Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

An overview of chapter 7 before we go into the verse by verse study.

What does Romans chapter 7 mean?

In Romans 7, Paul tackles the relationship between the law—the commandments given by God—and human sinfulness. He begins by making it clear that those who are in Christ have been released from any obligation to the law of Moses. This is for the same reason that we have been released from our slavery to sin: We died, and death breaks those obligations. Those who come to faith in Christ are so closely associated with His physical death and resurrection that we experience a kind of spiritual death and are resurrected into a new spiritual life. This is how we are freed from our responsibility to the law.

Paul uses the illustration of the law of marriage. A woman whose husband has died is no longer obligated to remain faithful to him. She is free to marry another man. In a similar way, our death with Christ freed us from our obligation to the law and allows us to serve God in what Paul calls the new way of the Spirit (Romans 7:1–6).

Some apparently thought Paul’s teaching about freedom from the law meant that he believed the law itself to be sinful. He insists that he does not. Instead, it was the law that revealed his own sinfulness to him. He learned that he was covetous after being told by the law not to covet. Worse, as a sinful human being, merely knowing that covetousness was a sin made him want to covet! Our rebellious natures often choose to break rules just for the sake of breaking rules. The law promised Paul life if he could keep the commandments, but he discovered he could not do it. In that sense, the law doomed him to death. Still, though, Paul describes the law as holy, righteous, and good (Romans 7:7–12).

Paul then describes his devastating experience of wanting to do what is good and finding himself doing what is sinful instead. Bible scholars disagree about whether the picture Paul paints of this experience is describing himself before he was a Christian, when he was trying to follow the law, or whether it was a current experience of trying to do good in his own power as a Christian. Based on the Greek tenses used, Paul seems to be describing the ongoing struggle of a believer against sin, rather than something he “got over” when he was saved (Romans 7:13–23).

The difference between the two positions is significant, but both present biblical truths supported elsewhere in Scripture. Certainly, Paul’s whole book stands on the idea that non-Christians are unable to keep the law. That’s why the law cannot make us righteous before God. It is also true that Christians who have been freed from the power of sin often still find the powerful influence of sin terribly difficult to overcome. Becoming a Christian gives a person the power to overcome sin (1 Corinthians 10:13; Romans 6:17), but it does not make one sinless (1 John 1:9–10).

After describing the disconnect between his best intentions to do good and his real-world sinful actions, Paul cries out in frustration that he is a wretched man and asks who will deliver him. He responds by thanking God through Jesus Christ our Lord, implying that he has and/or will find that deliverance only through faith in Christ (Romans 7:24–25).

Verse by Verse

Verse 1: Or do you not know, brothers — for I am speaking to those who know the law — that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives?

This seems to begin a deeper explanation of what Paul wrote back in Romans 6:14, before briefly changing his focus. In verse 14 he wrote that Christians are not under the law but under grace.

Now he expands on that idea with the obvious-sounding statement that the law remains binding only as long as a person lives. He will develop this idea further in the following verses, showing that those who are in Christ have, in fact, died to the law.

First though, he insists that he is speaking to people who know the law, apparently referring to the law of Moses. The first audience for Romans was the Christians in Rome. This would have included Jews who had trusted in Christ, as well as Gentiles. Certainly, Paul’s Jewish readers would have known the law of Moses, but even Gentile Christians would have been taught something about the law.

Paul’s bottom line is that those who died, spiritually, are not required to keep the law they were under while alive. He will use the concept of marriage to illustrate this idea in the following verses.

Verse 2: For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.

This passage in Romans explores the relationship between the law and human sinfulness. The prior section discussed the idea of servitude, either to sin and death, or to righteousness and life through Christ. Here, and the following verse, Paul is illustrating the statement he made in verse 1. There he wrote that the law of Moses remains in effect only for the living. In the same way, the law of marriage binds together two living people. If a woman’s husband dies, legal obligation no longer applies to that relationship. Death is the condition which nullifies that law.

Paul will go on to show that, as he wrote in the previous chapter, those who trust in Christ for the forgiveness of their sin experience a kind of spiritual death and resurrection. Earlier, this was demonstrated as a reason Christians should not—really, cannot—continue to live in sin after being saved. Here, Paul notes that this death, our death with Christ, is what frees us from our obligation to the law.

Verse 3: Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

Earlier, the book of Romans mentioned that salvation in Christ involves a kind of spiritual “death.” The prior context was in turning from sin, and instead choosing to be alive in Christ. Here, Paul is explaining how this same idea means freedom from the obligations of the law. This verse concludes an idea begun in the previous verse. It is an illustration of Paul’s point that someone who has died is no longer bound to follow the law of Moses.

To show this, he points to the “law of marriage” that binds two people together. Paul has written that a married woman is released from this law if her husband dies. Now he repeats this idea, adding that if a woman lives with another man while she is still married, she will be known as an adulteress. If her husband dies, however, the law no longer holds her. She is free to marry another man.

Paul will again state, in the following verse, that Christians have died in a spiritual sense, freeing us from our spiritual obligation to the law.

Verse 4: Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.

Paul brings home the point to which he has been building in this chapter. He has written that one who has died is no longer bound by the law, just as a woman whose husband has died is no longer bound by that marriage. She is free to marry a new husband.

Paul now writes that Christians are the ones who have died, freeing us from our responsibility to the law of Moses. What does this mean? God counts us as being so closely identified with Christ that His physical death on the cross amounts to the death of our old, spiritual selves (Romans 6:6). Paul said repeatedly in the previous chapter that our death “with Christ” has freed us from slavery to sin (Romans 6:2, 18). Now he adds that our death with Christ was also a death “to the law.”

Since we died in this way, our former responsibility to the law is broken and we are free to belong to someone else. Specifically, Christians now belong to Christ, the one who has been raised from the dead.

The verse ends with a statement about the point of our new identity in Christ. Now we exist to bear fruit for God. This death to law and resurrection to Christ has created for us a new purpose. Our lives contribute to God’s harvest of useful “fruit.” The following verses speak more about this fruit.

Verse 5: For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

This verse echoes what Paul wrote at the end of Romans chapter 6. The final result of living as slaves to sin is death, meaning eternal death and separation from God (Romans 6:21). Here he describes slavery to sin as “living in the flesh.” Paul is referring to non-Christians, those who do not have the Spirit of God. By “the flesh,” he means our limited and sin-controlled bodies.

What stirred up our sinful passions to drive us toward sin? Paul says it was, in fact, the law. While this seems like a controversial claim, Paul will later show how the law both made us aware of sin and increased our appetite for it. Again, Paul insists, the result would be the same: death. The “fruit” or outcome of sin-controlled living under the law is always and ever death. This is true both in the sense of the natural consequences of sin, and the eternal penalty of rejecting a perfectly holy God.

Verse 6: But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

What’s the difference between life as a non-Christian and life in Christ? What’s the difference between living “in the flesh” under the law and living in the new way of the Spirit as a believer in Jesus? In the previous verse, Paul described the outcome—the “fruit”—that comes from a life of slavery to sinful passions, stirred up by the restrictions of the law. That end result is always, under all circumstances the same: death.

Now he contrasts that life with one lived in Christ. Christians have been released from the law by the fact of our death. What death? Paul has described our faith in Christ’s death for our sin as causing us to be so closely identified with him that we died, in a spiritual sense, as well. It is that death that has freed us from sin (Romans 6:2, 18) and from our responsibility to the law.

The result of this change is not aimless freedom, but freedom to serve a new purpose, bearing fruit for God (Romans 7:5). We serve in the new way of the Spirit, meaning we serve through the power of God’s Holy Spirit with us, a power we did not have access to before. It’s not the written code of the law that we serve, trying to follow all of its rules and regulations. Instead, we serve the living God.

Verse 7: What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”

Paul has previously written in Romans about the connection between the law of Moses and human sinfulness. In Romans 5:20, he wrote that “the law came in to increase the trespass,” and in verse 5 in this chapter: “our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members.” As with many spiritual ideas, it’s easy to miss the context of a statement, misunderstand it, and take offense as a result. Or, to spin those words off into something the author never really intended.

Paul’s critics may have suggested he was teaching that the law was, in itself, a bad thing. He quickly answers his own question about this by saying “By no means!” This again uses the phrasing mē genoito in the original Greek, a strong, emphatic “may it never be!” This also follows Paul’s pattern of refuting a wrong idea by asking and rejecting an imagined question about it. Paul clarifies: he doesn’t believe the law to be sinful. Instead, it is the way that God reveals to human beings that we are sinful. It shows us what sin is and then reveals our desire to sin in that specific way.

Paul uses the example of coveting, deeply desiring something (or someone) that belongs to another person. God’s law commanded Israel, “You shall not covet” (Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21). Paul learned what coveting was, in a formal sense, from the law. Then, as he writes in the following verse, he discovered the sin of covetousness in himself.

Verse 8: But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.

Paul has rejected the claims of his critics that he believes the law itself to be sinful. Instead, he wrote in the previous verse that the law introduced him to sin. He learned, in a formal sense, what it means to covet another person’s possessions from the law of Moses (Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21). Now he describes how sin took advantage of that command to cause him to become covetous.

Two ideas are at work here. One is that human beings are naturally rebellious in our sinfulness. As soon as we hear about a legal restriction, we want to break it. The very existence of a law provokes us to want to sinfully cross that line. In that sense, the mere existence of the law is something our sin nature will use to encourage us to sin.

The other idea is this: God’s law shines a spotlight into our hearts that allows us to discover the existence of sins we didn’t even know about before. They were still sins, and they were still in our hearts, but the law reveals them to us. This relates to Paul’s earlier comments about how without a law there is no “trespass,” though there is still sin. With this in mind, Paul concludes the verse with a simple, profound statement: Apart from the law, sin lies dead. As Paul wrote in chapter 5, “sin is not counted [recognized] when there is no law” (Romans 5:13). Sin exists whether the law is known, or not, but knowing the law both highlights and, in some ways, tempts us with respect to sin.

Verse 9: I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.

Paul describes himself as someone who once lived with no awareness of the law. In that state, he was “alive.” He doesn’t suggest by this that he was without sin. He seems to be speaking about his own awareness—his perspective. He was alive, in some sense, spiritually. At least, he had no awareness of his spiritual disconnection from God. This is a matter of perception—Paul saw himself in one way, only to find his perspective was wrong.

A few scholars suggest that Paul is describing mankind in general here, perhaps referring to the time before God gave the law to Moses and Israel. Most, however, disagree. When Paul, and people in general, learned about God’s law, they died spiritually. That is, it was the law that made Paul aware of his own sinfulness and separation from God. The law showed Paul that he was a sinner and not a righteous person. This is not unlike a person who enters a doctor’s office thinking they are “alive,” but leaves with a diagnosis that death is imminent—all that really changed was their perspective.

This is why Paul insists that, in spite of the law being a good gift from God, it is not how God intends for us to become righteous people. The law is how God intends for us to learn that we are sinful people.

Verse 10: The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.

In the previous verse, Paul wrote that he died, spiritually, when he became aware of the law. This is meant in the sense of Paul’s own perspective: coming to a realization that he was not righteous, or “good,” but a sinner. Knowing God’s command not to covet, for example, suddenly made Paul aware of how covetous he really was. Thanks to his sin nature, there were ways in which it made him desire to covet even more.

Now he writes that the commandments promised life. That is, some believed the purpose of the law was to show human beings how to live in order to be righteous before God. If we will just keep the commandments, in other words, God will give us life. True though that may be, in a literal sense, Paul writes once more that the law could not actually keep any such promise. Why? Because nobody can keep the commands of the law (Romans 3:10, 23). We all break them. Paul wrote that learning of the law proved only that he was spiritually dead and unable to do what pleased God.

Verse 11: For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

Paul repeats an idea he introduced in verse 8 of this chapter. He was talking about his response to learning of God’s command not to covet (Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21). The very existence of this command from God created an opportunity that sin pounced on. Suddenly, Paul was both aware of his own covetousness, and driven by a desire to covet!

Now he writes again about how sin seized the opportunity created by God’s commands in the law. This time, though, he describes sin as deceiving him or leading him astray. Sin lied to Paul, as it lies to all of us. How does sin lead us astray? It convinces us that acting on our own desires is better in some way than obeying God. As the serpent did with Eve in the garden, sin says to us, “God is not good” or “You will not surely die.”

The truth, though, is that God is good, and that sin always leads to death. Paul writes here that sin’s deception killed him, metaphorically speaking, describing his spiritual death and separation from God. Sin does the same to all of us, and the law makes us aware of our sinfulness.

Verse 12: So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Paul has been answering a false charge from his critics: that he was teaching that the law of Moses was sinful. He was not doing that. Instead, Paul taught how the law—God’s commands—makes us aware of the sin already within us. The law makes us aware that we are sinners, spiritually dead and separated from God. Instead of seeing ourselves as good, and moral, we realize we’re corrupt and in need of forgiveness.

Now Paul says outright that God’s law, the law of Moses, is holy. The commandments in the law are holy and righteous and good, Paul insists. The law was a great gift from God to the people of Israel. In the law, God revealed His heart and His standards for right living. Paul wants to make sure every reader knows that he is not condemning the law. Instead, Paul has pointed to the greatest benefit of God’s beautiful, perfect law: It shows us that we can never keep the law, that instead we are sinners in need of saving.

Verse 13: Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

Paul is taking great pains to clarify that he does not believe the law of Moses to be sinful. Now he goes even further. The law was not responsible for Paul’s spiritual death and separation from God. “By no means!” Here, again, Paul uses his common Greek phrase meant to dismiss something entirely: mē genoito!

Paul returns to his central message: Our sinfulness is what causes our spiritual death and separation from God, not God’s good law. Sin only takes advantage of the law, God’s revealed standard of right and wrong, to demonstrate clearly that we are sinners. And, it leverages our rebellious nature to use our knowledge of the law as an inspiration for more sin. God’s commands shine the spotlight on just how sinful we humans really are, continuing to disobey God even after we hear His law. In fact, we find ourselves sinning all the more.

In other words, we are why God’s good and beautiful law cannot save us. We cannot keep it. We need to be saved in some other way.

Verse 14: For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.

Bible scholars and teachers disagree about Paul’s intended voice in this passage. Some feel Paul is describing himself, now, presently, as a Christian. Others believe he is describing his life before he accepted Christ. How one interprets these verses is especially important when it comes to these next few verses. Most likely, Paul is speaking from a here-and-now standpoint, about his own experience. In the original Greek, Paul has shifted, in this very section, to using first-person, single-person, present-tense words. Earlier passages spoke from a plural voice, or a future tense. In a literal, grammatical sense, Paul has made a noticeable shift in his language, which suggests this is a very personal and literal discussion.

Here Paul writes that we know that the law is spiritual. It is commonly understood among Christians that the law was about a human being’s spiritual condition. Perhaps, if we were simply spiritual beings, we might be able to keep the law. The problem, Paul writes, is that he is—and by extension, we all are—”fleshly” beings, or “of the flesh.” Paul exists in a body and that body is driven by sinful desires. In addition, Paul describes himself as living in a body, flesh, which has been “sold under sin.”

Those who believe Paul is describing his life before being a Christian understand him to be talking about being a slave to sin, under its power and authority. In the previous chapter, Paul described slavery to sin as a condition of non-Christians (Romans 6:20). Those who see Paul as describing his life as a Christian hear him saying that his body, his flesh, was previously sold as a slave to sin and still desires sinful things, though he has been freed from sin through faith in Christ.

His broader point is that it is the flesh, our unspiritual minds and bodies, which contains those sinful desires and impulses that keep us from obeying God’s spiritual law.

Verse 15: For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

Is this verse and the verses to follow describing Paul before he was a Christian or after? Bible scholars disagree with each other, and the difference has some significance. In a literal sense, Paul’s Greek in this passage shifts into a first-person, singular, present-tense form. This contrasts with other parts of Romans which use more general terms. At least according to his choice of language, Paul seems to be speaking of himself in a direct and literal way.

Paul characterizes himself as a person who continually does the opposite of what he himself wants to do. Instead of doing the things he wants to do, he does what he hates, instead. This is frustrating—why is this happening?

Those who believe Paul is describing his life before becoming a Christian understand Paul to mean that those who are still under the law are confused about why they cannot keep the law. Why do they keep disobeying God’s commands even when they don’t want to? Bible scholars with this view understand the previous verse to describe someone who is still a slave to sin, not someone who has be freed from sin through faith in Christ (Romans 6:2, 18, 22).

Bible scholars who believe Paul is describing himself as a Christian believe that he is being deeply honest about ongoing struggle with sin. Although Christians have been freed from sin’s power, we continue to live under its powerful influence. Sometimes we may feel exactly as Paul describes. We continue to do what we hate—we sin—even when we mean to do what was right. It’s not that we are still slaves to sin, but that we are divided by our own competing desires.

Regardless of any disagreement about Paul’s perspective here, Bible scholars agree that both non-Christians and Christians may express this feeling. Both may set out to do the right thing and find themselves doing a wrong thing, instead, without fully knowing why. This is part and parcel of being a fallible, mortal human being (2 Corinthians 5:2).

Verse 16: Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.

Bible scholars disagree about Paul’s exact perspective in Romans 7:15–25. Is he describing himself before he became a Christian or after? Paul’s choice of Greek words here strongly suggests that this is a personal, literal description of his current experience. His phrasing in this section contrasts with other parts of Romans in the use of first-person, singular, present-tense construction. In either case, he seems to be saying that his desire to do good, even if he doesn’t actually do it, shows that he agrees that God’s law is good.

In other words, the fact that any person—Christian or not—wants to “do right,” instead of “do wrong,” is itself evidence that God’s law is “beautiful, noble, upright,” which is what the Greek word for “good” means here. Put another way, wanting to do good shows that we humans know that God is right in the commands He has given to us in His law, even if we do not keep them.

Verse 17: So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Some might attempt to read this verse as Paul saying he is not responsible for his own sinful actions. Clearly, though, the context of this passage makes it clear that is not what Paul means. He has written that even though he wants to do good, he ends up doing what he hates instead: he sins. His personal desire is to do the right thing, to obey God’s law. Even in Paul’s case, growing up as a devout Jewish person (Philippians 3:4–7), was not enough to keep him from disobeying God. The lure of sin won out over Paul’s sincere interest in doing right.

In this way, Paul says the problem is not with his intentions. Rather, it is the sin in him that overcomes his intentions and leads him to do what is wrong anyway.

Bible scholars disagree about whether Paul is describing himself in this section of verses as he was before becoming a Christian or after. Examining the Greek language used here makes it all but certain that Paul is speaking in a here-and-now, first-person sense. Compared to other parts of Romans, Paul’s choice of words and tenses makes this appear to be a very literal and personal account.

Those who believe Paul has constructed a framework to describe himself without Christ see this section as the definition of what it means to be a slave to sin, even as a Jewish person who lives under the law. They may sincerely want to obey God, but their slavery to sin overwhelms their good intentions. They just can’t resist sin’s power.

However, Bible scholars who believe Paul is describing the experience of one who is in Christ understand him to be talking about sin’s powerful influence over even those who have been freed from sin’s ultimate power and authority. The sin that remains in us is not our master, but it remains powerful and persuasive.

Verse 18: For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

Is Paul presenting himself as he was before he came to Christ, back when he was trying to follow the law of Moses as a good Jewish person? Or is Paul describing his experience as Christian who has been freed from sin (Romans 6:2, 18, 22)? Bible scholars disagree about Paul’s intent. The specific Greek tenses and words Paul uses here, however, strongly suggests that this is a personal, present, and literal struggle.

In either case, Paul’s struggle with sin has brought him to make a blunt declaration: He has learned that nothing good lives in his flesh, his unspiritual mind and body. As a physical human being, good does not come out of him, no matter his best effort.

Why would Paul say such a thing? He has observed the pattern in himself over and over again. He wants to do the right thing. He is sincere. Still, he ends up doing the sinful thing he hates. He has accepted the fact that he, on his own, is not source of what he calls “good.” He has the desire, but not the ability, to do what is right.

This fits with what Paul has said about those who are under the law. Their attempt to follow the law reveals to them that they are unable to keep the law, that they are truly slaves to sin.

Verse 19: For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

In the previous verse, Paul declared that nothing good dwells in his flesh. By flesh, he referred to his physical self, his body. He repeats now the pattern he has observed over and over in his life: He doesn’t do the good he wants to do, but he keeps doing the evil he does not want to do. Paul is describing an endless battle between good intentions and actual actions.

Is he describing himself as he was before he came to know Christ? Back then, he was attempting to follow the law of Moses. A few Bible scholars believe Paul is painting the picture of what it is like to live under the law without the ability to keep the law. Other Bible scholars think Paul is describing the experience of all Christians struggling to stop sinning and to do the good they are capable of doing in the power of the Holy Spirit now that they are no longer slaves to sin. Both harmonize with the experience of believers and the information presented in the rest of the New Testament.

Based on analysis of the Greek language alone, it seems more likely that Paul is speaking of his current experience.

Verse 20: Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Paul repeats almost exactly what he wrote in verses 16–17. He clearly wants to make sure his readers understand what he is saying. He paints a picture once more of a battle between his good intentions and the sin that lives in him. He describes his intentions as wanting to do good, to follow the law of Moses, to obey God. That’s the “real him.” The sin in him, though, wins out over his best inclinations.

Some Bible scholars believe Paul to be describing his life before becoming a Christian, when he lived as one of the Jewish religious leaders. That makes sense in light of his larger point that simply wanting to follow the law of Moses does not save anyone because nobody succeeds. Everybody still sins.

Other scholars understand Paul to be describing his experience with sin as a Christian. They insist that while it’s true Paul had been freed from slavery to sin (as all Christians are), he continued to experience the powerful temptation to sin (as all Christians do). This also makes more sense of the Greek language Paul uses here, which has shifted into a first-person, present-tense, singular perspective, one quite different from his prior words.

Whichever Paul meant to communicate, both positions have merit. Non-Christians may very well have the desire to obey God, but Paul has taught in Romans that without Christ we do not have the ability to keep ourselves from sinning. It’s also true that Christians, while never under obligation to sin, often “catch themselves” in the act of doing the exact opposite of the good thing they set out to do. They continue, on some level, to feel divided between their desire to sin and their desire to serve God.

Verse 21: So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

Paul has been describing his inability to keep the law of Moses, to consistently obey all of God’s Old Testament commands to Israel. Now he uses the word “law” to describe not the law of Moses but a universal principle of human behavior: Whenever we want to do what is right, evil is waiting nearby.

Paul’s use of the word “evil” is striking. He is not describing his tendency to sin in the face of his good intentions as a bad habit or a personality disorder. He is describing sin as his desire to do evil, the opposite of good. Paul feels the desire to do what is right, and then he experiences the sin inside of him take over and choose to do evil instead.

Is Paul describing his experience as a non-Christian Jewish man, attempting to follow the law of Moses or as a Christian who has been freed from the power of sin but not from the desire to sin? Bible scholars disagree about that, though an analysis of Paul’s Greek tenses here strongly suggests he’s speaking of his present, personal condition. In either case, the principle that evil lies close at hand even when we set out to do good holds true. Christians are certainly capable of taking an unexpected left turn into sin even though we are no longer slaves to sin because Christ has set us free.

Verse 22: For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,

This verse echoes the writer of Psalm 119, as he declared his delight in God’s law (Psalm 119:16, 24, 47). Paul, like Aleph, said with sincerity that he too delighted in the law of God in his “inner being” or “inner man.” Paul uses this same phrase in 2 Corinthians 4:16 and Ephesians 3:16 to describe the true self inside a person that God renews and strengthens through the Holy Spirit.

Bible scholars who believe Paul is describing the experience of Christians in this section point to this verse as evidence of “regeneration.” In other words, they insist that only someone who is in Christ would delight in the law of God in his or her inner being. Paul is saying that he really, truly does love God’s law and wants to follow it. This interpretation also seems to fit Paul’s Greek grammar, which has shifted in this passage to a first-person, present-tense style.

On the other hand, scholars who believe Paul is describing his life before becoming a Christian, point to the next verse as evidence for their perspective. Paul will write that in spite of his love for God’s law, he finds himself captive to the law of sin. These scholars point to statements Paul made in Romans 6:2, 18, and 22 that Christians are freed from slavery to sin through faith in Christ.

Verse 23: but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

Paul declared in the previous verse his delight in the law of God in his inner being. This fits with what he has written in this section about truly wanting to do good, to obey God. Now he expands on what he has said repeatedly happens when he sets out to do good: he finds sin lurking nearby.

More specifically, he finds three universal principles to be true about all of his attempts to do good in his own power. He calls all three of these principles “laws.” First, he sees in his members, his body, a law or principle that is waging war against the law of his mind. In other words, the sinful desires that live in his flesh and blood and body go to war against the law of his mind that wants to do what is right. A great conflict takes place. The result of this war, Paul writes, is that he is taken captive by the law of sin that lives inside of the members of his body. In the end, he does not do the good he sets out to do, but he does the evil he never meant to do.

Bible scholars who believe Paul is describing his experience before becoming a Christian, while he was trying to follow the law of Moses, point to this verse as evidence for their position. After all, Paul wrote in Romans 6:2, 18, and 22 that Christians have died to sin and have been set free from it. How, then, could this description of being captive to the law of sin apply to a Christian?

Then again, other scholars suggest that Paul, describing his experience even as a Christian, is not describing an inescapable captivity. They say he is describing why and how Christians sometimes give in to sinful temptation and end up trapped, in a way, by sin’s deception, but still free from sin’s authority over us. This idea that Paul is speaking of his present condition also makes more sense of his choice of words. In Greek, this passage represents a shift into a personal, singular, here-and-now type perspective.

In either case, human beings are shown to be deeply vulnerable on our own and apart from God’s power when it comes to sin. Good intentions are not enough to keep us from doing what it wrong. Paul has shown that those without Christ are clearly hopeless to avoid sin. Christians, too, must rely on God’s power through the Holy Spirit to choose good or evil (Galatians 5:16–24).

Verse 24: Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

After expressing the frustration of continuing to sin in spite of his desire to do good and follow the law of Moses, Paul now cries out in desperation: Wretched man that I am! Who will save me from this body of death?

It’s worthwhile to represent two perspectives about what Paul intends to say in this section. A few Bible scholars believe Paul is describing himself before he became a Christian, back when he was following the law. In that case, the cry in this verse is an admission of his complete inability to do what is right no matter how hard he tries. He comes to see that he is truly a slave to his own sinfulness with no hope of escape. He acknowledges that he needs someone to step in and save him from his “body of death”? Paul has been clear that sin lives in the members of his body (Romans 7:23) and that sin always leads to death (Romans 7:10–13). The sinfulness that lives inside of him will kill him unless he is rescued.

Other Bible scholars and teachers understand Paul to be expressing his great frustration as a Christian. The specific Greek grammar Paul uses here certainly suggests this is his intention. While earlier passages used plural voices, or past and future tenses, this section is in a first-person, singular, present-tense voice. At least in literary terms, Paul speaks from the here-and-now. Although he has been freed from slavery to sin, he has not lost his desire to sin. Sin in his body continues to trip him up even as he sees it for the evil that it is. Perhaps he cries out to be released from his sin-riddled body and be given a new body beyond the reach of his own sinful desires, something he will talk about in the following chapter. Perhaps he cries out for the Holy Spirit to give him power to overcome the sin from which he cannot seem to escape (Galatians 5:16–24).

In either case, Paul will immediately and emphatically answer the question, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” in the following verse.

Verse 25: Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

In the previous verse, Paul cried out in frustration over his inability to stop sinning even when he wanted to do good. He called himself a wretched man and asked who would deliver him from his body of death.

Now he answers that question: Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Paul understands that only God can save him from sin and death and that God does so through faith in Jesus Christ.

This answer is true whether Paul is describing himself as he was before becoming a Christian or after. Only God can release the non-Christian from his slavery to sin by His grace and through his faith in Jesus. Specifically, by faith in Christ, God gives us credit for Jesus’ sinless righteousness and takes Jesus’ death as payment for our sin.

In the same way, only God can give the Christian the power to set aside our desire to sin and to do what is good and right. Galatians 5 calls this walking by the Spirit, in His power instead of ours. It is the only hope any of us have to serve God in this life.

Paul immediately turns back to the heart of his message, however: He declares that he serves God’s law with his mind but his natural, sin-stained body is tempted by the law of sin.