ROMANS Study Guide

Many have confused this “Carnal or Soul Man” in us with the “Old Sin Nature” we inherited from Adam. This has caused some real confusion for believers as they have studied this Chapter. It is my opinion that the confusion goes away when we realize that once we are in Christ, the Old Nature cannot remain alive as Paul argues in Rom.6:1-3. Understanding the death of our Old Sin Nature, allows us then to search for another understanding of this chapter’s usage of the “flesh or natural man.” (Rom.7:18) In this chapter we will learn from Paul how we as believers are to deal with the inner spiritual war that we fight each day. As we go through this chapter and chapter eight, we will come to understand how we are to “pick up our Cross daily” (Lk.9:23) and us e the power of our death in Christ (Rom.6:3) to deny the self-centered urges and wants of our fleshly nature (Rom.8:7-8) from ruling our lives. This battle can be fierce and difficult, and we need to understand it to gain daily victory in Christ.

THE DANGER OF LIVING OUT OF OUR SOUL MAN

(not out of Christ)

Rom 7:1 Or are you ignorant, brothers; for I speak to those who know the Law; that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? Rom 7:2 For the married woman was bound by law to the living husband. But if the husband is dead, she is set free from the law of her husband. Rom 7:3 So then if, while her husband lives, she is married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress by becoming another man's wife.

1. Paul’s analo gy of being married to the Law (vs.1-3)

a. The law rules over everyone until they die… death is the only