<p>7:8&nbsp;<i>But sin, grabbing an opportunity through the commandment</i>- A military term, referring to establishing a base camp. This continues the image of sin as a military leader (see on Rom. 6:23).&nbsp;</p><p><i>Worked in me</i>- In direct opposition to the common Jewish idea that the Law curbed sin. Indeed the Talmud in <i>b. Qidd. 30b</i> claimed that God said at Sinai: &ldquo;I created the evil desire but I also created the Torah as its antidote; if you occupy yourselves with the Torah, you will not be delivered into its hand&rdquo; (1). Paul is arguing from experience- both Israel&rsquo;s over the years and his own- that the reverse is true. The very existence of commandment tends to lead to that commandment being broken, as every parent soon learns (or re-learns) in the parenting process.</p><p><i>All manner of coveting- </i>AV &quot;concupiscence&quot;. In gripping autobiography, Paul relates the innocent days when (as a child) he lived without the knowledge of law and therefore sin. But then, the concept of commandments registered with him; and this &quot;wrought in me all manner of concupiscence&quot; (Rom. 7:8). &quot;Concupiscence&quot; is a conveniently archaic word for lust; and in the thinking and writing of Paul, the Greek&nbsp;<i>epithumia</i>&nbsp;is invariably used in a sexual context. See on 2 Cor. 12:7.</p><p><i>For apart from the Law, sin is dead a</i><i>nd powerless</i>- This connects with the fact that through baptism into Christ, we are &ldquo;dead indeed unto sin&rdquo; (Rom. 6:11). Sin depends upon the law for strength; but the Law died with Jesus; He fulfilled it perfectly, He achieved the intention, for Him, the Law was indeed ordained to life (Rom. 7:10). If the law is really dead, then sin is powerless- for those who are in Christ, who fulfilled the Law. It&rsquo;s almost too good news; that the end of law means the end of the power of sin. This was all especially radical for Jewish ears. The &lsquo;death&rsquo; of the Law is a strong concept- and it challenges not only Sabbath keepers, but all of us who think that surely obedience to Divine law must have some role to play in our salvation.</p><p>A case can be made, especially from Rom. 7:8-10, that the whole of Rom. 7:7-25 is Paul talking about Israel- we have shown in notes on Rom. 7:1 that Paul is speaking in this section specifically to Jews. In this case, Paul would have so identified himself with Israel that he speaks in the first person, as if he personally &lsquo;is&rsquo; them. He so loved his people that he saw all Israel&rsquo;s history personified as it were in himself. Another approach to bear in mind is that it was quite possible in first century literature to use&nbsp;<i>ego</i>, the first person singular, as a literary or rhetorical device without any reference to the author&rsquo;s personal situation. Thus it could be argued that the &ldquo;And if I&hellip;&rdquo; phrases in 1 Cor. 13:1-3 are an example of this, rather than Paul talking about himself (2).&nbsp;</p><p>The way in which Adam is to be seen as everyman is exemplified by how Paul speaks of his own spiritual life and failure in terms of Adam&rsquo;s encounter with sin in the form of the serpent. Note the allusions to Adam&rsquo;s fall in Rom. 7:8&ndash;11: &ldquo;But sin cp. The snake, seizing an opportunity in the commandment singular &ndash; there was only one commandment in Eden, produced in me all kinds of covetousness the essence of the temptation to eat the fruit... I as Adam was once alive apart from the law Adam was the only person to ever truly exist for a time without any law, but when the commandment singular &ndash; to not eat the fruit came, sin sprang to life and I died as Adam, and the very commandment that seemed to promised life cp. The hope of eating of the tree of life proved to be death to me. For sin cp. the snake seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me s.w. 2 Cor. 11:3 about the serpent deceiving Eve and through it killed me&rdquo;. Note how Rom. 7:7&ndash;13, with all the Adam allusions, speaks in the past tense; but in the autobiographical section which follows in Rom. 7:14&ndash;25, Paul uses the present tense &ndash; as if to suggest that both Paul and by extension all of us live out the essence of Adam&rsquo;s failure. He was everyman, and his salvation through the seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus, can be everyman&rsquo;s salvation if he so chooses. But in our context we note the pointed &ndash; and it is pointed &ndash; omission by Paul of any reference to a Satan figure.</p>