Friday DIVE – October 10, 2025 – Romans 7:13-25

Now that we’ve reminded ourselves of the context … Let’s dive in … and see what we can glean from Romans 7:13-25.

Romans 7:13-14

¹³ Has then what is good become death to me?  Certainly not!  But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. 

According to Guzik …

sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good:  Though the law provokes our sin nature, this can be used for good because it more dramatically exposes our deep sinfulness. After all, if sin can use something as good as the law to its advantage in promoting evil, it shows how evil sin is.

i. We need sin to appear sin, because it always wants to hide in us and conceal its true depths and strength.

“This is one of the most deplorable results of sin. It injures us most by taking from us the capacity to know how much we are injured. It undermines the man’s constitution, and yet leads him to boast of unfailing health; it beggars him, and tells him he is rich; it strips him, and makes him glory in his fancied robes.” (Spurgeon)

ii. “The law, therefore, is the grand instrument in the hands of a faithful minister, to alarm and awaken sinners.” (Clarke)

so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful:  Sin “becomes more sinful” in light of the law in two ways. First, sin becomes exceedingly sinful in contrast to the law. Second, sin becomes exceedingly sinful because the law provokes its evil nature.

i. “Instead of being a dynamo that gives us power to overcome, the Law is a magnet that draws out of us all kinds of sin and corruption.” (Wiersbe)

ii. exceedingly sinful: “Why didn’t he say, ‘exceedingly black,’ or ‘exceedingly horrible,’ or ‘exceedingly deadly’? Why, because there is nothing in the world so bad as sin. When he wanted to use the very worst word he could find to call sin by, he called it by its own name, and reiterated it: ‘sin,’ ‘exceedingly sinful.’” (Spurgeon)

Romans 7:14-15

¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.  ¹⁵ For what I am doing, I do not understand.  For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 

According to Guzik ...

but I am carnal: The word carnal simply means “of the flesh.”  Paul recognizes that a spiritual law cannot help a carnal man.

i. 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.

According to Barclay …

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.

According to Guzik …

For what I am doing, I do not understand: Paul’s problem isn’t a lack of desire – he wants to do what is right (what I will to do, that I do not practice). 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.

• • The law says: “Here are the rules and you had better keep them.”
  • But it gives us no power for keeping the law.

The takeaway:  The spiritual law cannot restrain a carnal man. (Guzik)

Romans 7:16

¹⁶ If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.    

Romans 7:17-20

¹⁷ But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin  that dwells in me.  ¹⁸ For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.  ¹⁹ For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.  ²⁰ Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin  that dwells in me.  

According to Guzik …

it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in 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.

QQQ … “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)

According to Barclay …

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.

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.

Romans 7:21-23

²¹ I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.  ²² For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.  

²³ But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.  

The battle between two selves.

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)

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.

i. 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.

ii. 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.”

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.

Romans 7:24-25

²⁴ O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?   

According to Guzik …

This passage is about the victory found in Jesus Christ.

Paul’s desperation and perspective.

O wretched man that I am!  The ancient Greek word, (translated as) 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.

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.

• • 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.

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.

• • 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?”
  • “It is not the voice of one desponding or doubting, but of one breathing and panting after deliverance.” (Poole)

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 I thank God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!  

So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.  

According to Guzik …

Paul finally looks outside of himself to Jesus.

I thank God; through Jesus Christ our Lord!  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.

with the mind I myself serve the law of God,    but  with the flesh, 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.

i. 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.

c. Through Jesus Christ our Lord: 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.

• • i.   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.
  • ii.  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.
  • iii. 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.  (Guzik)

According to Barclay …

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” (Matthew 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.