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I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
Verse Takeaways
1
The Illusion of Being 'Alive'
Commentators agree that when Paul says he was "alive," he's describing a state of self-deception. Before truly understanding God's law, he felt secure and righteous in his own efforts. This "life" was an illusion based on ignorance of the law's deep spiritual demands on the heart, a warning against superficial, checklist-based faith.
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Romans
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10
18th Century
Presbyterian
For I. There seems to be no doubt that the apostle here refers to his own past experience. Yet in this he speaks the sentiment of all who …
I was alive (εζων). Imperfect active. Apparently, "the lost paradise in the infancy of men" (Denney), before the conscience awoke …
19th Century
Anglican
I was alive.—The state of unconscious morality, uninstructed but not yet uncondemned, may, compared with that state of co…
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Baptist
For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
I d…
Paul’s statement that he was once alive apart from the law should be taken in a relative sense, for there was actually no time in his life before h…
16th Century
Protestant
For I was alive. He means to suggest that there had been a time when sin was dead to him or in him. But this should not be understood as i…
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17th Century
Reformed Baptist
For I was alive without the law once The apostle says this, not in the person of Adam, as some have thought; who liv…
There is no way of coming to that knowledge of sin, which is necessary for repentance and therefore for peace and pardon, except by testing our hea…
13th Century
Catholic
After showing that through Christ’s grace we are freed from the slavery of the law, and that this liberation is useful, the Apostle now a…
