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Body of Death

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 24, 1869

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 34, No. 9.

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Body of Death.

By Adolphus Smith

“O WRETCHED man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Rom. vii, 24.
The figure employed in the above text was doubtless borrowed from an ancient custom of chaining, or binding, a dead body to a living person, as a punishment for a real or supposed crime. To this punishment the victim had to submit, until the putrescent infection of the corrupt mass brought death to his relief.
By this impressive figure, Paul represents man in his unrenewed, unregenerate state. Bound by the law to the carnal mind, he finds it impossible to extricate himself, until, by the Spirit of God, he is made to realize his undone condition, and appeals for help to One who is mighty to save, and able to deliver; by whom he is made “free from the law of sin and death.” ADOLPHUS SMITH.