TONIGHT’S TEXT
Romans 7:14-25 NRSV Updated Edition
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin.[a] 15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17 But in fact it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that the good does not dwell within me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that, when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God[b] through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with my mind I am enslaved to the law of God, but with my flesh I am enslaved to the law of sin.
GOING DEEPER
1, The CONTEXT … which precedes our text for today …
Or do you not know, brothers and sisters — for I am speaking to those who know the law — that the law is binding on a person only during that person’s lifetime? 2 Thus a married woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning the husband. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she belongs to another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she belongs to another man, she is not an adulteress.
4 In the same way, my brothers and sisters, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. 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. 6 But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are enslaved in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the written code.
7 What then are we to say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived 10 and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.
13 Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin that was working death in me through what is good, in order that it might be shown to be sin, so that through the commandment sin might become sinful beyond measure.
2. A summary, as per The Enduring Word Commentary …
A. We are dead to the Law.
1. The law has authority only over the living. (1-3)
2. Our death with Jesus sets us free from the law. (4)
3. The problem with the law. (5)
4. Delivered from the law. (6)
B. Our problem with God’s perfect law.
1. The law is not sin … It is good because it reveals sin to us. (7)
2. Sin corrupts the commandment (law). (8)
3. Paul’s state of innocence before he knew the law. (9)
4. Sin corrupts the law and defeats its purpose of giving life; once law is corrupted by sin, it brings death. (10-12)
C. The purpose and character of the law.
1. The law exposes and magnifies sin. (13)
Back to our text for tonight …
| Romans 7:14-25 NRSV | Romans 7:14-25 NET | Romans 7:14-25 NLT |
| 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, (carnal ~KJV, fleshly ~ NASB) sold into slavery under sin.[a]
15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. |
14 For we know that the law is spiritual — but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin.[a]
15 For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want — instead, I do what I hate. |
14 So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin.
15 I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. |
| 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17 But in fact it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. | 16 But if I do what I don’t want, I agree that the law is good.[c] 17 But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me. | 16 But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. 17 So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. |
| 18 For I know that the good does not dwell within me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. | 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it.[d] 19 For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want! | 18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a] I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. |
| 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. | 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me. | 20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. |
| 21 So I find it to be a law that, when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self,
23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
|
21 So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God in my inner being.
23 But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. |
21 I have discovered this principle of life — that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart.
23 But there is another power[b] within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. |
| 24 Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God[b] through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with my mind I am enslaved to the law of God, but with my flesh I am enslaved to the law of sin. |
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be[e] to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then,[f] I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but[g] with my flesh I serve[h] the law of sin. |
24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.
So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. |
Romans 7:14 NRSV Updated Edition
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin.[a]
The spiritual law cannot restrain a carnal man.
The word carnal simply means “of the flesh.” Paul recognizes that a spiritual law cannot help a carnal man.
Carnal uses the ancient Greek word sarkikos, which means, “characterized by the flesh.” In this context it speaks of the person who can and should do differently but does not. Paul sees this carnality in himself, and knows that the law, though it is spiritual, has no answer for his carnal nature.
Sold under sin: Paul is in bondage under sin and the law can’t help him out. He is like a man arrested for a crime and thrown in jail. The law will only help him if he is innocent, but Paul knows that he is guilty and that the law argues against him, not for him.
Even though Paul says that he is carnal, it doesn’t mean that he is not a Christian. His awareness of carnality shows that God did a work in him.
I am carnal, sold under sin: “That is the proof of the spiritual and wise man. He knows that he is carnal, and he is displeased with himself; indeed, he hates himself and praises the Law of God, which he recognizes because he is spiritual. But the proof of a foolish, carnal man is this, that he regards himself as spiritual and is pleased with himself.” (Luther)
15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
The struggle of obedience in our own strength.
- The law says: “Here are the rules and you had better keep them.” But it gives us no power for keeping the law. (Guzik)
Paul describes his sense of helplessness.
- Paul’s problem isn’t a lack of desire – he wants to do what is right.
- His problem isn’t knowledge – he knows what the right thing is. His problem is a lack of power: how to perform what is good I do not find.
- He lacks power because the law gives no power.
16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good.
17 But in fact it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me.
Is Paul denying his responsibility as a sinner?
- No. He recognizes that as he sins, he acts against his nature as a new man in Jesus Christ.
- A Christian must own up to his sin, yet realize that the impulse to sin does not come from who we really are in Jesus Christ.
18 For I know that the good does not dwell within me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability.
19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.
i. “To be saved from sin, a man must at the same time own it and disown it; it is this practical paradox which is reflected in this verse. A true saint may say it in a moment of passion, but a sinner had better not make it a principle.” (Wuest)
20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me.
(20-23) The battle between two selves.
a. I find then a law, that evil is present with me: Anyone who has tried to do good is aware of this struggle. We never know how hard it is to stop sinning until we try. “No man knows how bad he is until he has tried to be good.” (C.S. Lewis)
21 So I find it to be a law that, when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand.
22 For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man: Paul knows that his real inward man has a delight in the law of God. He understands that the impulse towards sin comes from another law in my members. Paul knows that the “real self” is the one who does delight in the law of God.
The old man is not the real Paul; the old man is dead. The flesh is not the real Paul; the flesh is destined to pass away and be resurrected. The new man is the real Paul; now Paul’s challenge is to live like God has made him.
There is a debate among Christians as to if Paul was a Christian during the experience he describes. Some look at his struggle with sin and believe that it must have been before he was born again. Others believe that he is just a Christian struggling with sin. In a sense this is an irrelevant question, for this is the struggle of anyone who tries to obey God in their own strength. This experience of struggle and defeat is something that a Christian may experience, but something that a non-Christian can only experience.
iii. Morris quoting Griffith Thomas: “The one point of the passages is that it describes a man who is trying to be good and holy by his own efforts and is beaten back every time by the power of indwelling sin; it thus refers to anyone, regenerate or unregenerate.”
c. Warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin: Sin is able to war within Paul and win because there is no power in himself other than himself, to stop sinning. Paul is caught in the desperate powerlessness of trying to battle sin in the power of self.
24 Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
E. The victory found in Jesus Christ.
1. (24) Paul’s desperation and perspective.
O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
a. O wretched man that I am! The ancient Greek word wretched is more literally, “wretched through the exhaustion of hard labor.” Paul is completely worn out and wretched because of his unsuccessful effort to please God under the principle of Law.
i. “It is worth bearing in mind that the great saints through the ages do not commonly say, ‘How good I am!’ Rather, they are apt to bewail their sinfulness.” (Morris)
ii. Legalism always brings a person face to face with their own wretchedness, and if they continue in legalism, they will react in one of two ways. Either they will deny their wretchedness and become self-righteous Pharisees, or they will despair because of their wretchedness and give up following after God.
b. O wretched man that I am! The entire tone of the statement shows that Paul is desperate for deliverance. He is overwhelmed with a sense of his own powerlessness and sinfulness. We must come to the same place of desperation to find victory.
i. Your desire must go beyond a vague hope to be better. You must cry out against yourself and cry out unto God with the desperation Paul had.
c. Who will deliver me: Paul’s perspective finally turns to something (actually, someone) outside of himself. Paul has referred to himself some 40 times since Romans 7:13. In the pit of his unsuccessful struggle against sin, Paul became entirely self-focused and self-obsessed. This is the place of any believer living under law, who looks to self and personal performance rather than looking first to Jesus.
i. The words “Who will deliver me” show that Paul has given up on himself, and asks “Who will deliver me?” instead of “How will I deliver myself?”
ii. “It is not the voice of one desponding or doubting, but of one breathing and panting after deliverance.” (Poole)
d. Who will deliver me from this body of death? When Paul describes this body of death, some commentators see a reference to ancient kings who tormented their prisoners by shackling them to decomposing corpses. Paul longed to be free from the wretched body of death clinging to him.
i. “It was the custom of ancient tyrants, when they wished to put men to the most fearful punishments, to tie a dead body to them, placing the two back to back; and there was the living man, with a dead body closely strapped to him, rotting, putrid, corrupting, and this he must drag with him wherever he went. Now, this is just what the Christian has to do. He has within him the new life; he has a living and undying principle, which the Holy Spirit has put within him, but he feels that everyday he has to drag about with him this dead body, this body of death, a thing as loathsome, as hideous, as abominable to his new life, as a dead stinking carcass would be to a living man.” (Spurgeon)
ii. Others see a reference to sin in general, such as Murray: “Body has been taken to mean mass and body of death the whole mass of sin. Hence what Paul longs to be delivered from is sin in all its aspects and consequences.”
iii. “By the body of death he means the whole mass of sin, or those ingredients of which the whole man is composed; except that in him there remained only relics, by the captive bonds of which he was held.” (Calvin)
25 Thanks be to God[b] through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Paul finally looks outside of himself to Jesus.
Finally, Paul looks outside of himself and unto Jesus. As soon as he looks to Jesus, he has something to thank God for – and he thanks God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Through means that Paul sees Jesus standing between himself and God, bridging the gap and providing the way to God. Lord means Paul has put Jesus in the right place – as Lord and master of his life.
So then, with my mind I am enslaved to the law of God, but with my flesh I am enslaved to the law of sin.
He acknowledges the state of struggle, but thanks God for the victory in Jesus. Paul doesn’t pretend that looking to Jesus takes away the struggle – Jesus works through us, not instead of us in the battle against sin.
The glorious truth remains: there is victory in Jesus! Jesus didn’t come and die just to give us more or better rules, but to live out His victory through those who believe. The message of the gospel is that there is victory over sin, hate, death, and all evil as we surrender our lives to Jesus and let Him live out victory through us.
Paul shows that even though the law is glorious and good, it can’t save us – and we need a Savior. Paul never found any peace, any praising God until he looked outside of himself and beyond the law to his Savior, Jesus Christ.
You thought the problem was that you didn’t know what to do to save yourself – but the law came as a teacher, taught you what to do and you still couldn’t do it. You don’t need a teacher, you need a Savior.
You thought the problem was that you weren’t motivated enough, but the law came in like a coach to encourage you on to do what you need to do and you still didn’t do it. You don’t need a coach or a motivational speaker, you need a Savior.
You thought the problem was that you didn’t know yourself well enough. But the law came in like a doctor and perfectly diagnosed your sin problem but the law couldn’t heal you. You don’t need a doctor, you need a Savior.
From Barclay’s Commentary …
THE HUMAN SITUATION
We are aware that the law is spiritual; but I am a creature of flesh and blood under the power of sin. I cannot understand what I do. What I want to do, that I do not do; but what I hate, that I do. If what I do not want to do I in point of fact do, then I acquiesce in the law, and I agree that it is fair. As it is, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin which resides in me — I mean in my human nature. To will the fair thing is within my range, but not to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do; but the evil that I do not want to do, that is the very thing I do. And if I do that very thing that I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin which resides in me. My experience of the law, then, is that I wish to do the fine thing and that the evil thing is the only thing that is within my ability. As far as my inner self is concerned, I fully agree with the law of God; but I see another law in my members, continually carrying on a campaign against the law of my mind, and making me a captive by the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this fatal body? God will! Thanks be to him through Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my human nature the law of sin.
Paul is baring his very soul; and he is telling us of an experience which is of the very essence of the human situation. He knew what was right and wanted to do it; and yet, somehow, he never could. He knew what was wrong and the last thing he wanted was to do it; and yet, somehow, he did. He felt himself to be a split personality. It was as if two men were inside the one skin, pulling in different directions. He was haunted by this feeling of frustration, his ability to see what was good and his inability to do it; his ability to recognize what was wrong and his inability to refrain from doing it.
Paul’s contemporaries well knew this feeling, as, indeed, we know it ourselves. Seneca talked of “our helplessness in necessary things.” He talked about how men hate their sins and love them at the same time. Ovid, the Roman poet, had penned the famous tag: “I see the better things, and I approve them, but I follow the worse.”
No one knew this problem better than the Jews. They had solved it by saying that in every man there were two natures, called the Yetser hatob and the Yetser hara. It was the Jewish conviction that God had made men like that with a good impulse and an evil impulse inside them.
There were Rabbis who believed that that evil impulse was in the very embryo in the womb, there before a man was even born. It was “a malevolent second personality.” It was “man’s implacable enemy.” It was there waiting, if need be for a lifetime, for a chance to ruin man. But the Jew was equally clear, in theory, that no man need ever succumb to that evil impulse. It was all a matter of choice.
Ben Sirach wrote:
“God himself created man from the beginning. And he left him in the hand of his own counsel. If thou so desirest thou shalt keep the commandments, And to perform faithfulness is of thine own good pleasure. He hath set fire and water before thee, Stretch forth thy hand unto whichever thou wilt. Before man is life and death, And whichever he liketh shall be given unto him … He hath commanded no man to do wickedly, Neither have he given any man licence to sin.” (Sir. 15:11-20).
There were certain things which would keep a man from falling to the evil impulse. There was the law. They thought of God as saying:
“I created for you the evil impulse; I created for you the law as an antiseptic.”
“If you occupy yourself with the law you will not fall into the power of the evil impulse … “
There was the will and the mind.
“When God created man, he implanted in him his affections and his dispositions; and then, over all, he enthroned the sacred, ruling mind.”
When the evil impulse attacked, the Jew held that wisdom and reason could defeat it; to be occupied with the study of the word of the Lord was safety; the law was a prophylactic; at such a time the good impulse could be called up in defence.
Paul knew all that; and knew, too, that, while it was all theoretically true, in practice it was not true. There were things in man’s human nature — that is what Paul meant by this fatal body — which answered to the seduction of sin. It is part of the human situation that we know the right and yet do the wrong, that we are never as good as we know we ought to be. At one and the same time we are haunted by goodness and haunted by sin.
From one point of view this passage might be called a demonstration of inadequacies.
(i) It demonstrates the inadequacy of human knowledge. If to know the right thing was to do it, life would be easy. But knowledge by itself does not make a man good. It is the same in every walk of life. We may know exactly how golf should be played but that is very far from being able to play it; we may know how poetry ought to be written but that is very far from being able to write it. We may know how we ought to behave in any given situation but that is very far from being able so to behave. That is the difference between religion and morality. Morality is knowledge of a code; religion is knowledge of a person; and it is only when we know Christ that we are able to do what we know we ought.
(ii) It demonstrates the inadequacy of human resolution. To resolve to do a thing is very far from doing it. There is in human nature an essential weakness of the will. The will comes up against the problems, the difficulties, the opposition — and it fails. Once Peter took a great resolution. “Even if I must die with you,” he said, “I will not deny you” (Matt.26:35); and yet he failed badly when it came to the point. The human will unstrengthened by Christ is bound to crack.
(iii) It demonstrates the limitations of diagnosis. Paul knew quite clearly what was wrong; but he was unable to put it right. He was like a doctor who could accurately diagnose a disease but was powerless to prescribe a cure. Jesus is the one person who not only knows what is wrong, but who can also put the wrong to rights. It is not criticism he offers but help.