The document discusses the spiritual struggle faced by Christians, particularly the conflict between the desire to live righteously and the hindrances posed by sin. It emphasizes the Apostle Paul's expression of anguish in Romans 7:24-25, highlighting that despite the despair of human weakness, deliverance is found through Jesus Christ. This struggle serves as a crucial part of the Christian experience, illustrating the need for divine assistance in overcoming sin and the hope for ultimate victory in faith.

1. JESUS WAS THE DELIVERER FROM THE BODY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
ROMANS 7:24-25,24 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!
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Victory Through Christ
T. Oliver., J. Lyth, D.
D.
Romans 7:24-25
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
A Cry And Its Answer
Romans 7:24, 25
S.R. Aldridge Strange language to issue from the lips of the great apostle of the Gentiles! from a
chosen vessel unto honour, a man in labours abundant and most blessed, with joy often rising to
transport. Nor was it forced from him by some momentary excitement or the pressure of some
temporary trouble. Nor is there any reference to outward afflictions and persecutions. Had he
cried out when under the agonizing scourge or in the dismal dungeon, we had not been so
surprised. But it is while he is enforcing truth drawn from his own inward experience he so
realizes the bitterness of the spiritual conflict, that his language cannot be restrained within the
limits of calm reasoning, and he bursts forth with the exclamation, "O wretched man," etc.!
Some have been so shocked as to call this a miserable chapter, and have shifted the difficulty by
passing it on one side. Others have adopted the notion that he is here describing, not his actual
state, but the condition of an unregenerate man such as he was once. Yet the expression of the
preceding verse, "I delight in the Law of God," and the change of tense from the past to the
present after the thirteenth verse, indicate that we have here a vivid description of the struggle
that continues, though with better success, even in the Christian who is justified, but not wholly
sanctified, whilst he is imprisoned in this "body of death."

2. I. INQUIRE MORE CLOSELY INTO THE GROUND OF THIS EXCLAMATION. What is it
of which such grievous complaint is made? He appeals for aid against a strong foe whose grasp
is on his throat. The eyes of the warrior grow dim, his heart is faint, and, fearful of utter defeat,
he cries, "Who will deliver me?" We may explain "the body of this death" as meaning this mortal
body, the coffin of the soul, the seat and instrument of sin. But the apostle includes still more in
the phrase. It denotes sin itself, this carnal mass, all the imperfections, the corrupt and evil
passions of the soul. It is a body of death, because it tends to death; it infects us, and brings us
down to death. The old man tries to strangle the new man, and, unlike the infant Hercules, the
Christian is in danger of being overcome by the snakes that attack his feebleness. How afflicting
to one who loves God and desires to do his will, to find himself thwarted at every turn, and that
to succeed means a desperate conflict! Attainments in the Divine life are not reached without a
struggle, and non-success is not simply imperfection; it is failure, defeat, sin gaining the mastery.
This evil is grievous because it is so near and so constant. The man is chained to a dead body.
Where we go our enemy accompanies us, ever ready to assault us, especially when we are at a
disadvantage from fatigue or delusive security. Distant evils might be borne with some measure
of equanimity; we might have a signal of their approach, and be prepared, and hope that, niter a
sharp bout, they would retire. But like a sick man tormented with a diseased frame, so the "law
of sin in the members" manifests its force and uniform hostility in every place.
II. DERIVE CONSOLATION FROM THE EXCLAMATION ITSELF - from the fact of its
utterance, its vehemency, etc.
1. Such a cry indicates the stirrings of Divine life within the soul. The man must be visited with
God's grace who is thus conscious of his spiritual nature, and of a longing to shake off his
unworthy bondage to evil. It may be the beginning of better things if the impression be yielded
to. Do not quit the fight, lest you become like men who have been temporarily aroused and
warned, and have made vows of reformation, and then returned to their old apathy and sleep in
sin. And this attitude of watchfulness should never be abandoned during your whole career.
2. The intensity of the cry discovers a thorough hatred of sin and a thirst after holiness. It is a
passionate outburst revealing the central depths. Such a disclosure is not fit for all scenes and
times; the conflict of the soul is too solemn to be profaned by casual spectators. Yet what a mark
of a renewed nature is here displayed! What loathing of Corruption, as offensive to the spiritual
sense! Sin may still clog the feet of the Christian and sometimes cause him to stumble, but he is
never satisfied with such a condition, and calls aloud for aid. Would that this sense of the
enormity of sin were more prevalent; that, like a speck of dust in the eye, there could be no ease
till it be removed! Sin is a foreign body, a disturbing element, an intruder.
3. There is comfort in the very conviction of helplessness. The apostle sums up his experience as
if to say, "My human purposes come to nought. Between my will and the performance there is a
sad hiatus. I find no help in myself." A lesson which has to be learnt ere we really cry for a
Deliverer, and value the Saviour's intervention. Peter, by his threefold denial, was taught his
weakness, and then came the command, "Feed my lambs" We are not prepared for service in the
kingdom until we confess our dependence on superhuman succour.
III. THE CRY ADMITS OF A SATISFACTORY ANSWER. A Liberator has been found, so
that the apostle is not in despair; he adds, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Christ
assumed our body of death, crucified it, and glorified it. Thus he "Condemned sin in the flesh."
He bruised the serpent's head. Since our Leader has conquered, we shall share his triumph. He
quickens and sustains his followers by his Spirit. Stronger is he who is for us than all against us.

3. His grace is the antidote to moral evil; by its power we may contend victoriously. The indwelling
Christ is the prophecy of ultimate, complete victory. Eventually we shall quit this tabernacle of
clay, and leave behind us all the avenues to temptation, and the stings and infirmities of which
the body is the synonym. Clothed with a house from heaven, there shall be no obstacle to perfect
obedience - a service without weariness and without interruption. - S.R.A.
Biblical Illustrator
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Romans 7:24, 25
Soul despotism
D. Thomas, D. D.I. THE SOUL'S OPPRESSIVE DESPOT. "The body of this death." What is
meant by this? Corrupt animalism. What is elsewhere called the flesh with its corruptions and
lusts. The body, intended to be an instrument and servant of the soul, has become its sovereign,
and keeps all its power of intellect and conscience in subjection. Corrupt animalism is the moral
monarch of the world. It rules in literature, in politics, in science, and even in churches. This
despot is death to all true freedom, progress, happiness.
II. THE SOUL'S STRUGGLE TO BE FREE. This implies —
1. A quickened consciousness of its condition. "O wretched man that I am! "The vast majority of
souls, alas I are utterly insensible to this; hence they remain passive. What quickens the soul into
this consciousness? "The law." The light of God's moral law flashes on the conscience and
startles it.
2. An earnest desire for help. It feels its utter inability to haul the despot down; and it cries
mightily, "Who shall deliver me?" Who? Legislatures, moralists, poets, philosophers,
priesthoods? No; they have tried for ages, and have failed. Who? There is One and but One, and
to Him Paul alludes in the next verse and the following chapter. "Thanks be to God," etc.
(D. Thomas, D. D.)
The cry of the Christian warrior
F. Bourdillon.The cry not of "a chained captive" to be set free, but of a "soldier in conflict" who
looks round for succour. He is in the fight; he sees the enemy advancing against him, with spear
in hand, and chains ready to throw over him; the soldier sees his danger, feels his weakness and
helplessness, yet has no thought of yielding; he cries out, "Who shall deliver me?" But it is not
the cry of a vanquished but of a contending soldier of Jesus Christ.
(F. Bourdillon.)
Victory in the hidden warfare

4. Bp. S. Wilberforce.To enter into the full meaning of these words, we must understand their place
in the argument. The great theme is opened in Romans 1:16. To establish this, Paul begins by
proving in the first four chapters that both Jew and Gentile are utterly lost. In the fifth he shows
that through Christ peace with God may be brought into the conscience of the sinner. In the sixth
he proves that this truth, instead of being any excuse for sin, was the strongest argument against
it, for it gave freedom from sin, which the law could never do. And then, in this chapter, he
inquires why the law could not bring this gift. Before the law was given, man could not know
what sin was, any more than the unevenness of a crooked line can be known until it is placed
beside something that is straight. But when the law raised before his eyes a rule of holiness, then,
for the first time, his eyes were opened; he saw that he was full of sin; and forthwith there sprang
up a fearful struggle. Once he had been "alive without the law"; he had lived, that is, a life of
unconscious, self-contented impurity; but that life was gone from him, he could live it no longer.
The law, because it was just and good, wrought death in him; for it was a revelation of death
without remedy. "The law was spiritual," but he was corrupt, "sold under sin." Even when his
struggling will did desire in some measure a better course, still he was beaten down again by
evil. "How to perform that which was good he found not." Yea, "when he would do good, evil
was present with him." In vain there looked in upon his soul the blessed countenance of an
external holiness. Its angel gladness, of which he could in no way be made partaker, did but
render darker and more intolerable the loathsome dungeon in which he was perpetually held. It
was the fierce struggle of an enduring death; and in its crushing agony, he cried aloud against the
nature, which, in its inmost currents, sin had turned into corruption and a curse. "O wretched
man that I am!" etc. And then forthwith upon this stream of misery there comes forth a gleam of
light from the heavenly presence; "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Here is
deliverance for me; I am a redeemed man; holiness may be mine, and, with it, peace and joy.
Here is the full meaning of these glorious words.
I. THEY LIE AT THE ROOT OF SUCH EXERTIONS AS WE MAKE FOR THOSE WHOM
SIN HAS BROUGHT DOWN VERY LOW.
1. They contain the principle which should lead us most truly to sympathise with them. This
great truth of the redemption Of our nature in Christ Jesus is the only link of brotherhood
between man and man. To deny our brotherhood with any of the most miserable of those whom
Christ has redeemed, is to deny our own capacity for perfect holiness, and so our true redemption
through Christ.
2. Here, too, is the only warrant for any reasonable efforts for their restoration. Without this,
every man, who knows anything of the depth of evil with which he has to deal, would give up
the attempt in despair. Every reasonable effort to restore any sinner, is a declaration that we
believe that we are in a kingdom of grace, of redeemed humanity. Unbelieving men cannot
receive the truth that a soul can be thus restored. They believe that you may make a man
respectable; but not that you can heal the inner currents of his spiritual life, and so they cannot
labour in prayers and ministrations with the spiritual leper, until his flesh, of God's grace, comes
again as the flesh of a little child. To endure this labour, we must believe that in Christ, the true
Man, and through the gift of His Spirit, there is deliverance from the body of this death.
II. IT IS AT THE ROOT ALSO OF ALL REAL EFFORTS FOR OURSELVES.
1. Every earnest man must, if he sets himself to resist the evil which is in himself, know
something of the struggle which the apostle here describes; and if he would endure the extremity
of that conflict, he must have a firm belief that there is a deliverance for him. Without this, the

5. knowledge of God's holiness is nothing else than the burning fire of despair. And so many do
despair. They think they have made their choice, and that they must abide by it; and so they shut
their eyes to their sins, they excuse them, they try to forget them, they do everything but
overcome them, until they see that in Christ Jesus there is for them, if they will claim it, a sure
power over these sins. And, therefore, as the first consequence, let us ever hold it fast, even as
our life.
2. Nor is it needful to lower the tone of promise in order to prevent its being turned into an
excuse for sin. Here, as elsewhere, the simple words of God contain their own best safeguard
against being abused; for what can be so loud a witness against allowed sin in any Christian man
as this truth is? If there be in the true Christian life in union with Christ for every one of us this
power against sin, sin cannot reign in any who are living in Him. To be in Christ is to be made to
conquer in the struggle. So that this is the most quickening and sanctifying truth. It tears up by
the roots a multitude of secret excuses. It tells us that if we are alive in Christ Jesus, we must be
new creatures. And herein it destroys the commonest form of self-deception — the allowing
some sin in ourselves, because in other things we deny ourselves, because we pray, because we
give alms, etc. And this self-deception is put down only by bringing out this truth, that in Christ
Jesus there is for us, in our struggle with "the body of this death," an entire conquest, if we will
but honestly and earnestly claim it for ourselves; so that if we do not conquer sin, it must be
because we are not believing.
3. This will make us diligent in all parts of the Christian life, because all will become a reality.
Prayer, the reading of God's Word, etc., will be precious after a new sort, because through them
is kept alive our union with Christ, in whom alone is for us a conquest over the evil which is in
us. So that, to sum up all in one blessed declaration, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
will make us free from the law of sin and death."
(Bp. S. Wilberforce.)
The body of death
James Kirkwood.I. WHAT IS MEANT BY THE BODY OF DEATH OF WHICH THE
BELIEVER COMPLAINS.
1. Indwelling sin is called the body of this death, as it is the effect and remains of that spiritual
death to which all men are subject in unregeneracy.
2. The remains of sin in the believer is called the body of this death, on account of the deadness
and dulness of spirit in the service of God, which it so often produces.
3. Remaining depravity is called the body of death, because it tends to death.(1) It tends to the
death of the body. As it was sin that brought us under the influence of the sentence of
dissolution; as it is sin that has introduced into the material frame of man those principles of
decay which will bring it to the grave; as it is sin which is the parent of those evil passions
which, as natural causes, war against the health and life of the body, so it is the inbred sins of the
believer that require his flesh to see the dust.(2) But this is not all. Remaining depravity tends to
spiritual and eternal death, and on this account, also, is justly called the body of this death.
II. THE GRIEF AND PAIN WHICH REMAINING DEPRAVITY OCCASIONS TO THE
BELIEVER.
1. Remaining depravity is thus painful and grievous to the Christian, from his acquaintance with
its evil and malignant nature.

6. 2. Remaining sin is thus painful to the Christian, from the constant struggle which it maintains
with grace within the heart. Even in eminent saints the contest is often singularly obstinate and
painful; for where there is strong grace there are also, sometimes, strong corruptions. Besides,
where there is eminent spirituality of mind, there is an aspiration after a freedom from
imperfections which scarcely belongs to the present state.
III. THE EARNEST LONGINGS AND CONFIDENT AND JOYFUL ASSURANCE OF
DELIVERANCE FROM INDWELLING SIN WHICH THE CHRISTIAN ENTERTAINS.
1. Mark his earnest longings — "Who shall deliver me?" The language implies how well the
Christian knows he cannot deliver himself from the body of sin. This is the habitual desire of his
soul — the habitual object of his pursuit. For this end he prays, he praises, he reads, he hears, he
communicates. So earnest, in short, is his desire of deliverance, that he welcomes with this view
two things most unwelcome to the feelings of nature affliction and death.
2. Mark his confident and joyful assurance of deliverance. Weak in himself, the Christian is yet
strong in the Lord. All the victories he has hitherto achieved have been through the faith and by
the might of the Redeemer. All the victories he shall yet acquire shall be obtained in the same
way.
3. Mark the gratitude of the Christian for this anticipated and glorious deliverance. Sin is the
cause of all the other evils in which he has been involved, and when sin is destroyed within and
put forever away, nothing can be wanting to perfect his blessedness. Well then does it become
him to cherish the feeling and utter the language of thankfulness.
(James Kirkwood.)
The spectre of the old nature
H. Macmillan, LL. D.1. Some years ago a number of peculiar photographs were circulated by
spiritualists. Two portraits appeared on the same card, one clear and the other obscure. The fully
developed portrait was the obvious likeness of the living person; and the indistinct portrait was
supposed to be the likeness of some dead friend, produced by supernatural agency. The mystery,
however, was found to admit of an easy scientific explanation. It not unfrequently happens that
the portrait of a person is so deeply impressed on the glass of the negative, that although the plate
is thoroughly cleansed with strong acid, the picture cannot be removed, although it is made
invisible. When such a plate is used over again, the original image faintly reappears along with
the new portrait. So is it in the experience of the Christian. He has been washed in the blood of
Christ; and beholding the glory of Christ as in a glass, he is changed into the same image. And
yet the ghost of his former sinfulness persists in reappearing with the image of the new man. So
deeply are the traces of the former godless life impressed upon the soul, that even the
sanctification of the Spirit, carried on through discipline, burning as corrosive acid, cannot
altogether remove them.
2. The photographer also has a process by which the obliterated picture may at any time be
revived. And so it was with the apostle. The sin that so easily beset him returned with fresh
power in circumstances favourable to it.
I. THE "BODY OF DEATH" IS NOT SOMETHING THAT HAS COME TO US FROM
WITHOUT, an infected garment that may be thrown aside whenever we please. It is our own
corrupt self, not our individual sins or evil habits. And this body of death disintegrates the purity
and unity of the soul and destroys the love of God and man which is its true life. It acts like an

7. evil leaven, corrupting and decomposing every good feeling and heavenly principle, and
gradually assimilating our being to itself. There is a peculiar disease which often destroys the
silkworm before it has woven its cocoon. It is caused by a species of white mould which grows
rapidly within the body of the worm at the expense of its nutritive fluids; all the interior organs
being gradually converted into a mass of flocculent vegetable matter. Thus the silkworm, instead
of going on in the natural order of development to produce the beautiful winged moth, higher in
the scale of existence, retrogrades to the lower condition of the inert senseless vegetable. And
like this is the effect of the body of death in the soul of man. The heart cleaves to the dust of the
earth, and man, made in the image of God, instead of developing a higher and purer nature, is
reduced to the low, mean condition of the slave of Satan.
II. NONEBUT THOSE WHO HAVE ATTAINED TO SOME MEASURE OF THE
EXPERIENCE OF ST. PAUL CAN KNOW THE FULL WRETCHEDNESS CAUSED BY
THIS BODY OF DEATH. The careless have no idea of the agony of a soul under a sense of sin;
of the tyranny which it exercises and the misery which it works. And even in the experience of
many Christians there is but little of this peculiar wretchedness. Conviction is in too many
instances superficial, and a mere impulse or emotion is regarded as a sign of conversion; and
hence many are deluded by a false hope, having little knowledge of the law of God or sensibility
to the depravity of their own hearts. But such was not the experience of St. Paul. The body of
corruption that he bore about with him darkened and embittered all his Christian experience. And
so it is with every true Christian. It is not the spectre of the future, or the dread of the punishment
of sin, that he fears, for there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus; but the spectre
of the sinful past and the pressure of the present evil nature. The sin which he fancied was so
superficial that a few years' running in the Christian course would shake it off, he finds is in
reality deep rooted in his very nature, requiring a life long battle. The fearful foes which he bears
in his own bosom — sins of unrestrained appetite, sins that spring from past habits, frequently
triumph over him; and all this fills him almost with despair — not of God, but of himself — and
extorts from him the groan, "O wretched man that I am!" etc.
III. THE EVIL TO BE CURED IS BEYOND HUMAN REMEDY. The various influences that
act upon us from without — instruction, example, education, the discipline of life — cannot
deliver us from this body of death.
IV. THE WORK IS CHRIST'S AND NOTMAN'S. We are to fight the battle in His name and
strength, and to leave the issue in His hands. He will deliver us in His own way and time.
Conclusion: We can reverse the illustration with which I began. If behind our renewed self is the
spectral form of our old self, let us remember that behind all is the image of God in which we
were created. The soul, however lost, darkened, and defaced, still retains some lineaments of the
Divine impression with which it was once stamped. The image haunts us always; it is the ideal
from which we have fallen and towards which we are to be conformed. To rescue that image of
God, the Son of God assumed our nature, lived our life, and died our death; and His Spirit
becomes incarnate in our heart and life, and prolongs the work of Christ in us in His own
sanctifying work. And as our nature becomes more and more like Christ's, so by degrees the old
nature photographed by sin upon the soul will cease to haunt us, and the image of Christ will
become more and more vivid. And at length only one image will remain. We shall see Him as He
is, and we shall become like Him.
(H. Macmillan, LL. D.)
The body becoming a second personality

8. D. Thomas, D. D.The writer represents himself as having two personalities — the inner man, and
the outer man, i.e., the body. A word or two about the human body.
I. IT IS IN THE UNREGENERATE MAN A PERSONALITY. "I am carnal," that is, I am
become flesh. This is an abnormal, a guilty, and a perilous fact. The right place of the body is
that of the organ, which the mind should use for its own high purpose. But this, through the
pampering of its own senses, and through the creation of new desires and appetites, becomes
such a power over man that Paul represents it as a personality, the thing becomes an ego.
II. AS A PERSONALITY IT BECOMES A TYRANT. It is represented in this chapter as a
personality that enslaves, slays, destroys the soul, the inner man. It is a "body of death." It drags
the soul to death When man becomes conscious of this tyranny, as he does when the
"commandment" flashes upon the conscience, the soul becomes intensely miserable, and a fierce
battle sets in between the two personalities in man. The man cries out, "What shall I do to be
saved?" "Who shall deliver me?"
III. AS A TYRANT IT CAN ONLY BE CRUSHED BY CHRIST. In the fierce battle Christ
came to the rescue, and struck the tyrant down. In this Epistle the writer shows that man
struggled to deliver himself —
1. Under the teachings of nature, but failed (see chap. Romans 1). He became more enslaved in
materialism.
2. Under the influence of Judaism, but failed. By the deeds of the law no man was justified or
made right. Under Judaism men filled up the measure of their iniquities. Who, or what, then,
could deliver? No philosophers, poets, or teachers. Only one. "Thanks be to God through Jesus
Christ."
(D. Thomas, D. D.)
The body of death
R. H. Story, D. D.1. St. Paul was not thinking with any fear of death. Indeed, toil worn and heart
wearied as he was, he often would have been glad, had it been the Lord's will. There was
something that to a mind like Paul's was worse than death. It was the dominion of the carnal
nature which strove to overrule the spiritual. The body of sin was to him "the body of death."
Who should deliver him from it?
2. Now, is the feeling from which such a cry as Paul's proceeds a real and noble feeling, or is it
the mere outcry of ignorance and superstition? There are not wanting those who would say the
latter. "Why trouble ourselves," says one of these apostles of the new religion of science, "about
matters of which, however important they may be, we do know nothing, and can know nothing?
We live in a world full of misery and ignorance; and the plain duty of each and all of us is to try
and make the little corner he can influence somewhat less miserable and ignorant. To do this
effectually, it is necessary to be possessed of only two beliefs; that we can learn much of the
order of nature; and that our own will has a considerable influence on the course of events." That
is all that we need attend to. Any idea of God and a moral law belongs to cloudland. But is there
not an instinct within us which rebels against this cool setting aside of everything that cannot be
seen or handled? And is that instinct a low one? or is it the instinct of minds that come nearest to
Divine?
3. Which is the higher type of man — which do you feel has got the firmer grip of the realities of
life — the man calmly bending over the facts of outward nature, and striving to secure, as far as

9. he can, conformity to them: or, the man, like Paul, believing that there was a moral law of which
he had fallen short, a Divine order with which he was not in harmony — good and evil, light and
darkness, God and the devil, being to him tremendous realities — his soul being the battlefield of
a war between them, in the agony and shock of which conflict he is constrained to cry out for a
higher than human help? I should say the man in the storm and stress of the spiritual battle; and I
should say that to deny the reality of the sense of such a conflict was to deny facts which are as
obvious to the spiritual intelligence as the fact that two and two make four is to the ordinary
reason, and was to malign facts which are much higher and nobler than any mere fact of science,
as the life of man is higher and nobler than the life of rocks or seas.
4. Minds wholly engrossed with intellectual or selfish pursuits may be unconscious of this
conflict, and disbelieve its existence in other minds. So may minds that have reached that stage
which the apostle describes as "dead in sin"; but to other minds, minds within which conscience
still lives, within which exclusive devotion to one thought or interest has not obliterated every
other, this conflict is a stern reality. Who that has lived a life with any spiritual element in it, and
higher than the mere animal's or worldling's, has not known that consciousness, and known its
terror and power of darkness when it was roused into active life? it is of this consciousness Paul
speaks. Under the pressure of it he cries out, "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
5. And what answer does he find to that cry? Does the order of nature, or the powers of his own
will help him here? Does not the very sight of the unbroken calm and steadfast regularity of the
law and order of external nature add new bitterness to the conviction that he has forgotten a
higher law and disturbed a still more gracious order? Is not the very conviction of the weakness
of his own will one of the most terrible elements in his distress? Speak to a man under this
consciousness of the power of sin about finding help to resist, through studying the laws of that
nature of which he is himself a part, and through exercising that will, whose feebleness appalls
him, and you mock him, as if you spoke to a man in a raging fever of the necessity of studying
his own temperament and constitution, and of the duty of keeping himself cool. What is wanted
in either case is help from some source of energy outside himself, who should restore the wasted
strength from his own fountains of life — who should say to the internal conflict, "Peace, be
still." And that is what Paul found in Christ. He found it nowhere else. It is not to be found in
knowledge, in science, in philosophy, in nature, in culture, in self.
6. Now, how did Paul find this in Christ? How may all find it? He was speaking about something
infinitely more terrible than the punishment of sin, viz., the dominion of sin. What he wanted
was an actual deliverance from an actual foe — not a promise of exemption from some future
evil. And it was this that Paul realised in Christ. To him to live was Christ. The presence and the
power of Christ possessed him. It was in this he found the strength which gave him the victory
over the body of death. He found that strength in the consciousness that he was not a lonely
soldier, fighting against an overpowering enemy, and in the dark, but that One was with him who
had come from heaven itself to reveal to him that God was on his side, that he was fighting God's
battle, that the struggle was needed for his perfecting as the child of God. It was in the strength
of this that he was able to give thanks for his deliverance from the "body of death."
7. The consciousness of this struggle, the engagement in it in the strength of Christ, the victory of
the higher over the lower, are in all the necessary conditions of spiritual health and continued
life. To deny the reality of that conflict, and of the Divine life for which it prepares us, does not
prove that these are not real and true. I take a man who does not know the "Old Hundredth" from
"God Save the Queen," and play him a piece of the sweetest music, and he says there is no

10. harmony in it. I show a man who is colour blind two beautifully contrasted tints, and he sees but
one dull hue: but still the music and the beauty of the colours exist, though not for him, not for
the incapable ear and the undiscerning eye. So with the spiritual life. It is for the spiritual.
(R. H. Story, D. D.)
The body of death
E. Woods.In Virgil there is an account of an ancient king, who was so unnaturally cruel in his
punishments, that he used to chain a dead man to a living one. It was impossible for the poor
wretch to separate himself from his disgusting burden. The carcase was bound fast to his body,
its hands to his hands, its face to his face, its lips to his lips; it lay down and rose up whenever he
did; it moved about with him whithersoever he went, till the welcome moment when death came
to his relief. And many suppose that it was in reference to this that Paul cried out: "O wretched
man that I am!" etc. Whether this be so or not, sin is a body of death, which we all carry about
with us. And while I do not wish to shock your taste, yet I do wish to give you some impression
of the unclean, impure, offensive nature of sin. And think — if our souls are polluted with such a
stain — oh! think what we must be in the eyes of that God in whose sight the very heavens are
not clean, and who charges His angels with folly.
(E. Woods.)
The body of deathDoddridge thus paraphrases the latter half of this verse: "Who shall rescue me,
miserable captive as I am, from the body of this death, from this continued burden which I carry
about with me, and which is cumbersome and odious as a dead carcase tied to a living body, to
be dragged along with it wherever it goes?" He adds in a note: "It is well known that some
ancient writers mention this as a cruelty practised by some tyrants upon miserable captives who
felt into their hands; and a more forcible and expressive image of the sad case represented cannot
surely enter into the mind of man." "Of this atrocious practice one of the most remarkable
instances is that mentioned by Virgil when describing the tyrannous conduct of Mezentius: —
The living and the dead at his command
Were coupled, face to face, and hand to hand;
Till, choked with stench, in loathed embraces tied,
The lingering wretches pined away and died. — (Dryden.)Doddridge is not by any means
singular in his opinion that the apostle derives an allusion from this horrid punishment; although
perhaps the text is sufficiently intelligible without the illustration it thus receives. Philo, in an
analogous passage, more obviously alludes to it, describing the body as a burden to the soul,
carried about like a dead carcase, which may not till death be laid aside." (Kitto.) During the
reign of Richard I, the following curious law was enacted for the government of those going by
sea to the Holy Land — "He who kills a man on shipboard shall be bound to the dead body and
thrown into the sea; if a man be killed on shore the slayer shall be bound to the dead body and
buried with it."
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Christ the Deliverer
H. Ward Beecher.I. MAN'S NEED.
1. While man is, in special organs, inferior to one and another of the animals, he is collectively
by far the superior of everyone. And yet, large as he is, man is not happy in any proportion to his

11. nature, and to the hints and fore gleams which that nature gives. He has, in being clothed with
flesh, all the points of contact with the physical world that the ox or the falcon has. He is born; he
grows up with all the instincts and passions of animal life, and without them he could not
maintain his foothold upon the earth. But man is also a creature of affections, which, in variety,
compass and force, leave the lower creation in a vivid contrast. He is endowed with reason,
moral sentiment and spiritual life; but he has learned but very imperfectly how to carry himself
so that every part of his nature shall have fair play. The animal propensities are predominant.
Here, then, begins the conflict between man's physical life and his moral life — the strife of
gentleness, purity, joy, peace, and faith, against selfishness, pride, and appetites of various kinds.
2. To all souls that have been raised to their true life the struggle has been always severe. To
have the power over our whole organisation without a despotism of our animal and selfish nature
is the problem of practical life. How can I maintain the fulness of every part, and yet have
harmony and relative subordination, so that the appetites shall serve the body, and the affections
not be dragged down by the appetites; so that the moral sentiments and the reason shall shine
clear and beautiful?
II. WHAT REMEDIES HAVE PROPOSED!
1. To give way to that which is strongest, has been one special method of settling the conflict.
Kill the higher feelings and then let the lower ones romp and riot like animals in a field — this
gives a brilliant opening to life; but it gives a dismal close to it. For what is more hideous than a
sullen old man burnt out with evil? When I see men suppressing all qualms, and going into the
full enjoyment of sensuous life, I think of a party entering the Mammoth Cave with candles
enough to bring them back, but setting them all on fire at once. The world is a cave. They that
burn out all their powers and passions in the beginning of life at last wander in great darkness,
and lie down to mourn and die.
2. Another remedy has been in superstition. Men have sought to cover this conflict, rather than to
heal it.
3. Others have compromised by morality. But this, which is an average of man's conduct with the
customs and laws of the time in which he lives, comes nowhere near touching that radical
conflict which there is between the flesh and the spirit.
4. Then comes philosophy, and deals with it in two ways. It propounds to men maxims and wise
rules. It expounds the benefit of good, and the evils of bad conduct. And then it proposes certain
rules of doing what we cannot help, and of suffering what we cannot throw off. And it is all very
well. So is rosewater where a man is wounded unto death. It is not less fragrant because it is not
remedial; but if regarded as a remedy, how poor it is!
5. Then comes scientific empiricism, and prescribes the observance of natural laws; but how
many men in life know these laws? How many men are so placed that if they did know them,
they would be able to use them? You might as well take a babe of days, and place a medicine
chest before it, and say, "Rise, and select the right medicine, and you shall live."
III. What, then, is the final remedy? WHAT DOES CHRISTIANITY OFFER IN THIS CASE?
1. It undertakes to so bring God within the reach of every being in the world, that He shall exert a
controlling power on the spiritual realms of man's nature, and, by giving power to it, overbalance
and overbear the despotism of the radical passions and appetites. There is a story of a missionary
who was sent out to preach the gospel to the slaves; but he found that they went forth so early,

12. and came back so late, and were so spent, that they could not hear. There was nobody to preach
to them unless he should accompany them in their labour. So he went and sold himself to their
master, who put him in the gang with them. For the privilege of going out with these slaves, and
making them feel that he loved them, and would benefit them, he worked with them, and
suffered with them; and while they worked, he taught; and as they came back he taught; and he
won their ear; and the grace of God sprang up in many of these darkened hearts. That is the story
over again of God manifest in the flesh.
2. Many things can be done under personal influence that you cannot in any other way. My
father said to me, when I was a little boy, "Henry, take these letters to the post office." I was a
brave boy; yet I had imagination. I saw behind every thicket some shadowy form; and I heard
trees say strange and weird things; and in the dark concave above I could hear flitting spirits. As
I stepped out of the door, Charles Smith, a great thick-lipped black man, who was always doing
kind things, said, "I will go with you." Oh! sweeter music never came out of any instrument than
that. The heaven was just as full, and the earth was just as full as before; but now I had
somebody to go with me. It was not that I thought he was going to fight for me. But I had
somebody to succour me. Let anything be done by direction and how different it is from its being
done by personal inspiration. "Ah! are the Zebedees, then, so poor? John, take a quarter of beef
and carry it down, with my compliments. No, stop; fill up that chest, put in those cordials, lay
them on the cart, and bring it round, and I will drive down myself." Down I go; and on entering
the house I hold out both hands, and say, "Why, my old friend, I am glad I found you out. I
understand the world has gone hard with you. I came down to say that you have one friend, at
any rate. Now do not be discouraged; keep up a good heart." And when I am gone, the man
wipes his eyes, and says, "God knows that that man's shaking my hands gave me more joy than
all that he brought. It was himself that I wanted." The old prophet, when he went into the house
where the widow's son lay dead, put his hands on the child's hands, and stretched himself across
the child's body, and the spirit of life came back. Oh, if, when men are in trouble, there were
some man to measure his whole stature against them, and give them the warmth of his sympathy,
how many would be saved! That is the philosophy of salvation through Christ — a great soul
come down to take care of little souls; a great heart beating its warm blood into our little pinched
hearts, that do not know how to get blood enough for themselves. It is this that gives my upper
nature strength, and hope, and elasticity, and victory.Conclusion: We learn —
1. What is a man's depravity. When you say that an army is destroyed, you do not mean that
everybody is killed; but that, as an army, its complex organisation is broken up. To spoil a watch
you do not need to grind it to powder. Take out the mainspring. "Well, the pointers are not
useless." Perhaps not for another watch. "There are a great many wheels inside that are not
injured." Yes, but what are wheels worth in a watch that has no mainspring? What spoils a
compass? Anything which unfits it for doing what it was intended to do. Now, here is this
complex organisation of man. The royalties of the soul are all mixed up. Where conscience ought
to be is pride. Where love ought to be is selfishness. Its sympathy and harmony are gone. It is not
necessary that a man should be all bad to be ruined. Man has lost that harmony which belongs to
a perfect organisation. And so he lives to struggle. And the struggle through which he is passing
is the cause of human woe.
2. Why it is that the divinity of Christ becomes so important in the development of a truly
Christian life. As a living man, having had the experiences of my own soul, and having been
conversant with the experiences of others, what I want is power. And that is what they lack who

13. deny the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. God can cleanse the heart. Man cannot. And that God
whom we can understand is the God that walked in Jerusalem, that suffered upon Calvary, and
that lives again, having lifted Himself up into eternal spheres of power, that He might bring
many sons and daughters home to Zion.
(H. Ward Beecher.)
The believer's gratitude to God through Christ
J. Stafford.I. SOULS GROANING UNDER THE BODY OF SIN AND DEATH CAN FIND
NO RELIEF BUT THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. None but an almighty Saviour is suited to the
case of a poor sinner. This doctrine reproves the Church of Rome, and others, for directing men,
not to Christ, but to themselves; to their vows, alms, penances, and pilgrimages; or, to their
greater watchfulness and strictness in life. But as Luther observes, "How many have tried this
way for many years, and yet could get no peace." Now, what is there in Christ that can relieve a
soul?
1. The blood of Christ, which was shed as an atoning sacrifice for sin.
2. A perfect and everlasting righteousness. This our apostle, doubtless, had in view: for he
immediately adds (Romans 8:1). "Christ is made unto us of God, wisdom and righteousness."
3. The Spirit of Christ which is given to all true believers, as an abiding principle, teaching them
to fight and war with sin.
II. THAT SOULS THUS EXERCISED, FINDING RELIEF ONLY IN CHRIST, WILL
ACTUALLY RECEIVE AND EMBRACE HIM. None will receive Christ, but they only who
are taught to see their need of Him.
III. THEY, WHO SEE THIS RELIEF IN CHRIST, WHO RECEIVE AND EMBRACE IT,
MUST AND WILL GIVE THANKS TO GOD FOR IT. The angels, those disinterested spirits,
bringing the joyful news to our apostate world, sung, "Glory to God in the highest, for peace on
earth, and good will towards men." And surely, if we who are redeemed to God by His blood,
should hold our peace on so joyful an occasion, "the stones would immediately cry out."
IV. ALL THOSE WHO HAVE RECEIVED CHRIST, AND HAVE GIVEN THANKS TO GOD
FOR HIM, WILL LOOK UPON HIM AS THEIR LORD AND THEIR GOD.
(J. Stafford.)
Nothing can equal the gospel
T. De Witt Talmage.There is nothing proposed by men that can do anything like this gospel. The
religion of Ralph Waldo Emerson is the philosophy of icicles; the religion of Theodore Parker
was a sirocco of the desert covering up the soul with dry sand; the religion of Renan is the
romance of believing nothing; the religion of Thomas Carlyle is only a condensed London fog;
the religion of the Huxleys and the Spencers is merely a pedestal on which human philosophy
sits shivering in the night of the soul, looking up to the stars, offering no help to the nations that
crouch and groan at the base. Tell me where there is one man who has rejected that gospel for
another, who is thoroughly satisfied, and helped, and contented in his scepticism, and I will take
the ear tomorrow and ride five hundred miles to see him.
(T. De Witt Talmage.)
Victory through Christ

14. T. Oliver., J. Lyth, D. D.I can well remember a portion of a sermon which I heard when I was
only five years of age. I recollect the cast of the preacher's features, the colour of his hair, and the
tone of his voice. He had been an officer in the army, and was in attendance on the Duke of
Wellington during the great battle of Waterloo. That portion of the sermon which I can so well
remember was a graphic description of the conflict which some pious souls have experienced
with the powers of darkness before their final victory over the fear of death. He illustrated it by
drawing in simple words a vivid description of the battle at Waterloo. He told us of the cool and
stern nature of the "Iron Duke," who seldom manifested any emotion. But the moments came
when the Duke was lifted out of his stern rut. For a short time the English troops wavered, and
showed signs of weakness, when the Duke anxiously exclaimed, "I would to God that Blucher or
the night had come!" After a while a column of the French was driven before the English guards,
and another column was routed by a bayonet charge of an English brigade. Wellington then
calculated how long it would take to complete the triumph. Taking from his pocket his gold
watch, he exclaimed, "Twenty minutes more, and then victory!" When the twenty minutes had
passed the French were completely vanquished. Then the Duke, again taking out his watch, held
it by the short chain, and swung it around his head again and again. while he shouted, "Victory!
Victory!" the watch flew out of his hand, but he regarded gold as only dust compared with the
final triumph. This graphic description made a powerful impression on my childish mind. Young
as I was, I at once saw the aptness of the illustration. I often dreamt about it, and told other lads
the story. When I was a weeping penitent, praying for pardon, and struggling with unbelief, the
scene of Waterloo came before me; but the moment the light of the Saviour's smile fell upon my
heart, I instinctively sprang to my feet and shouted, "Victory! Victory!" Many times, since I have
been exclusively engaged in conducting special services, my memory has brought before me the
preacher and the part of the sermon which I heard when I was only five years of age, and this has
had its influence on me in my addresses to both old and young.
(T. Oliver.)
So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. —
I. OF WHOM DOES THE APOSTLE SPEAK? Of those —
1. Who are enlightened.
2. But still under the law.
II. WHAT DOES HE AFFIRM RESPECTING THEM?
1. That they naturally approve the law.
2. Yet serve sire
III. WHAT IS THE NECESSARY CONCLUSION?
1. That there is no deliverance by the law, or by personal effort.
2. But by Christ only.
(J. Lyth, D. D.)
Believers serve the law of God
J. Stafford.I. THE LIFE OF A BELIEVER IS CHIEFLY TAKEN UP IN SERVING THE LAW
OF GOD. For this end the law is written upon his heart, and, therefore, he serves God with his

15. spirit, or with his renewed mind. His whole man, all that can be called himself, is employed in a
life of evangelical and universal obedience.
II. THE BELIEVER MAY MEET WITH MANY INTERRUPTIONS WHILE HE IS AIMING
TO SERVE THE LAW OF GOD. "With my flesh the law of sin."
1. Had our apostle contented himself with the former part of this declaration, it would doubtless
have been matter of great discouragement to the children of God. But when we find that the
apostle himself confesseth his weakness and imperfection, whose heart would not take courage,
and go forth more boldly to the conflict than ever?
2. After all the encouragement afforded to the mind of a believer, yet this is a very humbling
subject. We may learn hence, how deeply sin is inwrought in our nature.
III. ALTHOUGH THE BELIEVER MEETS WITH MANY INTERRUPTIONS, YET HE
HOLDS ON SERVING THE LAW OF GOD, EVEN WHEN HE IS DELIVERED FROM ALL
CONDEMNATION. I ground this observation on the close connection in which these words
stand with the first verse of the next chapter. They are delivered from condemnation, and yet
they serve the law of God, because they are delivered.
(J. Stafford.).
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(24) So this intestine struggle goes on unceasingly
and reaches no decision, till at last the unhappy man cries out, almost in despair, “Who shall
deliver me from the body of this death?” Who, that is, will help me to overcome these fleshly
desires, gendered by a corrupt human nature, which are dragging me down to imminent
destruction? The body is the cause of sin, and therefore of death. If only it could be released from
that, the distracted soul would be at rest and free.
The body of this death.—Thu body (the slave of sin and therefore the abode) of death. The words
are a cry for deliverance from the whole of this mortal nature, in which carnal appetite and sin
and death are inextricably mingled. To complete this deliverance the triple resurrection—ethical,
spiritual, and physical—is needed.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary7:23-25 This passage does not represent the apostle as
one that walked after the flesh, but as one that had it greatly at heart, not to walk so. And if there
are those who abuse this passage, as they also do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction,
yet serious Christians find cause to bless God for having thus provided for their support and
comfort. We are not, because of the abuse of such as are blinded by their own lusts, to find fault
with the scripture, or any just and well warranted interpretation of it. And no man who is not
engaged in this conflict, can clearly understand the meaning of these words, or rightly judge
concerning this painful conflict, which led the apostle to bemoan himself as a wretched man,
constrained to what he abhorred. He could not deliver himself; and this made him the more
fervently thank God for the way of salvation revealed through Jesus Christ, which promised him,
in the end, deliverance from this enemy. So then, says he, I myself, with my mind, my prevailing
judgement, affections, and purposes, as a regenerate man, by Divine grace, serve and obey the

16. law of God; but with the flesh, the carnal nature, the remains of depravity, I serve the law of sin,
which wars against the law of my mind. Not serving it so as to live in it, or to allow it, but as
unable to free himself from it, even in his very best state, and needing to look for help and
deliverance out of himself. It is evident that he thanks God for Christ, as our deliverer, as our
atonement and righteousness in himself, and not because of any holiness wrought in us. He knew
of no such salvation, and disowned any such title to it. He was willing to act in all points
agreeable to the law, in his mind and conscience, but was hindered by indwelling sin, and never
attained the perfection the law requires. What can be deliverance for a man always sinful, but the
free grace of God, as offered in Christ Jesus? The power of Divine grace, and of the Holy Spirit,
could root out sin from our hearts even in this life, if Divine wisdom had not otherwise thought
fit. But it is suffered, that Christians might constantly feel, and understand thoroughly, the
wretched state from which Divine grace saves them; might be kept from trusting in themselves;
and might ever hold all their consolation and hope, from the rich and free grace of God in Christ.
Barnes' Notes on the BibleO wretched man that I am! - The feeling implied by this lamentation is
the result of this painful conflict; and this frequent subjection to sinful propensities. The effect of
this conflict is,
(1) To produce pain and distress. It is often an agonizing struggle between good and evil; a
struggle which annoys the peace, and renders life wretched.
(2) it tends to produce humility. It is humbling to man to be thus under the influence of evil
passions. It is degrading to his nature; a stain on his glory; and it tends to bring him into the dust,
that he is under the control of such propensities, and so often gives indulgence to them. In such
circumstances, the mind is overwhelmed with wretchedness, and instinctively sighs for relief.
Can the Law aid? Can man aid? Can any native strength of conscience or of reason aid? In vain
all these are tried, and the Christian then calmly and thankfully acquiesces in the consolations of
the apostle, that aid can be obtained only through Jesus Christ.
Who shall deliver me - Who shall rescue me; the condition of a mind in deep distress, and
conscious of its own weakness, and looking for aid.
The body of this death - Margin, "This body of death." The word "body" here is probably used as
equivalent to flesh, denoting the corrupt and evil propensities of the soul; Note, Romans 7:18. It
is thus used to denote the law of sin in the members, as being that with which the apostle was
struggling, and from which he desired to be delivered. The expression "body of this death" is a
Hebraism, denoting a body deadly in its tendency; and the whole expression may mean the
corrupt principles of man; the carnal, evil affections that lead to death or to condemnation. The
expression is one of vast strength, and strongly characteristic of the apostle Paul. It indicates,
(1) That it was near him, attending him, and was distressing in its nature.
(2) an earnest wish to be delivered from it.
Some have supposed that he refers to a custom practiced by ancient tyrants, of binding a dead
body to a captive as a punishment, and compelling him to drag the cumbersome and offensive
burden with him wherever he went. I do not see any evidence that the apostle had this in view.
But such a fact may be used as a striking and perhaps not improper illustration of the meaning of
the apostle here. No strength of words could express deeper feeling; none more feelingly indicate
the necessity of the grace of God to accomplish that to which the unaided human powers are
incompetent.

17. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary24. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me
from the body of this death?—The apostle speaks of the "body" here with reference to "the law
of sin" which he had said was "in his members," but merely as the instrument by which the sin of
the heart finds vent in action, and as itself the seat of the lower appetites (see on [2218]Ro 6:6,
and [2219]Ro 7:5); and he calls it "the body of this death," as feeling, at the moment when he
wrote, the horrors of that death (Ro 6:21, and Ro 7:5) into which it dragged him down. But the
language is not that of a sinner newly awakened to the sight of his lost state; it is the cry of a
living but agonized believer, weighed down under a burden which is not himself, but which he
longs to shake off from his renewed self. Nor does the question imply ignorance of the way of
relief at the time referred to. It was designed only to prepare the way for that outburst of
thankfulness for the divinely provided remedy which immediately follows.
Matthew Poole's CommentaryO wretched man that I am! The word signifies one wearied out
with continual combats.
Who shall deliver me? It is not the voice of one desponding or doubting, but of one breathing
and panting after deliverance: the like pathetical exclamations are frequent: see Psalm 55:6. One
calls this verse, gemitus sanctorum, the groan of the godly.
From the body of this death; or, from this body of death; or, by a Hebraism, from this dead body,
this carcass of sin, to which I am inseparably fastened, as noisome every whit to my soul as a
dead carcass to my senses. This is another circumlocution, or denomination of original sin. It is
called the body of sin, Romans 6:6, and here the body of death; it tends and binds over to death.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleO wretched man that I am,.... Not as considered in Christ, for
as such he was a most happy man, being blessed with all spiritual blessings, and secure from all
condemnation and wrath; nor with respect to his inward man, which was renewing day by day,
and in which he enjoyed true spiritual peace and pleasure; nor with regard to his future state, of
the happiness of which he had no doubt: he knew in whom he had believed; he was fully
persuaded nothing could separate him from the love of God; and that when he had finished his
course, he should have the crown of righteousness laid up for him: but this exclamation he made
on account of the troubles he met with in his Christian race; and not so much on account of his
reproaches, persecutions, and distresses for Christ's sake; though these were many and great, yet
these did not move or much affect him, he rather took delight and pleasure in them; but on
account of that continual combat between, the flesh and spirit in him; or by reason of that mass
of corruption and body of sin he carried about with him; ranch such a complaint Isaiah makes,
Isaiah 6:5, which in the Septuagint is, , "O miserable I". This shows him to be, and to speak of
himself as a regenerate man; since an unregenerate man feels no uneasiness upon that score, or
makes any complaint of it, saying as here,
who shall deliver me from the body of this death? or "this body of death"; by which some
understand, this mortal body, or the body of flesh subject to death for sin; and suppose the
apostle expresses his desire to quit it, to depart out of it, that he might enjoy an immortal life,
being weary of the burden of this mortal body he carried about with him: so Philo the Jew (s)
represents the body as a burden to the soul, which "it carries about as a dead carcass", and never
lays down from his birth till his death: though it should be observed, that when the apostle
elsewhere expresses an earnest longing after a state of immortality and glory, some sort of
reluctance and unwillingness to leave the body is to be observed, which is not to be discerned

18. here; and was this his sense, one should think he would rather have said, when shall I be
delivered? or why am I not delivered? and not who shall deliver me? though admitting this to be
his meaning, that he was weary of the present life, and wanted to be rid of his mortal body, this
did not arise from the troubles and anxieties of life, with which he was pressed, which oftentimes
make wicked men long to die; but from the load of sin, and burden of corruption, under which he
groaned, and still bespeaks him a regenerate man; for not of outward calamities, but of
indwelling sin is he all along speaking in the context: wherefore it is better by "this body of
death" to understand what he in Romans 6:6 calls "the body of sin"; that mass of corruption that
lodged in him, which is called "a body", because of its fleshly carnal nature; because of its
manner of operation, it exerts itself by the members of the body; and because it consists of
various parts and members, as a body does; and "a body of death", because it makes men liable
to death: it was that which the apostle says "slew" him, and which itself is to a regenerate man,
as a dead carcass, stinking and loathsome; and is to him like that punishment Mezentius inflicted
on criminals, by fastening a living body to a putrid carcass (t): and it is emphatically called the
body of "this death", referring to the captivity of his mind, to the law of sin, which was as death
unto him: and no wonder therefore he so earnestly desires deliverance, saying, "who shall deliver
me?" which he speaks not as being ignorant of his deliverer, whom he mentions with
thankfulness in Romans 7:25; or as doubting and despairing of deliverance, for he was
comfortably assured of it, and therefore gives thanks beforehand for it; but as expressing the
inward pantings, and earnest breathings of his soul after it; and as declaring the difficulty of it,
yea, the impossibility of its being obtained by himself, or by any other than he, whom he had in
view: he knew he could not deliver himself from sin; that the law could not deliver him; and that
none but God could do it; and which he believed he would, through Jesus Christ his Lord.
(s) De Agricultura, p. 191. (t) Alexander ab. Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 3. c. 5,
Geneva Study Bible{14} O {d} wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of
this death?
(14) It is a miserable thing to be yet in part subject to sin, which of its own nature makes us
guilty of death: but we must cry to the Lord, who will by death itself at length make us
conquerors, as we are already conquerors in Christ.
(d) Wearied with miserable and continual conflicts.
EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT CommentaryHYPERLINK "/romans/7-24.htm"Romans 7:24. The marks of
parenthesis in which many include Romans 7:24-25, down to ἡμῶν, or (Grotius and Flatt) merely
Romans 7:25 down to ἡμῶν, should be expunged, since the flow of the discourse is not once
logically interrupted.
ταλαίπωρος κ.τ.λ.] The oppressive feeling of the misery of that captivity finds utterance thus.
Here also Paul by his “I” represents the still unredeemed man in his relation to the law. Only
with the state of the latter, not with the consciousness of the regenerate man, as if he “as it were”
were crying ever afresh for a new Redeemer from the power of the sin still remaining in him
(Philippi), does this wail and cry for help accord. The regenerate man has that which is here
sighed for, and his mood is that which is opposite to the feeling of wretchedness and death,
Romans 5:1 ff., Romans 8:1 ff.; being that of freedom, of overcoming, of life in Christ, and of
Christ in him, of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, of the new creature, to which old things have

19. passed away. Comp. Jul. Müller, v. d. Sünde, I. p. 458 f., ed. 5. The objection of Reiche, that
Paul would, according to
VERSE 25 COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(25) It has been released. It is Jesus our Lord to whom
the thanks and praise are due. Though without His intervention there can only be a divided
service. The mere human self serves with the mind the law of God, with the flesh the law of sin.
I myself.—Apart from and in opposition to the help which I derive from Christ.
The abrupt and pregnant style by which, instead of answering the question, “Where is
deliverance to come from?” the Apostle simply returns thanks for the deliverance that has
actually been vouchsafed to him, is thoroughly in harmony with the impassioned personal
character of the whole passage. These are not abstract questions to be decided in abstract terms,
but they are matters of intimate personal experience.
The deliverance wrought by Christ is apparently here that of sanctification rather than of
justification. It is from the domination of the body, from the impulses of sense, that the Christian
is freed, and that is done when he is crucified to them with Christ.
Benson CommentaryHYPERLINK "/romans/7-25.htm"Romans 7:25. I thank God, &c. — As if
he had said, I bemoan myself as above, when I think only of the Mosaic law, the discoveries it
makes, the motives it suggests, and the circumstances in which it leaves the offender: but in the
midst of this gloom of distress and anguish, a sight of the gospel revives my heart, and I cry out,
as in a kind of rapture, as soon as I turn my eyes, and behold the display of mercy and grace
made in it, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord — The Clermont and some other copies,
with the Vulgate, read here, χαρις του θεου, the grace of God, namely, will deliver me. But the
common reading, being supported by almost all the ancient manuscripts, and the Syriac version,
is to be preferred; especially as it contains an ellipsis, which, if supplied, according to the
apostle’s manner, from the foregoing sentence, will give even a better sense than the Clermont
reading, thus: Who will deliver me? I thank God, who will deliver me, through Jesus Christ. See
on Romans 8:2. Thus the apostle beautifully interweaves his complaints with thanksgiving; the
hymn of praise answering to the voice of sorrow, Wretched man that I am! So then — He here
sums up the whole, and concludes what he had begun, Romans 7:7. I myself — Or rather, that I,
(the man whom I am personating,) serve the law of God — The moral law; with my mind —
With my reason and conscience, which declare for God; but with my flesh the law of sin — But
my corrupt passions and appetites still rebel, and, prevailing, employ the outward man in
gratifying them, in opposition to the remonstrances of my higher powers.
On the whole of this passage we may observe, in the words of Mr. Fletcher, “To take a scripture
out of the context, is often like taking the stone which binds an arch out of its place: you know
not what to make of it. Nay, you may put it to a use quite contrary to that for which it was
intended. This those do who so take Romans 7. out of its connection with Romans 6:8., as to
make it mean the very reverse of what the apostle designed. In Romans 5:6., and in the beginning
of the seventh chapter, he describes the glorious liberty of the children of God under the
Christian dispensation. And as a skilful painter puts shades in his pictures, to heighten the effect
of the lights; so the judicious apostle introduces, in the latter part of chap. 7., a lively description

20. of the domineering power of sin, and of the intolerable burden of guilt; a burden this which he
had so severely felt, when the convincing Spirit charged sin home upon his conscience, after he
had broken his good resolutions; but especially during the three days of his blindness and fasting
at Damascus. Then he groaned, O wretched man that I am, &c., hanging night and day between
despair and hope, between unbelief and faith, between bondage and freedom, till God brought
him into Christian liberty by the ministry of Ananias; — of this liberty the apostle gives us a
further and fuller account in chapter eight. Therefore the description of the man who
[unacquainted with the gospel] groans under the galling yoke of sin, is brought in merely by
contrast, to set off the amazing difference there is between the bondage of sin, and the liberty of
gospel holiness: just as the generals who entered Rome in triumph, used to make a show of the
prince whom they had conquered. On such occasions, the conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot
crowned with laurel; while the captive king followed him on foot, loaded with chains, and
making, next to the conqueror, the most striking part of the show. Now, if, in a Roman triumph,
some of the spectators had taken the chained king on foot, for the victorious general in the
chariot, because the one immediately followed the other, they would have been guilty of a
mistake not unlike that of those who take the carnal Jew, sold under sin, and groaning as he goes
along, for the Christian believer, who walks in the Spirit, exults in the liberty of God’s children,
and always triumphs in Christ. See Fletcher’s Works, vol. 4., Amer. edit, pp. 336, 337.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary7:23-25 This passage does not represent the apostle as
one that walked after the flesh, but as one that had it greatly at heart, not to walk so. And if there
are those who abuse this passage, as they also do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction,
yet serious Christians find cause to bless God for having thus provided for their support and
comfort. We are not, because of the abuse of such as are blinded by their own lusts, to find fault
with the scripture, or any just and well warranted interpretation of it. And no man who is not
engaged in this conflict, can clearly understand the meaning of these words, or rightly judge
concerning this painful conflict, which led the apostle to bemoan himself as a wretched man,
constrained to what he abhorred. He could not deliver himself; and this made him the more
fervently thank God for the way of salvation revealed through Jesus Christ, which promised him,
in the end, deliverance from this enemy. So then, says he, I myself, with my mind, my prevailing
judgement, affections, and purposes, as a regenerate man, by Divine grace, serve and obey the
law of God; but with the flesh, the carnal nature, the remains of depravity, I serve the law of sin,
which wars against the law of my mind. Not serving it so as to live in it, or to allow it, but as
unable to free himself from it, even in his very best state, and needing to look for help and
deliverance out of himself. It is evident that he thanks God for Christ, as our deliverer, as our
atonement and righteousness in himself, and not because of any holiness wrought in us. He knew
of no such salvation, and disowned any such title to it. He was willing to act in all points
agreeable to the law, in his mind and conscience, but was hindered by indwelling sin, and never
attained the perfection the law requires. What can be deliverance for a man always sinful, but the
free grace of God, as offered in Christ Jesus? The power of Divine grace, and of the Holy Spirit,
could root out sin from our hearts even in this life, if Divine wisdom had not otherwise thought
fit. But it is suffered, that Christians might constantly feel, and understand thoroughly, the
wretched state from which Divine grace saves them; might be kept from trusting in themselves;
and might ever hold all their consolation and hope, from the rich and free grace of God in Christ.
Barnes' Notes on the BibleI thank God - That is, I thank God for effecting a deliverance to which
I am myself incompetent. There is a way of rescue, and I trace it altogether to his mercy in the
Lord Jesus Christ. What conscience could not do, what the Law could not do, what unaided

21. human strength could not do, has been accomplished by the plan of the gospel; and complete
deliverance can be expected there, and there alone. This is the point to which all his reasoning
had tended; and having thus shown that the Law was insufficient to effect this deliverance. he is
now prepared to utter the language of Christian thankfulness that it can be effected by the gospel.
The superiority of the gospel to the Law in overcoming all the evils under which man labors, is
thus triumphantly established; compare 1 Corinthians 15:57.
So then - As the result of the whole inquiry we have come to this conclusion.
With the mind - With the understanding, the conscience, the purposes, or intentions of the soul.
This is a characteristic of the renewed nature. Of no impenitent sinner could it be ever affirmed
that with his mind he served the Law of God.
I myself - It is still the same person, though acting in this apparently contradictory manner.
Serve the law of God - Do honor to it as a just and holy law Romans 7:12, Romans 7:16, and am
inclined to obey it, Romans 7:22, Romans 7:24.
But with the flesh - The corrupt propensities and lusts, Romans 7:18,
The law of sin - That is, in the members. The flesh throughout, in all its native propensities and
passions, leads to sin; it has no tendency to holiness; and its corruptions can be overcome only by
the grace of God. We have thus,
(1) A view of the sad and painful conflict between sin and God. They are opposed in all things.
(2) we see the raging, withering effect of sin on the soul. In all circumstances it tends to death
and woe.
(3) we see the feebleness of the Law and of conscience to overcome this. The tendency of both is
to produce conflict and woe. And,
(4) We see that the gospel only can overcome sin. To us it should be a subject of everincreasing
thankfulness, that what could not be accomplished by the Law, can be thus effected by the
gospel; and that God has devised a plan that thus effects complete deliverance, and which gives
to the captive in sin an everlasting triumph.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary25. I thank God—the Source.
through Jesus Christ—the Channel of deliverance.
So then—to sum up the whole matter.
with the mind—the mind indeed.
I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin—"Such then is the unchanging
character of these two principles within me. God's holy law is dear to my renewed mind, and has
the willing service of my new man; although that corrupt nature which still remains in me listens
to the dictates of sin."
Note, (1) This whole chapter was of essential service to the Reformers in their contendings with
the Church of Rome. When the divines of that corrupt church, in a Pelagian spirit, denied that the
sinful principle in our fallen nature, which they called "Concupiscence," and which is commonly
called "Original Sin," had the nature of sin at all, they were triumphantly answered from this
chapter, where—both in the first section of it, which speaks of it in the unregenerate, and in the
second, which treats of its presence and actings in believers—it is explicitly, emphatically, and
repeatedly called "sin." As such, they held it to be damnable. (See the Confessions both of the

22. Lutheran and Reformed churches). In the following century, the orthodox in Holland had the
same controversy to wage with "the Remonstrants" (the followers of Arminius), and they waged
it on the field of this chapter. (2) Here we see that Inability is consistent with Accountability.
(See Ro 7:18; Ga 5:17). "As the Scriptures constantly recognize the truth of these two things, so
are they constantly united in Christian experience. Everyone feels that he cannot do the things
that he would, yet is sensible that he is guilty for not doing them. Let any man test his power by
the requisition to love God perfectly at all times. Alas! how entire our inability! Yet how deep
our self-loathing and self-condemnation!" [Hodge]. (3) If the first sight of the Cross by the eye of
faith kindles feelings never to be forgotten, and in one sense never to be repeated—like the first
view of an enchanting landscape—the experimental discovery, in the latter stages of the
Christian life, of its power to beat down and mortify inveterate corruption, to cleanse and heal
from long-continued backslidings and frightful inconsistencies, and so to triumph over all that
threatens to destroy those for whom Christ died, as to bring them safe over the tempestuous seas
of this life into the haven of eternal rest—is attended with yet more heart—affecting wonder
draws forth deeper thankfulness, and issues in more exalted adoration of Him whose work
Salvation is from first to last (Ro 7:24, 25). (4) It is sad when such topics as these are handled as
mere questions of biblical interpretation or systematic theology. Our great apostle could not treat
of them apart from personal experience, of which the facts of his own life and the feelings of his
own soul furnished him with illustrations as lively as they were apposite. When one is unable to
go far into the investigation of indwelling sin, without breaking out into an, "O wretched man
that I am!" and cannot enter on the way of relief without exclaiming "I thank God through Jesus
Christ our Lord," he will find his meditations rich in fruit to his own soul, and may expect,
through Him who presides in all such matters, to kindle in his readers or hearers the like blessed
emotions (Ro 7:24, 25). So be it even now, O Lord!
Matthew Poole's CommentaryI thank God; who hath already delivered me from the slavery and
dominion of sin; so that though it wars against me, I still resist it, and, by the strength of Christ,
do frequently overcome it, 1 Corinthians 15:57.
So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin: this is the
conclusion the apostle maketh of this experimental discourse. q.d. So far as I am renewed, I yield
obedience to the law of God; and so far as I am unregenerate, I obey the dictates and suggestions
of the law of sin.
Objection. No man can serve two contrary masters.
Answer. The apostle did not serve these two in the same part, or the same renewed faculty; nor
did he do it at the same time, ordinarily; and for the most part he served the law of God, though
sometimes, through the power of temptation and indwelling corruption, he was enforced, against
his will, to serve the law of sin.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleI thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord,.... There is a
different reading of this passage; some copies read, and so the Vulgate Latin version, thus, "the
grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord"; which may be considered as an answer to the
apostle's earnest request for deliverance, "who shall deliver me?" the grace of God shall deliver
me. The grace of God the Father, which is communicated through Christ the Mediator by the
Spirit, the law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ, the principle of grace formed in the soul by
the Spirit of God, which reigns in the believer as a governing principle, through righteousness

23. unto eternal life, will in the issue deliver from indwelling sin, and all the effects of it: but the
more general reading is, "thanks be to God", or "I thank God"; the object of thanksgiving is God,
as the Father of Christ, and the God of all grace: the medium of it is Christ as Mediator, through
whom only we have access to God; without him we can neither pray to him, nor praise him
aright; our sacrifices of praise are only acceptable to God, through Christ; and as all our mercies
come to us through him, it is but right and fitting that our thanksgivings should pass the same
way: the thing for which thanks is given is not expressed, but is implied, and is deliverance;
either past, as from the power of Satan, the dominion of sin, the curse of the law, the evil of the
world, and from the hands of all spiritual enemies, so as to endanger everlasting happiness; or
rather, future deliverance, from the very being of sin: which shows, that at present, and whilst in
this life, saints are not free from it; that it is God only that must, and will deliver from it; and that
through Christ his Son, through whom we have victory over every enemy, sin, Satan, law, and
death; and this shows the apostle's sure and certain faith and hope of this matter, who concludes
his discourse on this head thus:
so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin; observe,
he says, "I myself", and not another; whence it is clear, he does not represent another man in this
discourse of his; for this is a phrase used by him, when he cannot possibly be understood of any
other but himself; see Romans 9:3; he divides himself as it were into two parts, the mind, by
which he means his inward man, his renewed self; and "the flesh", by which he designs his
carnal I, that was sold under sin: and hereby he accounts for his serving, at different times, two
different laws; "the law of God", written on his mind, and in the service of which he delighted as
a regenerate man; "and the law of sin", to which he was sometimes carried captive: and it should
be taken notice of, that he does not say "I have served", as referring to his past state of
unregeneracy, but "I serve", as respecting his present state as a believer in Christ, made up of
flesh and spirit; which as they are two different principles, regard two different laws: add to all
this, that this last account the apostle gives of himself, and which agrees with all he had said
before, and confirms the whole, was delivered by him, after he had with so much faith and
fervency given thanks to God in a view of his future complete deliverance from sin; which is a
clinching argument and proof that he speaks of himself, in this whole discourse concerning
indwelling sin, as a regenerate person.
Geneva Study BibleI {e} thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I {f}
myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
(e) He recovers himself, and shows us that he rests only in Christ.
(f) This is the true perfection of those that are born again, to confess that they are imperfect.
EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT CommentaryHYPERLINK "/romans/7-25.htm"Romans 7:25. Not Paul himself for
himself alone, but, as is shown by the following ἄρα οὖν κ.τ.λ., the same collective “I” that the
apostle has personated previously, speaks here also—expressing, after that anguish-cry of
longing, its feeling of deep thankfulness toward God that the longed-for deliverance has actually
come to it through Christ. There is not change of person, but change of scene. Man, still
unredeemed, has just been bewailing his wretchedness out of Christ; now the same man is in
Christ, and gives thanks for the bliss that has come to him in the train of his cry for help.
εὐχαριστῶ τ. Θεῷ] For what? is not expressed, quite after the manner of lively emotion; but the

24. question itself, Romans 7:24, and the διὰ Ἰ. Χ., prevent any mistake regarding it.
διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ] αἰτίου ὄντος τῆς εὐχαριστίας τοῦ Χριστοῦ· αὐτὸς γὰρ, φησὶ, κατώρθωσεν ἃ
ὁ νόμος οὐκ ἠδυνήθη· αὐτός με ἐῤῥύσατο ἐκ τῆς ἀσθενείας τοῦ σώματος, ἐνδυναμώσας αὐτὸ,
ὥστε μηκέτι τυραννεῖσθαι ὑπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας, Theophylact. Thus, to the apostle Christ is the
mediator of his thanks,—of the fact itself, however, that he gives thanks to God, not the mediator
through whom he brings his thanks to God (Hofmann). Comp. on Romans 1:8; 1 Corinthians
15:57; Colossians 3:17; similar is ἐν ὀνόματι, Ephesians 5:20.
ἄρα οὖν] infers a concluding summary of the chief contents of Romans 7:14-24, from the
immediately preceding εὐχαριστῶ.… ἡμῶν. Seeing, namely, that there lies in the foregoing
expression of thanks the thought: “it is Jesus Christ, through whom God has saved me from the
body of this death,” it follows thence, and that indeed on a retrospective glance at the whole
exposition, Romans 7:14 ff., that the man himself, out of Christ—his own personality, alone and
confined to itself—achieves nothing further than that he serves, indeed, with his νοῦς the law of
God, but with his σάρξ is in the service of the law of sin. It has often been assumed that this
recapitulation does not connect itself with the previous thanksgiving, but that the latter is rather
to be regarded as a parenthetical interruption (see especially Rückert and Fritzsche); indeed, it
has even been conjectured that ἄρα οὖν.… ἁμαρτίας originally stood immediately after Romans
7:23 (Venema, Wassenbergh, Keil, Lachmann, Praef. p. X, and van Hengel). But the right sense
of αὐτὸς ἐγώ is thus misconceived. It has here no other meaning than I myself, in the sense,
namely, I for my own person, without that higher saving intervention, which I owe to Christ. The
contrast with others, which ΑὐΤΌς with the personal pronoun indicates (comp. Romans 9:3,
Romans 15:14; Herm. ad Vig. p. 735; Ast, Lex. Plat. I. p. 317), results always from the context,
and is here evident from the emphatic διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, and, indeed, so that the accent falls on
ΑὐΤΌς. Overlooking this antithetic relation of the “I myself,” Pareus, Homberg, Estius, and
Wolf conceived that Paul wished to obviate the misconception as if he were not speaking in the
entire section, and from Romans 7:14 onwards in particular, as a regenerate man; Köllner thinks
that his object now is to establish still more strongly, by his own feeling, the truth of what he has
previously advanced in the name of humanity. Others explain: “just I,” who have been
previously the subject of discourse (Grotius, Reiche, Tholuck, Krehl, Philippi, Maier, and van
Hengel; comp. Fritzsche: “ipse ego, qui meam vicem deploravi,” and Ewald); which is indeed
linguistically unobjectionable (Bernhardy, p. 290), but would furnish no adequate ground for the
special emphasis which it would have. Others, again, taking αὐτός as equivalent to ὁ αὐτός (see
Schaefer, Melet. p. 65; Herm. ad Soph. Antig. 920, Opusc. I. p. 332 f.; Dissen ad Pind. p. 412):
ego idem: “cui convenit sequens distributio, qua videri posset unus homo in duos veluti secari,”
Beza. So also Erasmus, Castalio, and many others; Klee and Rückert. But in this view also the
connection of ἄρα οὖν κ.τ.λ. with the foregoing thanksgiving is arbitrarily abandoned; and the
above use of αὐτός, as synonymous with ὁ αὐτός, is proper to Ionic poetry, and is not sanctioned
by the N. T. OIshausen, indeed, takes αὐτ. ἐγώ as I, the one and the same (have in me a twofold
element), but rejects the usual view, that ἄρα.… ἁμαρτίας is a recapitulation of Romans 7:14 ff.,
and makes the new section begin with Romans 7:25; so that, after the experience of redemption
has been indicated by εὐχαριστῶ κ.τ.λ., the completely altered inner state of the man is now
described; in which new state the νοῦς appears as emancipated and serving the law of God, and
only the lower sphere of the life as still remaining under the law of sin. But against this view we
may urge, firstly, that Paul would have expressed himself inaccurately in point of logic, since in

25. that case he must have written: ἄρα οὖν αὐτὸς ἐγὼ τῇ μὲν σαρκὶ δουλεύω νόμῷ ἁμαρτίας, τῷ δὲ
νοῒ νόμῷ Θεοῦ; secondly, that according to Romans 7:2-3; Romans 7:9 ff. the redeemed person
is entirely liberated from the law of sin; and lastly, that if the redeemed person remained subject
to the law of sin with the σάρξ, Paul could not have said οὐδὲν κατάκριμα κ.τ.λ. in Romans 7:1;
for see Romans 7:7-9. Umbreit takes it as: even I; a climactic sense, which is neither suggested
by the context, nor in keeping with the deep humility of the whole confession.
δουλεύω νόμῳ Θεοῦ] in so far as the desire and striving of my moral reason (see on Romans
7:23) are directed solely to the good, consequently submitted to the regulative standard of the
divine law. At the same time, however, in accordance with the double character of my nature, I
am subject with my σάρξ (see on Romans 7:18) to the power of sin, which preponderates
(Romans 7:23), so that the direction of will in the νοῦς does not attain to the κατεργάζεσθαι.
Remark 1. The mode in which we interpret Romans 7:14-25 is of decisive importance for the
relation between the Church-doctrine of original sin, as more exactly expressed in the Formula
Concordiae, and the view of the apostle; inasmuch as if in Romans 7:14 ff. it is the unredeemed
man under the law and its discipline, and not the regenerate man who is under grace, that is
spoken of, then Paul affirms regarding the moral nature of the former and concedes to it what the
Church-doctrine decidedly denies to it—comparing it (Form. Conc. p. 661 f.) with a stone, a
block, a pillar of salt—in a way that cannot be justified (in opposition to Frank, Theol. d.
Concordienformel, I. p. 138 f.). Paul clearly ascribes to the higher powers of man (his reason and
moral will) the assent to the law of God; while just as clearly, moreover, he teaches the great
disproportion in which these natural moral powers stand to the predominance of the sinful power
in the flesh, so that the liberum arbitrium in spiritualibus is wanting to the natural man, and only
emerges in the case of the converted person (Romans 8:2). And this want of moral freedom
proceeds from the power of sin, which is, according to Romans 7:8 ff., posited even with birth,
and which asserts itself in opposition to the divine law.
Remark 2. How many a Jew in the present day, earnestly concerned about his salvation, may, in
relation to his law, feel and sigh just as Paul has here done; only with this difference, that unlike
Paul he cannot add the εὐχαριστῶ τῷ Θεῷ κ.τ.λ.!
Expositor's Greek TestamentHYPERLINK "/romans/7-25.htm"Romans 7:25. The exclamation
of thanksgiving shows that the longed-for deliverance has actually been achieved. The regenerate
man’s ideal contemplation of his pre-Christian state rises with sudden joy into a declaration of
his actual emancipation as a Christian. διὰ Ἰ. Χ. τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Christ is regarded as the
mediator through whom the thanksgiving ascends to God, not as the author of the deliverance for
which thanks are given. With ἄρα οὖν αὐτὸς ἐγώ the Apostle introduces the conclusion of this
whole discussion. “So then I myself—that is, I, leaving Jesus Christ our Lord out of the
question—can get no further than this: with the mind, or in the inner man, I serve a law of God (a
Divine law), but with the flesh, or in my actual outward life, a law of sin.” We might say the law
of God, or of sin; but the absence of the definite article emphasises the character of law. αὐτὸς
ἐγὼ: see 2 Corinthians 10:1; 2 Corinthians 12:13.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges25. I thank God] Here first light is let in; the light of
hope. The “redemption of the body” shall come. “He who raised up Christ” shall make the
“mortal body” immortally sinless, and so complete the rescue and the bliss of the whole man.
See Romans 8:11.

26. through Jesus Christ our Lord] “In whom shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). He is
the meritorious Cause, and the sacred Pledge.
So then, &c.] The Gr. order is So then I myself with the mind indeed do bondservice to the law
of God, but with the flesh to the law of sin. On “the mind” here, see note just above, last but one
on Romans 7:23. On “the law of sin” see second note ibidem.—“To do bondservice to the law of
God,” and that with “the mind,” can only describe the state of things when “the mind” is
“renewed” (Romans 12:2).—What is the reference of “I myself”? (for so we must render, and
not, as with some translators, “The same I”). In strict grammar it belongs to both clauses; to the
service with the mind and to that with the flesh. But remembering how St. Paul has recently
dwelt on the Ego as “willing” to obey the will of God, it seems best to throw the emphasis, (as
we certainly may do in practice,) on the first clause. Q. d., “In a certain sense, I am in bondage
both to God and to sin; but my true self, my now regenerate ‘mind,’ is God’s bondservant; it is
my ‘old man,’ my flesh, that serves sin.” The statement is thus nearly the same as that in Romans
7:17; Romans 7:20.
The Apostle thus sums up and closes this profound description of the state of self, even when
regenerate, in view of the full demand of the sacred Law. He speaks, let us note again, as one
whose very light and progress in Divine life has given him an intense perception of sin as sin,
and who therefore sees in the faintest deviation an extent of pain, failure, and bondage, which the
soul before grace could not see in sin at all. He looks (Romans 7:25, init.) for complete future
deliverance from this pain; but it is a real pain now. And he has described it mainly with the view
of emphasizing both the holiness of the Law, and the fact that its function is, not to subdue sin,
but to detect and condemn it. In the golden passages now to follow, he soon comes to the Agency
which is to subdue it indeed. See further, Postscript, p. 268.
Bengel's GnomenHYPERLINK "/romans/7-25.htm"Romans 7:25. Εὐχαριστῶ, I give thanks)
This is unexpectedly, though most pleasantly, mentioned, and is now at length rightly
acknowledged, as the one and only refuge. The sentence is categorical: God will deliver me by
Christ; the thing is not in my own power: and that sentence indicates the whole matter: but the
moral made [modus moralis. end.] (of which, see on ch. Romans 6:17), I give thanks, is added.
(As in 1 Corinthians 15:57 : the sentiment is: God giveth us the victory; but there is added the
ηθος, or moral mode, Thanks be to God.) And the phrase, I give thanks, as a joyful hymn, stands
in opposition to the miserable complaint, which is found in the preceding verse, wretched that I
am.—οὖν, then) He concludes those topics, on which he had entered at Romans 7:7.—αὐτὸς
ἐγὼ) I myself.—νόμῳ Θεοῦ—νόμῳ ἁμαρτίας, the law of God—the law of sin) νόμῳ is the
Dative, not the Ablative, Romans 7:23. Man [the man, whom Paul personifies] is now equally
balanced between slavery and liberty, and yet at the same time, panting after liberty, he
acknowledges that the law is holy and free from all blame. The balance is rarely even. Here the
inclination to good has by this time attained the greater weight of the two.
PRECEPT AUSTIN RESOURCES

27. BRUCE HURT MD
Romans 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
(NASB: Lockman)
Greek: talaiporos ego anthropos; tis me rhusetai (3SFMI) ek tou somatos tou
thHYPERLINK "http://www.studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=2288"anatou
toutou?
Amplified: O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and
deliver me from [the shackles of] this body of death? (Amplified Bible - Lockman)|
Barclay: O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this fatal body?
(Westminster Press)
Moule: Unhappy man am I. Who will rescue me out of the body of this death, out of a
life conditioned by this mortal body, which in the Fall became Sin’s especial vehicle,
directly or indirectly, and which is not yet (see Ro 8:23) actually “redeemed”?
NLT: Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is
dominated by sin? (NLT - Tyndale House)
Wuest: Wretched man, I. Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?
Young's Literal: Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this
death?
DEFEATED AND TAKEN PRISONER… WHAT WAS HIS ASSESSMENT OF HIS
CONDITION? WHAT WAS HIS CRY? WHO WAS THE ANSWER?
WRETCHED MAN THAT I AM: Talaiporos ego anthropos:
• Ro 8:26; 1Ki 8:38; Ps 6:6; 32:3,4; 38:2,8, 9, 10; 77:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9; 119:20,81, 82,
83,131; Ps 119:143,176; 130:1, 2, 3; Ezek 9:4; Mt 5:4,6; 2Cor 12:7, 8, 9; Rev 21:4
• Romans 7 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
Cranfield has a pithy note writing that "Many commentators, including—surprisingly—not a
few in the Reformed tradition (e.g., Denney), have stated quite dogmatically that it cannot be a
Christian who speaks here. But the truth is, surely, that inability to recognize the distress
reflected in this cry as characteristic of Christian existence argues a failure to grasp the full
seriousness of the Christian’s obligation to express his gratitude to God by obedience of life. The
farther men advance in the Christian life, and the more mature their discipleship, the clearer
becomes their perception of the heights to which God calls them, and the more painfully sharp
their consciousness of the distance between what they ought, and want, to be, and what they are.
The assertion that this cry could only come from an unconverted heart, and that the apostle must
be expressing not what he feels as he writes but the vividly remembered experience of the
unconverted man, is, we believe, totally untrue. To make it is to indicate—with all respect be it
said—that one has not yet considered how absolute are the claims of the grace of God in Jesus
Christ. The man, whose cry this is, is one who, knowing himself to be righteous by faith, desires
from the depths of his being to respond to the claims which the gospel makes upon him (cf. Ro
7:22). It is the very clarity of his understanding of the gospel and the very sincerity of his love to

28. God, which make his pain at this continuing sinfulness so sharp. (Cranfield, C. E. B.. A Critical
and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. London; New York: T&T Clark
International)
Wretched (5005) (talaiporos from tálas = suffering, wretched or according to A T Robertson
from tlao = to bear + poros = a callus) means afflicted, miserable, in a distressed condition,
beaten down from from continued strain and leaving a person literally full of callouses (= deep
misery). . Wretched describes a very unhappy or unfortunate state in poor or pitiful
circumstances. Talaiporos is an expression used in pagan Greek drama to express tragic
misfortune and woe. 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.
Vincent writes that "Originally, wretched through the exhaustion of hard labor."
Paul recognizes that he is in a helpless state of despair because he cannot rid himself of his bent
toward sinning.
Harry Ironside explains that Paul "Almost convinced that the struggle must go on during the
entire course of his earthly existence he cried in anguish, "O wretched man that I am! who shall
deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24) He is like a living man chained to a
polluted, because corrupt, corpse, and unable to snap the chains. He cannot make the corpse
clean and subject, no matter how he tries. It is the cry of hopelessness so far as self-effort is
concerned. He is brought to the end of human resources. In a moment he gets a vision by faith of
the risen Christ. He alone is the deliverer from sin's power, as well as the Savior from the penalty
of guilt. "I thank God," he cries, "through Jesus Christ our Lord"! He has found the way out. Not
the law but Christ in glory is the rule of life for the Christian.
Morris makes an interesting point - 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.
Wiersbe explains that "The believer has an old nature that wants to keep him in bondage; “I will
get free from these old sins!” the Christian says to himself. “I determine here and now that I will
not do this any longer.” What happens? He exerts all his willpower and energy, and for a time
succeeds; but then when he least expects it, he falls again. Why? Because he tried to overcome
his old nature with Law, and the Law cannot deliver us from the old nature. When you move
under the Law, you are only making the old nature stronger; because “the strength of sin is the
Law” (1Cor. 15:56). 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. The inward man may delight in the
Law of God (Ps. 119:35), but the old nature delights in breaking the Law of God. No wonder the
believer under Law becomes tired and discouraged, and eventually gives up! He is a captive, and
his condition is “wretched.” (The Greek word indicates a person who is exhausted after a battle.)
What could be more wretched than exerting all your energy to try to live a good life, only to
discover that the best you do is still not good enough! (Wiersbe, W: Bible Exposition
Commentary. 1989. Victor)
Sanday and Headlam comment that Paul utters "A heart-rending cry from the depths of
despair.'
Webster adds that wretched means "deeply afflicted, dejected, or distressed in body or mind;
extremely or deplorably bad or distressing; being or appearing mean, miserable, or contemptible;
very poor in quality or ability".

29. In the only other NT use of wretched in Rev 3:17-note Jesus describes the church at Laodicea
a church that has a reason to be wretched for (although there is difference of opinion) many able
scholars feel that this description is of a church of completely unregenerate people (Rev 3:20-
note).
Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and
you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked"
(See note Revelation 3:17)
Morris - 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, Henry: Defenders
Study Bible. World Publishing)
McGee - This is not an unsaved man who is crying, “O wretched man that I am”; this is a saved
man. The word wretched carries with it the note of exhaustion because of the struggle. “Who is
going to deliver me?” He is helpless. His shoulders are pinned to the floor—he has been wrestled
down. Like old Jacob, he has been crippled. He is calling for help from the outside. (Thru the
Bible Commentary: Nashville: Thomas Nelson)
Spurgeon - This proves that he was not attacking his sin, but that this sin was attacking him. I do
not seek to be delivered from a man against whom I lead the attack. It is the man who is
opposing me from whom I seek to be delivered. And so sometimes the sin that dwells in
believers flies at us, like some foul tiger of the woods, or some demon, jealous of the celestial
spirit within us.
Henry Alford - These words are most important to the understanding of the whole passage. We
must bear in mind that it had begun with the question, Is the law sin? The apostle has proved that
it is not, but is holy. He has shown the relation it holds to sin; namely, that of vivifying it by
means of man’s natural aversion to the commandment. He has further shown, that in himself,
even as delivered by Christ Jesus, a conflict between the law and sin is ever going on: the misery
of which would be death itself were not a glorious deliverance effected. He now sums up his
vindication of the law as holy; and at the same time, sums up the other side of the evidence
adduced in the passage, from which it appears that the flesh is still, even in the spiritual man
subject (essentially, not practically and energetically) to the law of sin,—which subjection, in its
nature and consequences, is so nobly treated in chapter 8.
WHO WILL SET ME FREE: tis me rhusetai (3SFMI):
• Dt 22:26,27; Ps 71:11; 72:12; 91:14,15; 102:20; Mic 7:19; Zech 9:11,12; Lu 4:18; 2Cor
1:8-10; 2Ti 4:18; Titus 2:14; Heb 2:15
• Romans 7 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
The body is the scene of this contest. Sin living in the members brings spiritual death to the
body, and man becomes aware that he needs outside help. Paul cries out not for deliverance from
the body as such, but for deliverance from the body characterized by this spiritual death-the
doing of that which is evil in opposition to his desire to do that which is good.
Set free (4506) (rhuomai) means to draw or snatch to oneself and invariably refers to a
snatching from danger, evil or an enemy. This basic idea of rescuing from danger is pictured by
the use describing a soldier’s going to a wounded comrade on the battlefield and carrying him to
safety (he runs to the cry of his comrade to rescue him from the hands of the enemy). Rhuomai
emphasizes greatness of peril from which deliverance is given by a mighty act of power.

30. This verse is especially meaningful to Spurgeon who wrote that…
I went to that same Primitive Methodist Chapel where I first received peace with God
through the simple preaching of the Word. The text happened to be, "O wretched man
that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" "There," I thought, "that's a
text for me." I had got as far as that, when the minister began by saying, "Paul was not a
believer when he said this." I knew I was a believer, and it seemed to me from the context
that Paul must have been a believer, too. Now I am sure he was. The man went on to say
that no child of God ever did feel any conflict within. So I took up my hat and left the
place, and I do not think I have fre-quented such places since.
Such a cry takes us to the very place that the Lord Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount…
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:3-note).
One could paraphrase this as
“Blessed are the spiritually bankrupt… Blessed are the wretched.” . Blessed is the man
who has arrived at spiritual bankruptcy.
Why is such a one "blessed"? Because this is the point and if fact the only point, where God's
help is given and grace flows most freely for God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the
humble (James 4:6HYPERLINK "/james-4-commentary#4:6"+). Paul even as a believer learned
through a personal affliction to boast in his weakness that the power of Christ might be perfected
in him. It is at such a spiritual low state, when the individual realizes and confesses his
helplessness to live a life that pleases to God that the Spirit of Christ engages that person. "I can't
God!" to which God answers "I never said 'YOU' could" but "I can (My Spirit) and I always said
I would".
Hendriksen writes that Paul…
The writer genuinely deplores the fact that due to the law of sin still operating in him, he
is unable to serve God as completely and whole-heartedly as he desires. The poignant
grief here expressed is definitely that of a believer. No unbeliever would ever be able to
be so filled with sorrow because of his sins! The author of the outcry is Paul, speaking for
every child of God. The cry he utters is one of distress, but not of despair, as verse 25
proves. Paul suffers agony, to be sure, the wretchedness brought about by strenuous
exertion; that is, by trying hard, but never satisfactorily succeeding, to live in complete
harmony with God’s will but failing again and again. He is looking forward eagerly to the
time when this struggle will have ended. (Ibid)
I like Leon Morris' comments on the wretched cry in this verse…
Paul is expressing in forceful terms his dismay at what sin does to him. It is, moreover,
important that we understand this as applying to the regenerate. It is all too easy to take
our Christian status for granted. We so readily remember our victories and gloss over our
defeats. We slip into a routine and refuse to allow ourselves to be disturbed by what we
see as occasional and minor slips. But a sensitive conscience and a genuine sorrow for
every sin are the prerequisites of spiritual depth. (Morris, L.. The Epistle to the Romans.
Grand Rapids, Mich.; Leicester, England: W. B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press)
THOUGHT - Are you wretched? Are you miserable in your sin and the repeated
attempts to overcome that habit, that sin that so easily entangles? Then join Paul and

31. millions of others who have come to the end of their strength and cried out to a Merciful
God
"Wretched man or woman that I am.
Have mercy on me O God!"
Guzik writes that…
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.
The entire tone of the statement (O wretched man that I am!) 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 same desperation Paul did.
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 Paul’s unsuccessful struggle against sin, he 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?” (Romans 7 Commentary)
Matthew Poole writes that…
It is not the voice of one desponding or doubting, but of one breathing and panting after
deliverance.
One of the great expositors of Scripture in the last fifty years, Ray Stedman offers some sage
and practical advice concerning Romans 7:14-25…
If we think that we have got something in ourselves that we can work out our problems
with, if we think that our wills are strong enough, our desires motivated enough, that we
can control evil in our lives by simply determining to do so, then we have not come to the
end of ourselves yet. And the Spirit of God simply folds his arms to wait and lets us go
ahead and try it on that basis. And we fail, and fail miserably -- until, at last, out of our
failures, we cry, "O wretched man that I am!" Sin has deceived us, and the Law, as our
friend, has come in and exposed Sin for what it is. When we see how wretched it makes
us, then we are ready for the answer, which comes immediately {Ro 7:25}
Who will deliver me from this body of death? The Lord Jesus has already done it. We are
to respond to the feelings of wretchedness and discouragement and failure, to which the
Law has brought us because of sin in us, by reminding ourselves immediately of the facts
that are true of us in Jesus Christ. Our feelings must be answered by facts.
We are no longer under the Law. That is the fact. We have arrived at a different situation;
we are married to Christ, Christ risen from the dead. That means we must no longer
think, "I am a poor, struggling, bewildered disciple, left alone to wrestle against these
powerful urges." We must now begin to think, "No, I am a free son of God, living a

32. normal human life. I am dead to sin, and dead to the Law, because I am married to Christ.
His power is mine, right at this moment. And though I may not feel a thing, I have the
power to say, "No!" and walk away and be free, in Jesus Christ."(full sermon The
Continuing Struggle)
FROM THE BODY OF THIS DEATH: ek tou somatos tou thanatou toutou:
• Ro 6:6; 8:13; Ps 88:5; Col 2:11
• Romans 7 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
The enemy who keeps the prisoner bound is here called the body of this death.
The body of death = the old sinful nature that lives in every man born in Adam and also still
lurks in the dying physical body of all who are born again in Christ. Christ delivers both from the
body of death. The body is the scene of this contest. Sin living in the members brings spiritual
death to the body, and man becomes aware that he needs outside help. Paul cries out not for
deliverance from the body characterized by this spiritual death or the doing of that which is evil
in opposition to his desire to do that which is good.
Regarding the body of this death, C H Spurgeon writes that "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 every day 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.
Wuest (favors Romans 7 as description of a believer) writes that "The words this death refer to
the miserable condition of the Christian who is yet dominated more or less by the evil nature
which all the while he is desiring to gain victory over. It is the death Paul speaks of in verse 9.
The body here is the physical body, as that body in which the sinful nature dwells and through
which, when it is in the ascendancy, it operates. Vincent quotes Meyer, “Who shall deliver me
out of bondage under the law of sin into moral freedom, in which my body shall no longer serve
as the seat of this shameful death?” Paul is not crying out for egress from his body but for
deliverance from the condition of defeat which his residence in his physical body makes a
possibility, and his lack of spiritual knowledge up to that moment, resulted in. Paul answers his
question as to who shall deliver him from the compelling power of the sinful nature by saying
that that deliverance comes through Jesus Christ, and he gives thanks to God for that fact.
(Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans)
Godet writes that "The innate power of evil, against which that of the law is shattered, is a
hereditary disease, a misfortune which only becomes a fault in proportion as we consent to it
personally by not struggling against it with the aids appropriate to the economy in which we live.
(Romans 7:7-25 The Powerlessness of the Law to Sanctify)
The New Manners and Customs of the Bible writes that the body of death "is a reference to
the Roman method of punishment in which the body of the murdered person was chained to the
murderer. The murderer was then released to wander where he might, but no one was allowed to
help or comfort him upon penalty of suffering the same punishment. In the hot Eastern sun the
dead body would soon begin to decay, overwhelming the sentenced person not only with the

33. smell but also with infection from the rotting flesh. It was perhaps the most horrible of all
sentences that the imaginary Romans ever devised. To Paul our putrefying body of sinful flesh is
like this, and only Christ can rescue us from it. (Freeman, J. M., & Chadwick, H. J. (1998)s)
Vincent adds that "The body serving as the seat of the death into which the soul is sunk through
the power of sin. The body is the literal body, regarded as the principal instrument which sin uses
to enslave and destroy the soul. (Romans 7: Greek Word Studies)
Ray Stedman writes that "There are teachers who teach that this passage in Romans 7 is
something a Christian goes through once, then he gets out of it and moves into Romans 8 and
never gets back into Romans 7 again. Nothing could be further from the truth! This is a
description of what every believer will go through again and again in his experience because sin
has the power to deceive us and to cause us to trust in ourselves, even when we are not aware we
are doing it. The Law is what will expose that evil force and drive us to this place of
wretchedness that we might then, in poverty of spirit, cry out, "Lord Jesus, it is your problem;
you take it." And he will do so. (full sermon The Continuing Struggle)
Get Off My Back - Roman emperors saw torture as a legitimate way to put muscle and teeth
into their laws. They were known to bind the body of a murder victim to the back of his killer.
Under penalty of death, no one was allowed to release the condemned criminal. This terrible
practice calls to mind the words of the apostle Paul in Romans 7. It's as if he felt that something
dead was strapped to him and accompanied him wherever he went.
As children of God, we long for purity and holiness, yet at times we feel helplessly bound to the
"dead body" of our flesh. Even though we are new creatures in Christ and we know that the
physical body itself is not evil, the tendency to sin is always with us. This causes us to cry out
with the apostle, "Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Ro 7:24).
Paul answered his own cry in chapter 8. He said that through the forgiveness of Christ we are
freed from eternal condemnation (v.1). Then by the strength of the indwelling Holy Spirit we are
empowered to do the will of God (v.9). And someday in heaven these mortal bodies of ours will
be redeemed (v.23). We are not hopelessly bound by the flesh.
Praise God, Christ broke the power of sin! We can serve Him in newness of life. —M De Haan
(Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All
rights reserved)
At times sin's power within grows strong,
Too strong, it seems, for us to bear;
But Jesus says, "Look unto Me.
I broke sin's power, so don't despair." —DDH
The flesh says do what you would do--
Just be what you would be;
But Christ says do what's right and true
If you would be like Me. --DJD
To overcome sin, starve the old nature (deny self) and feed the new.
Christ freed us from sin's penalty; the Spirit frees us from its power.

34. In Our Daily Homily F B Meyerwrites about the wretched man that we all are…
This chapter is very full of the personal pronoun. Me and I are the pivot around which its
argument revolves. The strenuous efforts which the soul makes, not so much to justify as
to sanctify itself, to realize its ideal, to walk worthy of the Lord, are well-pleasing, and
are described by a master hand.
Is there one of us who has not read these words repeatedly, and in desperation? They
have been so exactly true. We have longed with passionate sincerity that a new man
might arise in us to free us from our old man, and make us the men we fain would be. We
have been conscious of a subtle force mastering our struggles, like the serpents
overcoming Laocoon and his sons; we have realized that a corrupting carcass was bound
to our backs, as to the Roman criminals of old, filling the air with miasma, and poisoning
our life. We have cried bitterly, O wretched man, who shall deliver?
The key to the plaintive moan of this chapter consists in this. It is the result of the
endeavor to live a holy life apart from the power of the indwelling Savior, and
independently of the grace of the Holy Spirit. All such efforts are sure to end in
wretchedness. We can no more sanctify ourselves than we can justify. Deliverance from
the power of sin is the gift of God’s grace, as forgiveness is. And it is only when we have
come to the very end of all our strivings and resolvings, and have abandoned ourselves to
the Savior He should do in us and for us what we cannot do for ourselves, that we are led
to cry, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
“All things are possible to God;
To Christ, the power of God in men,
To me, when I am all subdued,
When I, in Christ, am born again.”
The Great Overcomer - Who is not inspired by the competitor who makes a comeback after
being down and seemingly out of the running! The runner who stumbles while coming off the
starting blocks but moves gradually into the lead stirs the imagination of us all. The team that can
come from behind in the last moments to win excites us even more than the team that constantly
wins by scoring big in the first part of the game.
Jesus made the most amazing comeback the world has ever seen. After being humiliated,
insulted, spit upon, whipped, beaten, and nailed to a cross, His executioners claimed victory and
declared Him dead. A military guard secured His tomb. How could anyone be more down and
out than that?
Yet the struggle was not over; it was only the beginning. Three days later, He rose from the
grave and reappeared as the victor over sin, death, and hell—a comeback like no other in all of
history.
Are you feeling out of the running today? Have you stumbled badly? Think about Jesus’
suffering. Ponder His resurrection. Ask Him to give you the victory. Just imagine what He has to
offer you, no matter how far down you are now!
No one has overcome like our Lord. — Mart De Haan

35. The great example is our Lord
Of overcoming power;
The strength that brought Him from the grave
Gives hope in life’s dark hour. —Branon
Jesus died to save us and lives to keepus.
Romans 7:25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord ! So then, on the one hand I
myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of
sin. (NASB: Lockman)
Greek: chariHYPERLINK "http://www.studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=5485"s
de to theo dia Iesou ChHYPERLINK
"http://www.studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=5547"ristou tou kuriou hemon. ara
oun autos ego to men noi douleuHYPERLINK
"http://www.studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=1398"o (1SPAI) nomo theou te de
sarki nomo haHYPERLINK
"http://www.studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=266"martias.
Amplified: O thank God! [He will!] through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) our Lord!
So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and heart, serve the Law of God, but with the
flesh the law of sin. (Amplified Bible - Lockman)
Barclay: 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. (Westminster
Press)
Moule: Thanks be to God, who giveth that deliverance, in covenant and in measure now,
fully and in eternal actuality hereafter, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, to sum the
whole phenomenon of the conflict up, leaving aside for the moment this glorious hope of
the issue, I, myself, with the mind indeed do bondservice to the law of God, but with the
flesh, with the life of self, wherever and whenever I “revert” that way, I do bondservice
to the law of sin.
NLT: 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.
(NLT - Tyndale House)
Wuest: Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, I myself with my
mind serve the law of God but with my flesh the law of sin.
Young's Literal: Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one
hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh
the law of sin.
THANKS BE TO GOD: charis de to theo:
• Ro 6:14,17; Ps 107:15,16; 116:16,17; Isa 12:1; 49:9,13; Mt 1:21; 1Cor 15:57; 2Cor 9:15;
12:9,10; Eph 5:20; Phil 3:3; 4:6; Col 3:17; 1Pet 2:5,9
• Romans 7 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
Thanks (5485) (charis) is the word the NT translates "grace" but is used here as an expression
of thankfulness. It is also a declaration of assurance that His God will deliver him.

36. Paul could not answer the question he had just asked without gratitude. Thanks overwhelmed
him at the thought of salvation in Christ. Paul used charis with a similar intent in his
exclamation…
thanks (charis) be to God, Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
(1Cor 15:57)
Leon Morris feels that "Clearly Paul’s words express gratitude for a present deliverance, but it
is likely that they also have eschatological significance (Ed note: the believer's glorification, free
finally even from the presence of sin!). The deliverance we have today is wonderful, but it is
partial and incomplete. It is but a first installment of greater things to come, and Paul looks
forward to that great day with his burst of thanksgiving. (Morris, L. The Epistle to the Romans.
W. B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press)
In Our Daily Bread we read that about how we can't but He can - You Can Do It! - A young
boy was at the barbershop for a haircut. The room was filled with cigar smoke. The lad pinched
his nose and exclaimed, "Who's been smoking in here!"
The barber sheepishly confessed, "I have."
The boy responded, "Don't you know it's not good for you?"
"I know," the barber replied. "I've tried to quit a thousand times but I just can't."
The boy commented, "I understand. I've tried to stop sucking my thumb, but I can't quit
either!"
Those two remind me of the way believers sometimes feel about their struggle with sins of the
flesh. Paul summed it up well by crying out,
"O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans
7:24).
His spiritual battle might have left him in despair if he had not found the solution. Following his
agonizing question, he declared with triumph,
"I thank God -- through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Ro 7:25)
Are you struggling to break some stubborn habit? Like Paul, you can be an overcomer. If you
know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, victory is possible through the power of the indwelling Holy
Spirit. Confidently affirm with Paul,
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Php 4:13-note)
You can do it! --RDe Haan (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI.
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)
I have tried and I have struggled
From my sin to be set free;
Not by trying but through trusting,
Jesus gives the victory. --Complin
Think less of the power of things over you and more of the power of Christ in you.
THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD: dia IesouChristou tou kuriou hemon:
• Romans 7 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries

37. Romans 7:21-25 does not suggest that you live a divided life because that is impossible. You
must choose your Master (Romans 6:15-23) and be true to your Husband, Jesus Christ (Romans
7:1-6).
Paul comes to the conclusion that only through Jesus Christ our Lord can come the necessary
supernatural enablement to live a life of holiness.
A Simple Study…
"Through Him"
Consider the following simple study - observe and record the wonderful truths that accrue
through Him - this would make an edifying, easy to prepare Sunday School lesson - then take
some time to give thanks for these great truths by offering up a sacrifice of praise… through
Him.
Jn 1:3 [Jn1:3NIV reads "through Him"], Jn 1:7HYPERLINK
"http://studylight.org/desk/?query=joh+1", John 1:10, Jn 3:17, Jn 14:6, Acts 2:22, 3:16, Acts
7:25, Acts 10:43, Acts 13:38, 39, Ro 5:9 [note], Ro 8:37 [note], Ro 11:36 [note]; 1Co 8:6, Ep
2:18 [note], Php 4:13 [note], Col 1:20 [note], Col 2:15 [note], Col 3:17 [note], Heb 7:25 [note],
Heb 13:15 [note], 1Pe 1:21HYPERLINK "/1_peter_120-21#1:21"[note], 1John 4:9
Would you like more study on the wonderful topic of through Him? Study also the NT uses of
the parallel phrase through Jesus (or similar phrases - "through Whom", "through our Lord", etc)
- John 1:17, Acts 10:36, Ro 1:4, 5- note; Ro 1:8-note, Ro 2:16-note, Ro 5:1-note; Ro 5:2-note Ro
5:11-note, Ro 5:21-note, Ro 7:25-note, Ro 16:27-note, 1Cor 15:57, 2Cor 1:5, 3:4, 5:18, Gal 1:1,
Eph 1:5-note, Php 1:11-note, 1Th 5:9-note; Titus 3:6-note, He 1:2-note; He 2:10-note, Heb
13:21-note, 1Pe 2:5-note, 1Pe 4:11-note, Jude 1:25)
All things are from Him, through Him and to Him. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
Godet remarks that…
The special feature in the deliverance, of which the apostle is here thinking, is not the pardon of
sins through the blood of Christ, but victory over sin through Christ crucified and risen,
communicated to faith by the Holy Spirit (Godet, F L: Commentary on Romans. Kregel. 1998)
SO THEN ON THE ONE HAND I MYSELF WITH MY MIND I AM SERVING THE
LAW OF GOD BUT ON THE OTHER WITH MY FLESH THE LAW OF SIN : Ara oun
autos ego to men noi douleuo (1SPAI) nomo theou te de sarki nomo hamartias:
• Ro 7:15-24; Gal 5:17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24
• Romans 7 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
Cranfield says that here Paul "sums up with clear-sighted honesty … the tension, with all its real
anguish and also all its real hopefulness, in which the Christian never ceases to be involved so
long as he is living this present life." (Ibid)
First, observe the striking contrasts…
Mind vs flesh
Law of God vs Law of Sin
Leon Morris observes that "Paul does not shrug off his responsibility; he does not say that his
mind serves God while his flesh serves sin. He uses the emphatic pronoun “I”. It is what he has

38. been saying all along. While there is that in him which approves God’s way there is that in him
also which follows the paths of sin. (Ibid)
Henry Morris is relatively dogmatic - The final verse of this stressful soliloquy of the apostle
makes it certain that he is not referring to a spiritual struggle before his conversion, but rather to
the conflict between the old and new natures after his conversion. (Morris, Henry: Defenders
Study Bible. World Publishing)
So then (ara oun) introduces a logical summary of what Paul has been saying.
Mind (3563) (nous) refers to the organ of mental perception and apprehension, of conscious life,
of the consciousness preceding actions or recognizing and judging them.
Serve (1398) (douleuo from doulos) means to be in the position of a servant, to be subject to or
to be in bondage to. (present tense = continually)
Law (3551) (nomos) in this context does not mean a standard (like the Mosaic Law gave), but
refers to “fundamental principle.” The “law of gravity” is a statement of a fundamental principle
of our experience -- we throw a ball in the air and it falls to the ground. The “law of sin” is also a
statement of a fundamental principle of human experience: we do wrong, even when we don’t
want to. (see also note above)
The mind here refers to the new nature from God and the flesh the old nature from Adam. We
cannot serve God with an old nature that is sinful (Ro 7:18-note), but the Holy Spirit enables us
to do His will as we yield to Him with our mind.
Newell explains the mind as representing…
All the spiritual faculties including, indeed, the soul - faculties of reason, imagination, sensibility
- which even now are "being renewed" by the Holy Spirit, day by day (2Cor 4:16). I am subject
to God's law or will - all new creatures can say this. But with the flesh sin's law. He saw it at
last, and bowed to it, that all he was by the flesh, by Nature, was irrevocably committed to sin.
So he gave up to see himself wholly in Christ (Who now lived in Him) and to walk not by the
Law, even in the supposed powers of the quickened life but by the Spirit only (Ga 5:16-note): in
Whose power Alone the Christian life is to be lived. (Romans 7)
Vincent explains that "Paul says therefore, that, so far as concerns his moral intelligence or
reason, he approves and pays homage to God’s law; but, being in bondage to sin, made of flesh,
sold under sin, the flesh carries him its own way and commands his allegiance to the economy of
sin.
Hendriksen notes that "it is with his inner being or mind that Paul wants to do the will of God
(Ro 7:15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22-see notes Ro 7:15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22). The flesh is the intruder, who
is being driven out and will certainly lose the battle. That is due not to Paul’s goodness but to
God’s grace, as the apostle loudly and cheerfully proclaims by shouting (Ibid)
With my flesh (sarx) - my fallen anti-god tendencies inherited from Adam (Click flesh = the
evil disposition)
The law of sin - refers to our old nature prone to commit sins. This principle of sin is every
man's (here including believers) unredeemed and sinful humanness.
Warren Wiersbe points out that "Everything the Bible says about the old nature is negative: “no
good thing” (Ro 7:18HYPERLINK "/romans_717-20#7:18"+); “the flesh profiteth nothing”
(John 6:63); “no confidence in the flesh” (Php 3:3HYPERLINK "/philippians_31-6#3:3"+). If

39. we depend on the energy of the flesh, we cannot serve God, please God, or do any good thing.
But if we yield to the Holy Spirit, then we have the power needed to obey His will. The flesh will
never serve the Law of God because the flesh is at war with God. But the Spirit can only obey
the Law of God! Therefore, the secret of doing good is to yield to the Holy Spirit…The old
nature knows no law and the new nature needs no law. Legalism makes a believer wretched
because it grieves the new nature and aggravates the old nature! The legalist becomes a Pharisee
whose outward actions are acceptable, but whose inward attitudes are despicable. No wonder
Jesus called them “whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full
of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness” (Mt 23:27). How wretched can you get! The best is
yet to come! Romans 8 explains the work of the Holy Spirit in overcoming the bad and
producing the good. (Wiersbe, W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor)
The KJV Bible Commentary summarizes this section concluding that "Romans 7 is not a
hypothetical case. It is an actual picture of the internal strife caused by the law of sin against the
law of the Spirit in the Apostle Paul. This need not be the normal Christian experience, for Paul
has already instructed us how to avert this internal strife. The preceding chapter presents the
proper way to sanctification; this chapter presents the improper way (cf. D. M. Lloyd-Jones,
Romans, pp. 1–13) (ED: I WOULD ADD ROMANS 8 AMPLIFIES THE "PROPER WAY TO
SANCTIFICATION" = BY RELYING ON THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT! - "by the Spirit you
are putting to death the deeds of the body," Ro 8:13HYPERLINK
"https://www.preceptaustin.org/romans_812-13#8:13"+ - Lloyd-Jones calls Ro 8:13 the most
important verse in the Bible regarding progressive sanctification - listen to his Mp3 sermons
below). To live a sanctified life we must know well what Christ has accomplished for us in our
justification, daily reckon that we have died with Him and are alive unto righteousness, and yield
ourselves completely to Him (see note Romans 6:11). (Dobson, E G, Charles Feinberg, E
Hindson, Woodrow Kroll, H L. Wilmington: KJV Bible Commentary: Nelson)
RelatedResources:
• The Way of Sanctification - Romans 8:12-13 - Mp3 by D. M. Lloyd-Jones
• Sin and the Christian - Romans 8:12-13 - Mp3 by D. M. Lloyd-Jones
• Sin and the Body - Romans 8:12-13 - Mp3 by D. M. Lloyd-Jones
Newell sums up this chapter writing…
I thank God, for deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord. Ah! The answer to
Paul's self-despairing question, Who shall deliver me? is a new revelation, - even
identification with Christ in His death! For just as the sinner struggles in vain to find
forgiveness and peace, until he looks outside himself to Him who made peace by the
blood of His cross (Col 1:20HYPERLINK "/colossians_115-29#1:20"+), just so does the
quickened soul, struggling unto despair to find victory over sin by self-effort, look
outside himself to Christ in Whom he is, and in Whom (or with Whom) he died to Sin
(Ro 6;2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 -see notes Ro 6:2; 6:3; 6:4; 6:5; 6:6; 6:7) and to law (see notes
Romans 7:4; 7:5; 7:6)! Paul was not delivered by Christ, but through Him; not by
anything Christ then or at that time did for him; but through the revelation of the fact that
he had died with Christ at the cross to this hated indwelling sin, and law of sin; and to
God's Law, which gave sin its power. It was a new vision or revelation of the salvation
which is in Christ- as described in Ro 7:4, 6-notes Ro 7:4; 7:6.

40. The sinner is not forgiven by what Christ now does, but by faith in what He did do at the
cross, for, "The word of the cross is the power of God." (1Cor 1:18) Just so, the believer
is not delivered by what Christ does for him now; but in the revelation to his soul of
identification with Christ's death at the cross: for again, "The word of the cross is the
power of God." (cf Col 2:6HYPERLINK "/colossians_24-71#2:6"+)
It will be by the Holy Spirit, that this deliverance is wrought in us; as we shall see in
Romans 8. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus (Ro 8:2HYPERLINK "/romans_82-3#8:2"+) is God's order.
To sum up Paul's Great Discoveries in this Struggle of Chapter Seven:
1.That sin dwelt in him, though he delighted in God's Law!
2.That his will was powerless against it.
3.That the sinful self was not his real self.
4.That there was deliverance through our Lord Jesus Christ!
I thank God for deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord! Paul had cried, Who shall
deliver me? The answer is, the discovery to his soul of that glorious deliverance at the
cross! of death to sin and Law with Him! So it is said, "Through Jesus Christ our
Lord." The word of the cross-of what Christ did there, is the power of God-whether to
save sinners or deliver saints!
But ah, what a relief to Paul's soul-probably out yonder alone in Ara bia, struggling more
and more in vain to compel the flesh to obey the Law, to have revealed to his weary soul
the second glorious truth of the Gospel-that he had died with Christ-to sin, and to Law
which sin had used as its power! And now the conclusion-which is the text of the whole
chapter! So then-always a quod erat demonstrandum with Paul! I myself, with the mind,
indeed this is the real renewed self, which the apostle has over and over said that "sin that
dwelleth in him" was not! (Romans 7)
Calvin calls Romans 7:25 "A short epilogue, in which he teaches us, that the faithful never reach
the goal of righteousness as long as they dwell in the flesh, but that they are running their course,
until they put off the body." (Romans 7 Commentary)
The venerable pastor, Harry Ironside offers a word of encouragement to those struggling with
the power of sin in their life "If I am addressing any believer who is even now in the agonizing
throes of this terrific struggle, endeavoring to subject the flesh to the holy law of God, let me
urge you to accept God's own verdict on the flesh and acknowledge the impossibility of ever
making it behave itself. Do not fight with it. It will overthrow you every time. Turn away from it;
cease from it altogether; and look away from self and law to Christ risen. Israel of old wanted to
find a short cut through Edom, type of the flesh, but the children of Esau came out armed to
contest their way. The command of God was to turn away and "compass (go around) the land of
Edom." (Nu 21:4) And so with us; it is as we turn altogether from self-occupation we find
deliverance and victory in Christ by the Holy Spirit. (Romans 7 Commentary)
S Lewis Johnson concludes his exposition of Romans 7 noting that…
In the final verse of the section the apostle breaks forth with a cry of victory, "I thank
God through Jesus Christ, our Lord." There IS such a man! Trust in Him is the answer to
the longing for deliverance. He says here what he will say in an expanded way in the next

41. chapter (cf. Ro 8:1-11HYPERLINK "https://www.preceptaustin.org/romans_81#8:1"+).
The victory is found in the continuing ministry of the Holy Spirit and in His final
deliverance at the resurrection.
The last sentence of the chapter is a concluding statement in which he summarizes the
major point of the preceding section. The believer's struggle is that between the mind (he
avoids the term spirit, although the mind is closely related to the spirit, because there
might be a tendency to refer that to the new nature of the believer in conjunction with the
Holy Spirit. That is what he wishes to avoid. In chapter eight we do not have the mind at
all) and the flesh. These two entities within the believer struggle for control so long as the
believer is in the flesh (Ed note: in his mortal body) and until the resurrection of the body.
Conclusion - The apostle has made plain the inability of the flesh in the believer to give
victory, even though the believer now possesses a new principle of life in the new nature.
God must do something for us, if we are to be saved from the penalty of sin, and He must
do something in us, if we are to have deliverance in this life. And He must do something
for us and in us at the resurrection, if we are to have ultimate deliverance from sin and its
consequences. That He has done, is doing, and will yet do, the Scriptures say.
It all adds up to the sufficiency of Jesus Christ and His saving work for our inability,
whether that of the unconverted man (cf. Ro 8:8HYPERLINK "/romans_86-8#8:8"+) or
of the converted man (cf. Ro 7:24HYPERLINK "/romans_721-25#7:24"+). We do thank
God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
This sufficiency is received only when our inabilities are acknowledged. When we
give up. He takes up. May the Lord give us the desire to please Him in a holy life
and the will to give Him the reins of our hearts that He may produce His
overcoming life in and through us by the Spirit! (Discovering Romans: Spiritual
Revival for the Soul - SEE ALSO FOLLOWING NOTE) (Bolding added for emphasis)
In his sermon (similar to the book above) S Lewis Johnson writes "that apart from the ministry
of the Holy Spirit, he (PAUL) is dominated by the flesh, and we shall see he’s brought into
defeat by the flesh constantly. He’s not master in his own house. That’s what he’s really trying to
say. I’m not master in my own house. I am a bond slave to sin even though I have been brought
to the forgiveness of sins. (Romans 7:13-25 The Struggle)
Bishop Moule asks…Do we close the passage with a sigh, and almost with a groan? Do we sigh
over the intricacy of the thought, the depth and subtlety of the reasoning, the almost fatigue of
fixing and of grasping the facts below the terms “will,” and “mind,” and “inner man,” and
“flesh,” and “I”? Do we groan over the consciousness that no analysis of our spiritual failures
can console us for the fact of them, and that the Apostle seems in his last sentences to relegate
our consolations to the future, while it is in the present that we fail, and in the present that we
long with all our souls to do, as well as to approve the will of God?Let us be patient, and also let
us think again. Let us find a solemn and sanctifying peace in the patience which meekly accepts
the mystery that we must needs “wait yet for the redemption of our body”; that the conditions of
“this corruptible” must yet for a season give ambushes and vantages to temptation, which will be
all annihilated hereafter. But let us also think again. If we went at all aright in our remarks
previous to this passage, there are glorious possibilities for the present hour “readable between
the lines” of St. Paul’s unutterably deep confession. We have seen in conflict the Christian man,
regenerate, yet taken, in a practical sense, apart from his Regenerator. We have seen him really

42. fight, though he really fails. We have seen him unwittingly, but guiltily, betray his position to the
foe, by occupying it as it were alone. We have seen also, nevertheless, that he is not his foe’s ally
but his antagonist. Listen; he is calling for his King.That cry will not be in vain. The King will
take a double line of action in response. While his soldier-bondservant is yet in the body, “the
body of this death,” He will throw Himself into the narrow hold, and wonderfully turn the tide
within it, and around it. And hereafter, He will demolish it. Rather He will transfigure it, into the
counterpart — even as it were into the part — of His own body of glory; and the man shall rest,
and serve, and reign forever, with a being homogeneous all through in its likeness to the Lord.
(The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans - Online)
Expositor's writes that…
Romans 7 performs a service by calling into question certain popular notions that
lack biblical foundation:
• that the soul's struggle is essentially against specific sins (somewhat
akin to the common vernacular used by many ~ a "demon of lust", a
"demon of gambling", etc) or habits (Paul talks here not of sins but of
Sin);
• that human nature is essentially good (cf. Ro 7:18HYPERLINK
"/romans_717-20#7:18"+);
• that sanctification is by means of the law;
• that if one will only determine to do the right, he will be able to do it.
These are some of the misconceptions that must be removed, and they might not have
been removed had the apostle proceeded directly from chap 6 to Ro 8. Without Romans 7
we would not be able to appreciate to the full the truths presented in Romans 8.
(Expositor's Bible Commentary) (Bolding added)
F B Meyerin Our Daily Walk (November 16) writes the following devotional entitled "Daily
Renewal"…
THIS SEVENTH chapter of Romans reflects, as in a mirror, the inward conflict of the
Christian soul, who has not yet learned to appropriate the full power of the Holy Spirit. It
will be noticed that the personal pronoun "I" occurs frequently, while there is no word of
the Holy Spirit who lusts or strives against the flesh. It is the endeavor of a man to keep
pure and holy in the energy of his own resolutions, and by the putting forth of his own
power and will. But as Satan cannot cast out Satan, so the will of man is unable to
exercise its own evil.
We turn, thankfully, therefore to the eighth chapter, which is as full of the power of the
Holy Spirit to overcome evil, as the seventh is full of human endeavour. It is only when
we learn to hand over our inner self to the Spirit of God that we can become more than
conquerors through Him that loved us. As long as the conflict is in our own strength,
there is nothing for it but to experience the up and down, fickle and faulty rife, which the
Apostle describes so graphically.
How is it that the soul of man is so full of evil, and that it is unable to deliver itself by its
resolutions which lack the necessary dynamic force, we cannot tell. But we find this "law

43. of sin and death warring in our members and bringing us into captivity." It is a wretched
experience, indeed, when we find the current running so swiftly against us, and carrying
us down in spite of our strenuous desire to stem and conquer it. Who has not, again and
again, experienced failure after the most earnest desire to do right? The bitterness of our
origin overcomes the better choice, of which in our noblest moments we are conscious.
It is a great comfort to know that the Spirit of God is prepared to renew our inward man
day by day (2Cor 4:16), and to make us free from the law of sin and death. It is the daily
renewal that we need. Day by day, and hour by hour, it is necessary to seek by faith a
fresh infusion of the power of the Holy Spirit, that we may be overcomers.
PRAYER: O God, may we live very near to Thee to-day, not in the energy of our own
resolution, but by the anointing and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who shall teach us to
abide in Christ. If our wayward hearts tend to stray, recall us before we have gone too far.
AMEN.
Doing the Impossible - The Christian life really isn't hard to live--it's impossible! In fact, only
one person in history has actually lived it perfectly--Jesus Christ.
The situation isn't hopeless for us, however. When Jesus returned to His Father in heaven, He
sent His Holy Spirit to help us live in a supernatural way (Jn. 14:15, 16, 17; Ro 8:2, 3, 4). Just as
the Spirit gives us new life in Christ, so also He enables us to live the Christian life as we walk in
close fellowship with Jesus (Jn 15:4, 5).
A church bulletin captured this reality in the following prayer: "So far today, Lord, I've done all
right. I haven't gossiped; I haven't lost my temper; I haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish,
or overindulgent. I'm very thankful for that. But in a few moments, Lord, I'm going to get out of
bed. And from then on, I'm going to need a lot of help."
The good news is that we have God's help. Believers possess the Holy Spirit of God! That leads
to a probing question: "What's going on in your life that could not go on without the Holy
Spirit?" The answer should be: "Everything!" The Christian needs the Holy Spirit for everything.
Whatever you face today, you don't face alone. Christ's Spirit is there with you. Count on it! --H
W Robinson (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
THINKING IT OVER: What does Romans 7:15-23 tell us about the apostle Paul's attempt to
live the Christian life? How did he find victory? (Romans 7:24, 25, 8:1).
What Jesus accomplished for us,
the Spirit works out in us.
John MacArthur closes out his comments on Romans 7 noting that…
In the poem Maud (x. 5), one of Tennyson’s characters yearns,
Ah for a new man to arise in me,
that the man I am may cease to be!
The Christian can say that a new man has already arisen in him, but he also must confess
that the sinful part his old man has not yet ceased to be. (Ibid)

44. Someone has written that
Sanctification is a gradual process that repeatedly takes the believer through this
reoccurring sequence of failure through dependency upon self to triumph through the
indwelling Spirit
D. L. Moody once said…
When I was converted, I made this mistake: I thought the battle was already mine, the
victory already won, the crown already in my grasp. I thought the old things had passed
away, that all things had become new, and that my old corrupt nature, the old life, was
gone. But I found out, after serving Christ for a few months, that conversion was only
like enlisting in the army--that there was a battle on hand.
STEVEN COLE
The War Within (Romans 7:21-25)
Related Media
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I recently saw a bumper sticker with the peace symbol around the border. It showed two children
with their arms around each other. The caption was, “All the arms we need.” I said to Marla,
“What planet do these people live on?” When we dwell on the new earth, when all sin is
completely eradicated, we won’t need arms to defend ourselves. But as long as sin is in this

45. world, we need arms not only to hug one another, but also to fight against enemies that seek to
destroy us. As unpleasant as it is, the reality of life in this fallen world includes conflict.
That’s also true in the Christian life. We all want peaceful lives. Perhaps you came to Christ
because someone told you that in Him, you would find peace. That’s true. In Christ, we
experience peace with God (Rom. 5:1). Christ is the basis for peace between believers (Eph.
2:14). As much as is possible, we are to be at peace with all people (Rom. 12:18). And, in Christ
we come to know a sense of inner peace, even in the face of tribulation, that we lacked before
(John 16:33).
But while the Christian life is one of peace, it’s also one of constant warfare. As we serve Christ
and seek to extend His kingdom, we’re at war with the evil powers of darkness (Eph. 6:10-20).
We’re engaged in the battle between God’s truth and the lies of Satan that captivate the minds of
the unbelieving (2 Cor. 10:3-5). And, as every Christian knows, there is a fierce inner battle that
goes on between the flesh and the spirit, the old man and the new (Gal. 5:17). If we do not learn
how to overcome the strong inner urge to gratify the flesh, sin will take us captive and enslave
us. Paul describes this war within in Romans 7:14-25.
As I explained in the previous two messages, some godly scholars understand these verses to be
a description of Paul as an unbelieving Jew, striving but failing to keep God’s law. Others argue
that Paul is describing the ongoing battle that he was experiencing as he wrote. Even mature
believers have to fight this battle against indwelling sin as long as they live.
While I agree that mature believers must fight a continual battle against indwelling sin (the flesh
or the old sin nature), I disagree that such a description adequately explains these verses. Paul is
not just describing a battle here, but a losing battle. He describes himself as (7:14), “I am of
flesh, sold into bondage to sin.” He is not practicing what he would like to do, but rather was
doing the very thing he hated (7:15, 18, 19). He was a prisoner of the law of sin (7:23). As I
explained (in the last message), he was on the merry-go-round of sin and he couldn’t get off.
We looked at the first two cycles (7:14-17, 18-20) of sin and defeat. Now we come to the third
time around the merry-go-round, which follows the same three-fold progression: Fact, proof, and
conclusion:
Fact (7:21): “I find then the principle that evil is present in me ….”
Proof (7:22-23): “For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different
law in my members, waging war…”
Conclusion (7:25): “So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God,
but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.”
I reject the view that Paul is describing his experience as an unbeliever because he says things
that are not true of unbelievers. I reject the view that he was writing primarily about his struggle
as a mature believer because while mature believers struggle with sin and sometimes lose the
battle, they do not live in perpetual defeat and bondage to sin.
I contend that these verses primarily describe an immature believer who has not yet come to
understand that he is no longer under the law, but under grace. He has not yet learned to rely on
the indwelling Holy Spirit to overcome the lusts of the flesh. (There is no mention of the Spirit
here, but much is said of the Spirit in chapter 8.) But at the same time, the war that Paul
describes here does go on, even for mature believers. The difference is that while sin is winning
the war in chapter 7, Paul through the Holy Spirit is winning against sin in chapter 8. While we

46. can never in this life obey God’s law perfectly, we can learn to obey God consistently. We do not
have to yield repeatedly to sin, which is the frustrating cycle that Paul describes here. This third
cycle teaches us:
To win the war within, we must understand the magnitude of the inner conflict so that in despair
we cry out to God for deliverance.
In 7:24, Paul cries out in despair, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body
of this death?” His exclamation in 7:25 gives us a ray of hope, followed by a summary of the war
within: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with
my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.” Chapter 8
goes on to unfold the deliverance that God gives us over sin through the indwelling Holy Spirit. I
see three lessons in our text:
1. To win the war within, we must understand the nature and magnitude of
the conflictbetweenindwelling sin and the new man.
The Christian life is a constant battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. Here the focus is
on the flesh. “I find” implies that this was a discovery that came to Paul after some painful
failures. He discovered this truth in the school of hard knocks. Even though Paul had
experienced a dramatic conversion, it didn’t immediately result in a life of consistent victory
over sin. And so he portrays here the two combatants in this battle. We can picture them as
boxers:
A. In this corner: The reigning champion, the old man, waging war in my members to
make me a prisoner.
Paul uses several terms here to describe the evil within. While they have different nuances, they
basically describe the same thing: “the law that evil is present in me” (7:21); “a different law …
waging war” (7:23); “the law of sin” (7:23, 25); “the body of this death” (7:24); and, “my flesh”
(7:25). All of these terms refer to the old man and its method of operation. The old man is not
eradicated at conversion, but continues to be corrupted according to the lusts of deceit (Eph.
4:22). As we saw last time, positionally the old man was crucified with Christ, in order that our
body of sin might be done away with (Rom. 6:6). But practically, we have to reckon this to be
true in our daily experience by putting it off (Rom. 6:11; Eph. 4:22-24). If we don’t learn to do
this, the old man will make us prisoners to the law of sin (7:23). Note how the old man operates:
(1). The old man (the flesh, indwelling sin) operates according to a law.
The word translated “principle” (NASB, 7:21) is literally, “law.” Some commentators argue that
it refers to God’s law (as it does in 7:22 & 25), so that in 7:21 the sense is, “I find then that in
reference to [God’s] law, evil is present in me .…” While that is possible, the fact that Paul
specifies “the law of God” in 7:22 indicates that he is distinguishing it from the law that he has
just mentioned in 7:21.
So he is probably using “law” ironically in 7:21, both to compare and contrast the law of sin with
God’s law. In this sense, it rules us and with authority tells us how to live (although wrongly!). It
promises rewards if we obey it: “You’ll be happier and more fulfilled if you experience the
pleasure of this sin.” It threatens us with penalties if we do not obey it: “You’ll miss out on all
the fun if you don’t do what I say.” So indwelling sin is powerful. It operates as a law,
commanding us, threatening us, and enticing us. (I am indebted to Kris Lundgaard, The Enemy
Within [P & R Publishing], pp. 23-26 for some of these insights about the law of sin.)

47. (2). The old man operates by waging a cunning, relentless war.
Paul says (7:23), “But I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war ….” The war
that the old man wages is a guerilla war. It doesn’t wear red coats and come marching towards
you in formation, so that you can see it coming. It uses snipers and land mines and hidden
roadside bombs and civilians posing as friends when really they’re enemies. In other words, sin
is subtle and cunning. It lures you into traps where you get ambushed. And it’s relentless. If it
loses one battle, it doesn’t pack up and go home, conceding defeat. It keeps coming at you until
it brings you down.
(3). The old man operates through our bodies.
This law operates “in the members of my body” (7:23). Paul laments “the body of this death”
(7:24), which refers to his physical body that is under the curse of death. He contrasts the law of
sin with “the law of my mind” (7:23).
We need to be careful here or we could fall into an error that became prevalent in the early
church. Gnosticism taught that the body is inherently evil, whereas the spirit is good. This led to
two different extremes. Some said that since the body is evil, we must treat it harshly by
depriving ourselves of food, comfort, and physical pleasure. This is asceticism, which Paul
strongly condemns (Col. 2:16-23). The other extreme was that some said that since the body is
evil anyway, you might as well indulge it. What the body does is unrelated to the spirit. So you
could indulge in sexual immorality, but at the same time claim that your spirit was not in sin.
Since Paul elsewhere clearly denounces these errors, we would be mistaken to take his teaching
here in that way. Rather, he is saying that the law of sin works through his physical body and
manifests itself in evil deeds. But it takes his entire person captive (7:23, “making me a
prisoner”). In this sense, by his members, Paul means his flesh (7:18), which is the old sin nature.
Temptation always begins in our minds, but it appeals to and works its way out through our
bodies. Thus one strategy against sin is to make it your aim always to glorify God with your
body (1 Cor. 6:20).
(4). The old man operates through strong compulsion or feelings, not through reason alone.
Sin uses reason, however faulty, to appeal to us. Satan reasoned with Eve that God surely would
not impose the death penalty for eating a little piece of fruit. He also used faulty reasoning to get
her to doubt God’s goodness in imposing the command. The fall brought our minds as well as
our bodies into captivity to sin.
But in addition to reason, temptation always appeals to our feelings. Leon Morris (The Epistle to
the Romans [Apollos/Eerdmans, p. 294) refers to it as “the compulsion to do evil.” It’s not purely
rational. In fact, sin is usually irrational. If we were to stop and think about the consequences
both for us and for others, we’d resist the temptation. Don Kistler pointed out the irrationality of
sin when he astutely observed (in “Why Read the Puritans Today?” referring to Jeremiah
Burroughs’ thesis in The Evil of Evils), “Sin is worse than suffering; but people will do
everything they can to avoid suffering, but almost nothing to avoid sin.”
So, in the first corner, we have the reigning champion that has dominated the human race ever
since the fall: the old man.

48. B. In the other corner: The new challenger, the inner man, joyfully concurring with the law
of God.
Paul wants to do good (7:21). He says (7:22), “For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the
inner man.” He says that with his mind he is serving the law of God (7:25). This must refer to the
mind of a regenerate man. So by the inner man and my mind, Paul is referring to the new man,
which through the new birth “has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph.
4:24). Leon Morris (p. 295) calls this “the real Paul.” F. F. Bruce (Romans [IVP/Eerdmans], rev.
ed., p. 146) identifies it as “the ‘new nature’ in Christ that is daily being renewed in the Creator’s
image.” He adds (ibid.), “In light of 8:7-8 it is difficult to view the speaker here as other than a
believer.”
One of the marks of the new birth is that God gives you new desires. You have a new love for
Christ, who gave Himself on the cross for you. You love God’s Word and desire it like a
newborn babe desires his mother’s milk (1 Pet. 2:2). You long to be holy, just as Jesus is holy.
You hate your own sin. You love to be with God’s people and talk about the things of God. And
yet, at the same time, you know that in your flesh there is still a strong desire to do evil. In new
believers, the desires of the old nature (the reigning champion) often win out over the new
desires of the new nature (the new challenger) until the new believer learns how to fight.
That’s the picture of Paul here. He has a new nature that joyfully concurs with God’s law in the
inner man, but he’s still dominated by the old nature. Unbelievers do not have two natures
warring against each other and they do not joyfully love God’s law in their hearts. But mature
believers have learned to put on the new man and put off the old, so that they experience
consistent victory over sin. But before we begin to see consistent victory, we often experience
frustrating defeats because of the power of the reigning champion, the old man. Let’s examine
what deliverance from the old nature looks like:
2. Deliverance in this conflictconsists of consistentvictory over sin in this life
and perfect, permanent victory in the resurrection.
In addition to Paul’s dramatic use of the present tense, one strong argument that he is describing
mature believers here is that even mature believers identify with the struggle pictured here. Even
after we’ve learned to overcome temptation on a consistent basis and after we’ve walked in
obedience to the Lord for years, we still find ourselves sinning. We lash out in anger at our loved
ones. We act selfishly with no regard for others. We see a seductive woman and lust floods into
our thoughts.
But I do not see Paul describing here a lack of perfection, but rather a lack of obedience. He is
not doing what he knows to be right. He is practicing what he knows to be wrong. He is failing
completely. I agree with Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Romans: The Law: Its Functions and Limits
[Zondervan], p. 222), who argues that Paul’s cry of anguish (in 7:24) is not caused by the fact
that he is in conflict against his old nature, but rather by his persistent defeat in yielding to that
old nature (7:23). So let me make three observations to try to picture what deliverance looks like:
A. Deliverance does not refer to a state of sinless perfection in this life, but to consistent
victory over sin.
In this life, I will never love God as completely as I should, with my entire heart, soul, mind, and
strength. I will never love others as much as I love myself (Mark 12:30-31). I will always fall
short of these commands. But a lack of perfection is not the same as persistent disobedience. As

49. a new creature in Christ, by God’s Spirit, I can choose to love God by spending time with Him
each day in His Word and in prayer, by gathering with His people to worship Him each week,
and by honoring Him with the money He entrusts to me. I can love my wife, my children, and
others in a self-sacrificing manner. The deliverance that Paul is crying out for (in 7:24) may
include the perfection that will come when we get our resurrection bodies. But he wants to be
freed from his present enslavement to sin (7:23). He wants to obey God consistently, even if such
obedience can never be perfect in this life.
B. Deliverance from sin always creates tension with the growing awareness of your many
sins and shortcomings.
There is an irony in the Christian life: As you walk more consistently in obedience to God and
grow closer to the light of His holy presence, you see all the more how dirty you really are.
When Isaiah saw God in His holiness, he immediately saw how sinful he was (Isa. 6:5). Paul’s
cry here may have stemmed partly from this awareness of his sinful imperfection. In that sense,
it’s a cry that we will continually echo as we grow in Christ.
But it seems to me that Lloyd-Jones is right when he connects Paul’s cry in this context mainly
with his disobedience and defeat, not just with his imperfection (7:24 follows 7:23). Yet at the
same time, growing to know Christ and obey Him more always leads to a greater awareness of
how sinful you still are. Deliverance from sin’s power does not eliminate this tension of how far
short you fall.
C. Deliverance from sin means consistent victory over it, but it does not eliminate the
lifelong struggle against it.
After Paul’s jubilant exclamation (7:25), you’d expect him to move on to talk about victory over
sin. But instead, he summarizes the war he has just described, in which with his mind he serves
the law of God, but with his flesh, the law of sin. It leaves you with the feeling that sin is still
consistently winning. Victory doesn’t come until chapter 8. Bishop Lightfoot (Notes on Epistles
of St. Paul [Baker], p. 305) says that while Paul’s thanksgiving is out of place, he can’t endure to
leave the difficulty unsolved, so he gives the solution parenthetically, even though it interrupts
his argument.
But while the struggle against sin is a lifelong battle, when we do learn that we can’t win it in our
own strength and when we learn to walk in the Spirit, we can experience consistent victory,
which is the flavor of chapter 8. But even when we walk in the Spirit, the daily struggle against
sin goes on. The war within of chapter 7 is never eradicated in this life, but the difference is,
chapter 7 pictures persistent defeat, whereas chapter 8 pictures consistent triumph and victory,
even in the face of severe trials. By God’s grace, we can put the defeat of chapter 7 in the past
and experience the consistent victory of chapter 8.
3. To experience consistentvictory over sin, we must despairover our sin and
cry out to God for deliverance.
As I cited my friend Bob Deffinbaugh last week, the problem with many Christians is not their
despair, like that of Paul, but their lack of it. They don’t feel the anguish of their persistent
disobedience. They avoid the struggle, often by minimizing their sin as a “personality quirk” or
as “just being human.” They excuse it as normal: “Everyone has his faults.”
But you will not gain consistent victory over sin until you first see God’s holy standard and
realize how often you’re disobeying that standard. You must also realize, often through repeated

50. failures, that you cannot obey God in your own strength. Then, in despair, you cry out,
“Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” As you search
God’s Word for answers, you learn that “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you
free from the law of sin and death” (8:2). You learn to walk not according to the flesh, but
according to the Spirit (8:4). You begin to experience consistent victory over sin in your daily
walk, beginning on the thought level.
Conclusion
Dwight Eisenhower once said, “War is a terrible thing. But if you’re going to get into it, you’ve
got to get into it all the way.” Underestimating the power of the enemy is a sure way to lose. The
war within will be with us as long as we live in these fallen bodies. It is winnable, not perfectly
or permanently, but consistently. But we can’t be half-hearted. If we fully engage the battle using
God’s resources, we can consistently win!
Application Questions
1. Some argue that the way to victory over sin is to see yourself as a saint who occasionally
sins, not as a sinner. Why is this at odds with the biblical strategy for victory?
2. Why is underestimating the power of indwelling sin a sure path to spiritual defeat?
3. James Boice points out that Christians often avoid the battle against sin by a formula, a
new experience that supposedly will give instant victory, or avoidance. To which of these
are you most prone?
4. Why is it important to distinguish between perfection and consistent obedience? What
problems result if we don’t?
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2011, All Rights Reserved.
JOHN MACARTHUR
The Believer and Indwelling Sin, Part 2
• Sermons
• Romans 7:18–25
• 45-53
• Mar 13, 1983
T h e B e l i e v e r a n d I n d w e l l i n g S i n , P a r t 2
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Romans chapter 7, and we are studying verses 14 through 25. And we’ll read those in just a
moment so that you’ll have the flow of this particular important text. A rather flippant sort of
scoffing young man asked a preacher in a mocking fashion, “You say that unsaved people carry
a great weight sin. Frankly,” he said, “I feel nothing. How heavy is sin? Ten pounds? Fifty
pounds? Eighty pounds? A hundred pounds?” The preacher thought for a moment and gently
replied, “If you laid a 400 pound weight on a corpse, would it feel the load?” The young man
was quick to say, “Of course not, it’s dead.” To which the preacher replied in driving home the
point, “The spirit that knows not Christ is equally dead. And though the load is great, he feels
none of it.”
But may I suggest to you that the believer is not so indifferent to the weight of sin as the
unbeliever is? But rather on the other hand, the believer is hyper sensitive to sin. And having
come to Jesus Christ, his senses are awakened to the reality of sin. Such awakening began in his
very salvation and is not lessened since he has been redeemed, but rather continues to become
intense as he grows and matures.
Such sensitivity prompted a saint as great as Chrysostom to say, “I fear nothing but sin.” An
unbeliever, when confronted of the message of salvation by grace, free in Christ, said, “If I
believe that doctrine, that salvation was free and gracious and it was only a matter of faith, if I
could be sure that I could be so easily converted, I would believe and then take my fill of sin.”

52. To which the gospel messenger replied, “How much sin do you think it would take to fill a true
Christian to satisfaction?” The answer to that is just a little bit is more than we can stand.
Coming to Jesus Christ brings the sense of sin to the heart and mind. And I believe that a true
Christian feels that weight of sin in a way that an unbeliever does not feel at all. And in case you
wonder whether, in fact, they are dead to that weight, remind yourselves of Ephesians 2:1, “And
you hath He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins.”
But a true Christian feels sensitive to sin, hates the evil that is in him, seeks not to fill up his life
with sin under grace, but rather seeks to empty his life of sin, so distasteful to him is it.
Now when you look at the New Testament, of course the believer becomes more sensitized to
that. We find, for example, in Ephesians 4:30 that when we sin the Holy Spirit is grieved. And
we seek not to grieve the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 9:27, we find that when we are involved
in sin, our life becomes powerless. That’s what made Paul say that I have this tremendous fear
that in preaching to others I myself would become a castaway, or useless.
And even the Psalmist said, “Praise is fitting for the upright.” Consequently when in sin, we find
that we are even unacceptable in our praise to God. And none of us wishes to have unacceptable
praise. Jeremiah added in Jeremiah 5:25 these very poignant words. “Your sins have withheld
good things from you.” And no Christian would choose to have the blessing of God withheld, if
really given the opportunity and the concentration to think about it.
And further, the Psalmist in Psalm 51, when confronted with his own sin asked God to restore to
him the - what? - the joy of his salvation. In Hebrews chapter 12 we find that when a believer
sins, he is chastened by God. In 1 Corinthians 3 we find that when a believer sins, he is hindered
in his spiritual growth so that the apostle says, “I can’t feed you what I’d like to feed you because
you’re so fleshly.” In 2 Timothy 2:21, Paul says we must have pure lives in order to be vessels fit
for the Master’s use. And so, when sin is there in our lives, it renders our service limited and
useless. In 1 Corinthians 10 and 11 we find that sin in the life of a believer pollutes the
fellowship. And that’s why the apostle says, “Before you come to the Lord’s table, make sure
you cleanse your own heart before God.”
We also find that in 1 Corinthians 11:30, and in 1 John 5:16, and I think also in James chapter 1,
the indication is made there that a believer in sin is in danger of losing his life. To say nothing of
the fact, the supreme fact of all facts that 1 Corinthians 6 says, “Don’t you know that your body
is the temple of God?” In other words, if you bring your body into contact with sin, you are
dishonoring God.
Which of us chooses to grieve the Holy Spirit? Which of us deep down in our hearts as believers
really wants to grieve the Holy Spirit? Or wants to have unanswered prayer? Or desires to have a
powerless life? Or wants to be offering inappropriate praise? Which of us, when really looking
deep within ourselves as redeemed people, chooses to have the blessing of God withheld, joy
removed, chastening in their place, growth hindered, service limited, fellowship polluted, and
our life in danger? Which of us as believers would long to dishonor God?
Quite the contrary, as the Psalmist said in Psalm 42:1, “As the hart - ” or the deer “ - pants after
the water brooks, so pants my soul after Thee, O God.”
I believe that when an individual comes to Jesus Christ, there is planted within that individual a
new creation, a new nature, a new essence, a new self, a new man. And that the great heartbeat,
and passion, and cry of that new creation is a longing for the things of God. And over against

53. that, a resentment and a hatred of sin. And that indeed is the spirit of the Apostle Paul as he
writes in our text, look at it, beginning at verse 14.
“For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am fleshy, sold under sin. For that which I do I
understand not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I
would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that
dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is
present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do
not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do
it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
“I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of
God after the inward man: 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. O wretched man
that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 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.”
Now there’s a man in conflict in that text, a man in serious conflict. There’s a man in that text
who loathes sin, who hates sin, who despises sin, and who loves righteousness, and who longs
for the law of God. This cannot be an unredeemed man, for according to our Lord in John
chapter 3, the unredeemed love darkness and hate righteousness. This is a man who loves
righteousness and hates sin.
In Psalm 119 - and I’m going to be referring back to that Psalm so you might want to mark it
somewhere in your Bible. We’re going to go back to it a few times. But in Psalm 119:104, we
have a very similar statement in one simple verse. And here the Psalmist wonderfully reflecting
on the Word of God says, “Through Thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every
false way.”
There is the essence of the redeemed man who longs for the understanding of the Word of God,
who longs for the fulfillment of the Word of God, and who hates every false way. Thomas
Watson, the wonderful man of God of the Puritan era, in his very significant book called The
Body of Divinity, said this. “A sign of sanctification is an antipathy against sin. A hypocrite may
leave sin, yet love it as a serpent sheds its coat, but keeps its sting. But a sanctified person can
say he not only leaves sin, he loathes it. God has changed thy nature and made thee as a king’s
daughter, all glorious within. He has put on thee the breastplate of holiness, which though it may
be shot at can never be shot through.”
So, there is a struggle. And I believe the struggle is presented to us here in Romans chapter 7, a
classic passage describing the graphic poignant picture of the pain of indwelling sin in the life of
a Christian.
Now you need to remember that in the 7th chapter of Romans, Paul is basically talking about the
place of the law. And he is trying to demonstrate that because he preaches salvation by grace
through faith does not mean that he sees no place for the law. That is not to say to Jews who
esteem the law that he does not esteem it, he is simply giving it its proper function, and its proper
function is not to save people, or to sanctify people, but to convict them of sin and show them, as
verse 13 indicates, the exceeding sinfulness of sin. And he is pointing out that even as a believer,
the law continues to have the function of demonstrating to the Christian the exceeding sinfulness
of sin. When he sees the law of God, which his heart longs to fulfill, and in comparison sees the
sin in his life, he loves the law and loathes the sin.

54. Now in the midst of this conflict we find the pouring out of the heart of the Apostle Paul in the
first person, I, I, I, me, me, me. This is his testimony and ours, as well. And the testimony of his
own struggle spiritually with indwelling sin is given in three laments. It’s a very sad passage. It’s
a very remorseful passage. It’s a very poignant passage, because it isn’t often that we get this
kind of deep insight into the apostle Paul’s struggle. And it isn’t often that he repeats it so many
times. In fact, as I read that, you probably noted the repetition of the text. There are three
laments, and they all three basically say the same thing. He laments his situation. He weeps over
it. He sorrows over it. His heart is grieved over it. He’s broken over it.
And each lament has three parts: The condition in which he’s finding himself, the proof of that
condition, and the source of that condition. Look at the first lament by way of review. We went
into it last week. Verses 14-17. The condition is in verse 14. “We know the law is spiritual: but I
am fleshy, sold under sin.” The law is spiritual. That is, it proceeds from the Holy Spirit. It is
energized by the mind, and the heart, and the will of God. It is holy, just and good, says verse 12.
But I am, in contrast, unspiritual. The law is spiritual, and I’m unspiritual.
Now you say, “Can a Christian say that?” Yes, in a perspective. That is one perception that we
rightly should have of our own lives. We are not all that we should be, right? The law of God is
spiritual but we are fleshly, we’re unspiritual. We are carnal. And here he’s looking at the battle.
He’s looking at his humanness. He’s not talking about all that is renewed in him. He’s talking
about what is not renewed in him. His humanness is still there and it stares him right in the face.
He finds himself sold under sin. He says in verse 23, he is “brought into captivity to the law of
sin which is operating in his members.” He finds himself still being victimized by sin, even
though he’s redeemed. This is his condition, condition of struggle.
In fact, in Philippians 3:12, Paul puts it this way, “Not as though I had already attained, either
were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am
apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: - ” in other
words, I haven’t got it yet “ - but this one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and
reaching forth unto the things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
What he’s saying is, “I know I haven’t gotten there yet.” And that’s all you have here in Romans
7 is a recognition of what he isn’t. It’s a perspective. It’s not all that could be said about him, but
it is something that could be said about him. It isn’t all that could be said about me to say I am
unspiritual, but it is true about me to say I am unspiritual. I have not yet become fully what I will
become, right? It is a non-technical view. It is a perspective. It is the same perspective that made
Paul say “I am chief of sinners,” 1 Timothy 1:15.
And what do you say gives that perspective? Well, listen very carefully. It is an understanding of
the pure, holy, just, good law of God. And when you see yourself against that law, you are very
much aware of how sinful you are. Now when you see a Christian, calls himself a Christian - or
herself - and they appear to be very content with where they are spiritually, and they want to
make sure you know how really holy they are, and how pious they are, that is not to indicate to
you that indeed they are holy, but rather indeed they don’t understand the Word of God. That is
evidence not of their holiness, but an evidence of their ignorance of God’s holy law. For the
better we understand the infinite perfection of God’s holy law, the better we will understand our
own imperfection, true? And so I submit to you that what we have in Romans chapter 7 is not
only the testimony of a Christian, but a very mature one, and a very insightful one, and a very
spiritually-minded one.

55. After giving us the condition in verse 14, he gives us the proof in verse 15. Here’s the proof that
he’s still not all that he should be, that he’s unspiritual. “For that which I do, I understand not - ”
or I know not, or I don’t love, or I don’t choose to do “ - for what I would, that do I not; but what
I hate, that I do.” Now that’s the proof. The proof that I’m still fleshy is that I’m frustrated
because I see the infinite glory of God’s law, I see the magnificent holiness of His standard, and I
can’t live up to that standard. And I’m not satisfied with how far along I am, I’m only
dissatisfied with how far along I’m not.
That is a very mature perspective. It’s a very immature thing to think you’ve really arrived
spiritually. The apostle Paul says, “I haven’t obtained. I haven’t apprehended that. But I - ”
what? “ - press toward the mark. I see the goal and I’m moving. I’m not there.”
That’s the humility that comes from right spiritual perception. Instead of congratulating
ourselves about how holy we are, if we really understand God’s law, we’re going to see
ourselves as falling far short. And that’s where he is. And that’s why this, again, takes us back to
the brokenness, and the humility, and the contrition that marks the true follower of the Savior.
Then he talks about the source. Because if you say, “Well, Paul, you’re saved. You’re redeemed.
I mean, where is this coming from?” Verses 16 and 17 give us the answer. “If then I do that
which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.” Nothing wrong with the law. Because I
can’t keep it doesn’t mean it’s wrong. What’s your problem, Paul? “Now then it is no more I that
do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.”
Now my condition is I’m in a struggle. The proof of it is that I can’t always do what I want, and
do sometimes what I really don’t want in my deepest self. And the source of it all is sin that is in
me. And now the “I” and the “me” in verse 17 become technical. He says “I” in verse 14, very
generally. “I’m unspiritual.” But now he makes sure we understand what he means in verse 17.
“Now then it is no more I,” and the “no more,” you remember we talked about that, de ouketi, no
more, no more since when? Since salvation. Since I’ve been saved, no longer is it I, the real me,
the renewed me, the recreated me, that does it but it is - what? - it’s sin that dwells in me. And
we went into that in some detail. The “I” then becomes a technical term.
Now what is the conflict, then? The conflict in the life of a believer is a conflict between a new
creation which is holy, which is created for eternity, which is the eternal seed, which cannot sin,
and that is in you, that is the real you, that is the basic you, the recreated you. The conflict is
between that redeemed you and your unredeemed mortality, your unredeemed humanity, which
is still present. And that’s where his struggle lies. And that’s his lament.
And I believe that every child of God who really is walking in obedience with the mind of the
Savior laments the reality of his sin. I see the believer in 1 John 1:8-10, and he will not deny his
sin, he will - what? - confess his sin. I hear him in Psalm 38:18 saying, “For I will declare my
iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.” I hear him in Psalm 97:10. “Ye who love the Lord hate
evil.” I think the truly regenerated person hates sin and faces the fact that even though he’s been
recreated and there’s a new nature there, that new nature is still encased, as it were, in
humanness, and therein lies the struggle.
So even though we’re redeemed, sin hangs on in our flesh, our mortality, our unredeemed
humanity, and disallows us from seeing fulfillment of the deep heart longing that pants after the
perfection of God’s law. And sometimes this doesn’t only show up before you sin, but it shows
up afterward, and it shows up in your guilt, and your sense of sorrow, and your sense of
contrition.

56. Let’s look at the second lament, and it’s just like the first. Verse 18. The pattern here is identical.
Here comes the condition. “For I know that in me - ” now what me are you talking about? Just
the general you, the whole you, the new you, the new creation? No, no. “In me.” That is which
part of me? My what? “My flesh.” And he gets technical. He doesn’t want us to lose the
distinction that he just made in verse 17 about that it’s not really him, it’s the sin that dwells in
him.
And then in verse 18 he says, “The sin dwells in my flesh.” So it’s not really me, not the new me,
not the recreated me, not the divine, incorruptible nature planted in me, not the eternal seed
which cannot sin. It’s not that me, it’s, it’s my flesh. So “that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwells
no good thing.”
I don’t see any good thing in my unredeemed humanity. And so he says, “In me,” but the he
particularizes which part, “that is in my flesh.” And therein, I believe, he locates in terms the seat
of sin. Sin is seated in the flesh. And we have said before, and say again, that that flesh is our
humanness. It isn’t necessarily in and of itself evil, but it’s where sin finds its base of operation.
I might just put it this way. Paul limits the area of corruption in the believer to the flesh, to the
unredeemed mortality. That is why, beloved, when you die and leave this body, no change needs
to be made for you to enter into eternal glory, because all you need to be fitted for that is not the
addition of something but the subtraction. And so he limits the area of sin to the fallenness of his
unredeemed mortality.
Now would you notice he says “that is, in my flesh.” He is no longer in the flesh, as we’ll find
out in chapter 8:5-8, but the flesh is – what? - in him, still there. And, by the way, unsaved
people are only flesh, flesh, flesh, flesh, flesh, flesh, and nothing else.
Now the proof of this condition is given in verse 18 again. And this is a sad song. And that’s why
he laments it over and over again. Look at verse 18. Here’s the proof, middle of the verse, “For -
” in other words, here’s how I’m going to demonstrate it “ - to will is present with me.” In other
words, there’s something in me that wants to do what’s right. “But how to fully perform that
which is good I find not.”
Now please don’t misunderstand him here. He’s not saying, “I can’t figure out how to do
anything right any time,” because that isn’t true. But what he’s saying is, “I can’t do it to the
extent that my heart longs to do it.” You understand? “I can’t perform it in the way that I want to
perform it.”
If you look at your own Christian life and you see the flow of growth, I think if you sit down and
are honest about it, even though you can see growth in your Christian life, you’re going to have a
greater hatred for your sin now than you did long ago when you were way down here on the
growth line, and you really didn’t understand how serious sin was, and you hadn’t had such a
vast comprehension of the majesty and the holiness of God, and the infinite purity of His holy
Word. You see, as that escalates, so does your sensitivity to sin. And though while we’ve taught
and we affirm again that spiritual growth involves the decreasing frequency of sin, along with the
decreasing frequency of sin is a heightened sensitivity to it. And that is Paul’s experience. The
will is present with me, the real me down inside wants to do what God wants, but I can’t perform
the thing the way I want to.
And then verse 19, he says similarly as he said in verse 16, “For the good that I would I do not:
but the evil which I would not, that I do.” I want it. I just can’t do it.

57. You know, if you look back, for example, in the Old Testament and you see David, and you’ll
find David as a friend of God, right? Sweet singer of the Psalms of Israel, wonderful man of
God, exalted. Jesus Christ is glorified in being called “the Son of David,” isn’t He? Wonderful,
wonderful. And yet if you read the Old Testament, you will not find any writer in the Old
Testament who is more overawed, who is more contrite, who is more sensitive to his sin than
David.
It is David who cries out to God through the Psalms, particularly Psalm 32 and 51, but not only
those Psalms. Who cries out to God for mercy, who cries out to God for loving kindness, who
cries out to God for compassion in the midst of his sinfulness. And it was David who was so near
to the heart of God that any sin in his life became cause for him to have a broken heart. So, the
struggle here to me is clearly the struggle of the regenerate man. Unsaved people don’t even
understand this kind of attitude.
Then he comes to the source again in verse 20. The condition, the proof, and the source. “Now, if
I do the things I don’t want to do, it is no more I that do it but - ” what? “ - sin that dwells in
me.” Exactly what he said in verse 17. It’s no more I. What do you mean “no more”? There’s
that “no more” again. No more since when? Since what? Salvation. Before salvation - you know,
unsaved people can’t be in this chapter because there’s “no more” for them. There’s no “no
more.” There never was a change. There’s never been a time that things have been different.
What would “no more” mean in an unbeliever? There isn’t any “no more.” It’s always been the
same.
But since he’s redeemed, there is a “no more.” And since that redemption, it is no more that
recreated I, that real self that’s doing these things, but it is sin that dwells there. And so we fight,
says Paul, and we lose. And the losses seem so much more overwhelming because of the
perfection of God’s holy law.
So, if I can just reach back and add a little addition to your list that you may have been
accumulating through Romans 5, 6, and 7, add this to your list of results of justification by faith.
The first one we saw in chapter 5 was security. The second we saw in chapter 6 was holiness.
And then in chapter 7 we saw freedom, fruitfulness, and service. And a fourth one in this
chapter, sensitivity to sin. That is a result of justification. Paul’s still talking about the doctrine of
justification by grace through faith, and one of its results is a heightened sensitivity to sin.
Now at this point you might figure Paul’s going to give up. And he made the point, right? He’s
sort of like me, he labors the point. But let’s look at the third lament. And it’s just like the rest.
But this is one way to get the point across, isn’t it, of how sorrowful he is so that he goes over it
and over it and over it. And here come the same three things.
First the condition, verse 21. “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with
me.” Now here we come back to the same condition. He says “I find a law.” And by that he
means a principle. He’s using the word “law.” It’s a literary device again, so he stays with that
term. There’s the law of God. And then I see another law, he says. Another principle, another
standard that makes demands on me, another inflexible law that drives me to conformity.
“I see another law in me - ” another principle operating, another source of commands, another
standard, “ - that when I would do good, evil is present with me.” Literally it says “evil lies close
at hand.” It’s right there. It’s battling every good thought, every good intention, every good
motive, every good word, every good deed, every good act. It isn’t way away. It isn’t far off. It
has never been eradicated, as some theologians would tell us, that you get to the point where

58. your sin nature is eradicated. And then they say from then on you don’t sin, you just make
mistakes. Paul says, “It’s right there. It’s right at hand. It isn’t the real me but, boy, it isn’t far
away.” And the condition is one of conflict again.
And then the proof, verse 22. How can you prove this again? Well, “I delight in the law of God
after the inward man.” That’s one side of the conflict. In his inward man he delights in God’s
law. And again I would draw you to Psalm 119, which I think is the best Old Testament parallel
to Romans 7. I don’t know if anybody’s ever said that before, but I’d like to suggest that. Psalm
119:77. “Let Thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live: - ” listen to this “ - for Thy law
is my delight.” And it may well have been that Paul had in mind that very passage. And when he
says “I delight in the law in the inward man,” he’s affirming the heart of the Psalmist.
In Psalm 119:111 and others - but just look at 111. “Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage
for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart.” Again, his delight. In verse 20 of that same
Psalm, just one other, “My soul breaks for the longing that it has unto Thine ordinances at all
times.” Oh, what a tremendous verse. My heart actually breaks at the longing that it has to Thine
ordinances at all times.
And what is the mark of the truly spiritual man in Psalm 1:2? “His delight is in the - ” what? “ -
Law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night.” The regenerate man is marked
by a love of the Word of God, a love of the law of God, a delighting in that law after the inward
man.
Now I want you to notice that phrase “after the inward man.” It really says, “from the bottom of
my heart.” That’s the meaning. From the deepest part of me. And the deepest part of him, the
bottom of his heart, the inward man, the inner man, the real inside guy hungers, and longs, and
delights, and loves the law of God. The deepest joy, the truest expression of personhood is to
delight in God’s law.
I believe the inner man or the inward man is that renewed, redeemed nature. And even though -
Paul says to the Corinthians, “even though the outer man is perishing, the inward man is being -
” what? “ - renewed day by day.” 2 Corinthians 4:16. And we are “strengthened by might by His
Spirit,” Ephesians 3:16, and the Spirit does His work “in the inner man.” That’s the area of the
new creation. That’s the real self, the center of redeemed personhood.
But then the proof of the conflict takes us to verse 23. “But I see another law, another principle.”
And where is this one? Where is it? In his what? “In - ” what? “ - in members.” And what did we
say the “members” are? They are the human factors, the bodily factors, the flesh, humanness,
unredeemed mortality. And his use of terms is completely consistent.
So he sees in verse 23 another law, and this law isn’t in his real self, his deeper self, his inner
man. It’s in his outer man, isn’t it? It’s in his members. It’s in his humanness. And it is “warring
against the law of my mind.” And the law of his mind is the same as that which is the law of
God, that which is the inner man. So the mind is equated with the inner man. And he sees the
war. And sometimes he confesses the law in my members wins against the law of my mind, and
thus “brings me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” He makes a very clear
distinction.
Listen, beloved, if this were an unbeliever here, the law of his mind would be just as rotten as the
law of his members. For the carnal mind is enmity against God. But his mind, which is his inner
man, his truest self, his redeemed creation, longs for the law of God, and is warring against the
law of his members which, of course, as we said, is his humanness. And notice again, verse 23,

59. sometimes the battle goes in favor of the law of his members and - watch this - brings him into
captivity.
Listen. That would have to be a redeemed person because unredeemed people can’t be brought
into captivity. Why? They’re already there. But when sin wins the victory in the spiritual
struggle, then the believer is brought into captivity to that sin and becomes captive to that sin.
And so, he demonstrates again the condition in verse 21, and then proves it. The conflict between
the law of his mind, which is his inner man, longing for the things of God, and the law in his
members. And keep in mind that consistently through chapter 6 verses 12, 13, 19, chapter 7 verse
5 and all through this part of it, in all of those places he always puts sin in the members. The
bodily parts is what it refers to. That does not just mean the flesh. That means the mind, the
thoughts, the emotions, all that goes with our humanness. And there is a war going on.
Now I want you to go back to Psalm 119. And I don’t know if you ever noticed this about Psalm
119, but I see the Psalmist having the same war. And I want to show you that. Let’s go back to
where we left off, Psalm 119:20, and I want to pick up that great verse and then I want to take
you right through the Psalm, maybe ten or twelve verses. And they’re very brief, but follow
closely.
“My soul breaketh - ” that's a very, very intense language. “My soul breaketh for the longing that
it hath unto Thine ordinances at all times.” Oh, that’s a, you say, “That’s a spiritual person with
that kind of heartbreaking longing for the things of God.” Then look at verse 70. It talks about
the proud. “Their heart is as fat as grease.” Pretty vivid. “But I delight in Thy law.”
Go to verse 81. “My soul fainteth for Thy salvation: but I hope in Thy word. Mine eyes fail for
Thy word, saying, When wilt Thou comfort me? For I am become like a wineskin in the smoke;
yet do I not forget Thy statutes.” I’m drying out. I need Your law so desperately. I feel so cut off
from it. And here is this heart panting after God’s law.
Verse 92. “Unless Thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine
affliction.” Verse 97 sums it up. “O how I love Thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” Verse
113. “I hate vain thoughts: but Thy law do I love.” So vivid. Verse 131. “I open my mouth, and
panted:” You say, “You been running a long ways?” No. “I longed for Thy commandments.”
That is - do you experience that? That’s a profound hunger for the commandment. You have
little question about the spirituality of this man.
Verse 143. “Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me: yet Thy commandments are my
delight.” Verse 163. “I hate and abhor lying: but Thy law do I love.” Verse 165. “Great peace
have they who love Thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” Verse 174. “I have longed for Thy
salvation, O Lord; and Thy law is my delight.”
Now by the time you get to 174 you say to yourself, “This guy is so spiritual, it’s, you know,
intimidating.” And then you’re literally knocked over by the last verse in the Psalm. What does it
say? “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Thy servant; for I do not forget Thy
commandments.”
You say, “Wait a minute, this guy is really riding the crest. What are you doing ending a thing
like that?” You know what he says? “I love Thy law.” And at the very end he says, “But I’ve
gone astray.” See, he was right where Paul was, wasn’t he? Same conflict. It’s no different. Now
let’s go back to Romans 7.

60. What’s the source? The proof is in the first part of verse 23, where he says “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.” What is the source? Well, it’s right there in that same verse.
“Bringing me into captivity to the law of - ” what? “ - sin which is in my members.”
Why do you sin? Why do you sin? Because God didn’t do a good job when He saved you?
Cause your new nature isn’t complete? Because you’re not prepared for heaven yet and you’ve
still got to earn your way in? No. Why do you sin? Because what? Sin is still there in your
humanness. And this has to be a believer because unbelievers aren’t brought into the captivity of
sin. They’re already there. And your members, your humanness, includes your mind, and your
emotion, your feeling, your body, and all those things.
In 2 Corinthians 10:3. “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the
weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong
holds;)” I love that. He says, “You know, though we have to walk around in this flesh, when you
get to the real us, it’s really not flesh at all, is it? The weapons with which we fight are not
fleshly. They’re spiritual.”
Three laments, and they emphasize the condition of the believer. It’s a condition of conflict.
They emphasize the proof of that, inability to do God’s will to the extent we know we ought to.
And they emphasize the source of that, indwelling sin. The true believer, the spiritual believer,
the Godly believer cries out for deliverance from this. And if three laments aren’t enough, he lets
out a wail in verse 24, a wail that exceeds the other laments, a wail that goes beyond anything he
said. He just cries out in the distress and the frustration and says, “O wretched man that I am.”
And you say to yourself, “Can this be the apostle Paul? Can this be a Christian?” And the
wonderful and God-blessed commentator of years and years ago, Haldane says, “Men perceive
themselves to be sinners in direct proportion as they have previously discovered the holiness of
God and His law.” And he’s right. This is a believer who says, “O wretched man that I am.” He
wants to be all that God wants him to be.
The Psalmist cries out in Psalm 6, “O Lord, rebuke me not in Thine anger, neither chasten me in
Thy hot displeasure. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my
bones are vexed. My soul is very vexed - ” terrified, it means “ - but Thou, O Lord, how long?
Return, O Lord, deliver my soul: save me for Thy mercies’ sake. For in death there is no
remembrance of thee: in Sheol who shall give Thee thanks? I am weary with my groaning; all
the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.” And what the Psalmist is
saying is, “I’m so sick and tired of not being everything I ought to be.”
In Psalm 38, “O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy wrath: neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure,”
says David. “For Thine arrow stick fast in me, and Thy hand press me greatly. There is no
soundness in my flesh because of Thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of
my sin.” And David says, “For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: like an heavy burden
they are too heavy for me. My wounds are repulsive and corrupt because of my foolishness. I am
troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. And my loins are filled with
a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and very broken: I have
roared by reason of the disquieting of my heart. Lord, all my desire is before Thee.”
You say, “If all your desire is before Him, how could you be in that mess?” That’s the battle,
isn’t it? And David is saying little else than what Paul is saying. “O wretched man that I am. My

61. heart panteth. My strength faileth me.” He wanted to be more than he was, and he found himself
debilitated by his humanness.
In Psalm 130, “Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice: let Thine
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O
Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared. I wait for
the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in His Word do I hope.” Here again, crying out of sin by one
who is godly. This is the way of the redeemed. “O wretched man that I am.”
And then he asks a question in verse 24. “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
Would you keep in mind again, where is his problem? It is in his – what? - his body. And it is a
body of - what? - death. The word “deliver” is the word “rescue.” It’s used to denote the act of a
soldier who runs to his comrade in the midst of a battle, and he rescues him from the enemy. And
the body of death is very interesting. It literally refers to “the body which is subject to sin and
death.” It is the unredeemed mortality, again. And again, the terms are consistent. It’s the body,
the members, the flesh.
It has been reported that near Tarsus where Saul was born there was a tribe of people who
inflicted the terrible penalty upon a murderer. When a person murdered someone, it was their
custom to fasten the dead corpse to the murderer face to face, nose to nose, chest to chest, thigh
to thigh, foot to foot. That was the punishment until the decay of the dead body had killed the
murderer. So tight were the bonds that he could not free himself. And a few days is all it took for
the corruption of death to pass to the living and take his life. And Paul looks at himself and he
sees that in his own case, and senses that he is face to face, chest to chest, thigh to thigh to
something that is dead and corrupt and killing, and cries, “O wretched man that I am, who shall
deliver me?”
Is there any hope? There’s hope. Verse 25. “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” That
sounds like triumph to me, doesn’t it to you? That is assurance. What are you saying, Paul? Is
this some mystical kind of thing? How do you get deliverance from the conflict? Through Jesus
Christ our Lord. What would he have in mind? I believe what he has in mind is expressed in the
8th chapter of Romans.
Look at verse - let’s start at verse 18, and we’ll get into this later. “For I consider that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us.” And then he talks about the creation waiting for the full manifestation. Drop
down to verse 23. “And not only they - ” that is, not only the creation groans and travails waiting
for its glory “ - but ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit.”
In other words, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit. We have the new creation. We have the
eternal seed. We have the divine nature. And it’s there in us, but “we also groan within ourselves
waiting for the adoption, that is the redemption of our - ” what? “ - of our body.” You see, we’re
waiting for the final phase of salvation, for we are saved in hope. We’re still hoping for that day
when we fully are freed and redeemed in body as well as soul.
And I believe that’s what Paul’s looking forward to in verse 7:25. “I thank God - ” he says, that
the end of the conflict is going to come “ - through the Lord Jesus Christ.” And it’s going to
come when He appears and when we are glorified, or when we enter into His presence and are
glorified. That’s when the end comes, the end of the battle.
You want to hear it in the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 15? Here it is. “When this corruptible
shall have put on - ” what? “ - incorruption, and when this mortal shall have put on - ” what? “ -

62. immortality.” That’s when, he says in verse 57, “thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Almost the same phrase he uses in Romans 7:25.
And here he says, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” And it’s the same day that he
sees when this mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruption shall put on incorruption. So
he’s looking ahead at the time of redemption and he says, “I see it and it’s coming, and I’m
living in hope that indeed it will come.” It’s the same thing he had in mind in 2 Corinthians 5:4
when he says, “We that are in this tabernacle do groan - ” why? “ - because we’re burdened - ”
with our humanness, and “ - we would like to be not unclothed, but clothed upon, when mortality
is swallowed up by life.” Great truth.
We look for that day. It’s the same day he had in mind in writing to the Philippians, when we
look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our lowly body, that it may be
fashioned like His glorious body. That’s a triumphant hope, isn’t it?
Meanwhile, verse 25, until then, “with my mind I serve the law of God; but with the flesh the
law of sin.” You know what he’s saying? Until that day, the battle - what? - goes on, and it goes
on as long as we remain in the flesh. And we continue to cry with Tennyson, “Ah for a [new]
man to arise within me [and subdue the man that I am].”
So, the battle isn’t going to be over till Jesus gives us immortality and incorruption. Full
deliverance awaits glorification. That’s the point. But, that is not to say that we can’t experience
victory here and now, right? And that’s chapter 8, and that’s for two weeks from tonight. But
between now and then the Holy Spirit will help you. Let’s bow in prayer.
I want you to just have a silent word of prayer with me for a moment. And I want you to do a
couple of things. First, I want you to thank God for the new creation that you are. Would you do
that? That you’ve been made new in Christ, fit for heaven. Would you thank Him for that?
And then would you confess to Him that though you love His law and you long to do it, there’s
something in you that wars against that? And would you just confess that to Him with sorrow in
your heart and ask that He would give you victory until Jesus comes to free you from this lowly
body and give you a body fashioned like His own?
Dear Father, we thank You that You’ve let us into the heart of this beloved apostle and into the
heart of the Psalmist, for both of them have articulated the cries of our own hearts. We want to
be so right. We want to be all that other people need. We want to minister the way we should.
We want to love the way You love. We want to be always dedicated and committed. We want
always to speak the truth, always to have integrity, character. We want to have the purity, and the
gentleness, and the meekness. We want to have the strength of character. We want to always say
the fitting word. We always want to bring strength to weakness.
But, Lord, so often we just don’t. We’re indifferent to people. We’re selfish, self-indulgent,
critical, unfaithful to promises made, and we just fall short. And as we lament that power of
indwelling sin, help us to know, Father, that even in such admission we’re saying more. We’re
saying that we know You’re a holy God who has given us a just, and holy, and good law.
And so, even in our sensitivity to sin, and even in the sense of sorrow that we have, there is a
hope for it speaks of one redeemed, it speaks of one moving along in spiritual growth, seeing sin
for what it really is, and the law of God for what it is. And it’s even comforting, Father, to know
that we hunger for those things that are holy, just, and good, even though we don’t always
perform them.

63. Thank You for that reverse effect that in our sorrow we find a measure of joy. Help us to have
our hearts filled with hope for the coming of Jesus Christ. And in the meantime, to be delivered
from defeat by the power of the Spirit in us.
We thank You for our fellowship this day and we pray now for those who may be here who do
not know Jesus Christ, in whom there is no conflict, who like the scoffer do not feel the weight
of sin because they’re dead, and a dead man feels nothing. May they awake as Paul did in
Romans chapter 7 and see face to face the law of God, and see their sin, and come to the Savior.
Our Father, You bring those that You would desire to come. Touch every heart. Bless the
counselors as they share and give You praise in Christ’s name. Amen.
BRIAN BELL
Romans 7:13-25 5-13-12 Chipped Saints!I. Announce: A. Slide#1
TFC - Traffick Free Community 1. I would like to invite you to this months
Children at Risk meeting, next Sun. May20th from 3-5pm. We have a guest
speakerKevin Potter who is the ProjectDirectorfor Oasis USA. [spoke atour
Justice Conf in Feb.] 2. Slide#2 We’ll be hearing about the steps it takes to be
able to collaborate & partner togetherw/other leaders in our community, to
start a Traffic Free Community 3. We would love your ideas and input on this
as we strategize togetherto see if this is something we can do in Murrieta [in
Pasadena,Pomona, SanGabriel, DowntownLA, WestPalm Beach]B. Slide#3
Mothers Day: 1. The mother of 3 notoriously unruly youngsters was asked
whether or not she’d have children if she had it to do over again. “Yes, just
not the same ones.”1
2. Let me touch on motherhood on both ends of the spectrum. How many
times have your kids said...“Youdon’t love me!” - You can tell them one day:
a) I loved you enough to bug you about where you were going & what time
you’d get home. b) I loved you enough to let you discoveryour friend was a
creep. c) I loved you enough to stand over you for 2 hours while you cleaned
your bedroom, a job that would have takenme 15 minutes. d) I loved you
enough to ignore what every other mother did or said. e) I loved you enough
to let you stumble, fall, hurt and fail. f) I loved you enough to acceptyou for
what you are, not what I wanted you to be. g) Mostof all, I loved you enough
to say no, even when you hated me for it.
3. Slide#4 Some mothers think the longerthe kids hang around the better
parents they are a) Erma Bombeck said, I see children as kites. You spend a
lifetime trying to get them off the ground. You run with them until you’re
both breathless...theycrash...youadd a longertail. You patch and comfort,
adjust and teach- & assure them that somedaythey will fly. b) Finally they
are airborne, but they need more string, and you keepletting it out. With each

64. twist of the ball of twine, the kite becomes more distant. You know it won’t be
long before that beautiful creature will snap the lifeline that bound you
togetherand soar - free and alone. Only then do you know you did your job.2
1
1 Reader’s Digest, contributed by David Finkelstein2 Erma Bombeck, from
“Forever, Erma,” quoted in Reader’s Digest, March1997, p. 148
4. One minister’s wife told of filling out a form in her pediatrician’s office.
Beside the blank marked “occupation” were these words:“If you devote the
greaterpart of your time to loving, caring and making a home for your
family, put a big star in this space.” -Bonnie Miller a) Mom’s, today we give
you a big star! b) Lastly, if you’ve messedup as a mom, I like what Harmony
Dust said, “My pastis being washedawaywith the beauty of the present.”
(Pray for Mom’s!) II. Intro: A. Slide#5 Title: Chipped Saints! 1. Slide#6 What
do I mean? Show pic from Belize. a) St PeterClaver, Catholic
Church(Garifuna). St PeterClaver was a Jesuit from Spain who became the
patron saint of slaves, race-relations, & African-Americans. b) Claverwould
head for the wharf as soonas a slave ship entered the port. Boarding the ship,
he entered the filthy and diseasedholds to treat and minister the badly-
treated, terrified human cargo who had survived a voyage of severalmonths
under horrible conditions. He assuredthe slaves oftheir human dignity and
God's saving love. 2. Slide#7 Paul gives us a peek into his mind/heart/soul with
his personaltestimony of what it is to be a “chipped saint”. a) Paul was not
your standard high gloss painted saint. Expressing some prissy piety! b) No,
he revealed& lived a real, raw, authentic, genuine, honest Christianity. c) Are
you a painted/polished saint or a chipped saint?...Ithink you’ll be able to
relate to Paulthis morning. B. So, our Title is Chipped Saints. Our Outline:
The Confusion; The Corruption; The Conclusion; And ending with The Real
Question& The Only Answer. 1. This is a passionate piece ofwriting. Please
feel the emotion he experiences in trying to live up to God’s standards. 2. Feel
the disheartening, aching frustration that happens to goodchristians...even
super Christians!
III. Slide#8 THE CONFUSION!(13-16)Paul’s frustration is twofold. A. He
doesn’t do what he wants to do; & He does the things he doesn’t want to do. 1.
It’s, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll& Mr. Hide” Christianity. [or, Dr. Paul
& Mr. Saul] B. Here’s the key:When a believer tries to live a life that is
pleasing to God in his own strength, he will fail every time; but, that very
failure makes him ready for God’s grace. C. Note, he moves now to the 1st
person singular. (me, 13)1. This is Paul’s realday-to-day struggles & his own
experiences [YES, he was savedat this time]

65. 2
2. How pompous for any Christian who says they don’t struggle with the old
sin nature anymore! - Don’t you struggle with this problem daily? Desiring to
be that goodChristian, yet totally frustrated from falling on your face?
D. (13) So in vs.12 we saw the law was good. Here sin is bad. And from vs.7-25
is the relationship betweenthe redeemed person’s sin nature & the law. E.
Sin…exceedinglysinful! 1. Why didn’t he callsin “exceedinglydark”, or
“exceedinglyhorrible”, or “exceedinglydeadly”? (or, horrid, hideous,
heinous, vile) a) A: Because, there is nothing as bad as sin…so, he had to call it
by its own name.
IV. Slide#9 THE CORRUPTION!(17-20)He realizes the total corruption of
his old sinful nature A. (17) Wait a minute Paul, are you avoiding personal
responsibility for your actions? 1. No, he is speaking to the base desire, not the
actionitself. a) He’s not saying he does not do it, but that its not what his deep
inner self, renewedin Christ, wants to do.
B. (21) Evil is presentwith me – The more we grow in Christ, the more aware
we become of our sin and the more we hate it & want to be rid of it. 1. Like
IsaiahWoe is me, for I am undone! BecauseI am a man of unclean lips, And I
dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seenthe King,
The LORD of hosts. (6:5) 2. Like Job I have heard of You by the hearing of
the ear, But now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in
dust and ashes. (42:5,6)3. Like John When I saw Him, I fell at His feetas
dead. (Rev.1:17)C. “Lord, teachus to love what You love & hate what You
hate.”
V. Slide#10 THE CONCLUSION!(21-23)He understands the daily struggle
within him. A. The old nature, always attempting to do wrong;The new
nature, always attempting to do right. 1. The principle Paul recognizes is that
he is a man with 2 natures: a) One delights in the Law of God. The other
wages waragainstGod’s Law. b) This refers to everything w/in us that is
more loyal to the world & selfthan to God. c) Remember, Inward conflicts
show us we are spiritually alive! (1) It shows there is some life in the soul that
hates sin!
VI. Slide#11 THE REAL QUESTION!(24)
3
A. (24) Who will deliver me from this body of death? 1. He isn’t asking, “what
must I do?” but, “who will deliver me?” 2. Deliver me – Paul was not
attacking his sin; this sin was clearlyattacking him! a) He wasn’t like a soldier

66. who was leading an attack;He was a soldierasking to be rescuedfrom the
hands of the enemy. (1) He’s pinned down calling in air support! 3. Slide#12
Sometimes Sin flies at us like a lion springing forward [or a cockerspaniel
pup] 4. Sometimes Satan& his minions are jealous of the celestialSpirit
within us!
B. Slide#13a What3 things don’t in themselves…helpus stamp out sin? 1.
Knowledge of what the law demanded! (9) 2. Slide#13bSelf-Determination
from sin! (15) 3. Slide#13c A Profound Christian Experience!(22-25)
C. O wretchedman that I am – [or, O wretchedchristian man that I am] 1.
Wretched= a miserable distressedcondition. Paul at the end of himself. 2.
Just like John’s picture of the Laodicea church...Rev.3:17 Becauseyousay, 'I
am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing'; and do not know
that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. D. Paul has come to
the end of himself, which is a great place to be. 1. Jesus said, Blessedare the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. a) Or, Blessedare the
bankrupt. Blessedare the wretched.
VII. Slide#14 THE ONLY ANSWER!(25) Thank God! The answeris in Jesus
Christ our Lord. A. Slide#15a What2 things then are neededin this battle? 1.
A Deliverance from the condemnation, which the law of God pronounces. 2.
Slide#15bA Powerwithin, greaterthan that of sin, to enable us to do God’s
will. a) Both are provided in Christ (as Paul will show in ch.8). b) Rom.7
doesn’t provide a complete picture of Paul’s spiritual experience. (1) In factit
prepares its readers for ch.8 - It sets the stage forthe triumph of ch.8. 3. As we
recognize our inability to live up to our deepestspiritual longings…this leads
us to castourselves upon God’s Spirit for power & victory!
B. Slide#16 The Holy Spirit within us helps us to do what God wants us to do
and to be what He wants us to be.
4
1. We can keepour love relationship w/the Lord alive & exciting, & thus
producing righteousness insteadofwretchedness!2. Becoming like Christ is a
lifelong process. Thus, that is why Paul likens Christian growthto a strenuous
race or a tiring fight. 3. “Sanctificationis a gradual process thatrepeatedly
takes the believer through this reoccurring sequence of failure through
dependency upon self to triumph through the indwelling Spirit.” a) The
Christian life is a battle, but the war is already won. b) The struggle is just
part of the journey! c) D. L. Moody, “When I was converted, I made this
mistake:I thought the battle was alreadymine, the victory already won, the
crownalready in my grasp. I thought the old things had passedaway, that all

67. things had become new, and that my old corrupt nature, the old life, was gone.
But I found out, after serving Christ for a few months, that conversionwas
only like enlisting in the army - that there was a battle on hand.”
C. Slide#17,18 In Victor Hugo’s last novel, “Ninety-Three” is about a ship is
caught in a storm. The frightened crew hears a terrible crashing sound below.
Immediately the men know what it is: a cannonhas broken loose and is
crashing into the ship’s side with every smashing blow of the sea!Two men, at
the risk of their lives, manage to fasten it down again, for they know that the
unfastened cannon is more dangerous than the raging storm. 1. Many people
are like that ship, their greatestdangerareas lie within their own lives.
Prayer: Chipped saints? Yes we are. But Lord, we have only one desire, that
in the end we will be simply a chip off the ol’ block!
LIVING IN THE SEVENTH OF ROMANS
Dr. W. A. Criswell
Romans 7:7-25
9-26-54 7:30 p.m.
Now tonight, I’m preaching on Living in the Seventh of Romans, and I suppose that means
practically nothing to everybody. But by the time I get through with this sermon, I hope you’ll
never forget it: what it is to live in the seventh of Romans. So turn with me tonight to the seventh
chapter of the Book of Romans, and we’re going to read from the seventh verse to the end of the
chapter.
Are you ready? The seventh verse of the seventh chapter – you follow it as I read the Book:
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid! Nay, I had not known sin but by the law. For
I had not known lust except the law had said, "Thou shalt not covet."
But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For
without the law sin was dead.
For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just and good.
Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid! But sin, that it might appear sin,
working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become
exceeding sinful.
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I – I am carnal, sold under sin.
For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

68. If, then, I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
Now then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not.
For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me.
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringeth me into
captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
O wretched man – wretched, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of
this death?
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.
[Romans 7:7-25]
That is the seventh of Romans. There is a whole library – I mean a whole library written about
that passage. It is the introduction to one of the great chapters of the Bible. The eighth chapter of
the Book of Romans is one of the great chapters of the Bible. The eighth chapter of Romans is
the habitat of the Christian. It’s the life in Christ raised to its sublime highest, but before the
eighth chapter of the Book of Romans is the seventh; and the seventh is the introduction to it.
Now I say there’s a whole library written about it – a whole library. And these men who are
theologians and scholars and commentators, how vastly do they differ about this seventh chapter
of the Book of Romans.
Do you know many times he says "I, I, I" here? All through that passage – "I." "That which I do,
I allow not; but what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, I do" [Romans 7:15]. I. I. "For I
know that in me the good which I do not, but the evil which I would not, I do. If I do that I would
not" [Romans 7:18, 19]. "I" all the way through.
Now, just to take two of the opposite extremes as they try to interpret this passage in the Book of
Romans. Charles G. Finney stands at one extreme – incomparable evangelist and preacher and
Christian author, theologian of a century ago. Charles G. Finney says this. He says that this
seventh chapter of Romans is a picture of an unregenerated man. It is a picture of Paul before his
conversion. It is a picture of Paul in the days when he lived under the Law. It is a picture of an
unregenerated and unconverted man; and he says the only reason that Paul uses the "I" here is by
way of illustration, but it is nothing personal at all [Lecture XXXVIII, Systematic Theology,
Charles G. Finney, 1878].
And then Charles G. Finney says this, "If this seventh chapter of the Book of Romans is a picture
of you," this is his exact words, "then," he says, "you are unregenerated and damned and going to
hell." That’s what Charles G. Finney says about this passage. If this is you in the seventh chapter
of the Book of Romans, you’re lost, you’re damned, you have never been saved, you’ve never
known the Lord, and you’re going to hell. That’s what Charles G. Finney says.

69. Now another extreme. Died not long ago, a wonderful theologian and a matchless interpreter of
the Scriptures is A. C. Gaebelein. A. C. Gaebelein says that this seventh chapter of Romans is a
picture of every Christian as he struggles against the principle of sin in his soul and in his life
[fromThe Annotated Bible, A.C. Gaebelein, 1919]. Now those are the two extremes.
"Well Pastor, what do you think about the seventh chapter of the Book of Romans and the
picture that Paul has written here?" Well this is what I believe. I believe the seventh chapter of
the Book of Romans is a universal experience of all mankind everywhere, everywhere. You, I,
we, they, close by, abroad, yesterday, today, the generations past, the generations to come. It is a
picture of humanity, and it is an experience, I say, common to all mankind. It was the experience
of the Apostle Paul in the days when he lived under the Law; and by struggle, and by fight, and
by warring, he was trying to do right before God and failed in it ingloriously and miserably and
finally found salvation in Jesus Christ. He found deliverance in the Law, in the Lord, which is
the glorious eighth chapter of the Book of Romans.
Now, it is a picture of you, of us, of all of us before we were converted. We tried. We failed; and
we took our defeat to Jesus, and He saved us. And it is also a picture of all of us who have been
saved. The principle of this warfare between the flesh and the spirit still goes on; and we fight,
and we war, and we battle, and we fail. And then we take it, wretched people, defeated as we are,
we take it to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that war goes over and over, again and again, in the day
and the night, yesterday, today; tomorrow we face it anew.
It’s a picture of all mankind. It’s a universal picture of all the people everywhere; a picture of the
saved; a picture of the lost – "for I find a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me"
[Romans 7:21]; and it never varies, and it never leaves. I never get so holy; I never get so good; I
never get so high up; I never get so close to God; I never get so nigh to heaven but that always
evil is ever there right by my side, here in this pulpit. I’m not only referring to these close by me
here. I mean the principle everywhere – and I mean it in you all too – in you all too. There’s
nobody I have around me that’s holy. They all are sinners – every last one of them – and they fall
into mistake and into error, and they fall into a lot of things. They all do. They all do. There’s
just nobody that I’ve ever seen that is sanctified and holy and above the principle of evil that
surrounds him and is in him. It’s a universal experience – the saved and the lost.
It is the experience of the young. Before he goes to school, he battles against that thing of evil in
his heart. And it’s the experience of the old man with a lifetime and a background; he fights it
too. It’s the experience of the civilized man with all of his culture and his education, and it’s the
experience of the heathen before the missionary comes to tell him the name of the true God. It’s
the experience of the learned and the unlearned, of the high churchman and the low churchman
and the no-church man.
Humanity is divided by many geographical divisions, and we have different creeds and different
races and different colors and different kinds. But, there is one common denominator under
which all of us gather, and there’s one common plane upon which all of us move and that is this:
"that when I would do good, evil is present with me," [Romans 7:21] always in us and around us.
We touch hands with all the generations of all of the centuries in this seventh chapter of the Book
of Romans.
However things may be on the outside and however circumstances may change, I still have to
live with myself; and on the inside of me, there is a principle of evil. There is a flesh; and

70. however the outside may change, however cultured or learned or scholarly or dedicated I am,
that thing of me is still on the inside. Christina Rosetti one time wrote of it like this,
God strengthen me to bear myself;
That heaviest weight of all to bear,
Inalienable weight of care.
All others are outside myself;
I lock my door and bar them out
The turmoil, tedium, gad-about.
I lock my door upon myself,
And bar them out; but who shall wall
Self from myself, most loathed of all?
If I could set aside myself,
And start with lightened heart upon
The road by all men overgone!
Myself, arch-enemy to myself;
My hollowest friend, my deadliest foe,
My clog down whatever road I go.
[from "Who Shall Deliver Me?" Christina Rosetti, 1876]
I can shove them out and shove them out and shove them out and lock them out, but I can’t lock
myself from myself. When I lock myself in, there I am; and with me is this principle of evil
serving the flesh.
So Paul says in the seventh chapter of the Book of Romans there are two spirits that war on the
inside of every man. "There is a law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin . . . So then, with my mind," my spiritual highest
soul, "I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin" [Romans 7:23, 25]. And those
two, Paul says, war on the inside; and that experience is a universal experience and a continuing
experience, and it doesn’t change when you become a Christian.
"Preacher, I’m going down that aisle tonight and give you my hand and my heart to God. And
I’m going to settle forever this thing of the devil, and he’ll never touch me, and he’ll never
bother me, and he will never come to me again. I’m going down that aisle and win that battle
forever!" So you come down that aisle and give me your hand and your heart to God. And
brother, I want to tell you something. You have just enrolled to fight. That’s all you’ve done.
You’ve just got in the war, that’s all.
One of these preachers one time stood up, and he’s talking to a bunch of little children. And he
said, "Now you little children, now you little ones." He said, "You listen to me. Now, you little
children, when you give your heart to Jesus, why, God gives you a lamb’s heart. What you’ve
got now," he said, "is a pig’s heart. You’ve got a pig’s heart. But you give your heart to Jesus,
and in place of a pig’s heart, God will give you a lamb’s heart; and you’ll have a lamb’s heart,
little children." Oh, wouldn’t that be sweet if it were so? Wouldn’t that be heavenly if it were

71. true – if when I gave my heart to Jesus, He’d give me a lamb’s heart, and that’s all I had on the
inside of me was a lamb’s heart?
Now what that preacher should have said is this: "My little children, my little children, when you
come to Jesus, you’ve got a pig’s heart; and when you come to Jesus, He’s going to give you a
lamb’s heart. But, my little children, you still got the pig’s heart! And the pig’s heart and the
lamb’s heart, they just go to war on the inside; and from then on it’s civil battle." That’s what it
is. That’s the way it is. That’s the way it is. When you come to the Lord, you’ve just enrolled in
the army. You just getting ready to fight [Philippians 2:25; 2 Timothy 2:3-4; Philemon 1:2].
Now, I know there are a whole lot of people, there are a whole lot of people who say, "I’m
removed above that. I’m sanctified, I am. I’ve gotten above sin, and I have come to that holiest
state where I live without defilement and transgression. I’ve had the blessing. I’ve been set aside,
and I live in that holiest state far and removed." Well that’s great. That’s great.
And some of the great preachers of all time like John Wesley, like John Wesley, like all of those
old Methodist preachers, every one of them was a holiness preacher. Every one of them, the old
Methodist, was a holiness preacher. John Wesley was a holiness preacher. They said they lived
above sin. They’d gotten above the place where they ever sinned.
Now I say that’s wonderful thing. That’s a marvelous thing, and I would glory in a man who
could stand up here before this congregation and say, "I have come to the place in my Christian
life where I no longer ever sin." Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
There’s only one thing about that that scares me and frightens me and that’s this: you know, the
great sin above all sin is the sin of the Pharisee. It’s the sin of the self-righteous; it’s the sin of the
self-proud. It’s the sin that, "I have achieved." It’s the sin that, "Thank God, I’m not like other
men. They do this, they do that; they do everything! But, I don’t do this, and I don’t do that, and
I don’t do the other thing" [Luke 18:9-14]. And it isn’t long until the sense of pride and self-
righteousness comes into our lives; and we gather our robes around ourselves, and we wouldn’t
be brushed, and we wouldn’t be touched by those ungodly and defiled people on the outside.
And so we build our walls around ourselves, and we have little circles of friends around
ourselves; and we look on all others as being vile transgressors while we in our self-
righteousness, that’s up there to see, we live separate and apart and look down upon all others.
My brother, I am persuaded that as long as we live in this flesh and as long as we live in this
body of death that we have that fight going on in the seventh chapter of the Book of Romans.
And I came across a godly, godly man who wrote here a thing that I think is the heart of all of us
who have given our lives to the Lord Jesus and who pride ourselves on the fact that we don’t go
out here and live like the world lives. We’ve pulled away from it. They couldn’t invite us to a
shindig on Sunday night, and take a bottle of liquor with us, and go out with an old something
and spend the night in revelry and in drunkenness and debauchery and iniquity like thousands are
doing on Sunday night and Saturday night. We don’t live that way. We’re not like that, but that
doesn’t mean that the principle of evil and sin is not also in us too.
And I say one of these godly men, a great Christian and good man, wrote these lines. You listen
to him: a godly Christian man. What he’s talking about is that even though he doesn’t go out
here and do these abominable and indescribable things, yet on the inside of his heart – well, let
him speak for himself. Listen to him.
It is not what my hands have done,

72. That weighs my spirit down,
That casts a shadow on the sun,
And over earth a frown:
It is not any heinous guilt,
Or vice by men abhorred;
For fair the frame that I have built,
A fair life’s just reward;
And men would wonder if they knew,
How sad I feel with sins so few!
Alas! they only read in part,
When thus they judge the whole: –
They cannot look upon the heart, –
They cannot read the soul:
But I survey myself within,
And mournfully I feel,
How deep the principle of sin,
Its roots may there conceal,
And spread its poison through the frame,
Without a deed that men may blame.
[from "What The Year Has Left Undone," Henry Ware, Jr., 1847]
A righteous man above the tentacles of the Law, living like a fine and good citizen and a member
of the church, but when you get close to God, on the inside of your soul, there is that
shortcoming again. Don’t measure up. "O God, how far, how far short." And I’ve always felt the
nearer you get to God, the more of that way you feel. "Master, I am not worthy to stand in Thy
sight. Depart from me. I am a sinful man."
F. B. Meyer said he was out calling on his parishioners, and one of the members of his church
was a washer woman. And she had out there on the line a beautiful, beautiful white string of
laundry that she’d done – a washing she’d put out there on the line. And he complimented her on
it and said how fine it looked and how she’d done a wonderful thing – that pure white wash. And
it pleased the old washer woman, and she asked the pastor inside for a cup of tea. So they went
inside for a cup of tea.
And while they talked and visited together drinking the cup of tea, while they were there, the
heavens frowned and it crowded and it came a sudden snowstorm. And when the pastor left, the
ground was white with snow and he looked at the clothesline. And looking at it he said, "Well, it
looks as if your laundry is not so white now, is it?" And the old washer woman replied and said,
"Pastor, there’s nothing wrong with that laundry. It’s just that there’s nothing that can stand
against God Almighty’s white." And that’s right. And that’s right.

73. You compare yourself with another man, and you may be pretty good. Yes sir, you’re all right.
But you compare yourself against God Almighty’s white, and you’ll fall to your knees: "Lord, it
isn’t with me as I thought it was. Master have mercy upon me too; me too; me too."
And I say this battle goes all through our lives, all through our lives. In youth: the sins of
passion, the drive of a hot heart, the fire that’s in the stream – the sins of youth. The sins of
manhood and of womanhood: the sins of pride, and self-righteousness, and achievement. And the
sins of age, the most despicable sins of all, the sins of age: the sins of littleness and cynicism and
criticism, the sins of looking askance, the sins of failing to encourage, the sins of trying to hang
on to a yesteryear and to destroy the present and the now – the sins of old age. And you never get
beyond it. You never get beyond it.
There are some things you fight when you’re young. There are some things you fight when
you’re in manhood. There are some things you fight in age. And as long as you live in this body
of death, you have this cry of the seventh chapter of the Book of Romans: "O wretched man, O
wretched man that I am, what shall I do and where shall I turn? Who shall deliver me from this
body of this death?" [Romans 7:24]
Thank God there’s another chapter. I haven’t got time to preach about it tonight. All I can do is
just show it to you, and then next Sunday we start again. Thank God there’s another chapter. "O
wretched man that I am. Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?" Long as I live in it – this house of clay, this flesh, this principle of sin, always there and
always with me. "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
[Romans 7:24]
And there’s an answer: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" [Romans 7:25] Deliverance
and victory, consummating salvation, never comes from ourselves. We’re never equal to it. But it
comes – a victory, a triumph, a glorious deliverance. It comes through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is
a gift of God. It’s in Christ. It’s in Him. Not by any superficial means will a man win this thing
on the inside of his soul. Not by culture, not by training, not by education, not by his own
strength or his own power, but a man wins it. A man wins it in the power and in the strength and
in the righteousness and in the presence and in the glory of Jesus Christ our Lord.
"I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord;" and He – He who could touch the eyes of the blind
and they could see; touch the ears of the deaf and they could hear; touch the foulest loathsome
leper and he was clean again; touch the fevered brow and they were well again; touch the dead
and they could live again [Matthew 8:14-15, 11:15]. He that could do that can touch a man’s soul
and a man’s life and deliver him forever and forever. "I thank God through Jesus Christ our
Lord!" That’s the gospel. That’s the Book. This is the real thing.
That’s what we invite you to come to tonight. Not to a system, not to an organization, not to a
culture, not to a development, but an invitation to come to the Lord and King who, enthroned in
a man’s soul and in the center of a man’s heart and in the very depths of a man’s life, He never
lets us down. He will see us through. Now will you take Him? Will you do it? Will you do it?
"Lord I’m not equal, and I don’t say I am; but I believe God is equal and I entrust my soul and
my destiny and my life in God’s hands. And here I am Preacher, and here I come. It’s for God.
It’s to God. It’s God’s." Would you? Would you? Any other way the Lord shall put into your
heart to come – put your life in the church with us; any way the Spirit shall say the word, point
the way, would you make it now? Would you make it now?

74. In the balcony around, in the great press of people on this lower floor, "Pastor, here I come.
Here’s my family." Or just one somebody you, "Here I am, Preacher, and this is my friend."
However God shall press home to your heart the appeal while we sing, will you come while we
stand and while we sing?
An Encouraging Word
Romans 7:14-25
ÓCopyright 2004 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche, August 29, 2004
We have just finished the season of class reunions. It seems to me that there are different
responses to these reunions. Most people who go to their reunions do so to meet up with old
friends. There are some who return because they were popular in High School and hope to being
popular again . . if only for a day. Some hope to rekindle a childhood romance. Some want to
show others that they exceeded everyone’s expectations.
There are others who dread their class reunions. For them it is a painful time. They don’t want to
hear how “great” everyone is doing. These testimonials only make them more aware of their own
struggle. Some of these people haven’t achieved what everyone expected. Some have gone
through difficult and painful times. For these folks, their reunion just adds to their misery.
Too often, when we come to worship, talk to our friends, or even read the Bible, we feel like this
later group of people. We hear about the standards we should achieve, the victory we should
know, and the abounding joy that is supposed to be part of our regular experience. It sounds
sometimes like everyone has it “together” except us.
This is why I love Romans 7:14-25. In these words most of us find our own experience. So, this
morning we hope for an encouraging word.
WHO IS PAUL TALKING ABOUT?
This is a controversial passage because Paul’s words seem so different from the words of victory
and holiness he has been giving us in chapter six and the first part of seven. In chapter six he told
us that we must choose whether we will be slaves of sin or slaves of righteousness. In the
beginning of chapter seven he reminded us that we died to the Law so it no longer has any power
over us.
The verses before us don’t seem to fit. Paul tells us that he is “unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.”
(v. 14). In verse 17 he says, “it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.” He
repeats that phrase in verses 18, 20, and 23. What gives? Who is the person Paul is describing in
these verses? There are three generally accepted possibilities.
There are those who believe Paul is talking about his pre-conversion life. In other words, Paul is
talking about the way he used to be before he became a follower of Jesus. He wanted to do the
right thing but was powerless to do so.
However, an interesting thing happens in the text. Paul changes his tense. In the first part of the
chapter he spoke in the past tense. In this part he speaks in the present tense. Why would he
change the tense if he was talking about a past time in his life? But there is more. Paul says he

75. recognizes his sin, he loves the Law, he wants to do what is right, he longs for deliverance. In
Romans 1-3 we are told that the non-believer thinks he is doing fine on his own. He does not
love the Law but actually hates it. Paul is not talking like an unbeliever.
There are others who believe Paul is talking a time when he was an uncommitted Christian. The
idea is that Paul remembered when he was “saved” but wasn’t truly following the Lord. He
received Christ as Savior but not as Lord. I have trouble with this view also. There is no
indication that there was ever such a time in Paul’s life. The Bible never implies that a person
can be a believer yet not be trusting Christ as Lord of their life. If you are not trusting Jesus as
the Lord, you aren’t trusting Him as Savior either. He is both Savior and Lord; He is not divided.
The third possibility is that Paul is actually talking about his present experience. This is the most
natural because of the change in tense and the personal pronouns. To me the most compelling
reason to believe the text is about Paul’s present experience is because it so perfectly describes
my own experience!
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS A BATTLE
So, how do we explain how this can be true of an unbeliever? Paul wants us to understand that
even though we are set free from the condemnation of the Law and even though sin has no power
over us, there is still a battle going on between the good we want to do and the evil that seems to
come so naturally. Remember those cartoons that showed a person who was going through a
dilemma. On the one shoulder was an angel, on the other, a devil. Both the angel and devil would
make their arguments trying to move the person in their direction. That’s the way we often feel.
On the one hand we are learning to develop an appetite for the things of God. We understand our
own sinfulness, we are amazed by His grace, and we are learning that God is trustworthy. There
is a part of us that wants to serve Him fully. We know that His way is the best way.
On the other hard, the sin instinct is very strong. Have you ever tried to change something in
your life? Perhaps you tried to quit smoking, or snacking during the day. Maybe you have tried
to stop saying, “you know” or tried to become more outgoing. Perhaps you have tried to stop
complaining. If so, you realize how difficult it is to make such changes. These habits are things
we do without thinking. They are instinctual. Sin and rebellion is like that.
To be holy we not only have to change one or two things, we have to change everything. God
calls us to think differently, to view others differently, and to respond differently. Holiness calls
us to act with a new heart. God is asking us to change EVERY sinful bent in our lives. No
wonder there is a battle.
The irony is, that the more you grow in your faith, the more aware you become of the struggle.
You see your own sinful nature more clearly while at the same time seeing the standard of
holiness more clearly revealed in God’s Word. If you are NOT in the midst of the kind of
struggle Paul describes, you need to ask why? Are you ignoring God’s standards or are you
ignoring your sin?
TWO VALUABLE LESSONS
Paul shares his struggle not only to encourage us, but also to instruct us. There are a couple of
key lessons for us.
First, this passage reminds us that we can do nothing in our own strength. Paul is not saying that
it is impossible for us to live a holy life. He is saying that it is impossible for us to do it by

76. ourselves. Jesus told his disciples, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear
fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I
am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit;
apart from me you can do nothing. [John 15: 3,4]
Think about it this way: I may look at a wonderful landscape and want to capture it in a painting.
I may have the paints, the canvas and the brushes. But, no matter how deep my desire, I won’t be
able to capture the scene because I don’t have the ability. My only hope is to have an artist guide
my hand as I draw and teach me about perspective, color, and shadows.
We want to live a Holy life but we don’t have the ability. We need the help of God’s Spirit. In
Romans chapter 8 Paul is going to talk more about the power of God’s Spirit and how to get His
help in our struggle.
Our task is not to muster up more of our strength. The task is to draw more fully upon His
strength. When a child learns to swim they have to learn to stop fighting the water. Instead of
getting into the water and tensing up and flailing around you need to learn to relax and let the
buoyancy of the water work with you. In a similar way, we must learn to let God’s Spirit lead the
way. It’s not easy to learn but it is the goal we seek.
Second, this passage is a reminder about God’s great love. Day after day we see ourselves
stumble and fall.
· We know we should not speak those negative words, but we do.
· We know we should not respond in anger, but we do.
· We know we should share the gospel message but we don’t
· We know we should not entertain lustful thoughts but they still fill our mind
· We know we should address a problem but we don’t
· We know we should do some act of service and compassion but we don’t
We are haunted by our repeated sins. We stumble, feel bad, ask for forgiveness, and then we fail
again. It happens to all of us. In fact it seems to happen so often that it’s easy to begin to wonder
if we really belong to Him.
Max Lucado has written,
First of all, remember your position—you are a child of God. Some interpret the presence of the
battle as the abandonment of God. Their logic goes something like this: “I am a Christian. My
desires, however, are anything but Christian. No child of God would have these battles. I must be
an orphan. God may have given me a place back then, but he has no place for me now.”
That’s Satan sowing those seeds of shame. If he can’t seduce you with your sin, he’ll let you sink
in your guilt. Nothing pleases him more than for you to cower in the corner, embarrassed that
you’re still dealing with some old habit. “God’s tired of your struggles,” he whispers. “Your
father is weary of your petitions for forgiveness,” he lies.
And many believe him, spending years convinced that they are disqualified from the kingdom.
Can I go to the well of grace too many times? I don’t deserve to ask for forgiveness again.
Forgive my abrupt response, but who told you that you deserved forgiveness the first time?
When you came to Christ did he know every sin you’d committed up until that point? Yes. Did
Christ know every sin you would commit in the future? Yes, he knew that too. So Jesus saved

77. you, knowing all the sins you would ever commit until the end of your life? Yes. You mean he is
willing to call you his child even though he knows each and every mistake of your past and
future? Yes.
Sounds to me like God has already proven his point. If your sin were too great for his grace, he
never would have saved you in the first place. Your temptation isn’t late-breaking news in
heaven. Your sin doesn’t surprise God. He saw it coming. Is there any reason to think that the
One who received you the first time won’t receive you every time?[1]
It is encouraging that Paul begins chapter 8 with these glorious words, “There is now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”.
Is this an excuse for sin? Not in any way. This is a motivation for worship. God is more patient
with me, than I am. He is more committed to my growth, than I am. He is using the difficult
times to teach how to trust Him more fully.
CONCLUSIONS
Let me give you three things we should do in light of this. First, we need to be honest about our
struggle. There is too much pretending going on. We act like we have it “all together” but we are
lying. Christians struggle in their marriage, with finances, and with their children. Christians get
overwhelmed by trials and sometimes are filled with doubt.
We need to be honest. When we aren’t honest about our struggles, we become hypocrites. We
have to stay isolated because we can’t let anyone get too close, lest they see our flaws. Somehow
we think we are the only ones who struggle. We aren’t.
We also need to be honest because when we aren’t honest we become a barrier for others who
are outside of the faith. They see our hypocrisy and turn away or they come to the Savior and
then get discouraged because they struggle. They conclude, “Christianity doesn’t work.” The
truth is, we didn’t tell them the truth about the cost of following Christ.
The one comment I get more than any other is this, “Thank you for admitting that you struggle.”
I am saddened that this is such a revelation to people. We need to be honest about the fact that
struggling does not mean you are a deficient believer . . .it means you are in the process of
growth.
Second, we need to spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Why is there a homefield
advantage for sports teams? The advantage is there because of the fans. The encouragement from
the stands helps the team do its best.
We need to help each other. We can help each other up when we fall (and we will). Some will
fall hard and far, some will only stumble and scrape their knee but either way, we need someone
to help us get up. It is unfortunate that too often it seems that when a believer falls other
believers immediately gather around and start trying to bury him! That is not helpful! We need to
help each other get back on the road once again.
We can help each other avoid sin in our lives. We need people who will help us see the pitfalls
before we fall in. If someone says to you, “Who are you to tell me what I should or shouldn’t
do?” The best response is, “I am your friend and brother or sister in Christ, that’s who!”
Finally, we must spend much time with the Lord. Here’s the struggle isn’t it. We know we need
to spend much time in His presence yet we seem to so easily be distracted. We know we need to

78. pray, but when we try to do so, our mind wanders. We know we need to read the Word, but so
often, when we do, we find ourselves merely turning pages.
The Devil will not give up without a fight. Neither should we. Though we struggle, we must
keep trying. Though prayer seems awkward and forced, we must continue to pursue intimacy
with God through prayer. Though we find ourselves reading sometimes without understanding
we must keep reading and putting ourselves in positions where we can learn. Though worship at
times seems inconvenient, we must continue to set aside time for the Lord. We must continue to
move forward in the confidence that God will continue His work in us.
It may seem to that Paul’s words in Romans 7:14-25 are out of place. But I hope that you have
come to see, like I have, that these words are perfectly timed and wonderfully encouraging.
ÓCopyright 2004 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche, August 29, 2004
The Struggle
Romans 7:13-25
Dr. S. Lewis Johnson expounds the Apostle Paul's famous expression of struggling with the
sinful nautre.
SLJ Institute > Pauls Epistles > Romans > The Struggle
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[Message] Now we have come to the time in our service in which we read the Scripture, and so if
you have your Bibles there will you turn with me to Romans chapter 7, and I want to read verses
13 through 25 of the 7th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans.
Now we have come to this particular text, verse 13, in our exposition of the book. And the
apostle has been outlining some of the results of union with Christ. He has spoken about how we
have died with respect to sin, and we have died with respect to law. And sense that raised some
questions, the apostle is answering them. One of those was, is the law sin? And Paul answers, no
the law is not sin. The law is holy, just, and good. One might ask then well then Paul, if the law

79. is not sin, if it’s holy, just, and good, why this death then of which you have been speaking? And
so the apostle will answer the question now. Was that which is good made death unto me? Was
the law responsible for my death? And he will go on to say no, it’s not really the law. Our
problem is indwelling sin. That’s the real problem.
So will you listen now as we read verses 13 through 25? The apostle says,
“Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin,
working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become
exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that
which I do I understand not.”
Now let me stop for just a moment here. You will remember that when you read the Bible that
you are reading a translation. You are reading a translation of a text in the New Testament, a
Greek text; in the Old Testament primarily a Hebrew text. And you will also recognize and many
of you in this congregation know that there are many manuscripts of the Greek New Testament.
And consequently, it’s the task of textual criticism to examine the materials of textual criticism
according to the principles of textual criticism and arrive at an edited text which is translated into
English.
Now it is possible for errors to occur in this sense that the textual critics might select the wrong
variant reading, and then it is also possible for translators to error because they don’t understand
the context.
Now when we read here, “For that which I do I understand not,” literally the text might read,
occurred by a cursory reader of the Greek text, “For that which I do I do not know.” But the
word “know” has a broad usage. And it is clear from the context that Paul knows precisely what
he is doing. In fact, he gives us here, perhaps, one of the most incisive, perceptive pictures of
what transpires in the heart of a Christian man found in all literature. I think it’s the most
perceptive. Augustine’s Confessions is, perhaps, next to it. So it’s clear that Paul does
understand.
Now there is another meaning for the word “know,” and we have it in the New Testament and
it’s surely the meaning here. It’s approve. “So that which I do I do not approve,” and the
following context shows that’s the meaning. Incidentally, the New International Version of
which I had a part in translating is also wrong in this spot. I’m sure they’re going to change this,
ultimately. But it has “I do not know what I’m doing.” Of all people, Paul is the one who knows
what he’s doing. It’s clear that the translators at this point didn’t know what they were doing.
That was the problem.
“For that which I do I do not approve: for,” Paul explains, “for what I would, I do not; but what I
hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now
then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.”
And I must make one further comment. The apostle uses the term, I, about thirty times in this
section. You will be confused in reading this if you don’t understand. In one slight distinction the
apostle uses the word “I” in a comprehensive sense most frequently. The comprehensive sense is
the sense of the person actuated both by the Holy Spirit or the new nature and sin because we are
one person but we have an indwelling sin and we also have been given a new nature having
believed in Christ. So that’s the comprehensive I. But occasionally, the apostle uses “I” in a very
limited sense. That is the person actuated only by his new nature.

80. Now if we bear that in mind, we won’t have any difficulty. And we have one of these limited
forces in verse 17.
“Now then it is no more I (in the comprehensive sense it is still I. But in the limited sense) it is
no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me that is, in my flesh,
dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I
find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. (Can you
identify with that? Most of us can.) Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I (limited I) no
more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil
is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man (that’s another
expression for the limited I, the inward man.) I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, (still another term for
the limited I, the law of my mind) and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my
members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
(Perhaps, this body of death?) I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (And then a summary
statement concludes the section.) So then with the mind (that is the limited I) I myself serve the
law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”
May God bless this reading of his word.
[Message] Our subject this morning in the continuation of our exposition of the Epistle to the
Romans is a very simply one, but I hope a very meaningful one. It’s simply, “The Struggle.” The
Christian life is the impossible life for its element is the supernatural, and this is true in both its
inception and in its continuation. In its inception we must learn that religion, it does not avail.
We must learn that good works do not save. “For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not
of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast.” We must learn also
that even sincerity will not avail. The apostle in this great Epistle to the Romans in the 10th
chapter in the first verse expresses the great sincerity that one might have and yet be lost for he
said, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I
bear them record that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.”
So here are zealous individuals with a zeal for God attested by an apostle, but nevertheless, his
prayer is that they might be saved. So consequently, we must learn that religion, good works, and
sincerity do not save. We are under sin, and therefore, something must be done for us. When we
hear the gospel of Jesus Christ we learn that something is done for us in the saving work that he
accomplished when he died as the sin sacrifice on the cross at Calvary. But then as we enter into
the Christian life we have another great lesson that we need to learn, and that is that in its
continuation the Christian life is the impossible life for it is a supernatural life. It’s discouraging
as a new Christian to feel that your determination to please the Lord God melts away when trials
and troubles come. It’s discouraging and it’s defeating to see your resolves which you have so
earnestly brought before the Lord God melt away when some trial faces you.
And it’s certainly discouraging to discover that in the Christian life you find yourself doing the
very thing that you hate to do. And so the things that you want to do you can not do, and the
things that you hate to do you find yourself doing them. The tendency is to try all forms of
Christian legalism, introduced taboos. Don’t do this. Don’t do that. Don’t do the other thing. And
that will be pleasing to the Lord, and you will be victorious in your Christian life. Or resolve
even harder with your will. Perhaps, even spend more time in prayer or witnessing, giving out
the gospel. These things surely are the means by which we may find merit before the Lord God.
But we discover that Christian legalism will not do in the Christian life. We discover as Paul has

81. told us here in this passage that we’ve read in our Scripture reading that we are slaves to
indwelling sin, and something must be done in us now.
So the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is the unfolding of something done for us and something
done in us. Christ dies for our sins on the cross, and the Holy Spirit is sent into our hearts to
complete the work of redemption by doing something in us; something that is not completed
until the time of the resurrection, but something that is going on constantly.
So the glory of the gospel is that while the struggle is always there Jesus Christ not only saves
but he through the Spirit also sanctifies. And looking to him we may please God.
Now the writer to the Epistle to the Hebrews has put that in a very vigorous way in the 12th
chapter of his great unfolding of the high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ. He has said,
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay
aside every weight and the sin that dost so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race
that is set before us looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of faith who for the joy that was
set before him endured the cross.”
If I were to look for some illustration of the Christian life in the New Testament as something
supernatural, I think, one of the most pertinent illustrations is Peter’s walking upon the water.
That was something that was supernatural. It was certainly impossible, but Peter did the
impossible as long as his eyes were upon the Lord Jesus Christ. But when his eyes strayed as he
came into the presence of the Lord, to the winds and waves and saw their boisterous nature, he
became afraid and began to sink.
Now it is very comforting to see that even though his faith has wavered, the Lord Jesus reaches
out and saves him and preserves him even in the midst of his unbelief. But Peter walked on the
water. He did the supernatural. He did the impossible, because of the virtue that came from Jesus
Christ as he looked as the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews said, as he looked unto him. The
virtue that came from the Lord Jesus Christ enabled him to do the impossible.
Now Paul has argued that as a result of the fact that Jesus Christ is our covenantal head and we
are united to him that in his death we have died with respect to sin. He argued that in chapter 6.
In chapter 7, he has argued that we have died with respect to the law. We’re like a wife whose
first husband has died and has married to another. She’s no longer under the law of the first
husband, but now married to another. So are we. Formerly married to the old man, our
relationship in Adam, now as a result of what Christ has done and the faith God has given us, we
are married to the risen Christ. We are delivered from the Law of Moses.
Now that raised questions. Is the law then sinful, Paul? You said we have died to sin. You’ve
said we’ve died to law. Are you saying that the law is sinful? No, no. Paul says the law is not
sinful. The law is holy, just, and good. Then what is the cause of this death in me? And Paul will
now show that it is indwelling sin. And that is the thing he will show that causes this how of
verse 18 to burst from his mouth. “How to perform that which is good I find not.”
Now if we will pay attention we will discover how to perform that which is good. Now the
apostle has a very simple method of developing his thought here in a passage that is not easy, but
nevertheless, it is simple. There are three cycles. One cycle concludes in verse 17 with the
statement, “Now then it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me.” The second cycle of
his thought concludes in verse 20 with this statement almost identical, “Now if I do that I would
not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” And the final cycle concludes with the

82. last statement of verse 25, “So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God but with the
flesh the law of sin.” He wants to show that believers are divided persons, and it is important for
us to recognize that.
Now when we look at this passage and we study it a little bit it is not long before we discover
that believers have differed over the interpretation of it. One of the most interesting things about
it historically is that this was the passage that James Arminius, the father of Arminianism, first
began to expound in an aberrant way that led, ultimately, to questions about his orthodoxy in the
Reformed Church in Holland. It was his expositions of Romans chapter 7 in which he departed
from that which was generally the standard teaching on Romans chapter 7 and caused his
teaching to come into question. James Arminius died a Reformed theologian, but his followers,
ultimately, broke from Reformed teaching severely and originated what we know as
Arminianism, another interpretation of Christianity. But this is the chapter in which Arminius
began to differ from the Calvinistic teaching in which he had been taught.
Now you study this and immediately you will discover that there are differences of opinion
concerning this particular section. There are some who say that Paul is not reasoning as a
Christian man here, but as a non-Christian man. That is he is reasoning as a man who is simply
trying to keep the law apart from the faith of a redeemed man. And then there are some other
positions as well.
Now we don’t have time in a sermon on Sunday morning to deal with the history of the
interpretation or with the fine points of the positions which I just mentioned, for example. I only
say this, as far as I’m concerned it seems to me quite plain though there are strong arguments one
might bring up for a different opinion that the apostle is really speaking as a saved man and he’s
drawing on his own experiences. And I will give for you what I consider to be the more
significant arguments. In the first place, the general flow of the argument of the Epistle to the
Romans suggests that because the apostle has already discussed the doctrine of sin and
justification. Now he’s moved on into the discussion of wrath and sanctification, and so it would
be natural for this to have reference to Christian life teaching rather than teaching about
justification and how to become a Christian. So the flow of thought in the epistle would suggest
that Paul is speaking as a saved man.
In the second place, I’d like to remind objectors to this view that the burden of proof rests upon
them to prove their point rather than upon me to prove mine, because the apostle is using the first
person. He say, I, I, I. And when a man uses the first person and when he uses the present tense,
you will notice that he uses the present tense throughout this section, then we are to assume that
he is speaking of his own feelings at the time of his writing unless one can demonstrate plainly
and clearly otherwise. And this is the more important when one remembers that he uses this
language uniformly throughout the section. In the immediately preceding verses, he used the past
tense. But now he uses the present tense. And so the fact that he uses the present tense with the
“I” suggests I’m writing as a Christian man, and I’m telling you the experiences that I have had
as a Christian man and the experiences that I go on having.
Therefore, I think we’re led irresistibly to the conclusion in the preceding section we have
historical facts concerning how he came to understand the nature of the law, how it brings
conviction of sin, and actually increases the sin that dwells with us by stirring it up; whereas
here, he is talking about his present experiences. Furthermore, it is very difficult for me to see
how an unsaved man could diagnosis his case so perfectly. I’ve never known one to diagnosis his
case so perfectly. He has a clear view of himself. He says, “I know in me that is in my flesh,

83. there dwelleth no good thing.” He has a noble view of the law of God. He hates sin. He delights
in the law of God. He looks to deliverance from Jesus Christ. How can that be the language of an
unsaved man?
So I’m inclined to think then that the apostle is arguing as a saved man. He is drawing upon his
own experiences, and with that we will move on to the passage itself. And let me just comment
on some things that I think are somewhat important in it. In the 14th verse he says, “For we
know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.”
Now he wants to show us in this section this cycle that the believer is a bond slave to sin. He
says we know that the law is spiritual. By that he means the law is something that has been given
from heaven. In Rabbinic literature it was often said that the law was spiritual and the meaning
of the contexts usually is that the law is something given by God on Mount Sinai.
So when he says we “know that the law is spiritual,” he means the law has been given to us by
God in heaven, and thus, it is holy, just, and good. “But I am carnal, sold under sin,” I am
fleshly.
Now it is, I think, important to note that he is talking about the partial bondage of an imperfectly
sanctified man, not the total bondage of an unsaved man. That is evident in the context, and we’ll
point out in a moment some further evidence of that. So when he says, “I am carnal, sold under
sin,” he’s talking about the partial bondage of the imperfectly sanctified.
Now the New Testament speaks of Christians as carnal individuals. William G. T. Shedd has
commented in his commentary on the Epistle to the Romans that a regenerate man may be called
carnal is proved by 1 Corinthians 3:1 and 3. So the apostle calls himself carnal, sold under sin.
He means that apart from the ministry of the Holy Spirit, he is dominated by the flesh, and we
shall see he’s brought into defeat by the flesh constantly. He’s not master in his own house.
That’s what he’s really trying to say. I’m not master in my own house. I am a bond slave to sin
even though I have been brought to the forgiveness of sins.
Now some people have affirmed on the basis of the next verse that Paul was a golfer. There’s a
story about a very dedicated preacher who was playing golf and on the thirteenth hole, finally
after having topped a few and hit a few into the trees, finally go onto the green and putted up
near the hole on his first putt and had just a little short two foot putt and missed that. Well he
picked up his ball and he threw it as far as he could, broke two clubs, and sat down in frustration.
I want you to know that I have experienced that same thing, that identical thing. And in fact,
before I was saved there was a few other things that I did on the golf course when I missed putts
like that. So he said I’ve got to give it up. I’ve got to give it up. “Give up golf?” said the caddy.
“No, the ministry,” he said. [Laughter]
Now there was a preacher, a Lutheran preacher, by the name of Roger Prescott who was pastor
of Saint Mark’s Lutheran Church in Fargo, North Dakota. He used to have days on the golf
course in which it looks as if his avocation was going to drive him from his vocation. Well there
was a fellow clergyman with whom he played, and this man showed him how to deal with the
frustrations of the golf game. When his fellow clergyman showed him the way to deal with it, it
made it a whole lot easier for him. He noticed that on one hole the fellow clergyman hit a very
weak drive out there and then he got up to his ball he pulled out the club that he thought that he’d
reach the green with and he settled himself down into his position and he drew back and shanked
it off into the trees over to the right and he jumped up and down and said, “Romans 7:15!
Romans 7:15!” And the blood vessels on his head were popping out like this and he thought that

84. was a very nice way to swear but he didn’t know what Romans 7:15 said, and so when he got
home that night the first thing he did was to look it up and in his Bible it read, “I don’t
understand my own actions, for I do not want I want but I do the very thing I hate.” [Laughter]
So on the basis of this some have affirmed that Paul was probably a golfer. [Laughter] Now you
know you never can tell what will happen in Believers Chapel, but this morning after I finished
the message one of our wits in the audience out there, we have better wits in the audience than in
the pulpit, I assure you. He said, “We know that Paul was a golfer because he said I have
finished my course.” [Laughter] And that proves it.
So anyway the apostle writes here, “For that which I do I do not approve.” The apostle surely
understood exactly what he was talking about. It’s the translators that don’t understand Paul.
“For that which I do I do not approve for to explain what I wish that I do not do but what I hate
that do I. If then I do that which I would not I consent unto the law that it is good.” And he
concludes the first cycle by saying, “Now then it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in
me.” Isn’t it an interesting thing that even when we are in our most holy moments, our holiest
times, sin intrudes.
Have you ever gotten down upon your knees and said I need a more intensive prayer life? And so
you pray very fervently, but even in the midst of your prayer to the Lord God himself, you are in
his presence, an unholy thought will flit into your mind and you will suddenly stop thinking
about praying to the Lord and you’ll think about that thought. That thought will come into your
mind just like a buzzard through the sky. And then if that doesn’t happen you will pray very
earnestly and you will get up and you will say I surely am making an advance in the spiritual life.
[Laughter] It won’t be long before they’ll be asking me to be a deacon or an elder at Believers
Chapel. I’m so earnest in my prayer life. Even in the midst of our affirmations of desires to
please the Lord and even in our aspirations sin intrudes. We are bond slaves to sin or ourselves.
Now in the next cycle the apostle turns to the negative, stresses the negative and inward side of
things. He says in verse 18, “For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh,” that qualifying limited
clause, incidentally, shows us that he writes as a Christian. If he was writing as an unsaved man
he would just simply say I know that in me there is nothing good. That would be true of the
unsaved man, but the fact that he says, “I know that in me, that is, in my flesh,” shows that there
is an aspect of him that is good. So he writes as a Christian. “I know that in me, that is, in my
flesh, there dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which
is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” He’s speaking
in the limited “I” sense. So he distinguishes between himself and the flesh. He’s a divided
person. The flesh is utterly corrupt. It can do nothing for God.
Many years ago when I was in the insurance business in Birmingham, Alabama, and had just
been converted Lewis Sperry Chafer came to Birmingham, Alabama and conducted a weekend
series of meetings. Why I had a friend who was a graduate of Dallas Seminary and I went to the
meetings at his invitation, and I enjoyed Dr. Chafer and listened to every one of the messages
that he gave. I remember one of the messages particularly because it was on Romans chapter 7.
And Dr. Chafer was a man who was sixty-two years of age at that time, just a little man, a very
nice face and a very fine teacher of the word. I listened to every word that he said. He was very
quiet. Some people I know went to sleep. They use to complain about that around the country so
they told me later, but I always found him most interesting. Well in the midst of one of his
messages he said now Campbell Morgan, who has traces of Arminianism in his teaching,

85. changed a verse of a well known hymn that we often sing. We actually sang it this morning. I did
not tell Mr. McCracken about this. I don’t know if he had heard a tape previously or what,
maybe it was just the providence of God that we sang that hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every
Blessing, this morning. Dr. Chafer said, “Campbell Morgan had traces of Arminianism.”
Now I heard that. I didn’t know exactly what that meant but it sounded bad. [Laughter] And so I
paid attention. He said, “I know that hymn has a verse in it that reads, ‘Prone to wander Lord I
feel it; prone to leave the God I love.'” But he said, “Campbell Morgan who has traces of
Arminianism changed it to ‘Prone to worship, Lord I feel it. Prone to serve the God I love.'” And
then Dr. Chafer turned to the audience and he said, “Now how many of you think that Campbell
Morgan was right?”
Well we heard that clause, “that has traces of Arminianism,” and that sounded bad and so
nobody raised their hand. He said, “How many of you think the hymn writer was correct? Prone
to wander?” And so we all raised our hands, and that little smile came over Dr. Chafer’s face. He
was a man before his time. He had a mustache. Anyway, a smile came over his face and he said,
“Both were right.” And of course, he was right because it is true there is an aspect of each one of
us as believers that is prone to wander. And there is also an aspect of us as a result of our
conversion that is prone to worship. We are divided persons. One of the things that the Holy
Spirit attempts to do it seems to me in the lives of each of us and does at his sovereign will at a
particular point is to bring us to the place where we recognize that we are so weak we cannot do
anything. As long as we think we can do something we’re not weak enough. It’s not until we
come to the realization that in the flesh we cannot please God, it’s not until then that we are able
to really advance.
And finally, in the last of these cycles in verse 21 through verse 25, he says he believer is always
in a losing conflict. The old man living within is stronger than the renewed self. The new life
alone is not enough in the Christian life. Listen to what he says, and notice the figure of the
warfare and how we lose the battle every time. He says in verse 21,
“I find then a law, (a principle) that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight
in the law of God after the inward man, (after that renewed self) But I see another law in my
members, (there are two wars there) warring against the law of my mind, and (notice the second
law is always victorious) and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my
members.”
The apostle uses the present tense. It is durative in force. There is warfare constantly going on
and as long as this warfare goes on within the believer and as long as the believer does not look
outside of himself he is always in a losing battle. He will lose every time. I delight in the law of
God after inward man, but I see another law, it wars against my mind and it brings me into
captivity. I’m constantly defeated. It’s not wonder that he said, “Oh wretched man that I am!”
And I want to tell you, there is nothing more musical in the ears of the Lord than when a
Christian says, “Oh wretched man that I am!” There is nothing more spiritual, there is nothing
more scriptural than when a person says, “Oh wretched man that I am!” You can see that in all of
the teaching of the word of God. You can even see it in the question of salvation. You can see
this principle in sanctification.
Take Jonah has an illustration. There he was in the belly of the great fish. When did he get
delivered? When he had given up all hope of delivering himself. If you’ll read the 2nd chapter of
Jonah, he was in great misery. He prayed. He was still in the belly of the great fish. He cried. He

86. was still in the belly of the great fish. He promises, “I will look again toward Thy holy temple.”
He’s still in the belly of the great fish. He moralizes. He sacrifices. He vows, but he’s in the belly
of the great fish still. At length he finally says, “Salvation is of the Lord.”
Mr. Spurgeon said, “He learned that line of good theology in a strange college.” [Laughter]
“Salvation is of the Lord.” And the very next verse he’s on dry land. You see the principle is that
deliverance comes both from condemnation and guilt of sin and from bondage of sin when we
recognize we cannot deliver ourselves. “Oh wretched man that I am!” What a magnificent,
musical, spiritual, scriptural cry! And then he goes on to say, “I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord.”
You know when the apostle says, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” we want
to notice one thing. I don’t want to get ahead of myself. But will you notice that relative
pronoun, the masculine, “Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” It is not what but
who. In other words, it is a person who delivers. Man does not a law. He does need religion. He
cannot keep the law and religion will not save him. What he needs is a Savior. And so Paul looks
outside of himself, and deliverance in the Christian life comes when we look outside of ourselves
to the Lord Jesus Christ. As Dennison put it, “Oh that a man would rise in me that the man I am
may cease to be.”
“Who shall deliver me?” Thank God there is such a man through Jesus Christ our Lord,
forgiveness from Christ on the cross, deliverance from Christ in the heart through the Holy
Spirit. You know sometimes I must confess, I guess it’s my old age, but I do get a little disturbed
when I hear evangelical Christians these days running after every kind of superficial kind of
teaching and emphasis. I even hear Christians saying, this is when that law of the flesh is
inclined to get the best of me, I even hear them saying what I’m interesting in is practical
teaching.
Now let me say to you my dear Christian friend, there is no more practical teaching in all of the
Bible than theological teaching. Theology is practical. So called practical teaching as a general
rule, not always, so called practical teaching is often impractical because it’s false. This is one of
the great mistakes of Keswick teaching. They have failed to stress that we are in a constant
struggle as long as we’re in the flesh. There’s no plain of life to which we may attain or in which
we may reach finally that we should have smooth sailing. There is growth, there is development,
and when we’re been a Christian for many years we should, of course, have made progress in the
Christian life. Our failures should not be what they were when we began.
We are not like little children, constantly a mess, constantly in trouble needing constant
discipline, but as long as we’re in the flesh we’re struggling. The struggle is there to the end. The
apostle will point out that complete deliverance does not come until the resurrection. It’s
impossible to live in Romans 7 and then get out of Romans 7 and into Romans 8 as we’re often
told as a permanent dwelling place. That’s not taught in the Bible. We have struggle as long as
we’re in the flesh, but there is a way for us to enjoy over coming power and that is by looking
outside of ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the sanctifying ministry of the Holy Spirit
continues constantly, and we learn more and more as it is the habit of life to look to him in the
trials and troubles of life. All of the experiences of life if brought simply to our risen Lord and
looked at in the light of him who is outside of us, all of those experiences become stepping
stones to growth and development in our Christian life. The Christian life is very simple. It’s
really looking unto him in all of our experiences.

87. So “who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our
Lord.” That’s kind of a little theme statement that he will develop in Romans chapter 8. Romans
8 is the exposition and expansion of “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord,” for it is
through him that the Spirit comes to indwell us.
So the apostle then has stressed the inability of the flesh either in the unconverted or in the
converted he must do something in us now, for and in us at the resurrection for ultimate
deliverance. The sufficiency of Jesus Christ, the apostle stresses. So as I say he says in a sentence
what he will say in a chapter in a moment.
John Newton, that great Calvinistic servant of the Lord and hymn writer wrote a stanza which I
think is apropos. He said, “By various maximums, forms, and rules that sought for wisdom in the
schools, I sought my passions to restrain but all my effort proved in vain. For since my Savior
I’ve known my rules are all reduced to one to keep my Lord by faith in view. This strength
supplies and motive too.” Mr. Newton was right, and that sufficiency was received when our
inabilities are acknowledged by God by the Holy Spirit bring us to the conviction of what we are
and causes us in his wonderful grace to lean upon him who is our sufficiency, then we know
what it is to find some deliverance in our Christian life. When we give up, he takes up. May the
Lord give us the desire to please him in a holy life a will to give him the reigns of our hearts.
There is one last thing that remains if I may say it, the apostle said, “I thank God through Jesus
Christ our Lord.” Why not try Paul’s recipe? “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” We
cannot live the Christian life in our own strength. We can only live it in the strength of the Son of
God. May God help us to look unto him.
If you are hear this morning and you’ve never believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, of course, you
do not have him within. Your need is to recognize him as the sacrifice who offered himself up
for sinners, and if God the Holy Spirit has brought you to the conviction that you are lost under
guilt and condemnation, your need is to flee to the cross and receive the free gift of forgiveness
of sins. So may God speak to your heart. Come to Christ. Believe in him. Receive everlasting life
as a free gift. It’s not by works or righteousness that we have done. It’s according to his mercy
that he saves us. May you come to Christ. And for you who are believers come to Christ. Come
to him. Look to him in the experiences of life, in the troubles, the trials, the disappointments, the
tragedies, in the needs come to him and he will undertake for you. Believe him.
Shall we stand for the benediction.
[Prayer] Father, we are so grateful to Thee for this page out of the apostle’s life. What a great
privilege it is to be able to read after the apostle’s own explanation of the thoughts and
aspirations and disappointments and struggles that were part of him. We thank Thee for this
transcript from the apostle’s experiences. Oh, God help us to learn from it.
If there should be some here, Lord, who have never believed in Christ may they turn to him right
now. And for those of us who do know Thee, Lord, so work in us by the Holy Spirit that we’re
motivated to look oft outside of ourselves to him who not only saves but sanctifies in the Spirit.
Go with us now. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.
https://sljinstitute.net/pauls-epistles/romans/the-struggle/

88. A Wretched Man Becomes a Saint
Romans 7:14-25
P. G. Mathew | Sunday, September 27, 2009
Copyright © 2009, P. G. Mathew
God never makes anyone his saint unless he cries out, “What a wretched man I am! Who will
rescue me from this body of death?” In this exposition of Romans 7, we are in general agreement
with the majority of the church fathers in the first three centuries of the Christian era and with
modern scholars like Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Douglas Moo, and a number of others.
Whose experience is Paul describing in Romans 7:7-25? Is it his own at the time he was writing
the epistle to the Romans, or his experience before he was born again? Does this passage
describe the normal Christian life, or the life of a sinner under conviction of sin and yet not
indwelt by the Holy Spirit?
The Romans 7 Man
In Romans 7 we see a man who is aware of what is right and what is sinful, yet he always-not
sometimes-ends up doing the wrong thing. This is a person to whom God’s law came home in its
full meaning and power by the operation of the Spirit. Paul says that when the law came to him,
“sin revived and I died” (Rom. 7:9). Romans 7:14-25 is speaking about this same person to
whom the law came. He no longer thinks of himself as perfect concerning the righteousness of
the law (Phil. 3:6). Those happy days are over for him. He now realizes he is a sinner. The law of
God came home to him, condemned him, and he died. We are not reading about a Christian who
enjoys the freedom of posse non peccare, the freedom not to sin, which is the freedom of a true
believer. This passage describes a sinner under conviction of sin yet who has no freedom.
This man is a prisoner of sin. He is in the state of non posse non peccare (not possible not to sin),
meaning he can only sin all the time. The church fathers, especially in the first three centuries of
the church, saw this man as unregenerate. But the Reformers, following Augustine’s later views,
generally thought this passage spoke of a Christian, even a Christian at his best and most mature.
This latter view is partly responsible for the spirit of antinomianism that prevails in much of
today’s evangelical church. It also contributed to the dead orthodoxy of the seventeenth century,
which the Pietists opposed.
In Romans 7:7-25 Paul speaks of what the law can and cannot do. The law can neither justify nor
sanctify us. The law is weak because of our sin nature and cannot impart life. It cannot cause us
to obey the law. It reveals our sin and condemns us as sinners. Law is powerless before the
mighty power of sin.
Romans 7:14-25, therefore, cannot be an analysis of Paul at the time of writing this epistle or a
description of a Christian at his best. Here Paul is describing himself under conviction of sin yet
not born again. He is aware of his sin and his complete moral impotence and failure. He is aware
of the great power of sin, yet he is not aware of the freedom of the gospel. It is probably
describing his preconversion experience prior to his baptism by Ananias. F. F. Bruce says, “Here
is a picture of life under the law, without the aid of the Spirit, portrayed from the perspective of

89. one who has now experienced the liberating power of life in the Spirit.”1 The Spirit of the
Reformation Bible posits, “Paul was describing [in a dramatic fashion] a transitional experience,
possibly his own, of one who has been awakened to his or her true spiritual need but who has not
yet entered the full relief of justification by grace.”2 In Romans 7:7-25 we see no reference to
grace, the Holy Spirit, or Christ.
The Key Verse
“We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin” (v. 14). This is the
key verse in this section. Verses 7:15-25 simply explain verse 14, which itself gives reason for
the previous verse. In the Greek, verse 14 starts with the word “for.” Paul knows the law is holy,
just, and good. But if the law is good, why did he die when it came to him? Why is it ministering
death to him? So he asks, “Did that which is good, then, become death to me?” (v. 13). Not at
all! The law is not responsible for our death; sin is. But through the law, God unmasks sin and
makes it appear in its true nature: utterly corrupt and foul. So Paul says, “Do not blame God’s
law. It is holy, just, good, and spiritual (pneumatikos). God is Spirit, and the law is spiritual
because it is given by the Holy Spirit. The problem is not with the law but with us. We are
sinful.”
Then Paul explains, “The law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual.” The word is sarkinos(carnal). He
is not partly carnal. He describes himself as all flesh in all its weakness, especially because of
sin. He is conditioned by sin and is an in-Adam, fallen man. Remember in Romans 7:5 he said,
“When we were in the flesh,” meaning we are no longer in the flesh. There he was speaking as a
born-again, Spirit-indwelt man. He is in the Spirit, able to bear fruit to God and serve him in the
newness of the Spirit. But in Romans 7:14-25 he describes himself as one still in the flesh,
incapable of bringing forth the fruit of obedience to God. We see this contrast in Romans 6:17:
“But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the
form of teaching to which you were entrusted” (see also Rom. 6:20). A regenerate person is no
longer a slave to sin. Paul makes this clear in Romans 8:9: “You, however, are controlled not by
the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have
the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.”
The third element of this verse is that this man is “sold as a slave to sin.” We see this idea in 1
Kings 21:20, when Elijah tells Ahab, “You have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the
LORD.'” And in 2 Kings 17:17 we read that the Israelites sacrificed their sons and daughters in
the fire and “practiced divination and sorcery and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the
LORD, provoking him to anger.”
Paul is saying, “I am in the state of slavery, and I cannot redeem myself. I need a redeemer who
can buy me out of my slavery.”
The fourth aspect of this verse is that Paul calls himself “a slave to sin,” meaning “under sin.”
Paul acknowledges that he is under the rule, authority, and power of sin. Yet earlier in this epistle
he declared that a Christian is not under sin or law or death, but under grace, and that King Grace
governs his life in righteousness: “Just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through
righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:21). Yet here in
Romans 7:14 Paul says he is sold under sin.
Finally, Paul implies, “I am not spiritual. The law is spiritual, but I am carnal.” Yet elsewhere he
declares that a believer is spiritual: “The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he

90. himself is not subject to any man’s judgment” (1 Cor. 2:15). The believer is Spirit-born and has
divine nature. He is Spirit-indwelt, Spirit-taught, Spirit-led, and Spirit-empowered to be able to
bring forth fruit to God through obedience. So Romans 7:7-25 is speaking, not about a spiritual
man, a believer, but about a man who is carnal, sold under sin.
Propositions from Verses 15-25
Let us then look at some propositions from verses 15-25 which explain verse 14.
Paul says in verse 15: “I do not understand what I do” [i.e., “I do not approve it”]. Then he says,
“For what I want to do, I do not do.” He is not speaking about occasional actions. He is saying,
“I do not practice what I want to do at any time. I can only sin.” Then he says, “But what I hate, I
do.” Again, he is saying his actions are not occasional but always. He is describing himself as a
non posse non peccareman: “I find myself always practicing not what I approve, but what I
hate.” This is strong language.
In verse 16 he is saying, “I am doing what I do not purpose, desire, will, or want.”3 Therefore he
deduces: “If this is so, that I do what I don’t desire, and I do what I hate, then it is not I but sin
indwelling in me that is doing this evil” (see verse 17).
We must clarify one point. Paul is not saying he is blameless of sin. But he is speaking about
himself as a sin-possessed, sin-controlled person. He is saying, “This indwelling sin is a
permanent resident in me and defeats my purpose. This sin does what I do not will. I am its
bondslave and cannot overcome it.” He tells us this again in verse 20, saying, in essence: “The
sin is not outside of me, in the environment. It is inside, making me do its will instead of my
own. The Holy Spirit is not dwelling in me. Christ is not dwelling in me. Sin, in all its power, is
dwelling in me and controlling my life.”
Paul states in verse 18: “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature
[flesh].” Something good of greater power must dwell in us to oppose and conquer this
indwelling sin. But, he says, “Nothing good dwells in me. I am not born again. I do not have
divine nature. I do not have the Holy Spirit dwelling in me.” This is not what he said in Romans
5:5: “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by
the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (see also 1 Cor. 6:19-20).
Then he says, “For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I
keep on doing” (v. 19). The reality is that the evil [kakon] he does not will, he practices. And he
does so not once in a while, as some theologians want to say, but always. And in verse 21 he
says he discovered a law, a principle, in the light of his experience, that when he wanted to do
that which is excellent-the law of God-evil is right there, poised to oppose, frustrate, and defeat
him. And this evil wins every time.
Paul continues in verse 23: “I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war
against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my
members.” This other law, which is different from and opposed to God’s law, carries on a
continuous campaign of warfare against God’s law in his mind. It wins out all the time, defeating
him and taking him captive (as the Greek says, like a prisoner is taken at the point of a spear).
But this is not the language Paul uses in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5: “The weapons we fight with are
not the weapons of the world [or “the flesh,” sarkika]. On the contrary, they have divine power to
demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the
knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Here we

91. see Paul as powerful, born of God, Spirit-empowered, and a soldier of Christ, enjoying victory
over sin.
In verse 24 Paul declares, “What a wretched man I am!” In other words, “I am weary and worn
out. My hands are full of calluses.” The word (talaipôros) conveys the picture of a miserable man
doing hard labor for sin. Satan wants to present the sin life as a wonderful life of great joy and
happiness. But Paul is proclaiming, “What a wretched man I am! I am a bondslave to sin and
subject to death, which is the wages of sin. I cannot save myself. Who will save me from the law
of sin and death?”
At this point, the Christian Paul surfaces. He breaks out in doxology and answers the
heartrending question of this miserable, wretched man he has been describing. Man cannot save
himself, and no man can save another, because every man in Adam is a weak, carnal sinner. But
Paul triumphantly declares, “But thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
A Man Convicted of Sin
God has a plan to save the miserable sons and daughters of Adam and make them into saints,
justifying, sanctifying, glorifying, and bringing them to himself without sin. He has
accomplished that eternal plan to make us holy and blameless in and through the one mediator,
our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul had already said of Christ, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to
life for our justification” (Rom. 4:25). Now in Romans 7 he is summarizing the life of a sinner,
unconverted, yet under conviction of sin. When God’s Holy Spirit comes, the first thing he does
is convict us of sin. When we see people calling themselves Christians who have no sense of sin,
we can say they are not under the work of the Holy Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin. After Peter
preached on the Day of Pentecost, his listeners “were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the
other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?'” (Acts 2:37). In the middle of the night, the
trembling Philippian jailer asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30).
It could be that Romans 7:7-25 is speaking about Paul’s life before his baptism. Notice how Paul
describes his own repentance and faith in Jesus Christ: “A man named Ananias came to see me.
He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. He stood
beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I was able to see
him. Then he said: ‘The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the
Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness to all men of what you
have seen and heard. And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins
away, calling on his name'” (Acts 22:12-16). In Acts 9:17-19 we are also told how Paul was
filled with the Holy Spirit, his eyes were opened, and he was baptized.
When Paul was saying, “I myself with my mind serve the law of God,” we recognize that an
outright pagan cannot serve God with his mind. But these words can be true of a man whom the
Holy Spirit is convicting of his sin. His next statements that with his flesh he is a slave of sin and
sin wins out indicate that the man of Romans 7:7-25 is a man to whom the law of God was
coming with power and deep conviction. The man who once said he was perfectly righteous as a
Pharisee now says, “Sin revived and I died. I am all unrighteousness and a bondslave of sin. I do
not do what I will, and I do what I do not will. I do what I hate-yea, what is evil. Sin is dwelling

92. in me as a permanent resident and is of greater power than my mind. No good thing dwells in
me. From this slavery to sin, who will deliver me?”
So we must conclude that Romans 7:7-25 is not a description of normal Christian life or of
Christian life at its best. It is life of one being convicted but not converted, the life of one who
knows no victory in Jesus. He has not yet been indwelt by the greatest power in the universe, the
infinite power of the Holy Spirit, who alone can triumphantly oppose the great yet finite power
of sin and Satan.
In this passage, therefore, Paul says a certain things only a man under conviction can say. He
says the law is holy, just, and good and that law is spiritual. He says, “I agree with the law that it
is good.” He says he wills what is good but cannot do it. (PGM) Not only that, he rejoices with
the law of God with his inner man (i.e., with his mind), and he says he serves God with his mind.
But whatever he is doing, he is incompetent. He has no freedom, no divine ability to do the will
of God. He must be saved through Christ.
The Difference between Romans 7 Man and A True Believer
If, then, Romans 7:7-25 describes normal Christian life, or a mature Christian life, or the life of a
Christian at his best, then Paul is contradicting himself in his own words elsewhere in Romans as
well as in his other epistles. Let us look at some verses in which Paul described the normal
Christian life and compare them to the description of the Romans 7 man:
1. Romans 5:1-2: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith
into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.”
That is not we see in Romans 7:7-25. There is no peace, no rejoicing.
2. Romans 5:17: “For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one
man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of
the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.” Believers
receive abundance of grace and they reign in life here and now. But that is not what we
see in Romans 7.
3. Romans 5:21b: “so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Grace reigns through righteousness.
4. Romans 6:2: “Shall we continue in sin?” Paul asks. “By no means! We died to sin; how
can we live in it any longer?” This is not true of the Romans 7 man.
5. Romans 6:4: “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.” The life of Jesus Christ in us is the resurrection life. That is why we can
get up in the morning and work for the Lord. We can do all things because God has given
us a new nature, and the Spirit of God indwells us. We receive an abundance of grace to
do mighty, great things.
6. Romans 6:6: “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin
might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.“
7. Romans 6:7: “because anyone who has died has been freed from sin,” meaning freed
from the dominion, rule, authority, and power of sin.

93. 8. Romans 6:11: “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ
Jesus,” that is, alive to serve God in Christ Jesus, not serve sin.
9. Romans 6:12: “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil
desires.” Christians enjoy freedom not to sin (posse non peccare). If you find yourself
caught in sin, exercise your freedom and move out of Romans 7, because Romans 7 is not
speaking about the normal Christian life. It is a life of defeat, bondage to sin, and misery.
10. Romans 6:13: “Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness,
but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life;
and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.” Every believer
is obedient and disobedient at the same time. We have the freedom to obey God and the
freedom to disobey sin. We must not, therefore, call ourselves Christians if we do not live
by the power of the Holy Spirit and serve God in righteousness.
11. Romans 6:14: “For sin shall not be your master because you are not under law, but
under grace.” We are no longer slaves to sin.
12. Romans 6:17: “But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you
wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.” Notice, the
word is “obeyed,” not “believed.” Every true Christian is born of God and therefore has a
new nature; and every Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit and therefore he obeys from
the heart the will of God as given to us in the word. A beautiful mind is a mind renewed
by the word of God.
13. Romans 6:18: “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to
righteousness.” We have been set free from the dominion, authority, and power of sin,
and through the Spirit of the living God, we defeat sin.
14. Romans 6:20: “When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of
righteousness.” Now it is reversed. We are under the control of righteousness and set free
from sin.
15. Romans 6:22: “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to
God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.” We are holy
people.
16. Romans 7:4: “So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that
you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we
might bear fruit to God.” We have a new husband to whom we belong, and he enables us
to bear the fruit of obedience to God.
17. Romans 7:6: “But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the
law so that we serve [God] in the new way of the Spirit [the new power of the Spirit] and
not in the old way of the written code.”
18. Romans 8:1-2: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law
of sin and death.” We have been set free from the dominion of sin and Satan.
19. Romans 8:9: “You, however, are controlled not by the [flesh] but by the [Holy] Spirit, if
the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does
not belong to Christ.” We can make any profession we want, but a true Christian is born

94. of God and indwelt by the infinite person of the Spirit and his infinite power, which
makes us able to do the will of God and be successful in this world and the world to
come.
20. Romans 8:11: “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 through his
Spirit, who lives in you.” The cry of the man under conviction in Romans 7: “Who will
rescue me from this body of death?” Here is the answer: “Thanks be to God-through
Jesus Christ our Lord!” The Holy Spirit has come and is dwelling in us. This same Spirit
who raised Jesus from the dead will also raise our mortal bodies from the dead. The
indwelling Holy Spirit guarantees our resurrection.
21. Romans 8:37: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who
loved us.” Believe, saints of God. If you are defeated, rise up and say, “From this day
forward, by the energy of the mighty Spirit of God, I believe the truth that I am more than
a conqueror through him who loved me. So neither death nor life, nor anything else in all
creation is able to separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Christians are powerful to live victorious lives in Jesus, overcoming the temptations of
this world.
22. Galatians: 2:20: Remember, Romans 7 spoke about sin dwelling in us and making us his
slaves. But there is another reality. If we have been born again, the infinite Holy Spirit
dwells in us, always opposing finite sin and giving us victory. So we can say with Paul, “I
have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live
in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
These are not mythological statements; they are reality. As we add faith to these words,
we will experience peace, comfort, victory, and success.
23. Galatians 5:16: “So I say, live by the Spirit [by his teaching and by his power], and you
will not gratify the desires of the [flesh].” We are not saved from the flesh; sin is still in
us. But, thank God, there is a new reality. We are new creations in Christ and the Holy
Spirit dwells in us, always opposing and defeating sin.
24. Galatians 5:18: “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.” We are no
longer under sin and death.
25. Ephesians 1:19: Paul prayed that we may have spiritual assistance to know certain things
to live a Christian life. The first thing we need to know is “his incomparably great power
for us who believe.” If we come and say, “I sinned again,” it is proof that we did not
receive the grace and assistance of the Holy Spirit that would have come to us had we
prayed and sought him. That is why Paul speaks of God’s “incomparably great power for
us who believe.” The idea is that we might live by this resurrection power of Jesus Christ.
26. Ephesians 2:10: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good
works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” From all eternity it is God’s will to
have a holy and blameless people who obey him. If we do not obey God, we are not true
Christians. We may be nominal Christians. But our profession will not mean anything
unless we live obedient, powerful, victorious lives.
27. Ephesians 3:20: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or
imagine, according to his [infinite] power that is at work within us.” A Christian wife
and mother can do all the work she should be doing. A Christian father and husband can

95. do all the work he should be doing. Any Christian can do all the work he should be doing
because God’s power is at work in us.
28. Ephesians 4:28: “He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing
something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in
need.” This is speaking about a thief who became a Christian. Before he was stealing;
now he is working hard. Why? God gave him a new nature and the Holy Spirit is
indwelling him, and he is eager to obey God’s by obeying his commandments. He pays
his own bills and helps those in need. This is true Christianity.
29. Ephesians 6:10, 13-14: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power” and
wage war against all evil, against principalities and powers and heavenly wickedness,
against Satan. Resist the devil and he shall flee from you. Verses 13-14: “Therefore put
on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand
your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt
of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place.” I pray
that especially husbands and fathers will believe what we are saying and go home to live
such powerful lives that you inspire your wife and children to also live for God.
30. Philippians 2:12-13: “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed-not only in
my presence, but now much more in my absence-continue to work out your salvation with
fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his
good purpose.” Josiah showed such fear and trembling when he discovered the Bible (2
Kings 22-23). If we are Christians, God works in us to will and to do his good pleasure.
We do God’s will because God makes us willing and able to do it. Even if we are steeped
in sin, the Holy Spirit can deliver us instantly. The thief of Ephesians 4 was not told to
steal less and less until one day he stops. No, he is to stop stealing immediately and start
working with his hands. God works in him.
31. Philippians 4:13: “I can do everything through [Christ] who gives me strength.” The
Lord helps us all the time to do all that he wants us to do.
32. 1 Corinthians 9:27: “No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have
preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” Paul’s practice was to
make his body obey him, not be enslaved to his body. The Romans 7 man cannot do this.
The Holy Spirit enables us to get up and do God’s work.
33. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit,
who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were
bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” Paul’s question, “Do you not
know?” means we should know that our bodies are no longer ours; they are the property
of the Holy Spirit. We were bought with a price, the blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we
have no right to abuse or do whatever we want with them.
34. 1 Corinthians 15:10: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was
not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them-yet not I, but the grace of God
that was with me.” We who receive abundant provision of God’s grace reign in life, Paul
wrote in Romans 5:17. Here he says that all his success came to him by the grace of God.
If we are Christians, we must evaluate our lives and begin to redeem the time and
produce eternally significant works. God’s grace is available if we avail ourselves of the
means of grace, such as getting up early to read the Scriptures, listening with all attention

96. when the word is preached, and praying with faith and passion, in accordance with the
will of God.
35. 2 Corinthians 9:8: “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things
at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” What a great
promise! May we believe it, add faith to it, and receive grace to do all things God wants
us to do. We need grace, and it is available to face all exigencies of life. A Christian is
bold, confident, and positive rather than pessimistic and retreating.
36. 2 Corinthians 12:9-11: “But [the Lord] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my
power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my
weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I
delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I
am weak, then I am strong.” These are the words of a truly mature Christian.
In light of all these scriptures, we must say that if Romans 7:7-25 describes normal Christian life,
a mature Christian life, or the life of a Christian at his best, then Paul is contradicting himself
everywhere else in his writings. Throughout all his epistles we see a believer living a victorious
Christian life.
Conclusion
Have you noticed that most modern evangelical churches do not preach about sin anymore? They
do not speak of repentance, judgment, hell, holiness, purity, separation from the world, saving
faith, cross power, victorious Christian life, power of grace, power of the Holy Spirit, or the
authority of the Scripture. What, then, is the prevalent type of Christianity? It is nominalism.
People call themselves Christians but live pagan lives. They do so for the simple reason that they
are still pagans. They have not experienced regeneration or the infilling and baptism of the Holy
Spirit.
The view that Romans 7 describes the normal Christian life promotes such antinomianism. In
fact, it says the more we sin, the more grace we can receive and the more God is glorified. Even
Luther, by his statement, “Simul iustus et peccator” (simultaneously justified and still a sinner),
might have lent support to this antinomian Christianity in the Protestant church world. If Romans
7 speaks of normal Christian life, it also promotes the heresy called dualism, which says sin
belongs to the body only. So one can say that his body is sinning, but he is not. In fact, he can
say, who cares what the body does? It is only going to die. So one can sin all he wants; he is
saved forever.
People may not use the labels of “antinomianism” or “dualism,” but this is the type of life many
people are living today in the evangelical world. This explains the lack of preaching of sin,
repentance, holiness, judgment, and Holy Spirit power.
Jesus came to save his people from their sins, not “in their sins.” Yet this does not mean that
Christians are sinlessly perfect. Christians sin, and it is very possible for a Christian to sin
terribly and for a long time. That is why John writes, “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and
just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). But by the
new nature and the dynamic of the indwelling Holy Spirit, those who are justified are also being
sanctified to live victorious Christian lives. Once we were darkness; now we are light in the
Lord. Let us therefore shine like stars in this dark world and bring glory to our heavenly Father.

97. 1 F. F. Bruce, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: Romans, rev. ed., (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 2000 rptd.), 143.
2 New International Version Spirit of the Reformation Bible, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003),
1821.
Copyright © 2009, P. G. Mathew
Struggling with Sin, Pt. 3
Romans 7:14-25
April 26, 2009
“A believer is to be known not only by his peace and joy, but by his warfare and distress. His
peace is peculiar: it flows from Christ; it is heavenly, it is holy peace. His warfare is as peculiar:
it is deep-seated, agonizing, and ceases not till death.” So wrote the 19th century Scottish pastor,
Robert Murray M’Cheyne as he began his exposition of these verses. Peace and joy, yes, that
belongs to the Christian; but warfare and distress, deep-seated, agonizing, and unceasing till
death, that too is the Christian’s lot [Andrew Bonar, Memoir and Remains of R.M. M’Cheyne,
428].
Such a picture may be unsettling to the American view of Christianity. So many seem to forget
about sin and its peril even after one comes to faith in Christ. Little mention is made of sin in the
syrupy gospel presentations intended to lure people into making decisions that will help them to
feel better about themselves, while the cross in justification and sanctification appears strangely
absent. Everything is supposed to come up roses, or so we are led to believe. Yet the stark reality
is that in the midst of the peace that surpasses all understanding and joy unspeakable and full of
glory—genuine realities of gospel fruit—sin lurks, slithering in the members of our body like a
poisonous snake, and attacking, to rob us of peace and joy. We know that the world and the devil
assault the saints but much more present and steady in attack is “sin which dwells in me” (7:17).
It is indeed a principle or law that operates constantly “that evil is present in me, the one who
wants to do good” (7:21).
Well, why not drag us into despair! You may be thinking along those lines, and I can’t blame
you! But, while the Apostle Paul seems to despair of life itself due to the struggle with sin even
as a mature believer, he ends this chapter with a chorus of triumph, leading to further explanation
of the sufficiency of Jesus Christ in the gospel in the next chapter.
Where has the Apostle taken us in these verses? First, he has shown us that unless we die to the
Law as the means to our justification then we cannot and will not be joined to Christ so that we
might bear fruit for God (7:1-6). We cannot trust in the law and in Christ for our justification. As
long as we depend upon the law as the means to our justification we are in bondage to both law
and sin. But dying to the law, we are joined to Christ, depending upon Him alone as our
righteousness, “so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter” (7:6).
Second, Paul explained that the problem was not deficiency in the law but deficiency in us. “The
Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good” (7:12). The law cuts through
the darkness of our perceptions to expose the reality of our sin. “I would not have come to know
sin except through the Law” (7:7). And through the law, sin becomes “utterly sinful” (7:13). Yet

98. because of the powerful attachment of sin in us, that proper use of the law becomes twisted and
distorted by sin so that the knowledge of sin spurs us to more sin. “But sin, taking opportunity
through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind” (7:8). No fault of the law,
though, but rather of sin in me.
Third, Paul details the inward struggle with sin in the believer. Two things happen
simultaneously in the Christian. He joyfully agrees with the law of God in his inner man (7:22).
And at the same time, he practices what he does not want to do even while he desires to do what
is right before God (7:15-16). He tells us this three times with slightly different nuances in each:
vv. 14-17, 18-20, and 21-23. He concludes that the real problem is “sin which dwells in me.”
While he agrees with the law and even inclines toward obedience, there is an inward struggle
taking place, attempting to drive the believer away from obedience to the law in alliance with
sin.
Sin does not belong and is no longer welcomed in the believer. But until the day of final
redemption, sin remains a squatter, an unwelcome resident in his life. Is there any hope for the
Christian to make it to that final day of redemption and to live triumphantly over indwelling sin?
Count on Jesus Christ our Lord to bring it about. That is the message of Romans 7; Christ Jesus
comes through for those He redeems. How do we see this in the closing verses of this chapter?
1. The stunning cry
Would an unbeliever call himself a “wretched man” and then cry out for someone to rescue him?
That would not make sense due to the unbeliever’s antipathy to the revelation of God’s law
concerning his sin. He might brag about sin but not disparage over sin.
Then why would a Christian call himself a “wretched man”? The word refers to one that is
miserable, one living under the acute awareness of distress. It’s used in Revelation 3:17 when
Jesus told the Laodicean Church that they were “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.”
They did not realize it. They thought of themselves as rich, wealthy, and needing nothing. But
not the Apostle in his stunning cry: “Wretched man that I am!”
What did he see about himself that would cause a man of such dignity and Christian sobriety to
call himself a wretched man? Maybe he considered the kind of life that he lived before coming to
faith in Christ. Surely, that would have given cause to utter such a cry. But the context will not
allow us to make that conclusion. He used the present tense over and over in verses 14-25, and
even in this verse, he uses a present tense to describe a present reality of wretchedness.
“Wretched man that I am,” not “I was” or “I used to be.” Do we not learn something important
here? If we come to the place as a Christian where we begin to think that we no longer struggle
with sin or sin is not a factor for us or that our ongoing goodness evidences a laudable claim to
personal success, then we are embracing a different Christianity than what Paul knew. Even
though he had been delivered from his hate-filled self-righteousness through the work of Christ,
even though he had served the Lord faithfully, even suffering in countless ways for the sake of
Christ, he remained acutely aware of his own constant need for grace. “Wretched man that I am,”
he could say of himself. Or as he put it earlier, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that
is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not” (7:18).
Some would suggest that this was the cry of spiritual immaturity, that one who had progressed in
the faith would surely not feel such points of inward misery. But I would propose to you that it is
just the opposite. Here is the evidence of spiritual maturity or maturing. The believer recognizes

99. that even after years of growth in grace, he still cannot depend upon himself and the works of the
law for his sanctification. He must depend upon Christ alone.
Ironically, this cry of misery happens when the Christian grows in his understanding of God’s
nature, Christ’s sacrifice, and the beauty and goodness of the Law. The more he sees of God the
more he realizes how little he comprehends of Him. Listen to the way that the Puritan pastor
Stephen Charnock expressed it.
The nature of God as a Spirit is infinitely superior to whatsoever we can conceive perfect
in the notion of a created spirit. Whatsoever God is, he is infinitely so: he is infinite
Wisdom, infinite Goodness, infinite Knowledge, infinite Power, infinite Spirit; infinitely
distant from the weakness of creatures, infinitely mounted above the excellencies of
creatures: as easy to be known that he is, as impossible to be comprehended what he is.
Conceive of him as excellent, without any imperfection; a Spirit without parts; great
without quantity; perfect without quality; everywhere without place; powerful without
members; understanding without ignorance; wise without reasoning; light without
darkness; infinitely more excelling the beauty of all creatures, than the light in the sun,
pure and unviolated, exceeds the splendor of the sun dispersed and divided through a
cloudy and misty air: and when you have risen to the highest, conceive him yet infinitely
above all you can conceive of spirit, and acknowledge the infirmity of your own minds.
And whatsoever conception comes into your minds, say, This is not God; God is more
than this: if I could conceive him, he were not God; for God is incomprehensibly above
whatsoever I can say, whatsoever I can think and conceive of him [The Existence and
Attributes of God, vol. 1, 200-201].
And what of Jesus Christ, Son of God, Incarnate, perfect in righteousness, spotless and blameless
as the Lamb of God, “scarred with God’s thunderbolts” [M’Cheyne, 429], pierced for our
transgressions, made a curse for us, despised and rejected of men? Can we look on Him and
consider the infinite reach of His love and sacrifice for us without being seized with our
wretchedness? Can we behold the beauty and goodness in the Law as the revelation of God’s
character and think highly of ourselves?
The maturing believer thinks realistically about the inward struggle with sin. He knows that he
lives not only in a sinful world but a body in which sin dwells, mingling among his members to
infect him with every manner of darkness. He is honest with himself about the battle within
instead of rolling out the excuses or blaming everyone else for his issues. He talks to himself
about his sin! He rebukes himself over succumbing to temptation. He is never satisfied with
where he is spiritually; always longing to be more like Christ, and yet as he gazes upon Christ
while glancing at his sin, he can only cry out, “Wretched man that I am!”
2. Sounding the alarm
Here is the evidence of the regenerate life: the Christian longs for deliverance. “Who will set me
free from the body of this death?” Is he asking a question? Is he using “Who” in a generic sense,
wondering if there is anyone out there capable of rescuing him from the plight of indwelling sin?
No indeed, for here Paul uses a rhetorical question in order to make the declaration of His
Deliverer.
“Set free” is one word in the Greek and may be better translated, “Who will rescue me out of the
body of this death?” Or who will deliver me. The word was used in ancient Greek of guards
protecting an army against surprise attack and of the gods rescuing their devotees. However, the

100. gods were limited. They could only operate within the realm of destiny—which is a fatalistic
view of life. Whatever will be will be! If there were no deliverance then the worshipers would
assume that destiny had tied the hands of the gods to do them any good. This limitation by the
gods in what they could do to deliver likely led to the anxious cry recorded centuries ago, “Who,
god or goddess, will save us?” There was no sense of certainty in this cry but only wishful
thinking, even hopelessness [W. Kasch, ruomai, TDNT, vol. VI, 1000-1003].
But we see nothing of this in the Apostle Paul’s alarm. He uses the same word in Colossians 1:13
when declaring of our God, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us
to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” He has already rescued us from this plight through Christ in
the gospel! The Apostle gave testimony, “I was rescued out of the lion’s mouth. The Lord will
rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom” (2 Tim.
4:17-18).
Yet now he thinks of a different sort of rescue. He wants to be rescued “from the body of this
death.” What is this body of death? It is that reality of indwelling sin even in the believer. His
desire for rescue is two-fold. First, he wants ultimate rescue from the bodily conflict with sin.
This is an eschatological view, that is, Paul is looking for the final day of redemption when he no
longer dwells in a house of clay but in a glorified body, fitted for the perfections of heaven. Here
we find the longing, like creation, the groaning within, “waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons,
the redemption of our body” (8:23). It is what the Apostle wrote about to the Philippian
Christians, expressing his “desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better”
(1:23). It is that reminder that he gave to the same church, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from
which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of
our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He
has to subject all things to Himself” (3:20-21).
Second, he wants penultimate rescue, that is, he does not give up on the present while waiting on
the future. He thinks of that period before the final redemption—the period in which he presently
lives. This is the practical, present-time view, one that urges the Christian on in holiness while in
this life. How do we know that he had this in mind as well as the ultimate rescue? The context
insists on it. Remember that Romans six precedes Romans seven! What did Paul call for in
Romans 6? He exhorted by calling for specific action, not in dependence on the law but
dependence on the grace that is in Christ. “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so
that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as
instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and
your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” And then he gives the declaration of
which Romans 7 is a commentary: “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under
law but under grace” (6:12-14). He has explained that the way we do not let sin master us is not
through law but through grace; and that grace is in union with Christ.
So Paul’s rhetorical question is really an assertion. Who will rescue me? It is Jesus Christ our
Lord—not the law.
3. The sure answer
There’s no verb in this exclamation, as you notice. He does not need one. No verb can express
what just rolled off his lips: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” In other words,
we’re not like the Greeks waiting on their fickle gods to rescue them from the plight they face.

101. God has already provided our rescue from this body of death through Jesus Christ our Lord.
What does he mean by his exclamation?
First, he exults in the certainty of future deliverance. Why is that important? As Christians, we
often dutifully speak of the eternal security of the believer. Yet sometime in the process of life,
when we are gripped by the immensity of our sin, we may struggle with whether or not sin will
ultimately pull us into the abyss. But here is one that openly confesses his struggle with sin:
desiring to do good but doing evil instead. Has that undermined his eternal hope? Does that mean
that because there is too much sin there is too little salvation? I think we must read Romans 7
with an eye toward eternal assurance. Who will rescue me from the body of this death? Is there
hope for me? Yes, indeed, the rescue is in and through Jesus Christ our Lord—never through the
Law.
Paul offers similar assurance in Romans 8, reminding us that nothing can separate us from the
love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (8:36-39). Even though we declare, “I know that I’m
saved,” we may yet go through some dark days and difficult circumstances that lead us to the
edge of despair. When that happens, read Romans 7 and 8. Believe what the Apostle has
sounded: Jesus Christ our Lord delivers you!
Second, he also exults in the reality of present deliverance. Do we not need this on a regular
basis? Paul has not set forth an argument that we are to be contented with sin. Instead, we are not
to let sin reign in our mortal bodies. We are to battle sin at every point. Yet in those times of
despair when we think that sin has let loose its worst siege possible, cry with the Apostle.
“Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God
through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Then meditate on and openly confess Jesus Christ as your
powerful Deliverer. Think of what He did for you at the cross. Let that sin-killing power at the
cross sink into your thoughts. Consider the effective gospel through which you are united to
Jesus in His death and resurrection. Ask Him to deliver you even as God delivered Him from the
jaws of death by the resurrection. Rely upon prevailing grace given to you freely as a Christian.
Grace is God at work on your behalf. Ask for grace in time of need because you have a Great
High Priest who is ready to deliver you (Heb. 4:14-16). Depend upon the indwelling Holy Spirit
who “helps our weakness” (8:26). God has not left you in your time of need but has given His
Spirit to bring gospel truth to your remembrance and to strengthen your weak knees to stand
firmly as a good soldier of Christ. Avail yourself of the sufficient means of grace: the Word of
God, prayer, worship, fellowship, and the Lord’s Table.
The reality is that until Christ returns, the battle with indwelling sin continues; but the even more
present reality is that Christ continues to rescue us from sin. Paul explained, “So then, on the one
hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law
of sin.” In other words, it is still going on but I am not despairing, evidenced by his “therefore”
in the very next verses (8:1-4).
• Because I am in Christ, I am no longer under condemnation
• The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death
• Christ Jesus did what the law could not do due to the weakness of my flesh; He bore sin’s
condemnation so that I no longer bear it
• The law’s requirements are fulfilled for me through Christ, so that as I now walk in the
Spirit, the law’s requirements are fulfilled in me

102. It is not the Law that justifies or sanctifies you…it is Jesus Christ our Lord. Count on Him for
future and present deliverance.
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A Jarring Admission Romans 7:14-25
This entry was posted in Romans (Rayburn) on November 1, 2009 by Rev. Dr. Robert S.
Rayburn.
Romans 7:14-25
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We are in the seventh chapter and Paul is elaborating on the question of the relationship between
the law of God and the Christian. He said some things earlier in the letter, in chapter 6 in
particular, that almost invariably would lead to some confusion and misunderstanding. For
example, he said that the Christian is no longer under the law. He is explaining what he meant by
that and has done so now in two paragraphs and will continue in a third paragraph, vv. 14-25.
We come this morning to what is unquestionably the most controversial text in the entire letter. It
is more controversial even than Romans 9 where Calvinists and Arminians square off to do
battle. For here in the second half of Romans 7 even Calvinists and Arminians argue among
themselves over the proper interpretation of Paul’s remarks. This text is what scholars call a crux
interpretum, that is, it is the passage around which the discussion of a particular issue of theology
or the Christian life revolves. Its importance is such that, in a very real way, your view of this

103. text, your understanding of what Paul is saying, will shape profoundly your understanding of
your own life and what it means to be a Christian in the world. Let me read two short citations by
two representative Christian thinkers.
First is the Methodist scholar and Oxford professor, R.Newton Flew, in his book The Idea of
Perfection [54]:
“St. Paul does not speak of himself as sinless after conversion. … But it is a striking fact that in
[Paul’s] epistles we meet no heartfelt utterances of deep contrition for present sin such as are
common in evangelical piety, under the influence of the Reformation.”
In Flew’s view, the Christian life is described by Paul and elsewhere in the New Testament as a
generally successful affair. Remaining sin, according to Paul, at least in Prof. Flew’s judgment,
is not the problem some Christians have imagined it to be. Some years ago a Wesleyan speaker
in Covenant College’s chapel told the students that it had been many months since he last sinned.
Much more typical of Protestant and Reformed spiritual writing, here is Samuel Rutherford
writing to one of his favorite correspondents, Lady Kenmure. [Letters, CVI, 219]
“I find you complaining of yourself, and it becometh a sinner so to do. I am not against you in
that. The more sense the more life; the more sense of sin the less sin.”
You will see easily enough that these two men see Christian experience in very different ways.
One sees it in terms of an intense inner struggle with temptation, a record of spiritual failure
frequent enough and grievous enough that mourning over one’s sin and longing for release from
one’s sinfulness are characteristic features of the godly Christian life. The other doesn’t see such
features as part of the New Testament’s profile of the Christian life. That is, quite obviously, a
very significant difference in outlook with immense implications for what it means to be a
Christian and how Christians are to think about their lives.
But, what is very important to understand, is that the reason R.N. Flew can say that the New
Testament does not contain “utterances of deep contrition for present sin such as are common in
evangelical piety” is precisely because and only because he does not find such an utterance in
Romans 7:14-25. And the reason Samuel Rutherford wrote as he did of the importance, even the
virtue, of a Christian woman carrying about with her a sense of her own sin was, in some
significant part, due to the fact that he found Paul giving expression precisely and powerfully to
that same sense of his own sin as a Christian in Romans 7:14-25.
Read the Text
As you are aware, the question that determines the interpretation of the text we have read is
simply this: who is the “I” who is speaking in these verses. Who is it who says that he is
“unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.” The great biblical theologian of the previous generation,
Herman Ridderbos, maintained that Paul was not speaking autobiographically at all, but meant
his readers to understand that the personal pronoun “I” throughout referred to Old Testament
Israel and its experience with the Law of God. In another case, the Keswick or higher life
interpretation of the 19th century, had Paul here describing, not his own state, but the state of a
Christian who was still living at the lower level of spiritual achievement, a carnal Christian, a
very unhealthy Christian, who had not yet discovered the secret of the “higher Christian life.”
[This man is in misery over his sins precisely because he is still attempting “to conquer the old
nature by self-effort.” Paul is describing what happens to a Christian who loses sight of the grace
of God as the principle of his daily life.] Quite apart from other objections that may be raised

104. against interpretations of this type, they suffer from what we said last time is the failure to take
seriously the likely understanding of Paul’s first readers and listeners. Would anyone in the
congregation that first received Paul’s letter and first heard it read have thought that Paul was not
describing himself when he told them of what was true of him, “I think this, I do this, I suffer
this?” Is it at all reasonable to suppose that Paul’s first readers would have realized that he was
not talking about himself at all, but of the nation of Israel? Biblical interpretations that sound
plausible in a university or seminary seminar must sooner or later pass this test: would any
ordinary reader of the letter have imagined that this is what Paul meant? In the same way, who –
apart from folk who had developed a paradigm of the Christian life such as that once popular in
higher life circles – would ever have gathered that Paul was talking not about himself but about a
class of sub-standard Christians?
So we are left with two possibilities in the interpretation of Romans 7:14-25 and Paul’s
emotional outburst about his disgust and frustration with himself and his still great sinfulness.
The one is that Paul is still speaking of how he thought and felt before he became a Christian.
That is, Paul in these verses is recollecting his experience as an unbeliever. The second is that
Paul is speaking as a Christian and not only as a Christian, but as an experienced, mature,
practiced Christian, an apostle of Jesus Christ no less, much closer to the end of his remarkably
fruitful and important Christian life than he was to its beginning.
It is not at all difficult to understand or, indeed, to feel the force of the argument on behalf of the
first interpretation: viz. that Paul is describing his experience while still an unbeliever. He was a
slave to his sins because Christ had not yet set him free. Did he not say in chapter 6 verse 7 that
the man who has died to sin in Jesus Christ has been set free from sin? Did he not say in v. 14
that sin is no longer the master of a Christian? How could Paul possibly then say that now and
still after many years a Christian he remains a slave to sin? As I said, no one should have any
difficulty feeling the force of that argument. Many good men have compared Romans 6:7 and
6:14 to Romans 7:14 and concluded that Paul could not possibly be talking about himself as a
Christian. He must be describing his futile struggle with sin while still an unbeliever, not yet set
free by the grace of God and the victory of Christ. Not always, but often they go further to say
that what Paul is describing is his experience before he became a Christian but after he began to
experience the conviction of the sin brought upon by the Holy Spirit’s application of the Law of
God to Paul’s conscience, the experience Paul described in the previous paragraph vv.7-13. So
then Romans 7:14-25 describes the spiritual agony of a man under conviction of his sin but not
yet delivered from it through faith in Jesus Christ. This was the view, for example, of the great
preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones and one of my seminary professors, Robert Reymond. That is
certainly an interpretation that makes eminent sense. So why is it that through the ages it has not
been accepted as a right reading of these verses?
Why did Augustine and Luther, Calvin and the English Puritans, the American Presbyterians,
modern theologians such as Benjamin Warfield and Herman Bavinck, and the majority of the
most authoritative modern biblical commentators on the letter to the Romans, reject the
suggestion that Paul is speaking as still an unbeliever and conclude instead that Paul is
describing his Christian life? There are several arguments. But before I begin to list them, let me
say clearly where we are going so there will be no confusion in your mind. I regard it as a virtual
certainty that Paul is speaking as a Christian, as a mature and practiced Christian in 7:14-25 and
that in so speaking he is describing not only his own experience but, in the nature of the case, the

105. experience of every Christian boy or girl, man or woman. I feel about this text as Alexander
Whyte, the great Scottish preacher did. He once said in a sermon:
“As often as my attentive bookseller sends me ‘on approval’ another new commentary on
Romans, I immediately turn to the seventh chapter. And if the commentator sets up a man of
straw in the seventh chapter, I immediately shut the book. I at once send back the book and say,
‘No thank you. That is not the man for my hard-earned money.’ [Bunyan Characters, ii, 257]
And by “man of straw” Whyte meant anything other than Paul as a Christian describing his
experience as a Christian and giving vent to his frustration with himself and disappointment in
himself as a Christian. And here is why Whyte and so many others have been so sure of that.
1. The first reason to conclude that Paul, in this melancholy admission of his still great
struggle with his sins, is speaking of himself and as himself in the full maturity of his
Christian life is that he says of himself what no unbeliever can say.
We said that those who favor the view that Paul is speaking of himself as an unbeliever, before
he became a Christian, build their case primarily, indeed almost exclusively, on the argument
that some of the statements Paul makes here are simply incompatible with the doctrine of the
Christian life found earlier in chapter 6. In other words, they argue that Paul says of himself in
vv. 14-25 what no believer can say. I’m saying, on the contrary that Paul is saying of himself
what no unbeliever can say.
Many who have defended the view that Paul is here speaking of his life before he became a
Christian have done so because they felt that to describe the experience of a Christian as
negatively as Paul describes it here – slavery to sin; a failure to do what he knows is right, etc. –
would be to debase the grace of God and to make into a little thing the great and glorious change
that the Holy Spirit effects in the lives of those who are saved; a change described variously as a
new birth, a new creation, a new heart, the death of the old man, all things becoming new and the
old things passing away, and so on. These men are seeking to do justice to what Scripture says
about those in Christ being new men and living new lives.
And in that desire they are certainly correct and we should be no less concerned to do justice to
what Paul describes in Romans as the revolution in life and the deliverance from sin which
occurs in any life when he or she is united to Jesus Christ. But that hardly settles the question.
And one simple demonstration of that fact is furnished by the historical fact that alongside the
good and wise men who have favored the unbeliever view of Romans 7:14-25 that Paul cannot
be speaking as a Christian in these verses have been a great many in the history of the church
who have done most to undermine the Christian’s sole reliance on the grace of God and to
reintroduce a theology of salvation by works into the thinking of the church. Pelagius, against
whose attacks on salvation by God’s grace Augustine rose in defense; Erasmus, against whom
Luther wrote his great defense of salvation by grace alone, The Bondage of the Will; Socinius,
the father of the Unitarians, who denatured Christianity altogether and made it nothing more than
moral pieties for do-it-yourselfers, against whom the whole body of Protestant Reformers rose en
masse; and Arminius and his followers – all of those men held that Paul in Rom.7:14-25 must be
speaking as an unbeliever. And they held that view precisely because they wanted to believe than
an unbeliever, an unconverted man; a non-Christian could and would say such things as Paul
says here:

106. “I agree that the law is good…”
“I know that nothing good lives in me…”
“…in my inner being I delight in God’s law…”
And so on. They were, in other words, altogether unwilling to believe that man, in his fallen
nature, is nearly as lost as the Bible says he is, nearly as intractable an enemy of God, nearly the
lover of sin and the defiant rebel against God’s law that the Bible describes him to be. They had
a much more positive, optimistic view of man’s nature and very much wanted to believe that
Paul would be describing an unbeliever here as an unwilling sinner, who loves the good and
wants to do it, agrees in his heart with God’s will and wants to be the Lord’s servant, but will
need a little help from God or Christ to climb up into the kingdom of God. [As an aside, let me
say that this interpretation of Rom. 7:14-25 is gathering strength again in evangelical circles in
our time precisely because people do not like its negative portrayal of the Christian, still so great
a sinner and moral failure. We need to be positive, we need to build up the believer, stoke his
confidence. Negative vibes like these are not helpful. Hence the preference on the part of many
for the view that Paul must be speaking as an unbeliever. Christians would not say such things
about themselves.]
But that is not how Paul describes the unbeliever, even here in Romans. In 8:6 he says that the
mind of the unsaved man is hostile to God and that such a man does not love God nor will he
submit to God’s law. He says elsewhere that the unbeliever does not seek God and does not and
cannot accept the truth or grace of God because his mind is blinded by sin to these things. How
could Paul then be describing an unbeliever when he has him say in these verses that he knows
God’s law is spiritual and agrees with it, that he delights in God’s law in his inner being, that he
desires to do the good and does not want to sin, that in his mind he is a slave to God, and so on?
Take Paul as a whole and it is impossible to reconcile this description with what he everywhere
teaches to be the real spiritual condition of an unbeliever. This is my first argument, then, for
taking Romans 7:14-25 to be Paul’s description of his life as a Christian. Much of what he says
about himself cannot be put in an unbeliever’s mouth.
1. My second reason to take Paul’s autobiographical remarks here as a description of his
inner inexperience of conflict and disappointment as a Christian is that this is, in fact,
what the Scripture everywhere teaches to be the normal experience of believers in the
world.
We have not yet given an answer to the objection of the other side that what Paul says here in
Rom. 7:14-25 is incompatible with what he himself says is true of Christians and their
deliverance from the power of sin. What of Paul saying in Rom. 6 that a Christian is not a slave
of sin and in Rom. 7 that he himself is a slave of sin? The simple fact is that the Bible in many
places describes the Christian life in ways that seem to be just as contradictory. However
strongly and rightly the Apostle in Rom. 6 affirms the liberation of the believer in Christ from
the power of sin, it is unmistakably clear in the Scripture that this liberation is not experienced in
its completeness and finality in this world. However perfect our justification – our forgiveness –
may be, our sanctification remains deeply imperfect in this life. Sin’s guilt may be utterly swept
away when first we are united to Christ, but sin’s corruption is the work of a lifetime, the Holy
Spirit’s work and our own work.
Think of the impassioned confessions of sin by the godly in the Psalms and the prophets.
Consider the Lord Jesus’ teaching that we should be a people who mourn and are poor in spirit
because of our abiding unworthiness and how we must watch and pray always against temptation

107. lest that temptation become our master. Remember John’s teaching that we should be always
confessing our sins to God so they might be forgiven. Then think of so much else in Paul: his
teaching about pressing on because we haven’t yet arrived; beating his body to bring it into
submission; and our obligation to forgive one another all the sins they are constantly committing
against us as we should ask forgiveness for the sins we commit against them. I say in all of this
and much more we find nothing else but what we find in Rom 7:14-25, a Christian still
struggling with his sins.
But we can be more specific still. “Flesh,” the Greek word σάρξ, is used by Paul to describe the
spiritual nature of the unregenerate, unsaved, unbelieving, unchristian man. We have such a use
in Romans 8:5-7 where we read that those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on
what the flesh desires, and that the mind of the flesh is death, and that the mind of the flesh is
hostile to God. But the same term is also used to describe the principle of sin and unbelief that
remains active and powerful in a Christian’s heart and life. For example, Paul in Galatians 5:16-
17 – in what is surely a parallel text to Romans 7:14-25 – writes of Christians in general that “the
flesh – that is σάρξ – desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the
flesh. They are in conflict with one another, so that you do not do what you want…” Paul is there
unmistakably describing the inner conflict between old and new in terms very like what he uses
in Romans 7 and the Scripture is obviously teaching us there in Galatians 5 that this is the
continuing experience of believers. We are new creatures; but we remain far too much the old
creatures we used to be. That is the witness of the entirety of Holy Scripture and of Paul himself.
It is a striking juxtaposition in Romans 6 and Romans 7 but the Scripture is full of those. As G.K.
Chesterton put it, “a paradox is truth standing on its head to get attention!”
Finally, the message of Rom 7:14-25 is only the same message which Paul repeats shortly
thereafter in 8:22-25, where he speaks not of the individual believer but of the whole church in
the world.
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the
present time. Not only so but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly
as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we
were saved.”
This is only what Paul has already given as a personal testimony in 7:14-25: he has received in
his heart and life the first fruits of the liberation from sin, but yet much of its power remains to
trouble and weary him and to make him groan under the burden of it. The groaning cannot stop
until the sin is gone and that won’t be the case until either he goes to the Lord in death or the
Lord comes again for his church. This then is my second argument: both the Apostle himself and
the whole Scripture agree with the picture of the Christian life Paul describes as his own
Christian experience in Rom 7:14-25.
1. My third argument that Paul must be taken as speaking as a Christian and as a mature
Christian is that this has, in fact, been the experience of the very best Christians
throughout the ages, who have lived with all of this same inner tension between sin and
righteousness.
I must be brief. The one who insists that the man speaking in 7:14-25 cannot be a Christian,
much less a deeply earnest and practiced Christian like Paul, has set himself a very great task.
For he must explain why so many of the church’s finest sons and daughters have found their own
Christian experience described precisely in these same verses if, in fact, Paul isn’t talking about a

108. Christian at all. They found themselves still great sinners and thinking about their sin in exactly
the same way as Paul describes his thinking here: they were slaves to it when they ought to be
free. They were disgusted by their behavior as Paul was precisely because he knew Jesus Christ
and the victory he achieved for him over sin on the cross. And the longer they lived the more sin
they found in themselves and the more frustrated they became. I could multiply quotations at
length. I give you but one, one I’ve given you before from the saintly Bishop Beveridge, sharp-
sighted as he was both to the high demands of God’s holiness and his own heart, who confessed:
“I cannot pray, but I sin; I cannot hear or preach a sermon, but I sin; I cannot give an alms, or
receive the sacrament, but I sin: nay, I cannot so much as confess my sins, but my confessions
are still aggravations of them. My repentance needs to be repented of, my tears want washing,
and the very washing of my tears needs still to be washed over again with the blood of my
Redeemer.” [In Ryle, Old Paths, 130]
Is that not precisely what Paul is saying about himself in this text? This is the third argument.
Augustine, Luther, Calvin, the Puritans rejected the view that Paul was describing an
unbeliever’s experience, at least in large part because his words conformed so precisely to their
own experience as Christians.
Though these arguments, I believe, are sufficient in themselves to make the case, I have, in fact,
saved the two most conclusive arguments for last. They are each derived immediately from the
text as Paul wrote it.
1. The first of these two, and thus my fourth argument, is simply that, following upon the
past tense in verses. 7-13, verses 14-25 are in the present tense.
This is a simple point, but obviously of great importance. Paul describes his life of conflict with
sin and his shame over sin’s still great control over him in the present tense. This is so about me
now, he is saying, as he writes to the Christians in Rome.
Now it is true, as those who favor the other interpretation have long pointed out, that sometimes
the present tense can be used for the sake of vividness, even when, in fact, it is the past which is
being described. ‘Young George Washington picks up the axe and chops down the cherry tree!’
That sort of thing. But I must agree with many commentators who have pointed out that this is an
explanation born of desperation. The present tense is sustained far too long and too consistently
and contrasts too dramatically with the past tense of verses 7-13 – which certainly describe Paul
before his salvation – to be explained as a use of the present tense for stylistic effect. Unless
there is some compelling reason to suggest the contrary, we must read the present tense as a
simple indication that Paul is describing what is now the case. He is now struggling with his sins
in this way, even as the great Apostle to the Gentiles! He described his life before he became a
Christian in vv. 7-13, hence the past tense, and his life as a Christian in vv. 14-25, hence the
present tense.
1. And, then finally, and just as decisively, the order of statements in vv. 24 and 25 demands
that Paul is describing his own Christian experience in vv. 14-25.
The fact is that Paul cries out for deliverance and then, in verse 25a, gives thanks to God for
deliverance. Were that the end of the chapter, it would be easier to conclude that the Apostle was
describing his situation before he became a Christian and then concluding with thanks that he has
been delivered from that former bondage to sin which before he became a Christian had
characterized his inner life.

109. But, Paul does not finish there. He continues in the present tense: ‘So then, I myself in my mind
am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature, a slave to the law of sin.’ Here is the conclusion
of the matter; this is where he leaves us: he is a man composed of contrary principles and
warring desires. As he says of the Christian life in Galatians 5, the flesh, the remnants of his old
nature are warring against the new nature he has from Christ. Paul’s inner life is a battlefield
strewn with the carnage of many bitter contests with his lusts and sins, some ending in victory,
and many in defeat. That is where his life stands and where it will stand so long as he remains in
this world. The full deliverance, for which he is already thanking God, does not come in this life,
but in the next, as he will say again in 8:18-25.
So I conclude that here in vv. 14-25 Paul is describing his own Christian experience, and, by
implication, the normal Christian experience of struggle, sorrow, and bitter frustration over the
continuing power and influence of our sins and sinfulness upon our new life in Christ. The law of
God still continues to show us what is right and we still, though Christians and followers of
Christ, continue to break that law. The Christian desires a holy life but often finds himself
thinking, speaking, and acting in very unholy ways. And it is the most exquisite and lasting pain
and sorrow of a Christian’s life in this world that this is so.
If you are an unbeliever here this morning, not a Christian, learn this about Christians. They
don’t think they are better than you. They think they are worse; for they have no excuse and yet
they continue to sin. It tears them up to admit it, but they do. They are longing for nothing so
much as the next world when finally they will no longer fail to honor the Lord Jesus and to love
him and their neighbor as they so regularly fail to do now. The Christian life is many wonderful
and happy things, but one thing it is also very definitely is a struggle and a disappointment!
And if you are a Christian take your comfort from what Alexander Whyte called a text of the
profoundest comfort to Christians in their battle with sin. How is it comforting? You sometimes
wonder if you could be a Christian at all failing as you do so often to love the Lord and your
neighbor as you know you should and, indeed, as you want to do. But so did Paul. If he was a
Christian, so are you!
“Hear, O Israel, a broken and a contrite heart God will not despise.”
Third Millennium Study Bible
Notes on Romans 7:24-8:39
Who will rescue me . . . ? - Romans 7:24
Alexander Whyte says:
Believers are perfect as to their justification, but their sanctification is only begun. It is a
progressive work. When they believed in Christ, they knew but very little of the fountain
of corruption that dwells in them. When Christ made Himself known to them as their
Saviour, and the Beloved of their souls, the carnal mind seemed to be dead, but they

110. found out afterwards that it was not dead. So some have experienced more soul trials
after their conversion than when they were awakened to a sense of their lost condition. 'O
wretched man that I am!' is their cry till they are made perfect in holiness. But He that
hath begun a good work in them will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. (D.
MacFarlane, in The Free Presbyterian Pulpit (1961). p. 20).
Paul knowing that the law of sin still operating in him and revealing to him who he is, utters as
one in distress, but not of despair, as Romans 7:25 reveals. Paul looks at his fallen physical body
(its depravity, sin nature, it motives, etc.), viewed as the means by which sin is expressed. Paul
was longing for the deliverance in Christ that would one day ultimately result in a glorious,
resurrected body (Rom. 8:23; 2 Cor. 5:2-4; Phil. 3:20). See WCF 19.6.
Thanks be to God - Romans 7:25
Paul answers Romans 7:24 with an open and joyful heart saying: our only hope is Jesus. The
victory is God's (Rom. 8:35-39; 1 Cor. 15:57; 2 Cor. 2:14; cf. Rom. 6:14), and he gives it solely
through Christ (cf. Acts 4:12).
Paul goes on and summarizes the state of frustration he had been describing since Romans 7:14.
See WCF 6.5; 19.6. Hendriksen says:
He speaks with full assurance. He knows that when a believer dies, this death is gain. To
be with Christ is better by far (Phil. 1:21, 23). Sin will have been left behind forever. The
conflict will have ended, never to return. In the language of the apostle John, nothing that
is impure will enter the Holy City (Rev. 21:27). Moreover, the time is coming when even
the body will be redeemed (Rom. 8:23; cf. John 5:28, 29).
In his jubilant thanksgiving the apostle goes back to the Source of every blessing. He
exclaims, "Thanks be to God!" See John 3:16; Rom. 8:32; 2 Cor. 9:15. He realizes too
that it was through the One whom he mentions by his full name Jesus (Savior), Christ
(Anointed One), our Lord (Sovereign Ruler, Owner), that salvation, full and free, was
obtained. Obtained, moreover, not only for Paul but for all believers. And so he looks
forward to the day of glory for them all (1 Cor. 15:56, 57; 2 Tim. 4:8).
Sin: The Saint's Continual Victory Over It - in the Spirit - Romans 8:1-39
Hendriksen says, "As was true with respect in Romans 5, 6, and 7, so also in Romans 8 points to
a result of the believers' justification by faith. The fact that justification is indeed at the center of
Paul's thinking is clear from the opening words, "There is now no condemnation," for
condemnation is the opposite of justification." "Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our
Lord" (Rom. 7:25) introduces the victorious Christian life in Romans 8. Paul has already
acknowledged the new life believers have in Christ (Rom. 5:1-2; 6:1-23), as well as the
remaining struggle with remaining sin (Rom. 7:1-25). In Romans 8:1-39, Paul encourages
readers by describing the Christian life that is led by the Spirit. He describes not only the life, but
who made this life possible, how it was made possible, and the victory resulting form such a life.

111. No condemnation - Romans 8:1
In light of the whole of Paul's whole argument of justification by faith, he can say there is "now"
no condemnation. Eugene Peterson in The Message calls condemnation "a continuous, low-lying
black cloud" which Paul says no longer hangs over us." Bruce says:
Romans 7:25 teaches that freedom from the power of the lower nature has been provided
by God through the atoning work of Jesus Christ. Therefore there is no longer any
condemnation at all for those who are "in Christ Jesus," that is, who have been made one
with him by faith in his redemptive sacrifice. The just penalty incurred by the sins of the
human race was paid by the death of Christ. The unfavorable verdict has been removed.
Now all those who are in Christ are the beneficiaries of that forgiveness. It follows that if
condemnation as an objective reality has been removed, there is no legitimate place for
condemnation as a subjective experience. To insist on feeling guilty is but another way of
insisting on helping God with our salvation. How deeply imbedded in human nature is
the influence of works-righteousness!
Though we do not as yet experience all the fulness of what salvation in Christ means (Rom.
8:23-24, 29-30), we may enjoy all that "no condemnation" means "now"!
He paid a debt He did not owe;
I owed a debt I could not pay;
I needed someone to wash my sins away.
And, now, I sing a brand new song,
"Amazing Grace."
Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.
He paid that debt at Calvary.
He cleansed my soul and set me free.
I'm glad that Jesus did all my sins erase.
I, now, can sing a brand new song,
"Amazing Grace."
Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.
One day He's coming back for me
To live with Him eternally.
Won't it be glory to see Him on that day!
I, then, will sing a brand new song,
"Amazing Grace."
Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.
Yes, Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.
He Paid A Debt He Did Not Owe, by Ellis J. Crum.
Christians have salvation "now." We are more than conquerors through him who loved us "now"
(Rom. 8:37). Not merely conquerors, but more than conquerors; not merely invincible, but super-

112. invincible, because there is no condemnation "now." Condemnation is a forensic term, including
both the issuing of judgment and the execution of the sentence. "In Christ" one is free of
condemnation. See WCF 15.4; 18.3; 19.6; 20.1; WLC 97; WSC 35; BC 22; HC 126.
Third Millennium Study Bible
Notes on Romans 7:25-8:39
Thanks be to God - Romans 7:25
Paul answers Romans 7:24 with an open and joyful heart saying: our only hope is Jesus. The
victory is God's (Rom. 8:35-39; 1 Cor. 15:57; 2 Cor. 2:14; cf. Rom. 6:14), and he gives it solely
through Christ (cf. Acts 4:12).
Paul goes on and summarizes the state of frustration he had been describing since Romans 7:14.
See WCF 6.5; 19.6. Hendriksen says:
He speaks with full assurance. He knows that when a believer dies, this death is gain. To
be with Christ is better by far (Phil. 1:21, 23). Sin will have been left behind forever. The
conflict will have ended, never to return. In the language of the apostle John, nothing that
is impure will enter the Holy City (Rev. 21:27). Moreover, the time is coming when even
the body will be redeemed (Rom. 8:23; cf. John 5:28, 29).
In his jubilant thanksgiving the apostle goes back to the Source of every blessing. He
exclaims, "Thanks be to God!" See John 3:16; Rom. 8:32; 2 Cor. 9:15. He realizes too
that it was through the One whom he mentions by his full name Jesus (Savior), Christ
(Anointed One), our Lord (Sovereign Ruler, Owner), that salvation, full and free, was
obtained. Obtained, moreover, not only for Paul but for all believers. And so he looks
forward to the day of glory for them all (1 Cor. 15:56, 57; 2 Tim. 4:8).
Sin: The Saint's Continual Victory Over It - in the Spirit - Romans 8:1-39
Hendriksen says, "As was true with respect in Romans 5, 6, and 7, so also in Romans 8 points to
a result of the believers' justification by faith. The fact that justification is indeed at the center of
Paul's thinking is clear from the opening words, "There is now no condemnation," for
condemnation is the opposite of justification." "Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our
Lord" (Rom. 7:25) introduces the victorious Christian life in Romans 8. Paul has already
acknowledged the new life believers have in Christ (Rom. 5:1-2; 6:1-23), as well as the
remaining struggle with remaining sin (Rom. 7:1-25). In Romans 8:1-39, Paul encourages
readers by describing the Christian life that is led by the Spirit. He describes not only the life, but
who made this life possible, how it was made possible, and the victory resulting form such a life.

113. No condemnation - Romans 8:1
In light of the whole of Paul's whole argument of justification by faith, he can say there is "now"
no condemnation. Eugene Peterson in The Message calls condemnation "a continuous, low-lying
black cloud" which Paul says no longer hangs over us." Bruce says:
Romans 7:25 teaches that freedom from the power of the lower nature has been provided
by God through the atoning work of Jesus Christ. Therefore there is no longer any
condemnation at all for those who are "in Christ Jesus," that is, who have been made one
with him by faith in his redemptive sacrifice. The just penalty incurred by the sins of the
human race was paid by the death of Christ. The unfavorable verdict has been removed.
Now all those who are in Christ are the beneficiaries of that forgiveness. It follows that if
condemnation as an objective reality has been removed, there is no legitimate place for
condemnation as a subjective experience. To insist on feeling guilty is but another way of
insisting on helping God with our salvation. How deeply imbedded in human nature is
the influence of works-righteousness!
Though we do not as yet experience all the fulness of what salvation in Christ means (Rom.
8:23-24, 29-30), we may enjoy all that "no condemnation" means "now"!
He paid a debt He did not owe;
I owed a debt I could not pay;
I needed someone to wash my sins away.
And, now, I sing a brand new song,
"Amazing Grace."
Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.
He paid that debt at Calvary.
He cleansed my soul and set me free.
I'm glad that Jesus did all my sins erase.
I, now, can sing a brand new song,
"Amazing Grace."
Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.
One day He's coming back for me
To live with Him eternally.
Won't it be glory to see Him on that day!
I, then, will sing a brand new song,
"Amazing Grace."
Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.
Yes, Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.
He Paid A Debt He Did Not Owe, by Ellis J. Crum.
Christians have salvation "now." We are more than conquerors through him who loved us "now"
(Rom. 8:37). Not merely conquerors, but more than conquerors; not merely invincible, but super-

114. invincible, because there is no condemnation "now." Condemnation is a forensic term, including
both the issuing of judgment and the execution of the sentence. "In Christ" one is free of
condemnation. See WCF 15.4; 18.3; 19.6; 20.1; WLC 97; WSC 35; BC 22; HC 126.
7:21-25 Thanks Be To God For Rescue
Through Jesus Christ Our Lord
Previous Next
Romans 7:21-25 “So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my
body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at
work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of
death? Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a
slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.”
Now every single Christian has a fight on his hands, and the invitation of the gospel is not an
invitation to a life of easy, religious escapism. It is an invitation to a conflict. The fight is first of
all with the world that operates in terms of another god, the spirit that is now at work all around
us in a disobedient generation. The world tempts us and would destroy us if it could. We have to
be on our guard against the world, but we are also, secondly, at war with the devil, with
principalities and powers, with spiritual wickedness in high places. Sometimes you see
explosions of evil, men cutting off the heads of other men, or burning them alive. Young girls are
absconded and forced into ‘marriages.’ Horrendous cruelty has been presented to us in the past
months and no doubt much more will be shown to us in the days to come. Such is not what I may
call ordinary wickedness, and again that is not far from any of us. We are called to resist the
darkness of unfettered evil. However, the devil is a crafty fellow and sometimes he comes to us
with a shining face so that you could mistake him for an angel of light. But there is also a third
fight in which we are engaged, and that is a battle that takes place within our own hearts and
souls.
In these verses you will see our inward enemy described to us with more titles than anywhere
else in all of Scripture. We are not ignorant of the devices of our inward rebellious self because
Paul has described it to us in such a passage as this. See the titles he gives to it. Firstly he says
“evil is right there with me”; that is plain enough isn’t it, but I will tell you another. secondly he
refers to it as “another law at work in the members of my body”. You understand? God has
written his law on our hearts: “Love me with all your heart and love your neighbour as yourself”
it says. But there is another law that says, “Please yourself; do it your way.” That’s plain enough
too, but I’ll tell you another description of remaining sin. Thirdly he describes our inward
opponent as “the law of sin at work within my members.” It is working away at this very
moment. You think your problem is with me and my preaching but that is a much lesser problem
than the one you have with yourself working away in you right now. Is that clear? There is more.
Fourthly he calls it “this body of death.” What a vivid phrase. In some primitive Asian societies
when a murderer was caught he was punished in this fiendish way; the body of the man he had

115. killed was chained to his back and he could never be separated from it while he lived. It rotted
and decayed away. A body of death attached inseparably to him.. We have a body of rotten sin
which we have to live with until we are released at the feet of Jesus. Is that striking enough?
There is more. Fifthly he says, “in the sinful nature he is a slave to sin.” Sin command him to be
unforgiving and resentful and to retaliate and to be mean and hard and proud, and alas, there are
times when he obeys the voice of sin. He is sin’s slave rather than sin’s master.
That is your inner enemy. My telling you about it does not make it any worse. The first means of
victory in any conflict is to know your enemy. And this is the holy war in which every Christian
is engaged. Now we have seen from the opening chapters of this letter that there is not one
individual in the whole world in any generation who is not guilty before God, that every one of
us descended from Adam and Eve has inherited guilt and sin, and we cannot hold our heads high.
Just the perfect and lovely man Jesus Christ – he stands out; he is exceptional; he is blessedly
different; but as for the rest of us the divine verdict is that all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. The Christian is delivered from the condemnation of sin but he is not delivered
from the presence of sin, and so he is always going to be involved in a conflict with sin and
many a fall, until he meets God and stands before Jesus Christ. Let me begin by saying a few
words about sin and the law of God.
1. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LAW OF GOD.
You see in the text I’ve read to you the repetition of this word ‘law’ once again. You find it here
4 or 5 times. Now one of Paul’s great teachings in the letter to the Romans is that you cannot
begin to understand the human condition apart from a reference to the law of God. It seems a
strange phenomenon that when Christians want to downplay the law they still want to talk about
sin, and to preach a gospel for sinners, in which Jesus saves sinners.
And I want to say that in any reading of the Bible you cannot have it both ways. You cannot talk
about sin and not talk about the law, because sin, by any definition, is a breach of the law of God.
And that was Paul’s starting point in this letter, that there are the Jews who had the law at Sinai
through Moses, and there are the Gentiles who did not have that privilege, but still had the things
of the law written on their hearts. So all have broken God’s law. We are all culpable; we are all
law-breakers; we are all sinners and in need of a salvation that we cannot work up to.
Paul struggled to understand how searching and humbling and condemning is the law of God. He
tells us that in fact he was awakened to the inward demands of the law of God by the tenth
commandment, “Thou shalt not covet.” You know how that particular commandment is a very
insistent commandment that goes into a lot of specifics in a way that many of the other
commandments don’t. They will say, “Don’t steal, don’t bear false witness, don’t kill” but the
tenth commandment exhorts you not to covet your neighbour’s house, or his wife, or the people
who work for him, or his cows and sheep or anything that is your neighbour’s. Is your heart
frustrated because of what your neighbour’s got? Are you itchy and angry and discontented and
envious? That is sin. That was the particular commandment that went deep into the recesses of
Paul’s mind and will and plans and future, and the law said to him, “You shan’t have feelings
like that.” And Paul realised that against a standard like that he was defenceless. He was weighed
in the balances and found wanting. Until that day when the arrow of the 10th commandment
struck his affections Paul felt he was blameless. He was boasting that he was keeping all the
commandments, but he was boasting about it because he thought that his religious lifestyle gave
him glory in Israel. Like guides and scouts, and soldiers wearing awards and medals for their
achievements for all to see, so Paul thought he could parade ten medals on his chest, and walk

116. down the promenade with the sun shining on them and people would bow to him as someone
who was a very righteous man. Then God’s Spirit came to him, and showed him the inwardness
of the law, that the very desire to sin is to break a commandment, and the proud Pharisees died.
What he was doing was for his own glory and his own benefit, to be seen and admired by men.
This is Iain D. Campbell’s happy illustration – You know how you fathers have gone with your
children to a little league match. Your son in playing and you are cheering him on, and then
another boy fouls him, he kicks your son. And you shout to the ref, “Foul! Ref! He kicked that
boy!” You want the weight of the law to come down on the player who kicked your boy. There
are no antinomians at football matches. But when your boy trips up and fouls someone else you
don’t cry “Foul!” Then you turn a blind eye, or even give a wry smile. You are alive without the
rulebook, because you want the rules only in so far as they benefit yourself. Paul is telling us that
that is how he lived. He was keeping the commandments, and boasting about how he kept them,
but all the time he was alive without the law. Without its searching, convicting, condemning
power showing him he needed to be saved from his guilt. He needed a Saviour, the only one who
did accomplish everything the law of God demanded, and the only one who could pay the
penalty for other people who were breaking the law, by taking their condemnation. Paul saw it
and fled from his law keeping to Jesus law keeping as his only hope in this world or the next.
How did he do it? The Lord Jesus saved us by coming down to us by being born under the law
for us, and living under the law for us, and dying under the condemnation of the law for us, and
rising to justify us from the judgment of the law for us. He came down to earth from heaven,
who is God and Lord of all, and he did it to save us. We cannot go up to it. Perish the thought
that any one of us can go up to God’s law and think it is God’s prescription for our deliverance,
God’s ladder for us to reach heaven, so that at the end of climbing up those ten rungs he’ll accept
us. Many, many people think that. They believe in justification by death. At the end of a decent
life, generally keeping God’s law, God will justify sinners at the point of their death. But the
New Testament gospel is quite the opposite. If you are not justified in life, if you are not forgiven
and pardoned, and accepted by God in life you will never be accepted at death, because that law-
breaking will not be reverses by death. Death is actually its consequence. You need to be
delivered from the root and the fruit of your sin to be delivered from your condition. You cannot
find a remedy inside yourself, you need to go outside of yourself to find a remedy. You see it’s
the very opposite of the kind of psychology that is meant to help you. Our culture says that if
there is something wrong with you then the problem lies outside of yourself. It is the fault of
everybody else. It is all the pressures out there, and all the difficulties out there. And you search
for the hero inside yourself, your inner resources, to deal with the problem. But the verdict of the
gospel is opposite.
The problem is in yourself and with yourself, and the solution is outside of yourself, and the
glory of the gospel is that God is the Great Physician and he has supplied the solution. There is a
righteousness apart from the law, apart from our law-keeping and our good works and it is there
in Jesus Christ. That is the glorious conclusion to Romans 7. “Who will rescue me from this
body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord” (v.25). He died the death we
deserve to die under God’s condemnation. He bore the penalty; he paid the debt; he bore the
guilt. He is the perfect Saviour of sinners because he is God’s Saviour before he is anyone else’s
Saviour, and he has come into this world as the Lamb of God, and he has shed his blood, and he
has obtained a pardon full and free. That is Paul’s argument. That is his gratitude and rejoicing.
What happens when you are joined to him? There he is in the glory of his dying, and in all the

117. glory of his rising, and in all the wonder of his atonement, and in all that he has done for sinners.
There he is, and here I am “a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members, living in this
body of death, in this sinful nature as a slave to the law of sin” (vv.24&25), and on top of that a
God who hates sin looking at me. But there is deliverance. The Son of God came to earth on a
rescue mission. He delivers sinners who believe in him, who are joined to him by trusting in him,
he rescues them from this body of death.
I am pardoned . . . I stand before him and he says “Not guilty” . . . I have peace with God
(wherever else I lack peace) I have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. I have access
by faith into the grace wherein I stand. In him I am justified, and in him I am being given the
victory over remaining sin. In my inner being I want to do good. In fact I delight in God’s law. I
cannot live any longer in unbelief as once I did. I now belong to another, I belong to Christ. I am
married to him; I am in love with him and he with me. I am under his protection; I receive day by
from his provision. He supplies all my needs. I am not governed by my sinful passions and by
this other law that I still find in my members, the law that says, “Please yourself . . . live for
yourself . . . do it your way . . . if you both like it do it.” I find it telling me that, and also waging
war against the law of Jesus Christ that is in my mind – because he is in my mind, and often I
give into it and immediately regret it. I find no deliverance at all in me. Paul ends Romans 7
telling us, “I myself in my mind . . .” five words with the personal pronoun three of them, “I,
myself, my” and he tells us that he personally is a slave to God’s law, he lives to serve the law of
God, but, he adds that he also lives, “in the sinful nature to the law of sin.” (v.25).
Now there are those people who say that our need is to get out of Romans 7 and get into Romans
8. Now that would have made no sense at all to the people who first heard this letter, as the
preacher in Rome got up one Sunday morning and told them that they had received that week a
letter from the apostle Paul and that he was going to read it to them. There were no verses at all,
and no chapter divisions in the epistle. It was all one message.
But apart from that simple fact is it really advantageous for us to breathe a sigh of relief and for
us to say, “Great! The pastor has finished with Romans 7 and now at last we are into chapter 8”?
Now I know that there are lots of beautiful things in chapter 8 of Romans, but chapter 8 is the
chapter that tells you that you need to put to death constantly the deeds of your body or you will
die. Chapter 8 is the chapter that tells us that we must suffer with him. Chapter 8 is the chapter
that tells us of the suffering of this present time. Chapter 8 is the chapter that tells us that we are
groaning. Chapter 8 is the chapter that tells us that we don’t know what to pray for as we ought.
Chapter 8 is the chapter that tells us that we are going to have trouble and hardship and
persecution and famine and nakedness and danger and sword that we are going to be killed all
daylong and reckoned as sheep for the slaughter. I want to bury this cliché if it is still alive that
somehow it is advantageous to Christian experience to move as fast as possible out of Romans
chapter 7 and into Romans chapter 8 because men and women I want to say to you that you need
to be alive and well in both chapters.
WHY DOES PAUL DELIGHT IN GOD’S LAW?
Hasn’t the law condemned you? Aren’t you guilty because of the law? The law can neither save
you nor sanctify you, but Paul you say that the law is holy and spiritual and just and good and
you delight in it. Why Paul do you say that you delight in it. Doesn’t it show you how guilty and
helpless you are? Why do you delight in it? Paul is certainly not pretending to be unregenerate. If
these are the sentiments of an unbeliever then there is no need of the new birth! How could an
unconverted non-born-again man have this exalted view of the law of God? All that such a man

118. would need would be helping grace, not saving grace! Why such a high view of the
commandments of God when they have had such a devastating, killing effect on Paul? Three
reasons.
i] The law is like the one who gave it. It is spiritual . . . like God. It is holy . . . like God. It is
righteous . . . like God. It is good . . . like God, and I delight in the law because I delight in God.
Wasn’t it the purpose of God when he gave the commandments to remind his people that he was
the Holy God of the law that was being given to them! People describe the commandments, you
know, as the Judeo-Christian ethic. As if this were something that men invented, as if it arose
from earth. Not at all! It is of the very character of God himself, these great commandments that
insist we should have no other god and that we should worship God aright and that we should
revere his name and honour his day.
In all our relationships on earth give him all the honour and praise and glory due to him by
honouring truth and life and property and above all things that we should be content with him,
and that all these commandments breathe the very character of God himself. They have a divine
aspect to them, and they reflect him and are holy and spiritual and righteous and good. God is all
these things and that is why we delight in the law.
ii] The law is holy and righteous and good because it is perfectly embodied in Jesus Christ. In
one of his letters John Newton answers a man who was asking Newton what he thought of I
Timothy chapter 1 and verse 8, “The law is good if a man use it lawfully.” What does that adverb
‘lawfully’ mean? John Newton says, “When we use the law as a glass to behold the glory of God
we use it lawfully for God’s glory is eminently revealed in Christ. We see the perfection and
excellence of the law of God in the life of God the Son. He glorified the law in his character as a
man, what a character he exhibited. It is no other than a transcript of the law. Warfield says in his
article on ‘Jesus the measure of men,’ that Jesus is the very embodiment of the law of God, as if
he were set down among men as a plumb line is set down against a wall. It is Iain D. Campbell’s
illustration again. If you were building a wall then you would want to know that the wall was
straight. Then you adjust it to the plumb-line, not the reverse. You do not adjust the plumb line to
the wall. You know what I am talking about. You put a weight on a piece of string and you let it
fall and it is exactly vertical. If you want your wall to be absolutely vertical then you measure it
to the plumb-line. You don’t build a squint wall, and then adjust the plumb line to the wall you
have built. That is what so many people do to the gospel. You have to build the wall according to
the perfection of the standard. And here God has let down his plumb line.
You want to know what sort of life we should be living? What does it mean to live a God-
honouring life day by day, week by week in all sorts of relationships, then it is embodied for you
in the character and personality and the history of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at him in all his
relationships, especially to his enemies, the priests and the soldiers and the Pharisees and there is
this absolute moral perfection of Jesus. It is there in one life, the perfect moral embodiment of
God’s standards in one life, all the commandments in one life. It has never been there since
Adam. But it is there now in the life and thoughts and feelings and words and actions of Jesus.
Peel away everything. Go to the very core of his being, his rational, the reasons why he does
things and the reasons why he says things, and you will find that it is all utterly and absolutely
defensible in the sight of God.
Why? Because the life of the Lord Christ is the utter and entire embodiment of God’s law. I look
at the law and it is spiritual and it is good because it is the reflection of God. The one is the
perfection of the other. That has never been the case since Adam, but now it is here and present

119. in the last Adam. Here the finger of God is to be seen in Galilee, written in the life of one man
Jesus of Nazareth. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. And never did anything wrong.
He is the perfect embodiment of the Lord. No wonder Paul say “I delight in the law of God,” –
holy and spiritual and good. It is the very transcript of the character of Jesus. Then there is
another reason why he says he delights in the law of God.
iii] The law is holy and righteous and good because it is a description of heaven. Imagine you are
selling a house and you approach an estate-agent and he comes and supplies a description of the
house and he puts it in the best possible light. He highlights all the finest features of the house so
that when you read it you open your eyes in astonishment. That is where we have been living all
these years? You think, “It seems a pity to be leaving it!” The home report tells you what the
home is like. The ten commandments are a conveyance from heaven to earth describing what lies
before us in glory. The people of heaven they have no other God than one, and they worship him
spiritually, and they never take his name in vain. They enjoy an eternal Sabbath. And their
relationships are honoured – no one does violence to another, or bad-mouths him, or steals from
him. Nobody covets what belongs to somebody else in heaven. It is perfect.
Iain D. Campbell suggests that the Lord’s Prayer is a reflex of God’s law. In the law the words
came down from heaven so that the Lord’s people should be holy as he is holy. And in the
Lord’s Prayer Jesus gave us words that we send up to heaven. And in the Lord’s Prayer we are
actually asking God for things he requires of us in the law. So we address no other God but our
Father. We say, “Hallowed be your name” because the law says, “Don’t take my name in vain.”
We pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” because he doesn’t want us to steal or covet. We ask
him not to lead us into temptation because the law tells us not to go into sin. And at least twice in
the Lord’s prayer we refer to heaven. “Our Father who art in heaven – that is where the law came
from. And in the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to ask for grace that they might be
able to fulfil what the law demands. Augustine said, “The law was given that grace may be
sought. Grace was given that the law might be obeyed.” So the law came down and grace has
been given and he teaches us to pray for the very things that he requires of us in the law.
So we desire that his will may be done . . . on earth as in heaven. What does it mean that God’s
will be done in my life on earth as it is being done in heaven? It means that there is no law
breaking in heaven. Why is that? Because everybody there is entirely like Jesus Christ. What
does it men to be entirely like Jesus Christ? It means for you and me to be the entire embodiment
of the law. So I am saying that there is reason why Paul is saying that in his inner being he
delights in the law of God. It is a thing to be prized and a thing to be loved. And then;
PAUL AGAIN ACKNOWLEDGES THAT HIS LIFE OFTEN FAILS TO MEASURE UP TO
GOD’S LAW.
“When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s
law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my
mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members” (vv. 21&22). Paul
is telling us, “But I am not like the delightful law. I don’t live as the law requires. I am not like
God who is entirely holy and spiritual and good. I thought I was when I was once alive without
the law. I thought I was a righteous man. I was once blind to the other law at work in the
members of my body. I did not see what the carnal mind, the fleshly mind, was doing. It was not
subject to the law of God neither indeed can be. I am a prisoner of the law of sin at work in my
members. “Paul, you cannot be serious! How can you use such language of yourself when you
tell us that you delight in the law of God?” “I do,” says Paul, “after my inner being. But I see

120. another law at work in me. It tells me to do things my way and to tread all over my neighbour
and his needs.” In other words in this tension of these verses is presented to us the greatest
conundrum in the world concerning why having terminated sin’s dominion over every single
regenerate Christian God should leave its presence there in every single Christian to agitate and
wage war against his mind and capture him time and again as a prisoner.
What a wretched man that I am! “How is that possible Paul? You are ransomed, healed, restored,
forgiven, washed from every stain and spot of guilt through the sacrifice of the Lamb of God,
clothed in the righteousness of Christ, adopted into God’s family, joined to Jesus Christ with sin
no longer dominating your life. How can you say you are a wretched man? You are the most
blessed man in the world. Isn’t every creature in hell envious of you? Why in the world do you
think of yourself as a wretched man?”
Paul tells us in this chapter. When I want to do good, because I delight in God’s law, evil is right
there with me (v.21). I do not find myself doing good. This body which is on its way to eternal
life and glory, a new body and soul in heaven I find to be now a body of death! The things I do
not want to do – that’s the thing I keep on doing. Tell me that that is not your experience! Tell
me that the conundrum is not there in your own life, that you know nothing of this tension, this
riddle, in your own heart! The very thing you want to avoid is the thing you run into, and the
very thing you do is what you don’t want to do. You often find yourself a prisoner of the law of
sin at work within your members. The law is holy; it is spiritual and good, but I am not!
Men and women, God’s purpose in sanctification is to model us into the image of Jesus Christ.
And that work is uninterrupted as far as he is concerned. He began a good work in you and he
will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. But from your point of view it is very frequently
interrupted. There is this excursus and that excursus when we seem to be serving sin, not God,
when iniquities against us prevail from day to day. And from you perspective the fruit of one day
is met by blight the next. And the spirituality of your thinking one morning is met by the
carnality of your thoughts that evening. And one day the great longings of your soul which are
set on heaven seem to be on the world the next. And every believer seems a trial to himself, and
no Holy Spirit baptism and no tongue speaking delivers him from that state. “In my inner being I
delight in God’s law, but I see another law at work in the members of my body” (vv. 22&23).
And again, “In my mind I am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of
sin” (v.25).
4. PAUL THANKS GOD FOR DELIVERANCE THROUGH CHRIST.
“Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our
Lord!” (vv. 24&25). Don’t you find there are times when you are aware that there really is grace
even in your life. You find some faint desire for something that you don’t easily come across in
yourself.
Peter was grieved when Jesus said to him a third time, “Do you love me?” And the only response
Peter could give to Jesus was an appeal to the highest court of all. “Lord you know all things.
You know that I love you.” The Lord knows all things. One of the great verses in the Bible is in
the book of psalms where the psalmist says, “All that I desire is before you.”
I look at the law and that is one thing. I know that I am released from its condemnation and
penalty and dominion. bUT I know that I am not released from its righteousness. I read in
Romans 8 that the righteousness of the law would be fulfilled in me! That I shall live for God’s
glory and go to heaven and experience fullness of joy in God’s presence for evermore. But often

121. these longings are not paramount in me, and what I long for is what I do not easily find. It was
C.S. Lewis who said, “You might not even find the wish to be holy . . . but do you find the wish
for the wish?” “When I want to do good. Evil is right there with me.” (v.21).
Thank God there is a rescue! Thank God there is one who can and does rescue his people from
their sin. What do you think of Jesus Christ our Lord? He stands before us in the gospel and he
says, “I know what you are like. I know you’re sinful. I know you do what you don’t want to do.
I know you don’t do what you want to do.” But Jesus continues to speak and he says, “Satan has
desired to have you, BUT I have prayed for you that your faith will not fail.” There is Job at the
end of all his experiences “I have heard of you with the hearing of the ear, but now I see you and
I abhor myself . . . but I know that my redeemer liveth,” “Woe is me,” says Isaiah in the presence
of the glory. “I am a man undone and a man of unclean lips,” but the Messiah is going to die for
Isaiah’s sins. Peter cries, “Depart from me for I am an unclean man.” He also cries, “To whom
else can we go?” The same man who’d said, “Depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord.”
And so he was, “but I have prayed for you.”
Paul says in these last words of Romans 7 that he is “in the sinful nature a slave to the law of
sin.” And it is true! And not for Paul only but for every believer. But for all those who can say
those words the very next words are also true, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for
those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8 v.1). Romans 7, all true to the jots and tittles, and
Romans 8, also completely true. You can have all the rest, but give me Jesus.
I need no other argument, I need no other plea;
It is enough that Jesus died, And that He died for me.
Other refuge have I none. Hangs my helpless soul on Thee. And tonight if you are not yet a
Christian then I know that you do not delight in God’s law. It is impossible. But Jesus died for a
sinner like you, and you come to him, and you trust in him, and let his law-keeping cover your
law-breaking, his righteousness cover your sin, his holiness cover your unholiness, his
heavenliness cover your worldliness. Let him be your everything! And my Christian brother or
sister tonight, struggling with sins old and new finding new sins mixing in the best of what you
can do – like Bunyan. You keep coming back to the old fountain, to the one Saviour of men who
can stand before his righteous Father and ask for and receive all that the Father will give him, no
sin hindering his fatherly generosity. He sees a world of sinners lost, but stretches out his hands
and dies, the just for the unjust to bring them to God. And one day we shall be like him. Amen.
2nd August 2015 GEOFF THOMAS
CHARLES SIMEON
PAUL’S SPIRITUAL CONFLICTS
Romans 7:24-25. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I
thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
THE Epistle to the Romans, as a clear, full, argumentative, and convincing statement of the
Gospel salvation, far exceeds every other part of Holy Writ. And the seventh chapter of that
epistle equally excels every other part of Scripture, as a complete delineation of Christian

122. experience. The Psalms contain the breathings of a devout soul, both in seasons of trouble and
under the impressions of joy. But in the passage before us the Apostle states the operation of the
two principles which were within him, and shews how divine grace and his corrupt nature
counteracted each other. The good principle did indeed liberate him from all allowed subjection
to sin: but the corrupt principle within him yet exerted such power, that, in spite of all his
endeavours to resist it, he could not utterly overcome it. Having opened thus all the secret
motions of his heart, he gives vent to the feelings which had been alternately excited by a review
of his own experience, and of the provision which was made for him in Jesus Christ.
In discoursing upon his words we shall shew,
I. The Apostle’s experience—
We shall not enter into the general contents of this chapter, but confine ourselves to the workings
of the Apostle’s mind, in,
1. His views of his sin—
[He considered sin as the most lothesome of all objects. In calling his indwelling corruption “a
body of death,” he seems to allude to the practice of some tyrants, who fastened a dead body to a
captive whom they had doomed to death, and compelled him to bear it about with him till he was
killed by the offensive smell. Such a nauseous and hateful thing was sin in the Apostle’s
estimation. He felt that he could not get loose from it, but was constrained to bear it about with
him where-ever he went: and it was more lothesome to him than a dead body, more intolerable
than a putrid carcass.
The bearing of this about with him was an occasion of the deepest sorrow. Whatever other
tribulations he was called to endure, he could rejoice and glory in them, yea, and thank God who
had counted him worthy to bear them. But under the burthen of his indwelling corruptions he
cried, “O wretched man that I am!”
Nor was there any thing he so much desired as to be delivered from it. When he had been
unjustly imprisoned by the magistrates, he was in no haste to get rid of his confinement: instead
of availing himself of the discharge they had sent him, he said, “Nay, but let them come
themselves and fetch me out.” But from his indwelling sin he was impatient to be released; and
cried, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Not that he was at a loss where to
look for deliverance; but he spake as one impatient to obtain it.]
2. His views of his Saviour—
[If his afflictions abounded, so did his consolations abound also. He knew that there was a
sufficiency in Christ both of merit to justify the guilty, and of grace to sanctify the polluted. He
knew, moreover, that God for Christ’s sake had engaged to pardon all his sins, and to subdue all
his iniquities. Hence, with an emotion of gratitude, more easy to be conceived than expressed, he
breaks off from his desponding strains, and exclaims, “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our
Lord;” I thank him for Christ, as an all-sufficient Saviour; and I thank him through Christ, as my
all-prevailing Advocate and Mediator. While he saw in himself nothing but what tended to
humble him in the dust, he beheld in Christ and in God as reconciled to him through Christ,
enough to turn his sorrow into joy, and his desponding complaints into triumphant exultation.]
That we may not imagine these things to be peculiar to St. Paul, we proceed to shew,
II. Wherein our experience must resemble his—

123. “As face answers to face in a glass, so doth the heart of man to man:” and every one who is con
verted to God will resemble the Apostle,
1. In an utter abhorrence of all sin—
[Sin is really hateful to all who see it in its true colours; it is properly called, “filthiness of the
flesh and spirit [Note: 2 Corinthians 7:1.]:” and all who feel its workings within them, will “lothe
both it, and themselves on account of it, notwithstanding God is pacified towards them [Note:
Ezekiel 16:63.]. Ungodly men may indeed hate sin in others; as Judah did, when he sentenced
his daughter Tamar to death for the crime in which he himself had borne a share [Note: Genesis
38:24-26.]; and as David did, when he condemned a man to die for an act, which was but a very
faint shadow of the enormities which he himself had committed [Note: 2 Samuel 12:5-7.].
Ungodly men may go so far as to hate sin in themselves, as Judas did when he confessed it with
so much bitterness and anguish of spirit; and as a woman may who has brought herself to shame;
or a gamester, who has reduced his family to ruin. But it is not sin that they hate, so much as the
consequences of their sin. The true Christian is distinguished from all such persons in that he
hates sin itself, independent of any shame or loss he may sustain by means of it in this world, or
any punishment he may suffer in the world to come. The Apostle did not refer to any act that had
exposed him to shame before men, or that had destroyed his hopes of acceptance with God, but
to the inward corruption of which he could not altogether divest himself: and every one that is
upright before God will resemble him in this respect, and hold in abhorrence those remains of
depravity which he cannot wholly extirpate.
Nor will the true Christian justify himself from the consideration that he cannot put off his
corrupt nature: no; he will grieve from his inmost soul that he is so depraved a creature. When he
sees how defective he is in every grace, how weak his faith, how faint his hope, how cold his
love; when he sees that the seeds of pride and envy, of anger and resentment, of worldliness and
sensuality, yet abide in his heart; he weeps over his wretched state, and “groans in this
tabernacle, being burthened.” Not that this grief arises from fear of perishing, but simply from
the consideration that these corruptions defile his soul, and displease his God, and rob him of that
sweet fellowship with the Deity, which, if he were more purified from them, it would be his
privilege to enjoy.
Under these impressions he will desire a deliverance from sin as much as from hell itself: not
like a merchant who casts his goods out of his ship merely to keep it from sinking, and wishes
for them again as soon as he is safe on shore; but like one racked with pain and agony by reason
of an abscess, who not only parts with the corrupt matter with gladness, but beholds it afterwards
with horror and disgust, and accounts its separation from him as his truest felicity.
Let every one then examine himself with respect to these things, and ask himself distinctly, “Am
I like Paul in lothing sin of every kind, and of every degree? Does my grief for the secret remains
of sin within me swallow up every other grief? And am I using every means in my power, and
especially calling upon God, to destroy sin root and branch?”]
2. In a thankful reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ—
[The hope of every true Christian arises from Christ alone: if he had no other prospect than what
he derived from his own inherent goodness, he would despair as much as those who are gone
beyond a possibility of redemption. But there is in Christ such a fulness of all spiritual blessings
treasured up for his people, that the most guilty cannot doubt of pardon, nor can the weakest
doubt of victory, provided he rely on that adorable Saviour, and seek his blessings with penitence

124. and contrition. In him the Apostle found an abundance to supply his want; and from the same
inexhaustible fountain does every saint draw water with joy.
And what must be the feelings of the Christian when he is enabled to say of Christ, “This is my
friend, this is my beloved?” Must he not immediately exclaim, “Thanks be unto God for his
unspeakable gift!” Must not the very stones cry out against him, if he withhold his acclamations
and hosannas? Yes; “to every one that believes, Christ is, and must be, precious.” “All that are of
the true circumcision will rejoice in him, having no confidence in the flesh.” And the deeper
sense any man has of his own extreme vileness, the more fervently will he express his gratitude
to God for providing a Saviour so suited to his necessities.]
Let us then learn from this subject,
1. The nature of vital godliness—
[Religion, as it is experienced in the soul, is not as some imagine, a state of continual sorrow,
nor, as others fondly hope, a state of uninterrupted joy. It is rather a mixture of joy and sorrow,
or, if we may so speak, it is a joy springing out of sorrow. It is a conflict between the fleshly and
spiritual principle [Note: Galatians 5:17.], continually humbling us on account of what is in
ourselves, and filling us with joy on account of what is in Christ Jesus. As for those who dream
of sinless perfection, I marvel at them. Let them explain their notions as they will, they put away
from themselves one-half of the Apostle’s experience, and suffer incalculable loss, in exchanging
true scriptural humility for Pharisaic pride, and unscriptural self-complacency. The being
emptied of all our own imaginary goodness, and being made truly thankful to God for the
blessings we receive in and through Christ, is that which constitutes the Christian warfare, and
that which alone will issue in final victory.]
2. How little true religion there is in the world—
[We hear every living man complaining at times of troubles, civil, domestic, or personal: and we
find every man at times exhilarated on some occasion or other. But we might live years with the
generality of men, and never once hear them crying, “O my inward corruptions: what a burthen
they are to my distressed soul!” Nor should we see them ever once rejoicing in Christ as their
suitable and all-sufficient Saviour. Yea, if we were only to suggest such a thought to them, they
would turn away from us in disgust. Can we need any further proof of the prevalence, the general
prevalence, of irreligion? May God make use of this indisputable fact for the bringing home of
conviction upon all our souls!]
3. What consolation is provided for them who have ever so small a portion of true religion in
their hearts—
[Many experience the sorrows of religion without its joys; and they refuse to be comforted
because of the ground they have for weeping and lamentation. But if their sins are a just occasion
of sorrow, their sorrow on account of sin is a just occasion of joy: and the more they cry, O
wretched man that I am, the more reason they have to add, “Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ.”
Let this ascription of praise be our alternate effusion now; and ere long it shall be our only, and
uninterrupted, song for ever.]

125. THE FAINTING WARRIOR NO. 235
A SERMON DELIVERED ON SABBATHMORNING, JANUARY23, 1859,
BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE MUSIC HALL, ROYAL
SURREYGARDENS.
“O wretchedman that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this
death? I thank God, through Jesus Christour Lord.” Romans 7:24, 25.
IF I chose to occupyyour time with controversialmatter, I might demonstrate
that the apostle Paul is here describing his own experience as a Christian.
Some have affirmed that he is merely declaring what he was before
conversionand not what he was when he became the recipient of the grace of
God. But such persons are evidently mistakenand I believe willfully mistaken,
for any ample-hearted, candid mind reading through this chapter could not
fall into such an error! It is Paul the apostle who was not less than the very
greatestofthe apostles—itis Paul, the mighty servant of God, a very prince in
Israel, one of the King’s mighty men—it is Paul, the saint and the apostle who
here exclaims, “O wretched man that I am!” Now, humble Christians are
often the dupes of a very foolish error. They look up to certain advanced
saints and able ministers and they say, “Surely, such men as these do not
suffer as I do! They do not contend with the same evil passions as those which
vex and trouble me.” Ah, if they knew the heart of those men—if they could
read their inward conflicts, they would soondiscoverthat the nearer a man
lives to God, the more intensely has he to mourn overhis own evil heart! And
the more his Masterhonors him in His service, the more also does the evil of
the flesh vex and tease him day by day. Perhaps this error is more natural, as
it is certainly more common with regardto apostolic saints. We have been in
the habit of saying, Saint Paul and Saint John, as if they were more saints
than any other of the children of God. They are all saints whom God has
calledby His grace, and sanctifiedby His Spirit! But somehow we very
foolishly put the apostles and the early saints into another list and do not
venture to look on them as common mortals—we look upon them as some
extraordinary beings who could not be men of like passions with ourselves.
We are told in Scripture that our Savior was “tempted in all points like as we
are.” And yet we fall into the flagrant error of imagining that the apostles,
who were far inferior to the Lord Jesus, escapedthese temptations and were
ignorant of these conflicts! The factis, if you had seenthe apostle Paul, you

126. would have thought he was remarkably like the rest of the chosenfamily. And
if you had talkedwith him, you would have said, “Why, Paul, I find that your
experience and mine exactlyagree. You are more faithful, more holy and
more deeply taught than I, but you have the selfsame trials to endure. No, in
some respects you are more sorelytried than I.” Do not look upon the ancient
saints as being exempt either from infirmities or sins—and do not regard
them with that mystic reverence which almost makes you an idolater! Their
holiness is attainable even by you and their faults are to be censuredas much
as your own! I believe it is a Christian’s duty to force his wayinto the inner
circle of saintship. And if these saints were superior to us in their attainments,
as they certainly were, let us follow them! Let us press forward up to, yes, and
beyond them, for I do not see that this is impossible. We have the same Light
of God that they had; the same grace is accessible to us and why should we
rest satisfieduntil we have distanced them in the heavenly race? Let us bring
them down to the sphere of common mortals! If Jesus was the Son of man and
very man, “bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh,” so were the apostles!And
it is a flagrant error to suppose that they were not the subjects of the same
emotions and the same inward trials
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as the very worstof the people of God. So far, this may tend to our comfort
and to our encouragementwhen we find that we are engagedin a battle in
which apostles themselves have had to fight. And now, we shall notice this
morning, first, the two natures; secondly, their constantbattle; thirdly, we
shall step aside and look at the weary warrior, and hear him cry, “O wretched
man that I am.” And then, we shall turn our eyes in another direction, and see
that fainting warrior girding up his loins to the conflict, and becoming an
expectantvictor, while he shouts, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our
Lord.” I. First, then, THE TWO NATURES. Carnalmen—unrenewed men,
have one nature—a nature which they inherited from their parents and which
through the ancienttransgressionofAdam, is evil, only evil and that
continually. Mere human nature, such as is common to every man, has in it
many excellenttraits, judging of it betweenman and man. A merely natural
man may be honest, upright, kind and generous. He may have noble and
generous thoughts and may attain unto a true and manly speech. But when we
come to matters of true religion—spiritual matters that concernGod and

127. eternity—the natural man can do nothing! The carnal mind, whose evermind
it may be, is fallen and is at enmity to God. It knows nothing of the things of
God, nor can it ever know them! Now, whena man becomes a Christian, he
becomes so through the infusion of a new nature. He is naturally “dead in
trespassesandsins,” and “without God and without hope.” The Holy Spirit
enters into him, and implants in him a new principle, a new nature; a new life.
That life is a high, holy and supernatural principle. It is, in factthe divine
nature, a ray from the great“Fatherof Lights.” It is the Spirit of God
dwelling in man! Thus, you see, the Christian becomes a double man—two
men in one. Some have imagined that the old nature is turned out of the
Christian—not so—forthe Word of God and experience teachthe contrary!
The old nature is unchanged in the Christian—unaltered, just the same, as
bad as ever it was—while the new nature in him is holy, pure and heavenly!
And therefore, as we shall have to notice in the next place—there arises a
conflict betweenthe two. Now, I want you to notice what the apostle says
about these two natures that are in the Christian, for I am about to contrast
them. First, in our text the apostle calls the old nature, “the body of this
death.” Why does he callit, “the body of this death”? Some suppose he means
these dying bodies. But I do not think so. If it were not for sin, we would have
no fault to find with our poor bodies. They are noble works of God and are
not in themselves the cause of sin. Adam in the garden of perfection felt the
body to be no encumbrance, nor if sin were absentshould we have any fault to
find with our flesh and blood! What, then, is it? I think the apostle calls the
evil nature within him a body, first, in opposition to those who talk of the
relics of corruption in a Christian. I have heard people say that there are
relics, remainders and remnants of sin in a believer. Such men do not know
much about themselves yet. Oh, it is not a bone, or a rag which is left—it is the
whole body of sin that is there—the whole of it, “from the crown of the head
to the sole of the feet.” Divine grace does notmaim this body and cut awayits
members! It leaves it entire, although blessedbe God, it crucifies it, nailing it
to the cross ofChrist! And again, I think he calls it a body because it is
something tangible. We all know that we have a body. It is a thing we canfeel;
we know it is there. The new nature is a subtle spirit and not easyto detect—I
sometimes have to question myself as to whether it is there at all. But as for
my old nature, that is a body I can never find it difficult to recognize its
existence—itis as apparent as flesh and bones! As I never doubt that I am in
flesh and blood, so I never doubt but what I have sin within me. It is a body—
a thing which I cansee and feeland which, to my pain, is always presentwith
me. Understand, then, that the old nature of the Christian is a body. It has in
it a substance or, as Calvin puts it, it is a mass of corruption. It is not simply a

128. shred, a remnant—the cloth of the old garment—but the whole of it is still
there. True, it is crushed beneath the foot of grace. It is castout of its throne.
But it is there—there in all its entireness and in all its sad tangibility—a body
of death. But why does he call it a body of death? Simply to express what an
awful thing this sin is that remains in the heart. It is a body of death. I must
use a figure which is always appended to this text and very properly so. It was
the customof ancienttyrants, when they wishedto put men to the most fearful
punishments, to tie a dead body
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to them, placing the two back to back. And there was the living man, with a
dead body closelystrapped to him, rotting, putrid, and 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 every day
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! Francis Quarles gives a picture at the beginning of
one of his examples of a greatskeletonin which a living man is encased.
Howeverquaint the fancy, it is not more singular than true. There is the old
skeletonman, filthy, corrupt, and abominable. He is a cage for the new
principle which God has put in the heart. Considera moment the striking
language ofour text, “The body of this death”—it is death incarnate, death
concentrated, deathdwelling in the very temple of life! Did you ever think
what an awful thing death is? The thought is the most abhorrent to human
nature! You sayyou do not fear death and very properly. But the reasonwhy
you do not fear death is because you look to a glorious immortality! Death, in
itself, is a most frightful thing. Now, inbred sin has about it all the unknown
terror, all the destructive force and all the stupendous gloomof death. A poet
would be neededto depict the conflict of life with death—to describe a living
soul condemned to walk through the black shades of confusionand to bear
incarnate death in its very heart! But such is the condition of the Christian. As
a regenerate man, he is a firing, bright, immortal spirit. But, he has to tread
the shades ofdeath. He has to do daily battle with all the tremendous powers
of sin which are as awful, as sublimely terrific as even the powers of death and
hell! Upon referring to the preceding chapter, we find the evil principle styled,

129. “the old man.” There is much meaning in that word, “old.” But let it suffice us
to remark that in age the new nature is not upon an equal footing with the
corrupt nature. There are some here who are 60 years old in their humanity,
who can scarcenumber two years in the life of grace. Now, pause and
meditate upon the warfare in the heart. It is the contestof an infant with a
full-grown man; the wrestling of a babe with a giant! Old Adam, like some
ancient oak, has thrust his roots into the depths of manhood—canthe divine
infant uproot him and casthim from his place? This is the work, this is the
labor. From its birth, the new nature begins the struggle and it cannot cease
from it until the victory is perfectly achieved. Nevertheless, it is the moving of
a mountain, the drying up of an ocean, the threshing of the hills—and who is
sufficient for these things? The heaven-born nature needs and will receive the
abundant help of its Author, or it would yield in the struggle, subdued
beneath the superior strength of its adversary and crushed beneath his
enormous weight!Again—observe that the old nature of man, which remains
in the Christian, is evil and it cannotever be anything else but evil, for we are
told in this chapter that “in me”—that is, in my flesh—“there dwells no good
thing.” The old Adam-nature cannot be improved! It cannot be made better.
It is hopeless to attempt it! You may do what you please with it—you may
educate it, you may instruct it and thus you may give it more instruments for
rebellion—but you cannotmake the rebel into the friend; you cannot turn the
darkness into light. It is an enemy to God and an enemy to God it must always
be. On the contrary, the new life which God has given us cannot sin. That is
the meaning of a passagein John where it is said, “The child of God sins not.
He cannot sin because he is born of God.” The old nature is evil, only evil—
and that continually. The new nature is wholly good!It knows nothing of sin
exceptto hate it. Its contactwith sin brings it pain and misery and it cries out,
“Woe is me that I dwell in Meshech, that I tabernacle in the tents of Kedar.” I
have thus given you some little picture of the two natures. Let me again
remind you that these two natures are essentiallyunchangeable. Youcannot
make the new nature which God has given you less divine. The old nature you
cannot make less impure and earthly. Old Adam is a condemned thing. You
may sweepthe house and the evil spirit may seemto go out of it, but he will
come back againand bring with him sevenother devils more wickedthan
himself. It is a leper’s house and the leprosy is in every stone from the
foundation to the roof. There is no part sound! It is a garment spotted by the
flesh. You may wash and wash and wash, but you shall never washit clean. It
would be foolishto attempt it. While
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on the other hand, the new nature can never be tainted—spotless, holyand
pure—it dwells in our hearts. It rules and reigns there expecting the day when
it shall castout its enemy and, without a rival, it shall be monarch in the heart
of man forever! II. I have thus describedthe two combatants. We shall now
come, in the next place, to THEIR BATTLE. There was never a deadlier feud
in the entire world between nations than there is betweenthe two principles,
right and wrong. But right and wrong are often divided from one another by
distance and, therefore, they have a less intense hatred. Suppose an instance—
right holds for liberty, therefore right hates the evil of slavery. But we do not
so intensely hate slavery as we should do if we saw it before our eyes—then
would the blood boil when we saw our black brother, smitten by the cow-hide
whip! Imagine a slaveholderstanding here and smiting his poor slave until the
red blood gushed forth in a river—can you conceive your indignation? Now, it
is distance which makes you feelthis less acutely. The right forgets the wrong
because it is far away. But suppose now that right and wrong lived in the same
house. Suppose two such desperate enemies cribbed, cabined and confined
within this narrow house, man. Suppose the two compelled to dwell
together—canyouimagine to what a desperate pitch of fury these two would
get with one another? The evil thing says, “I will turn you out, you intruder! I
cannot be peacefulas I would. I cannot riot as I would! I cannot indulge just
as I would—out with you! I will never be content until I slay you.” “No,” says
the new-born nature, “I will kill you and drive you out! I will not suffer stick
or stone of you to remain. I have swornwar to the knife with you. I have taken
out the sword and castawaythe scabbardand will never rest till I can sing
complete victory over you and totally ejectyou from this house of mine.” They
are always atenmity whereverthey are. They were never friends and never
can be. The evil must hate the goodand the goodmust hate the evil. And
mark—althoughwe might compare the enmity to the wolf and lamb, yet the
new-born nature is not the lamb in all respects. It may be in its innocence and
meekness,but it is not in its strength, for the new-born nature has all the
omnipotence of Godabout it, while the old nature has all the strength of the
evil one in it, which is a strength not easilyto be exaggerated, but which we
very frequently underestimate! These two things are always desperatelyat
enmity with one another. And even when they are both quiet, they hate each
other none the less. When my evil nature does not rise, still it hates the new-
born nature and when the new-born nature is inactive, it has nevertheless a

131. thorough abhorrence of all iniquity! The one cannotendure the other; it must
endeavorto thrust it forth. Nor do these at any time allow an opportunity to
pass from being revenged upon one another. There are times when the old
nature is very active and then how will it ply all the weapons ofits deadly
armory againstthe Christian! You will find yourselves at one time suddenly
attackedwith angerand when you guard yourself againstthe hot temptation,
all of a sudden you will find pride rising and you will begin to say to
yourself—“Am I not a goodman to have kept my temper down?” And the
moment you thrust down your pride, there will come another temptation and
lust will look out of the window of your eyes and you will desire a thing upon
which you ought not to look—andbefore you can shut your eyes upon the
vanity, sloth in its deadly apathy surrounds you and you give yourself up to its
influence and cease to labor for God! And then, when you bestir yourselves
once more—in the very attempt to rouse yourself, you have once more
awakenedyour pride! Evil haunts you, go where you may, or stand in what
posture you choose! On the other hand, the new nature will never lose an
opportunity of putting down the old. As for the means of grace, the new-born
nature will never restsatisfiedunless it enjoys them. As for prayer, it will seek
by prayer to wrestle with the enemy. It will employ faith and hope and love—
the threats, the promises, providence, grace and everything else to castout the
evil! “Well,” says one, “I don’t find it so.” ThenI am afraid for you! If you do
not hate sin so much that you do everything to drive it out, I am afraid you
are not a living child of God! Antinomians like to hear you preach about the
evil of the heart, but here is the fault with them—they do not like to be told
that unless they hate that evil, unless they seek to drive it out and unless it is
the constantdisposition of their new-born nature to root it up—they are yet in
their sins. Men who only believe their depravity, but do not hate it, are no
further than the devil on the road to heaven!It is not my being corrupt that
proves me a Christian; nor knowing I am corrupt,
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but that I hate my corruption! It is my agonizing death struggle with my
corruptions that proves me to be a living child of God! These two natures will
never cease to struggle as long as we are in this world. The old nature will
never give up. It will never cry truce; it will never ask for a treaty to be made
betweenthe two. It will always strike as often as it can!When it lies still, it will

132. only be preparing for some future battle. The battle of Christian with
Apollyon lasted three hours. But the battle of Christian with himself lastedall
the wayfrom the WicketGate to the River Jordan! The enemy within can
never be driven out while we are here. Satanmay sometimes be absentfrom
us and get such a defeatthat he is glad to go howling back to his den, but old
Adam abides with us from the first even to the last. He was with us when we
first believed in Jesus and long before that and he will be with us till that
moment when we shall leave our bones in the grave, our fears in the Jordan
and our sins in oblivion! Once more observe that neither of these two natures
will be content in the fight without bringing in allies to assist. The evil nature
has old relations and in its endeavorto drive out the grace that is within, it
sends off messengers to all its helpers. Like Chedorlaomer, the King of Elam,
it brings other kings with it when it goes out to battle. “Ah,” says old Adam, “I
have friends in the Pit.” He sends a messagedownto the depths and willing
allies come from there—spirits from the vastdeep of hell—devils without
number come up to the help of their brother! And then, not content with that,
the flesh says—“Ah, I have friends in this world.” And then, the world sends
its fierce cohorts of temptation, such as the lust of the eyes and the pride of
life. What a battle, when sin, Satanand the world make an assaultupon the
Christian all at once!“Oh,” says one, “it is a terrible thing to be a Christian.”
I assure you it is—it is one of the hardest things in the world to be a child of
God! In fact, it is impossible unless the Lord makes us His children and keeps
us so! Well, what does the new nature do? When it sees allthese enemies, it
cries unto the Lord and then the Lord sends it friends. First comes in to its
help, Jehovahin the everlasting covenant and reveals to the heart its own
interest in the secrets ofeternity. Then comes Jesus with His blood. “You shall
conquer,” He says. “Iwill make you more than a conqueror through My
death.” And then appears the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. With such
assistance, this new-born nature is more than a match for its enemies!God
will sometimes leave that new nature alone—to let it know its own weakness—
but it shall not be for long, lestit should sink in despair. Are you fighting with
the enemy, today, my dear Christian brothers and sisters? Are Satan, the flesh
and the world—that hellish trinity—all againstyou? Remember, there is a
Divine Trinity for you! Fight on, though like Valiant-for-truth, your blood
runs from your hand and glues your sword to your arm. Fight on! For with
you are the legions of heaven. God Himself is with you! JehovahNissiis your
banner, and JehovahRophi is the healer of your wounds! You shall overcome,
for who can defeatOmnipotence, or trample divinity beneath his foot? I have
thus endeavoredto describe the conflict. But understand me, it cannot be
described. We must say, as Hart does in his hymn, when after singing the

133. emotions of his soul, he says— “But, brethren, you cansurely guess, Foryou
perhaps have felt the same.” If you could see a plain upon which a battle is
fought, you would see how the ground is torn up by the wheels ofthe cannon,
by the horses’hoofs and by the trampling of men. What desolationis there
where once the golden crops of the harvestgrew! How the ground is soaked
with the blood of the slain! How frightful the result of this terrible struggle.
But if you could see the believers’heart after a spiritual battle, you would find
it just as the battlefield—as much cut up as the ground of the battlefield after
the direst conflict that men or fiends have ever waged!Think—we are
combating man with himself! No, more—man with the whole world! No,
more! Man with hell—God with man againstman, the world and hell. What a
fight is that! It would be worth an angel’s while to come from the remotest
fields of ether to behold such a conflict! III. We come now to notice THE
WEARY COMBATANT. He lifts up his voice and weeping he cries, “O
wretchedman that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
It is the cry of a panting warrior. He has fought so long that he has lost his
breath and he draws it in again. He takes
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breath by prayer, “O wretchedman that I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death?” He will not give up the conflict. He knows he cannotand
he dares not. That thought does not enter into his mind! But the conflictis so
sore;the battle so furious that he is almost defeated. He sits down to refresh
himself and thus he sighs out his soul. Like the panting hart longing for the
waterbrook, he says, “O wretchedman that I am.” No, it is more than that. It
is the cry of one who is fainting. He has fought till all his strength is spent and
he falls back into the arms of his Redeemerwith this fainting gasp, “O
wretchedman that I am!” His strength has failed him! He is sorely beatenin
the battle. He feels that, without the help of God, he is so totally defeatedthat
he commences his own wail of defeat, “O wretched man that I am.” And then,
he asks this question, “Who shall deliver me?” And there comes a voice from
the law, “I cannot and I will not!” There comes a voice from Conscience,“I
can make you see the battle, but I cannot help you in it.” And then, there
comes a cry from old Human nature that says, “Ah, none can deliver you; I
shall yet destroyyou! You shall fall by the hand of your enemy. The house of
David shall be destroyedand Saul shall live and reign forever.” And the poor

134. fainting soldier cries again, “Who shall deliver me?” It seems a hopeless case
and I believe that sometimes the true Christian may think himself hopelessly
given over to the powerof sin. The wretchedness ofPaul, I think, lay in two
things which are enough to make any man wretched. Paul believed the
doctrine of human responsibility, and yet he felt the doctrine of human
inability. I have heard people ask sometimes—“Youtell the sinner that he
cannot believe and repent without the help of the Holy Spirit, and yet you tell
him that it is his duty to believe and repent! How are these two to be
reconciled?” We reply that they do not need any reconciliation. Theyare two
truths of Holy Scripture, and we leave them to reconcile themselves—theyare
friends, and friends do not need any reconciliation!But what seems a
difficulty as a matter of doctrine is clearas daylight as a matter of experience!
I know it is my duty to be perfect, but I am conscious Icannot be. I know that
every time I commit sin I am guilty and yet I am quite certain that I will sin—
that my nature is such that I cannothelp it! I feelthat I am unable to getrid
of this body of sin and death and yet I know I ought to getrid of it. These two
things are enough to make any man miserable—to know that he is responsible
for his sinful nature and yet to know that he cannot getrid of it. And to know
that he ought to keepit down and yet to feelhe cannot—to know that it is his
business to keepGod’s law perfectly and walk blameless in the
commandments of the law—and yet to know by sad experience that he is as
unable to do so as much as he is unable to reverse the motion of the globe or
dash the sun from the centerof the spheres!How will not these two things
drive any man to desperation? The way in which some men avoid the dilemma
is by a denial of one of these truths. They say, “Well, it is true I am unable to
ceasefrom sin.” And then, they deny their obligation to do so—they do not
cry, “O wretchedman that I am”—they live as they like and say they cannot
help it. On the other hand, there are some men who know they are
responsible. But then they say, “Yes, but I cancastoff my sin,” and these are
tolerably happy. The Arminian and the hyperCalvinist, both of them, geton
very comfortably. But the man who believes these two doctrines as taught in
God’s Word—that he is responsible for sin, and yet that he is unable to get rid
of it—I do not wonder that when he looks into himself he finds enough to
make him sigh and cry, to faint and despair, “O wretchedman that I am!
Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” And now says one, “Ah, I
would not be a Christian if that is the way in which he faints—it seems he is
always to be fighting with himself—and even until he despairs of victory.”
Stop a moment. Let us complete the picture. This man is fainting. But he will
be restored, by-and-by. Think not that he is hopelesslydefeated—he falls to
rise—he faints but to be revived afresh! I know a remedy which can awaken

135. his sleeping hopes and shoota thrill along the freezing current of his blood.
Let us sound the promise in his ear—look how soonhe revives! Let us put the
cordial to his lips—look how he starts up and plays the man again! “I have
almost been defeated” he says, “almostdriven to despair. Rejoice notover me,
O my enemy! ThoughI fall, yet I shall rise again.” And he lets fly againsthim
once more, shouting, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” So on he
goes again, more than a conqueror through Him who has loved him!
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IV. This brings me to this last point, that THE CHRISTIAN IS TO BE A
CONQUERORAT LAST. Do you think that we are forever to be the drudges
and the slaves of sin? Am I forever to be the galley slave of my ownnature, to
tug for freedom and never to escape? Am I always to have this dead man
chained to my back and sniff the noxious exhalations of his putrid body? No,
no, no! That which is within my heart is like a cagedeagle and I know that
soonthe bars which confine me shall be broken! The door of my cage shallbe
opened and I shall mount with my eyes upon the sun of glory, soaring upward,
true to the line, moving neither to the right hand nor to the left; flying till I
reachmy journey’s end in the everlasting rocks ofGod’s eternal love! No, we
who love the Lord are not foreverto dwell in Meshech. The dust may besmear
our robes and filth may be upon our brow and beggaredmay be our garment,
but we shall not be so forever! The day is coming when we shall rise and shake
ourselves from the dust and put on our beautiful garments!It is true we are
now like Israelin Canaan. Canaanis full of enemies, but the Canaanites shall
and must be driven out! Amalek shall be slain; Agag shall be hewn in pieces!
Our enemies shall, every one of them, be dispersedand the whole land from
Dan to Beersheba shallbe the Lord’s. Christians, rejoice!You are soonto be
perfect! You are soonto be free from sin, totally free from it, without one
wrong inclination, one evil desire! You are soonto be as pure as the angels in
light. No, more, with your Master’s garments on, you are to be “holy as the
holy one.” Canyou think of that? Is not that the very sum of heaven, the
rapture of bliss, the sonnet of the hilltops of glory—that you are to be perfect?
No temptation shall reach you from eyes, or ears, or hands! Norif the
temptation could reachyou would you be hurt by it, for there will be nothing
in you that could in any way fostersin! It would be as when a spark falls upon
an ocean—yourholiness would quench it in a moment! Yes, washedin the

136. blood of Jesus, afreshbaptized with the Holy Spirit, you are soonto walk the
golden streets white-robedand white-hearted too!Perfectas your Maker, you
are to stand before His throne, and sing His praises to eternity! Now, soldiers
of Christ, to arms again!Once more rush into the fight—you cannotbe
defeated!You will overcome. Thoughyou faint a little, yet take courage, you
shall conquer through the blood of the Lamb! And now, turning aside for a
minute, I shall conclude by making an observationor two to many now
present. There are some here who say, “I am never disturbed in that fashion.”
Then I am sorry for you. I will tell you the reasonof your false peace. You
have not the grace of God in your heart! If you had, you would surely find this
conflict within you. Do not despise the Christian because he is in the conflict—
despise yourself because youare out of it! The reasonwhy the devil leaves you
alone is that he knows you are his—he does not need to trouble you much
now—he will have time enough to give you your wages atthe last! He troubles
the Christian because he is afraid of losing him. He thinks that if he does not
tease him here, he shall never have the chance to do it in eternity—so he will
bite him and bark at him while he may. That is why the Christian is vexed
more then you are. As for you, you may well be without any pain, for dead
men feel no blows. You may well be without the pricking of conscience.Men
who are corrupt are not likely to feel wounds, though you stab them from
head to foot. I pity your condition, for the worm that dies not is preparing to
feed upon you. The eternal vulture of remorse shall soonwet his horrid beak
with the blood of your soul! Tremble, for the fires of hell are hot and
unquenchable, and the place of perdition is hideous beyond a madman’s
dream! Oh, that you would think of your lastend! The Christian may have an
evil present, but he has a glorious future. But your future is the blackness of
darkness forever!I adjure you by the living God, you who fear not Christ,
consideryour ways!You and I must give an accountfor this morning’s
service. You are warned, men and women! You are warned! Take heed to
yourselves that you think not this life to be everything. There is a world to
come!There is “afterdeath, the judgment.” If you fear not the Lord, there is
after judgment, eternal wrath, and everlasting misery! And now, a word to
those seeking Christ. “Ah,” says one, “Sir, I have soughtChrist, but I feel
worse than I ever have in my life. Before I had any thoughts about Christ I
felt myself to be good, but now I feel myself to be evil.” It is all right, my
friend. I am glad to hear you say so. When surgeons heal a pa
The Fainting Warrior Sermon #235
Tellsomeone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 5
8

137. 8
tient’s wound they always take care to cut awaythe proud flesh because the
cure can never be radical while the proud flesh remains. The Lord is getting
rid of your self-confidence andself-righteousness!He is just now revealing to
your soul the deadly cancerwhich is festering within you. You are on the sure
road to healing if you are on the way to wounding. God wounds before He
heals!He strikes a man dead in his own esteembefore He makes him alive!
“Ah,” cries one, “but can I hope that I ever shall be delivered?” Yes, my
brother, if you now look to Christ, I care not of your sin, nor of your despair
of heart! If you will only turn your eyes to Him who bled upon the tree, there
is not only hope for you, but there is a certainty of salvation! I, myself, while
thinking over this subject, felt a horror of greatdarkness rush over my spirit
as I thought what danger I was in lest I should be defeated. I could not get a
glimpse of the light of God into my burdened spirit until I turned my eyes and
saw my Masterhanging on the cross. I saw the blood flowing—faith laid hold
upon the sacrifice, andI said, “This cross is the instrument of Jesus’victory,
and it shall be the means of mine, too.” I lookedto His blood! I remembered
that I was triumphant in that blood and I rose from my meditations humbled,
but rejoicing—castdown, but not in despair—looking forthe victory. Do
likewise!“Jesus Christcame into the world to save sinners.” Believe that! You
are an awakened, conscious andpenitent sinner—He, therefore, came to save
you. Believe His Word. Trust Him. Do nothing for your own salvationof
yourself, but trust Him to do it. Castyourself simply and only on Him! And,
as this Bible is true, you shall not find the promise fail you— “He who seeks,
finds; to him who knocks, it shall be opened.” May God help you by giving
you this new life within! May He help you to look to Jesus, and though long
and hard is the conflict, sweetshallbe the victory, by His grace!Amen.
The Continuing Struggle
/new-testament/romans/no-condemnation
Author: Ray C. Stedman
Your browser does not support the audio element. Read the Scripture: Romans 7:7-25
As we have been reading through this great letter from Paul to the Romans, we have seen the
gospel of Jesus Christ which is able to set men free. This is the central declaration of the gospel:
Christ has come, he has died, he has risen again, and he has come into our hearts by means of the
Holy Spirit in order that we who believe in him might be free. That is what the gospel is all about
-- freedom!

138. Freedom from self-centeredness, freedom from hostility and bitterness,freedom from anxiety and
all kinds of fears, freedom from bondage to evil habits of any type -- This is the freedom Christ
has come to give us. He has come to release us, to free us to be the men and women that God has
designed us to be, living in the midst of (as Paul describes it) "a generation of crooks and
perverts," yet being lights shining in the darkness of our day. As we have seen all the way
through this book, and especially in Romans 5 and 6, this kind of life is totally possible in Jesus
Christ. Yet there are at least two ways we can miss this, even though we are Christians: Paul has
dealt with one of these in Romans 6. In the last half of Romans 6 he has pointed out that, even
though you are a Christian, you can give yourself over to the bondage and slavery of sin. You
can continue to give way to sin. You may think it is not worth your while to fight or you may
enjoy the pleasure that sin gives you, so you keep on doing the things that are wrong. This is
what theologians call antinomianism, which means, simply, "against the law." Antinomianism
reflects an attitude that unfortunately is common among us -- the idea that God, in his grace, will
forgive us, so why not indulge in sin? I will go ahead and sin because I know God will forgive.
The answer to that attitude is found in Chapter 6, Verses 15-22. The Scripture says that if you do
live on that basis, sin will enslave you, it will shame you, it will limit you, it will defile you, it
will spread corruption and death in your experience. And though you may be a Christian, you
will have a very unhappy, miserable Christian life because you cannot give way to sin without
being enslaved by it. The second way we can miss God's freedom for us is exactly the opposite.
We attempt to handle this problem of sin by trying our best to do what God wants. By discipline
and dedication of heart and the exercise of determined willpower we seek to do our best to do
what God asks, to live according to the Law, and to fulfill the requirements that the Law
demands.
Now, this takes many forms. Sometimes it comes as a challenge to take certain steps by which
we can overcome certain problems. It all sounds very good, because it is an appeal to do that
which is right, but it is what the Scriptures call legalism -- the exact opposite of antinomianism.
It is a whole-hearted attempt to do what God wants. And yet, as we have already seen in the
opening verses of Chapter 7, the end result of attempting to live on that basis is that we become
defensive, self-righteous, critical of others, proud of our own record. But also, we become
unaccountably bored, dull, discouraged, depressed, and even, frequently, despairing. That,
basically, is the story of Romans 7.
We already saw in Romans 7:1-6 that there is no need to be like this. Legalism is not the answer,
either, and there is no need for it. We are not under the Law, but under grace. Romans 7 is a
commentary on Paul's great declaration of Romans 6:14: "Sin shall not have dominion over you,
for you are not under law, but under grace." In the first six verses of Romans 7 we looked at
what Paul said about this woman with two husbands -- the woman representing us, and the two
husbands representing our being tied to sin in Adam (our first husband), then freed by the death
of Jesus on our behalf. Not only are we freed from sin, as Paul points out, but we are freed from
the Law as well. The Law condemns us, but we are no longer under Law if we are resting in
Christ. Therefore, the Law does not serve any useful purpose in delivering us from sin.
That raises the question: "What, then, is the purpose of the Law in a Christian's life?" Is the Law
really contemptible and worthless? Ought we just to dispense with it? There are many Christians
around us who say, "I'm a Christian, saved by grace. The Law has no meaning to me at all. The
Law was given to Moses for the Israelites but it doesn't apply to a Christian. Let's dispense with
it." Now, Paul never speaks this way, and neither does Jesus. In fact, Jesus tells us in the Sermon

139. on the Mount that if anyone disparages the Law, changes it, or waters it down in any degree
whatsoever, he is under the curse of God. The Law abides forever.
Therefore, we must clearly understand what Paul is teaching here about the function and purpose
of the Law. We must know
that the Law cannot deliver us from sin. It simply cannot do so. But it can always do one thing
well -- even with Christians -- it can expose sin in us and drive us back to Christ. That is what the
Law is for, and that is the story of Chapter 7, Verses 7-25. This section falls into two parts: In
Verses 7-13, Paul discusses how the Law exposes sin and kills the believer. That is the term he
uses: "the Law kills us." Then, in Verses 14-25, he takes up exactly the same theme -- how the
Law exposes sin and kills us -- but this time it is not explained, it is experienced.
In the first section Paul tells us how it works; in the second section he tells us how it feels. This
is a feeling generation, and, therefore, this is a passage that ought to strike a very responsive
chord in your heart, for Paul describes how it feels to be under the Law as a Christian. He
describes what it does to you and just exactly how it feels. In Verses 7-11, the apostle begins to
describe his own experience in relationship to the Law:
What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Far from it! Indeed I would not have known
what it was to covet if the law had not said, "Do not covet." But sin, seizing the
opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous
desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from law; but when the
commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment
that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity
afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to
death. (Romans 7:7-11 NIV)
This is Paul's experience. It is clear that he is describing something that he himself went through.
But, also, Paul employs the past tense throughout this passage, which suggests that he is
describing his experience before he became a Christian. This probably happened not long before
he became a Christian, but Paul is describing something that is common to the experience of
many of us today. No doubt many of us have had exactly the same experience that the Apostle
Paul describes.
Paul, as we know, was raised in a godly home. He was raised a Jew in the city of Tarsus. He was
brought up to be a typical Jewish son, and he was taught the Law from birth. So when he says he
lived "apart from the Law" he doesn't mean that he didn't know what it was. He simply means
that there came a time when the Law came home to him. "The commandment came," he says.
We have all had that experience. We have read Scripture that was just words to us -- beautiful
words, perhaps, but we didn't understand them. Then, years after, an experience that we go
through makes those words come alive. This is what Paul is talking about here. He knew the Law
from birth, but he did not know it in the sense of understanding what it was saying until he went
through a certain experience. Here he describes that experience, one that he had before he
became a Christian.
In this home in which he was raised, Paul, like many of us today, was protected and sheltered
and kept from exposure to serious temptations. He was raised in the Jewish culture, where
everyone around him was sheltered also. Therefore, he grew up relatively untroubled with
problems of sin. Now, there are many people like that in this congregation. You have grown up
in a home where you have been protected and sheltered, and you have run with a crowd of

140. friends who, likewise, have been kept from exposure to various things. You haven't fallen into
evil.
Many young people, like Saul of Tarsus, think they have handled the problem. What about
keeping the Law? It's not hard! Hardly any temptations come under these circumstances. These
people think they have no struggles along this line. They have the world by the tail -- they can
handle it. As Paul describes it, they are alive apart from the Law. But then comes a time when
they are exposed. They are thrust out into a different lifestyle, a different crowd of people. They
move out on their own and suddenly they find themselves removed from the shelter and
protection and love and cultural defenses that have been theirs from childhood on. Perhaps the
new crowd -- as a way of life -- does things that these sheltered young people have been taught
are wrong.
Now, for the first time, they feel the force of the prohibition of the Law. The Law says, "Thou
shalt not covet, commit adultery, murder, steal ..." -- whatever it may be. And yet the crowd
around them says, "Let's do it -- it's fun!" For the first time, they begin to feel the prohibition of
the Law. Then a strange phenomenon happens. Something about that situation arouses within
them a strong desire to do the things that are prohibited. Maybe they are able to resist them for
awhile, but, nevertheless, they find themselves pressured, pushed by something within them that
wants very badly to do these things.
Now, that is what Paul discovered. It was the tenth commandment, "Thou shalt not covet"
(Exodus 20:17a KJV), that got to him. He thought he had been keeping all the Law because he
had not done some of the external things prohibited in the other commandments. But this one
commandment talks about how you feel inside, your desires, you imagination, your ambitions. It
says, "Thou shalt not desire what another has." Paul found himself awakened to this
commandment and discovered that he was coveting, no matter where he turned. When the Law
came, he found himself aroused by it and brought under its power. It precipitated an orgy of
desire. Many of us have felt this same way.
I have seen this happen. When young people, raised in sheltered homes, move out on their own --
perhaps when they go to college, or get a job, or move to another city -- they find that suddenly
all the control they had seemed to be exercising over evil vanishes. They give way and are
plunged into an orgy of evil, in one form or another.
I was in the Colorado Rockies this past week. A man met me to take me into the mountains for a
conference. When I came out to the curb, he was waiting in his new, powerful, shiny Lincoln
Continental. I got into the car and expected him to turn on the ignition. But to my amazement, he
started driving without turning on the engine -- or at least that's how it seemed to me. I suddenly
realized that the engine had been running all the time. It was so quiet that I hadn't heard it. As we
moved up into the Rockies, the power of that engine became manifest. We traveled up the steep
grades in those great mountains without difficulty because of the power released by the touch on
the accelerator.
Now, that is something like what Paul is describing here. Sin lies silent within us. We do not
even know it is there. We think we have got hold of life in such a way that we can handle it
without difficulty. We are self-confident because we have never really been exposed to the
situation that puts pressure upon us -- we never have to make a decision against the pressure on
the basis of the commandment of the Law "Thou shalt not... "

141. But when that happens, we suddenly discover all kinds of desires are awakened within us. We
find ourselves filled with attitudes that almost shock us -- unloving, bitter, resentful thoughts,
murderous attitudes -- we would like to get hold of somebody and kill him, if we could. Lustful
feelings that we never dreamed were there surface and we find that we would love to indulge in
them if only we had the opportunity. We find ourselves awakened to these desires. As the great
engine surges into life at the touch of the accelerator, so this powerful, idling beast within us
called sin springs into life as the Law comes home to us. We discover something that we never
knew was there before. Now, is this the Law's fault? No, Paul says, it is not the Law's fault. He
goes on in Verses 12-13:
So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. Did that
which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be
recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the
commandment sin might become utterly sinful[exceedingly sinful]. (Romans 7:12-13
NIV)
That is what the Law is for. It is to expose the fact that this evil force is in every one of us,
waiting only for the right circumstance in order to spring into being, overpower our will, and
carry us into things we never dreamed we would do. Many of us experience this. According to
this passage, the great power of sin is that it deceives us. We think we have got life under control
-- and we are fooled. All sin is waiting for is the right occasion when, like a powerful, idling
engine, it roars into life and takes over at the touch of the accelerator and we find ourselves
helplessly under its control.
The Law is designed to expose that sin, and to make us feel this way so that we begin to
understand what this evil force is that we have inherited by our birth into this fallen human race.
The Law shows sin to be what it is, something exceedingly powerful and dangerous, something
that has greater strength than our willpower and causes us to do things that we are resolved not to
do. In Verses 14-25, the same experience is described again, but this time in terms of how we
feel when it happens. There is only one major difference between this section and the previous
one. In this section, Paul switches to the present tense. That is significant because it means that
he is now describing his experience at the time he wrote this letter to the Romans. This, then, is a
description of the Law as it touches the Christian's life. It does exactly the same thing as it did
before we became a Christian, only now we have it from the point of view of the Christian, the
believer who is deceived by the sin that is still resident within. Verses 14 and 15:
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual[carnal, fleshly. Paul gives us now
an excellent definition of carnality], sold as a slave to sin. I do not know what I am doing.
For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. (Romans 7:14-15 NIV)
Some have been convinced, from this verse alone, that Paul was a golfer. If you have ever tried
golf, you know that this is the very thing that happens. What you want to do, you do not do.
What you do not want to do, that is the very thing you do. Of course, Paul has a much greater
problem than playing golf.
The key to this whole passage is Verse 14: "The law is spiritual," Paul says. "It deals with my
spirit. It gets right at the very heart of my being." Fundamentally, as we have seen, human beings
are spirits. The Law is spiritual, and it touches us in that area. "But I am carnal," Paul says. "I
can't respond to it. I am sold as a slave to sin." Now, this always raises a problem. Compare this
with Chapter 6, Verse 17, where Paul is speaking of slavery and says, "But thanks be to God

142. that, though you used to be slaves to in, you whole-heartedly obeyed the form of teaching to
which you were committed. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to
righteousness," (Romans 6:17-18 NIV). If he could write that to the Romans, surely it was true
of him as well. And yet, how could a man write that he had become in Christ a slave to
righteousness, and just a few paragraphs later write, "I am carnal, sold under sin, a slave to sin"?
Many have said that Paul is all confused here. Of course, he is not confused at all. He is simply
describing what happens when a Christian tries to live under the Law. When a Christian, by his
dedication and willpower and determination, tries to do what is right in order to please God, he is
living under the Law. And Paul is telling us what to expect when we live like that -- for we all try
to live that way from time to time. Sin, you see, deceives us. It deceived Paul as an apostle, and
he needed this treatment of the Law. It deceives us, and we need it too.
Now Paul tells us what happens. There are two problems, basically, which he gives us in Verse
15: "I do not know what I am doing. For what I want to do I do not do..." That is problem
Number 1: I want to do right -- there are things I would love to do, but I cannot do them. The
second problem is: "but what I hate I do." In the verses that follow, Paul takes the second
problem first, and shows us what happens in our experience. Verses 16 and 17:
And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I
myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. (Romans 7:16-17 NIV)
That is a very important statement. Paul makes it twice in this paragraph, and it is the
explanation of and the answer to how we can be delivered from this condition. Verses 18-20:
I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature[or my flesh]. For I have
the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I
want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do -- this I keep on doing. 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. (Romans
7:18-20 NIV)
Let's examine this very carefully. Paul says that as a Christian, redeemed by the grace of God,
there is now something within him that wants to do good, that agrees with the Law, that says that
the Law is right. There is something within that says what the Law tells me to do is right, and I
want to do it. But also, he says, there is something else in me that rises up and says "No!" Even
though I determine not to do what is bad, I suddenly find myself in such circumstances that my
determination melts away, my resolve is gone, and I end up doing what I had sworn I would not
do. Have you ever felt that way?
So, what has gone wrong? Paul's explanation is, "It is no longer I who do it; it is sin living in
me." Isn't that strange? There is a division within our humanity indicated here. There is the "I"
that wants to do what God wants, and there is the sin which dwells in "me," which is different
than the "I." We must understand what this is. Human beings are complicated creatures. They are
not simple organisms. We have within us a spirit, a soul, and a body. These are distinct, one from
the other. What Paul is suggesting here is that the redeemed spirit never wants to do what God
has prohibited. It agrees with the Law that it is good. And yet there is an alien power, a force that
he calls sin, a great beast that is lying still within us until touched by the commandment of the
Law. Then it springs to life, and we do what we do not want to do.
Notice that Jesus himself agrees with this. On one occasion he said, "If your right hand offends
you, cut it off," (Matthew 5:30). He did not mean that you should actually chop off your right
hand, because that would be a violation of other texts that indicate that God made the body and

143. made it right and it is morally neutral. What he means is that we should take drastic action
because we are up against a serious problem. He indicates that there is a "me" within us that runs
our members, that gives orders to our hands and our feet and our eyes and our tongue and our
brain and our sexual organs, and controls them. That "me" is giving an order to do something
wrong, but there is another "I" in us who is offended by this. That "I" does not like it, does not
want it. And so, Jesus' words are, "Cut it off." In a moment we are going to see how that
happens, what it is that cuts it off and thus enables us to handle the problem. That is the way man
is made. Our will power is never enough; sin will win, and we will do the evil that we swore not
to do. Now look at the other side of this problem in Verses 21-23:
So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my
inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law[another principle] at work in the
members of my body, waging war against the law[or principle] of my mind[my
agreement with the law of God] and making me a prisoner of the law[principle] of sin at
work within my members. (Romans 7:21-23 NIV)
Here is the same problem exactly. You want to do right and determine to do right, knowing what
it is and swearing to do it, only to find that under certain circumstances all that determination
melts away and you do not do what is right. You do exactly what you did not want to do. So you
come away angry with yourself. "What's the matter with me? Why can't I do what is right? Why
do I give way when I get into this situation? Why am I so weak?" This is right where we live,
isn't it? This is what we all struggle with. The cry of the heart at that moment is (Verse 24):
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? (Romans 7:24
NIV)
What is this? Well, right here you arrive at where the Lord Jesus began the Sermon on the
Mount: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," (Matthew 5:3).
Blessed is the man who comes to the end of himself. Blessed is the man who has arrived at
spiritual bankruptcy. Because this is the point -- the only point -- where God's help is given.
This is what we need to learn. If we think that we have got something in ourselves that we can
work out our problems with, if we think that our wills are strong enough, our desires motivated
enough, that we can control evil in our lives by simply determining to do so, then we have not
come to the end of ourselves yet. And the Spirit of God simply folds his arms to wait and lets us
go ahead and try it on that basis. And we fail, and fail miserably -- until, at last, out of our
failures, we cry, "O wretched man that I am!" Sin has deceived us, and the Law, as our friend,
has come in and exposed sin for what it is. When we see how wretched it makes us, then we are
ready for the answer, which comes immediately (Verse 25):
Thanks be to God -- through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:25a NIV)
Who will deliver me from this body of death? The Lord Jesus has already done it. We are to
respond to the feelings of wretchedness and discouragement and failure, to which the Law has
brought us because of sin in us, by reminding ourselves immediately of the facts that are true of
us in Jesus Christ. Our feelings must be answered by facts.
We are no longer under the Law. That is the fact. We have arrived at a different situation; we are
married to Christ, Christ risen from the dead. That means we must no longer think, "I am a poor,
struggling, bewildered disciple, left alone to wrestle against these powerful urges." We must now
begin to think, "No, I am a free son of God, living a normal human life. I am dead to sin, and
dead to the Law, because I am married to Christ. His power is mine, right at this moment. And

144. though I may not feel a thing, I have the power to say, "No!" and walk away and be free, in Jesus
Christ."
Some of you know that my wife and I were in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and made a recording
for a television broadcast. With us on that program was a pastor from Canada who had been
raised in Russia. He had a burden on his heart to get the Word of God into Russia and was part of
an organization (among several that exist today) to get Bibles into Russia. He told us about his
first experience of crossing the Russian border with a load of Bibles in the trunk of the car. He
wasn't going to try to smuggle them in; he just was counting on God to get them through
somehow. He and a friend loaded the boxes of Bibles into the car, and as they drove up to the
border, all his resolve and courage began to drain away. Within a mile or so of the border, his
friend said, "How do you feel?" He said, "I feel scared." So they stopped alongside the road and
there they simply told the Lord how they felt. "Lord, we are scared. We didn't get into this
situation because we want to be here. It isn't we who want to get this Word into Russia; it is you.
This is your project, and this is your situation. We are willing to take whatever risks you ask, but
you have got to see it through. We are scared and we don't know what to do. We don't have any
wisdom, we don't know how to handle this situation when we get to the border, but we expect
you to do something." He said that as they prayed that way, totally bankrupt, wanting to do good,
unable to do it, but committing the matter to the Lord Jesus, they felt the inward sense of the
Spirit of God witnessing to them that God would act. They didn't know how or what he would
do, but they felt a sense of peace. They drove on to the border, and when the guard asked for
their papers, they gave them to him. He examined them, then said, "What do you have in the
trunk?" They said, "Some boxes." He said, "Let me see them." So they opened up the trunk, and
here were the boxes of Bibles. They expected surely that his next question would be, "What's in
them?" But he didn't ask it. He simply said, "Okay," shut the door, gave them their papers, and
on they went. Now, that is what this passage is describing for us. This is the way we are to live,
the way we are to face every challenge, large or small.
There are teachers who teach that this passage in Romans 7 is something a Christian goes
through once, then he gets out of it and moves into Romans 8 and never gets back into Romans 7
again. Nothing could be further from the truth! Even as mighty a man as Paul went through it
again and again. This is a description of what every believer will go through again and again in
his experience because sin has the power to deceive us and to cause us to trust in ourselves, even
when we are not aware we are doing it. The Law is what will expose that evil force and drive us
to this place of wretchedness that we might then, in poverty of spirit, cry out, "Lord Jesus, it is
your problem; you take it." And he will do so.
The chapter rightly ends with the exclamation in Verse 25: "Thanks be to God -- through Jesus
Christ our Lord!" The next sentence belongs with Chapter 8. It is the summarizing verse that
introduces the themes of the explanation Paul gives us in Chapter 8. But here is the way of
deliverance for Christians. We do need the Law. We need it every time sin deceives us. But the
Law will not deliver us from sin; Law will only bring us, again and again, to the mighty
deliverer.