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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Romans 7:14 - 7:14
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14. οἴδαμεν γὰρ ὅτι. Appeal to acknowledged principle.
πνευματικός introduces the final description of the internal conflict: it is a struggle of πνεῦμα against ἁμαρτία to win the mastery of σάρξ. In this struggle law is on the side of πνεῦμα, but only as a standard and revelation of right, not as a spiritual power strengthening man’s will; that can only come from GOD, by an internal influence on man’s πνεῦμα.
σάρκινος. Fleshy, made of flesh, marks the substance or component part of substance; σαρκικός marks character. A πνεῦμα may be σαρκικόν but cannot be σάρκινον. Cf. λίθινος, Joh 2:6; 2Co 3:3; ξύλινος, 2Ti 2:20; see Westcott on Heb 7:16. Here the word is precise; his nature has in it a fleshy element; if this dominates the πνεῦμα, then the man is σαρκικός; if the πνεῦμα controls it, the man is πνευματικός. σάρξ describes the man in his natural state, including not merely his material body, but his mental and volitional operations so far as they are limited to or dominated by his earthly and temporal concerns. The evil belongs to σάρξ not in itself but in its wrong relation to spirit; so far as it is brought completely under the control of spirit, it too becomes πνευματική; hence explain 1Co 15:44 f. So πνεῦμα becomes σαρκικόν if it subordinates itself to σάρξ. Cf. 1Co 3:1; 1Co 3:3 ff.
πεπραμένος, ‘one that has sold himself under sin’ = ‘made a slave under sin,’ not explanatory of σάρκινος but a further determination of the condition. Before law came, man was σάρκινος, but not πεπρ. ὑ. ἁμ.; now he is both. Metaph. only here in N.T.