand for me, but to accomplish the good is not.

7:19  For I fail to do good as I wish, but haRah (the evil) which I do not wish is what I commit.

7:20  But if what I do not wish is that which I do, it is no longer I doing it but [the power of] Chet (Sin, Chet Kadmon, Original Sin) which dwells within me.

7:21  I find then the chok (law), for me who wishes to do haTov (the Good), that for me haRah (the Evil) lies ready at hand.

7:22  For I rejoice, I have simcha Torah, I have joy in the Torah of Hashem (the Torah of G-d), so far as the inner man is concerned,

7:23  but I see another Chok (decree/law) in my natural capacities at war with the Torah of my mind and making me a prisoner to the Chok (law) of Chet (Sin) which is [a power] in my natural capacities.

7:24  Wretched man am I! Who will deliver me from the body of this mavet (death)?

7:25  Hodu l'Hashem baMoshiach Yehoshua Adoneinu (Thanks be to G-d in Yehoshua the Messiah our L-rd). So then I myself with my mind serve the Torah of Hashem (the Torah of G-d) and with my basar I serve the Chok of Chet (the Law of Sin).