Struggling With Sin Romans 7:7-25
7What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet." 8But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. 9Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.
11For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 12So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. 13Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
There are few passages in the bible over which so many competent and knowledgeable students of the Bible are so radically divided as in the last half of Romans chapter 7. Paul here in this section is describing a fierce internal battle with sin. So the question that arises is at what stage of his life is Paul describing here? Is he speaking of the present time when he is writing this letter? Keep in mind that he is a mature Christian and also an apostle at this stage of his life. Or is he speaking of himself as he was in the past, before his conversion? Or maybe it is somewhere in between?
Focusing on verses 14-25
Romans 7:14-20 - 14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
There are four points of view I will present here and I will talk a little about each of them.
Who is the man of Romans 7?
He is unregenerate – The first view is that Paul here is talking about himself before he came to saving faith. This was the dominant view in the early church. In fact the great Augustine held it at first, though later, as a result of his maturing study of the Bible, he changed his view on this.
The fact is Paul could not say these things before the point of salvation for two reasons:
He is delighted in God’s law – He says here in verse 22 “For in my inner being I delight in God’s law” and in verse 12 “the law is holy”. Paul could not have said or thought these things before his conversion. We as an unregenerate person who not truly knowing God can not accept the things of God and for sure he couldn’t delight in them.
Paul also could not have really understood what being “holy” was. Paul earlier in Romans tells us that the law provokes all kinds of evil desires in us and that we rebel against its demands.
He is a carnal Christian – The second view is that Paul is talking about himself as a Christian but in a theoretical way. As if he was in an immature or an unsurrendered state. This view brings in a two stage Christian experience in which, in stage one, a person accepts Christ as Savior only, without accepting Him as Lord of their life, and then later, in stage two, goes on to receive Him as Lord. This view of course is very weak to say the least and even dangerous to think that Christianity could come in two stages.
He is under conviction – The third view is that the Holy Spirit has awakened Paul to his lawlessness but has not yet made him aware of or a participator in the new life of Jesus Christ. But as we will see in verse 24-25 he says “24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” there is awareness that it is Christ who saves and is saving him from his fate. So I would say that he is aware of Christ in a fuller capacity and not just aware of his sin.
He is a mature Christian – This fourth and final view is that of most Reformed students of the Bible including late Augustine, Martin Luther and John Calvin and that is that Paul is writing of himself as a mature Christian, describing the Christian’s continuing conflict with sin, which we all experience.
Key verses 7:18, 24
Romans 7:18 “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.”
Romans 7:18 “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”
Romans 7:24 “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
What we see here in verses 14-20 is Paul first stating that nothing good lives in him, but he says very clearly that he is talking about his sinful nature. That is the sinful part of every Christian that causes our sinful desires even after our regeneration.
Paul goes on to say in verse 23”But I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.” What Paul is saying is that we as Christians still retain this body of sin. And what he is also telling us is that what has changed is our hearts we know this because of his frustration and sorrow over his sin.
Our minds….. Well maybe somewhere in between trying to reason but at times it works against our hearts also. But we know that the sinful body can be a very strong enemy can’t it?
J.I. Packer summarizes these verses:
Alive in Christ, his heart delights in the law, and he wants to do what is good and right and thus keep it perfectly …. But he finds that he cannot achieve the total compliance at which he aims. Whenever he measures what he has done, he finds that he has fallen short. From this he perceives that the anti-God urge called sin, though dethroned in his heart, still dwells in his flawed nature …. Thus the Christian’s moral experience is that his reach persistently exceeds his grasp and that his desire for perfection is frustrated by the discomposing and distracting energies of indwelling sin.
Stating this sad fact about himself, renews Paul’s distress at it, and in the cry of verses 24, 25 he voices his grief at not being able to glorify God more: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Then at once he answers his own question: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Packer goes on to say, Paul here proclaims that his present involuntary imperfection, summed up in the latter part of verse 25, will one day be made a thing of the past through the redemption of the body referred to in chapter 8:23…. For that future redemption we must long and wait, maintaining always the two-world, homeward-traveling, hoping-for-glory perspective that pervades the whole New Testament.
My answer to the question of at what stage of life is Paul expressing himself here is he is a mature Christian battling with the sinful desires of his flesh verses the righteous and moral desires of his heart just like us.
Romans 7:21-25 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
C.H. Spurgeon had this to say
If I chose to occupy your time with controversial matter, I might prove to a demonstration that the apostle Paul is here describing his own experience as a Christian. Some have affirmed that he is merely declaring what he was before conversion, and not what he was when he became the recipient of the grace of God. But such persons are evidently mistaken, and I believe willfully mistaken; for any ample-hearted, candid mind, reading through this chapter, could not fall into such an error. It is Paul the apostle, who was not less than the very greatest of the apostles—it is Paul, the mighty servant of God, a very prince in Israel, one of the King’s mighty men—it is Paul, the saint and the apostle, who here exclaims, "O wretched man that I am!"
Now, humble Christians are often the dupes of a very foolish error. They look up to certain advanced saints and able ministers, and they say, "Surely, such men as these do not suffer as I do; they do not contend with the same evil passions as those which vex and trouble me."
Ah! if they knew the heart of those men, if they could read their inward conflicts, they would soon discover that the nearer a man lives to God, the more intensely has he to mourn over his own evil heart, and the more his Master honors him in his service, the more also doth the evil of the flesh vex and tease him day by day.
All Christians find themselves struggling at times with wanting to do what is right because of the life of Christ within our hearts. The fact is, it becomes even worse as we mature in our Christian life. Growing closer to Christ and thus wanting to be more like Him and wanting to please him more, the struggle actually grows stronger rather than weaker.
Those who struggle the most against sin are not immature Christians but mature Christians. The hardest battles are waged by God’s saints.
In the midst of our struggles we are sometimes brought to the very edge of despair. But remember although the struggle is real and difficult, the outcome is not bleak or uncertain but glorious because of God.
If you are struggling with sin as I know you are remember that the reason for your struggle is to teach you to rely not on yourself for wining the battle over sin but to rely on God.
