Romans 7:1-6 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible - Bible Study & Commentary

Verses 1-6

Romans 7:1-Joshua : . Espousal to Christ.— Paul returns to his paradox about Law and Grace ( Romans 6:14 f.) and illustrates it by marriage, Christ now standing for Grace.

Romans 7:1-Leviticus : . Wedlock binds “ while the husband lives” ; on his death the wife is free for another union.

Romans 7:4 a . You” are the wife in this case; “ the law” the first husband, the risen “ Christ” the second; the new marriage presupposes a discharge from the old ( Romans 7:6). In the expression “ that she should not be an adulteress,” Paul tacitly repudiates the charge of apostasy brought against Jewish Christians ( cf. James 4:4 RV, Jeremiah 2:2, Hosea 2:2 ff., etc.).

Romans 7:4 b – Romans 7:6 . The difference in the offspring shows how much happier and better the second marriage is than the first: wedded to the law, “ our carnal nature bore fruit for death” ; now, “ we bear fruit to God ( cf. Galatians 5:22 f.), with the result that we serve ( cf. Romans 6:18-Song of Solomon :) in newness of spirit ( cf. Romans 6:4), not in the oldness of the letter.” The old system worked by external rule; the new by internal principle. Paul takes liberties with his simile: in the figure, the husband dies; in the application, the wife—“ you were put to death as regards the law through the (dying) body of Christ” ( Romans 7:4); so again in Romans 7:6, where the AV, mistakenly, removes the incongruity. For the Christian believer dies with his Redeemer, to share His heavenly life ( Romans 6:2-1 Kings :). The death of either partner dissolves the prior union ( cf. Galatians 6:14).

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Arthur Peake

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Arthur Samuel Peake (1865-1929) was an English biblical scholar, born at Leek, Staffordshire, and educated at St John's College, Oxford. He was the first holder of the Rylands Chair of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the University of Manchester, from its establishment as an independent institution in 1904. He was thus the first non-Anglican to become a professor of divinity in an English university.In 1890-92 he was a lecturer at Mansfield College, Oxford, and from 1890 to 1897 held a fellowship at Merton College.In 1892, however, he was invited to become tutor at the Primitive Methodist Theological Institute in Manchester, which was renamed Hartley College in 1906. He was largely responsible for broadening the curriculum which intending Primitive Methodist ministers were required to follow, and for raising the standards of the training.In 1895-1912 he served as lecturer in the Lancashire Independent College, from 1904 to 1912 also in the United Methodist College at Manchester. In 1904 he was appointed Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the (Victoria) University of Manchester. (This chair was in the Faculty of Theology established in that year; it was renamed "Rylands Professor, etc." in 1909.)Peake was also active as a layman in wider Methodist circles, and did a great deal to further the reunion of Methodism which took effect in 1932, three years after his death. In the wider ecumenical sphere Peake worked for the National Council of Evangelical Free Churches, serving as president in 1928, and was a member of the World Conference on Faith and Order held in Lausanne in 1927. He published and lectured extensively, but is best remembered for his one-volume commentary on the Bible (1919), which, in its revised form, is still in use.The University of Aberdeen made him an honorary D. D. in 1907. He was a governor of the John Rylands Library.... Show more

First published in 1919, Peake's commentary of the bible was a one-volume commentary that gave special attention to Biblical archaeology and the then-recent discoveries of biblical manuscripts. Biblical quotations in this edition were from the Revised Version of the Bible.... Show more

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