Romans 7:14-25
14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now 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.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
My youngest, who is 10, suggested that this Sunday before the 4th of July, I should preach on God’s freedom from sin. Great idea! That is the perfect topic to go along with the day when we celebrate the United States’ freedom from British rule. At first glance, it might seem like Romans 7 is a poor text to use to talk about freedom from sin. Here, in chapter 7, Paul seems to be stating that he is not free from sin. Isn’t he saying that no matter how he doesn’t want to, he just can’t keep from sinning? He says in verse 19, “For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” That doesn’t sound like freedom from sin, does it? In fact, it sounds like he is trapped in a perpetual cycle of sin. At least that’s what a lot of scholars have concluded. I recently was given an article to read that was written about this very chapter of Romans. In it, the person stated that in Romans 7, “Paul proceeds to make a series of brazen assertions about the law alongside some excruciating confessions about himself, all of which leave us nearly doubting Paul’s salvation… he gives the impression that he’s unfit to run a small group Bible study… What kind of Christian admits to their complete inability to do any ‘good thing’?” This same author also admits that chapter 7 doesn’t seem to line up with the rest of Romans, especially chapters 6 and 8. That should sound some alarm bells, shouldn’t it? If the conclusion that has been drawn from chapter 7 contradicts the other chapters, wouldn’t that suggest that the conclusion is incorrect? (If you want to read this article, it is called, Hope for these Bodies of Death, and it can be found at 1517.com)
Rather than accepting the idea that Paul is describing his personal inability to do any good since it contradicts other things Paul has said, what else could Paul mean by using the personal pronoun “I”? N.T. Wright states in his book, Paul for Everyone, “It is not intended as an exact description of Paul’s, or anyone else’s, actual experience … [Paul is trying] to describe the actual situation (as opposed to the felt experience) of Israel living under the law… [and Paul] has described the problem of Israel under the law so that it looks exactly like the problem which every puzzled pagan moralist from at least Aristotle onwards had observed… [which is] they could see with their mind that a certain course of action was wrong, and yet they went ahead and did it anyway” (p. 127-128).
This conclusion that N.T. Wright has drawn, seems consistent with the bigger picture of Romans. Paul spends a great deal of time detailing in the first 6 chapters why God gave the law to Israel, explaining how it applied to Israel and how it now applies to the gentiles. Other people don’t agree with N.T. Wright and other scholars, though. So, for argument’s sake, let’s say that Paul isn’t talking about Israel. Let’s explore the idea that he’s talking about the human condition and using the personal “I” to mean all people. That’s a possibility, and one that I have agreed with, but, if we conclude that Paul, and thus all of us Christians, are doomed to a life of never being able to do the thing we know we ought to do, that conclusion is inconsistent with not just the other chapters of Romans, it contradicts Paul’s other writings.
Look at what Paul says in Galatians 5:16-18, “16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”
Why would Paul tell the Galatians to walk by the Spirit so they won’t gratify the flesh? Wouldn’t he instead tell them, “Even though you are trying to walk by the Spirit, you won’t be able to, you’ll still gratify your flesh”? He is instructing them to not gratify the flesh, to not do whatever they want, but instead do what the Spirit would have them do. Why would he give them that instruction if they could not do it?
But let’s assume that he is not talking about pagan thought or using the personal “I” to mean Israel or even people in general. Let’s assume he is only talking about himself. Working from this assumption, I still don’t think it’s correct to say that this is the description of a man who is unfit to even lead a Bible study as the person who wrote the article I mentioned earlier stated. I think that is jumping to a conclusion that is nowhere hinted at in scripture. He had a sordid past, but nowhere do we see (other than if you draw this conclusion off chapter 7) Paul stating that he was involved in grave moral failure after his conversion. In fact we see the opposite. For example, in Romans 15:1, Paul describes himself as a mature believer. He says, “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak…”. If only Paul would have simply listed the sins that he is struggling against doing, for then I think we would interpret this passage very differently. I see no evidence in any of his other letters that he struggled with habitual sin. He struggled with some sort of physical ailment, but that was not a sin issue. Rather, I think Paul is so attuned to the Holy Spirit that all sin has become amplified to him.
My son, who loves to discuss theology with me, asked me about this very chapter and verse not too long ago. It led us to some wonderful discussions about sin and the human condition. Not accounting for the possibility that Paul is describing Israel, I explained this passage as Paul describing the human condition. We are all waging a war against our fleshly nature. Daily we have to choose to fight against our sin nature. If we are saved, we are given the tools to fight against it and win. But, because of our free will, we can choose not to fight the good fight. We can decide to be selfish, grouchy, mean or lazy. It’s hard to always do the right thing. We can know what the right thing to do is, but just not do it. I’m talking about heart issues, too. Do we let ourselves ignore our neighbor when we should help them? Do we wish ill of someone rather than pray for them? Until Jesus comes back or takes us to Him, we will fight our flesh. We will have to choose to walk by the Spirit and not walk by our flesh. This is what I think Paul is talking about, if we look at what he is saying simply from a personal perspective. Paul is not caught in a willful, habitual sin. He is simply aware of the depth of his sinful nature.
I explain it to my children like this: the longer we walk with the Lord, the more sin the Holy Spirit will reveal to us. When we first become Christians, God just points out the obvious sin that will immediately hurt us. He wants to take care of the big-ticket items first. Then, as we follow Him, He slowly starts pointing out the other issues that He wants to deal with. He wants to set us free from more things. The more time we spend with Him, the more He reveals our sin. He wants us to become more and more like Him. We will always be in this situation until we die or Jesus comes back.
I see evidence for this in what Paul wrote in Philippians. It’s a bit long, but I think it’s vital to this argument: Philippians 3:1-21
Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. 2 Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. 3 For it is we who are the circumcision ,we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. 7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 15 All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained. 17 Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Paul is pressing on. He’s not saying that he is stuck is sin and will have to wallow in it. He’s saying that we should follow his example to live as he does. To set our minds not earthly things. He’s pressing on to follow the example that Christ laid out. He’s clarifying that our salvation is not from works, but from faith. Our righteousness is garbage compared to the righteousness that Jesus imputes to us, but he is straining and striving to live consistent with this goal of winning the prize. We’ve been given righteousness through Jesus Christ. If Christ has forgiven us of our sins and declared us righteous, we now have the power through the Holy Spirit to overcome our flesh. If we walk, being led by our flesh, then we will become dragged down by sin and it won’t match the freedom that Christ has won for us. Instead of returning to sin and being weighed down by sin, even becoming enslaved to it again, we should walk according to the Spirit and lay off every sin that would entangle us. Paul is saying that until we reach our glorified state, we will have to fight against our flesh. It does not mean that we are stuck in sin. It means that Christ has given us the way to put off the flesh, if we will just follow Him. We will never arrive at sinlessness this side of eternity, but that is no reason to let sin pile up. As 1 John 1:9 promises, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” If He is cleansing us, how could we be perpetually trapped, enslaved to sin, as some say that Paul is saying?
But what do I know? Why should you take my words for it? I found a quote by a man named J.I. Packer, who was a much more learned scholar than me. I don’t know what he has written about other topics, so this is not an endorsement for or against him, but I completely agree with what he is quoted as having said. I am including this quote because he summarizes so wonderfully what I am trying to explain so clumsily:
Packer gently leaned over the table, looked me in the eye, and said, “Young man, Paul wasn’t struggling with sin because he was such a sinner. Paul was struggling because he was such a saint. Sin makes you numb. People who sin over and over again become desensitized to sin. The reason Paul’s ‘struggle’ was so intense was not because he was caught in a web of sin, or because he thought of himself as hopelessly doomed to giving into the temptations that he faced. Rather, it was because Paul lived a life so sensitive to the Holy Spirit and passionate about the glory of God that he intensely felt his sins whenever he became aware that he had committed a sin (since he was not, of course, sinlessly perfect)” (https://www.biola.edu/blogs/good-book-blog/2012/a-key-insight-about-romans-7-from-a-conversation-with-j-i-packer).
Paul is not confessing dark sins that should make us doubt his faith. He is not stating that we Christians are doomed to always doing the things we don’t want to do. That concept does not fit into the rest of the Gospel message. Jesus died on the cross to purchase our freedom. He has set us free! Jesus didn’t say, I forgive you, go away, but know that you’ll come back to me tomorrow and need to be forgiven of that sin again and again because you’ll never be able to do the right thing. What did Jesus say? He said, go and sin no more. That must mean that He has equipped us to be able to not do that sin again. Otherwise, what hope do we have? Will the alcoholic always go back to drinking? Will the porn addict never be free from addiction? Should the person who smokes just keep smoking because it’s pointless to even try to quit? Should the person who screams at their children not bother to ask God for self-control? I don’t believe God is too weak to set me free from sin. I don’t find comfort and relief in believing that I will always be a sinner, but it’s okay because Christ has done it all for me. No, I want to follow the God who says: I love you so much that I died on the cross to take away your sin; I will give you My righteousness and set you free from sin; follow Me, live by My Spirit, and you won’t have to be shackled with sin any longer; I will keep setting you free from the sin that weighs you down; we will work on this until the day we are together and then no longer will you have to battle.
Why would we think God can’t set us free from sin? Why would we surrender ourselves to sin? That concept of being stuck in our sinful state contradicts what Paul has said in all his other chapters and letters. If we simply read the whole of Romans, and not pluck a chapter or verse from it, Paul’s message becomes pretty clear.
Look at what he says in the previous chapter, Chapter 6:14&18, “For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace… You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” And in the following chapter, Romans 8:1-13, 1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
Which is it? If we read chapter 7 the way some people do, then Paul is contradicting himself. How can he be a slave to sin if sin is no longer his master? How can he be set free from sin if he is stuck only doing the sinful things he doesn’t want to do? Scripture won’t contradict itself, so the error cannot be Paul’s. It must be our interpretation that is incorrect. As Paul himself said in Romans 6:1-4, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
Christ died so that we could be set free from sin. 1 Corinthians 15:56 & 57 says, “56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” That means that we, through Jesus Christ, have victory over sin. We are no longer a slave to sin. We can now claim that victory that Jesus bought. We should draw the same conclusion that Paul did after he made his statements about doing the things he did not want to do. He said what the law could not do, God did! By the Spirit, we can put to death the misdeeds of the body. We can do the things we know we ought to do, IF the Spirit of God lives in us. Through Christ, we can live a new life, led by the Spirit of God. That is good news, indeed! We do not have to live as a slave to sin. There is freedom from sin!
What if we don’t live this way though? What if we just believe that we are doomed to keep sinning. Then we won’t think sin is a big deal and we will keep on willfully sinning. That’s as ridiculous as if after the revolutionary war the new citizens of the U.S.A. kept calling themselves British citizens and kept paying taxes to King George. What if they didn’t claim their new citizenship? What if they didn’t want to be free? What if they kept living like they were subjects of England? It is the same for us believers. Why would we keep living in the kingdom of darkness? We have freedom from sin. Why would we want to be slaves to sin again? Let us be like Paul, not the misinterpreted, habitual sinner Paul, but Paul who declares in Romans 8:37, “ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
Prayer: Thank You Lord Jesus for dying on the cross for us so we can be set free from sin. Help us to live victoriously in this new life You have purchased for us. Help us to walk by Your Spirit and not give in to the works of the flesh. We thank You for forgiving us and for giving us the power, by Your Holy Spirit, to say no to sin. We love You and praise Your name, amen.
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