SEV Biblia, Chapter 7:14
¶ Porque ya sabemos que la ley es espiritual; mas yo soy carnal, vendido a sujecin del pecado.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Romans 7:14
Verse 14. For, we know that the law is spiritual] This is a general proposition, and probably, in the apostle's autograph, concluded the above sentence. The law is not to be considered as a system of external rites and ceremonies; nor even as a rule of moral action: it is a spiritual system; it reaches to the most hidden purposes, thoughts, dispositions, and desires of the heart and soul; and it reproves and condemns every thing, without hope of reprieve or pardon, that is contrary to eternal truth and rectitude. But I am carnal, sold under sin.] This was probably, in the apostle's letter, the beginning of a new paragraph. I believe it is agreed, on all hands, that the apostle is here demonstrating the insufficiency of the law in opposition to the Gospel. That by the former is the knowledge, by the latter the cure, of sin. Therefore by I here he cannot mean himself, nor any Christian believer: if the contrary could be proved, the argument of the apostle would go to demonstrate the insufficiency of the Gospel as well as the law.
It is difficult to conceive how the opinion could have crept into the Church, or prevailed there, that "the apostle speaks here of his regenerate state; and that what was, in such a state, true of himself, must be true of all others in the same state." This opinion has, most pitifully and most shamefully, not only lowered the standard of Christianity, but destroyed its influence and disgraced its character. It requires but little knowledge of the spirit of the Gospel, and of the scope of this epistle, to see that the apostle is, here, either personating a Jew under the law and without the Gospel, or showing what his own state was when he was deeply convinced that by the deeds of the law no man could be justified, and had not as yet heard those blessed words: Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way, hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost, Acts ix. 17.
In this and the following verses he states the contrariety between himself, or any Jew while without Christ, and the law of God. Of the latter he says, it is spiritual; of the former, l am carnal, sold under sin. Of the carnal man, in opposition to the spiritual, never was a more complete or accurate description given. The expressions, in the flesh, and after the flesh, in ver. 5, and in chap. viii. 5, 8, 9, &c., are of the same import with the word carnal in this verse. To be in the flesh, or to be carnally minded, solely respects the unregenerate. While unregenerate, a man is in a state of death and enmity against God, chap. viii. 6-9. This is St. Paul's own account of a carnal man. The soul of such a man has no authority over the appetites of the body and the lusts of the flesh: reason has not the government of passion. The work of such a person is to make provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof, chap. xiii. 14. He minds the things of the flesh, Romans viii. 5; he is at enmity with God. In all these things the spiritual man is the reverse; he lives in a state of friendship with God in Christ, and the Spirit of God dwells in him; his soul has dominion over the appetites of the body and the lusts of the flesh; his passions submit to the government of reason, and he, by the Spirit, mortifies the deeds of the flesh; he mindeth the things of the Spirit, chap. viii. 5. The Scriptures, therefore, place these two characters in direct opposition to each other. Now the apostle begins this passage by informing us that it is his carnal state that he is about to describe, in opposition to the spirituality of God's holy law, saying, But I am carnal.
Those who are of another opinion maintain that by the word carnal here the apostle meant that corruption which dwelt in him after his conversion; but this opinion is founded on a very great mistake; for, although there may be, after justification, the remains of the carnal mind, which will be less or more felt till the soul is completely sanctified, yet the man is never denominated from the inferior principle, which is under control, but from the superior principle which habitually prevails. Whatever epithets are given to corruption or sin in Scripture, opposite epithets are given to grace or holiness. By these different epithets are the unregenerate and regenerate denominated. From all this it follows that the epithet carnal, which is the characteristic designation of an unregenerate man, cannot be applied to St. Paul after his conversion; nor, indeed, to any Christian in that state.
But the word carnal, though used by the apostle to signify a state of death and enmity against God, is not sufficient to denote all the evil of the state which he is describing; hence he adds, sold under sin. This is one of the strongest expressions which the Spirit of God uses in Scripture, to describe the full depravity of fallen man. It implies a willing slavery: Ahab had sold himself to work evil, 1 Kings xxi. 20. And of the Jews it is said, in their utmost depravity, Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, Isa. l. 1. They forsook the holy covenant, and joined themselves to the heathen, and WERE SOLD to do mischief, 1 Macc. i. 15.
Now, if the word carnal, in its strongest sense, had been sufficiently significant of all he meant, why add to this charge another expression still stronger? We must therefore understand the phrase, sold under sin, as implying that the soul was employed in the drudgery of sin; that it was sold over to this service, and had no power to disobey this tyrant, until it was redeemed by another. And if a man be actually sold to another, and he acquiesce in the deed, then he becomes the legal property of that other person. This state of bondage was well known to the Romans. The sale of slaves they saw daily, and could not misunderstand the emphatical sense of this expression. Sin is here represented as a person; and the apostle compares the dominion which sin has over the man in question to that of a master over his legal slave. Universally through the Scriptures man is said to be in a state of bondage to sin until the Son of God make him free: but in no part of the sacred writings is it ever said that the children of God are sold under sin. Christ came to deliver the lawful captive, and take away the prey from the mighty. Whom the Son maketh free, they are free indeed. Then, they yield not up their members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; for sin shall not have the dominion over them, because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made them free from the law of sin and death, Romans vi. 13, 14; viii. 2. Anciently, when regular cartels were not known, the captives became the slaves of their victors, and by them were sold to any purchaser; their slavery was as complete and perpetual as if the slave had resigned his own liberty, and sold himself: the laws of the land secured him to his master; he could not redeem himself, because he had nothing that was his own, and nothing could rescue him from that state but a stipulated redemption. The apostle speaks here, not of the manner in which the person in question became a slave; he only asserts the fact, that sin had a full and permanent dominion over him. - Smith, on the carnal man's character.
I am carnal, sold under sin.] I have been the more particular in ascertaining the genuine sense of this verse, because it determines the general scope of the whole passage.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 14. For we know that the law is spiritual , etc..] We who have a spiritual understanding of the law, who have been led into the true nature of it by the Spirit of God, know by experience that that itself is spiritual; and therefore can never be the cause of sin or death: the law may be said to be spiritual, because it comes from the Spirit of God; and reaches to the spirit of man; it requires truth in the inward parts; spiritual service and obedience; a serving of it with our minds; a worshipping of God in spirit and truth; a loving of him with all our hearts and souls, as well as a performance of all the outward acts of religion and duty; and because it cannot be truly obeyed and conformed to without the assistance of the Spirit of God. To this spirituality of the law the apostle opposes himself, but I am carnal, sold under sin : from hence to the end of the chapter many are of opinion, that the apostle speaks in the person of an unregenerate man, or of himself as unregenerate; but nothing is more clear, than that he speaks all along of himself in the first person, I am carnal:, etc.. autov egw , I myself, as in ( Romans 7:25), and in the present tense of what he then was and found; whereas, when he speaks of his unregenerate state, and how it was with him under the first convictions of sin, he speaks of them as things past, ( Romans 7:5-11); besides, several things which are said by the apostle can neither agree with him, nor any other, but as regenerate; such as to hate evil, delight in the law of God, and serve it with the mind, ( Romans 7:15,22,25). Moreover, the distinctions between flesh and spirit, the inward and the outward man, and the struggle there is between them, are to be found in none but regenerate persons; and to say no more, the thanksgiving for deliverance from sin by Christ can only come from such; nor are any of the things said inapplicable to men that are born again, as will appear by the consideration of them as they follow: for when the apostle says, I am carnal; his meaning is, either that he was so by nature, and as he saw himself when sin through the law became exceeding sinful to him; or as he might be denominated from the flesh or corruption of nature which was still in him, and from the infirmities of the flesh he was attended with; just as the Corinthians, though sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints, are said to be carnal on account of their envying, strife, and divisions, ( 1 Corinthians 3:1-4), or in comparison of the spiritual law of God, which was now before him, and in which he was beholding his face as in a glass, and with which when compared, the holiest man in the world must be reckoned carnal. He adds, sold under sin; he did not sell himself to work wickedness, as Ahab, ( 1 Kings 21:25), and others; he was passive and not active in it; and when at any time he with his flesh served the law of sin, he was not a voluntary, but an involuntary servant; besides, this may be understood of his other I, his carnal I, his unrenewed self, the old man which is always under sin, when the spiritual I, the new man, is never under the law of sin, but under the governing influence of the grace of God.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 14-17 - Compared with the holy rule of conduct in the law of God, the apostl found himself so very far short of perfection, that he seemed to be carnal; like a man who is sold against his will to a hated master, from whom he cannot set himself at liberty. A real Christian unwillingl serves this hated master, yet cannot shake off the galling chain, til his powerful and gracious Friend above, rescues him. The remaining evi of his heart is a real and humbling hinderance to his serving God a angels do and the spirits of just made perfect. This strong languag was the result of St. Paul's great advance in holiness, and the dept of his self-abasement and hatred of sin. If we do not understand thi language, it is because we are so far beneath him in holiness knowledge of the spirituality of God's law, and the evil of our ow hearts, and hatred of moral evil. And many believers have adopted the apostle's language, showing that it is suitable to their deep feeling of abhorrence of sin, and self-abasement. The apostle enlarges on the conflict he daily maintained with the remainder of his origina depravity. He was frequently led into tempers, words, or actions, whic he did not approve or allow in his renewed judgement and affections. By distinguishing his real self, his spiritual part, from the self, or flesh, in which sin dwelt, and by observing that the evil actions wer done, not by him, but by sin dwelling in him, the apostle did not mea that men are not accountable for their sins, but he teaches the evil of their sins, by showing that they are all done against reason an conscience. Sin dwelling in a man, does not prove its ruling, or havin dominion over him. If a man dwells in a city, or in a country, still he may not rule there.
Greek Textus Receptus
οιδαμεν 1492 5758 V-RAI-1P γαρ 1063 CONJ οτι 3754 CONJ ο 3588 T-NSM νομος 3551 N-NSM πνευματικος 4152 A-NSM εστιν 2076 5748 V-PXI-3S εγω 1473 P-1NS δε 1161 CONJ σαρκικος 4559 A-NSM ειμι 1510 5748 V-PXI-1S πεπραμενος 4097 5772 V-RPP-NSM υπο 5259 PREP την 3588 T-ASF αμαρτιαν 266 N-ASF
Vincent's NT Word Studies
14. We know (oidamen). Denoting something generally conceded.Spiritual (pneumatikov). The expression of the Holy Spirit.
Carnal (sarkinov). Lit., made of flesh. A very strong expression. "This unspiritual, material, phenomenal nature" so dominates the unrenewed man that he is described as consisting of flesh. Others read sarkikov having the nature of flesh.
Sold under sin. As a slave. The preposition uJpo under, with the accusative, implies direction; so as to be under the power of.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
7:14 {Spiritual} (pneumatikos). Spirit-caused and spirit-given and like the Holy Spirit. See #1Co 10:3f. {But I am carnal} (eg" de sarkinos eimi). "Fleshen" as in #1Co 3:1 which see, more emphatic even than sarkikos," a creature of flesh." {Sold under Sin} (pepramenos hupo ten hamartian). Perfect passive participle of pipraskw, old verb, to sell. See on Mt 13:46; Ac 2:45, state of completion. Sin has closed the mortgage and owns its slave.
