Good morning. Now one of those famous verses that all Christians know: for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. You get wages for working, and your paycheck for working all of that sin is death. You don’t have to work for eternal life; it is a free gift. As the current hit song says: I couldn’t earn it, and I don’t deserve it; still You give Yourself away. Now we get to the hotly debated chapter 7. Is Paul talking about himself, or is he talking about a generic nonbeliever? In some places it seems like he’s talking about before he became a Christian; and in others it seems like he’s talking about while he is a Christian. As Yul Brenner said in the movie “The King and I”: Tis a puzzlement. Do you not know that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? So that does not sound like he’s talking about a Christian. You were made to die to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. So they were dead to the law means that they were no longer unbelievers. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the law (The more you tell someone not to do something, the more it seems they want to do it – just look at your children), were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. That verse implies that they were no longer in the flesh, but instead were Christians. Father thank You that we are not under law, but under grace. Help the reader to walk in that Grace every day. Give him/her the strength to endure.

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