Jesus was the rescuer from the body of death

JESUS WAS THE RESCUER FROM THE BODY OF DEATH
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Romans 7:24-25 24Whata wretched man I am! Who
will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
25Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus
Christour LORD! So then, I myself in my mind am a
slaveto God's law, but in my sinful nature a slaveto
the law of sin.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
A Cry And Its Answer
Romans 7:24, 25
S.R. Aldridge
Strange language to issue from the lips of the greatapostle of the Gentiles!
from a chosenvesselunto honour, a man in labours abundant and most
blessed, with joy often rising to transport. Norwas 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 orin 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 cannotbe restrained within the limits of calm reasoning, and he
bursts forth with the exclamation, "O wretched man," etc.!Some have been
so shockedas to callthis 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 expressionof 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, evenin the Christian who is
justified, but not wholly sanctified, whilst he is imprisoned in this "body of
death."
I. INQUIRE MORE CLOSELY INTO THE GROUND OF THIS
EXCLAMATION. What is it of which such grievous complaint is made? He
appeals for aid againsta strong foe whose graspis on his throat. The eyes of
the warriorgrow 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 seatand instrument of sin. But the
apostle includes still more in the phrase. It denotes sin itself, this carnalmass,
all the imperfections, the corrupt and evil passions ofthe 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 thatattack 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 succeedmeans a desperate
conflict! Attainments in the Divine life are not reachedwithout a struggle, and
non-successis 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 accompaniesus, ever ready
to assaultus, especiallywhen we are at a disadvantage from fatigue or
delusive security. Distantevils might be borne with some measure of
equanimity; we might have a signalof their approach, and be prepared, and
hope that, niter a sharp bout, they would retire. But like a sick man tormented

with a diseasedframe, 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 factof 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 ofhis 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 arousedand warned,
and have made vows of reformation, and then returned to their old apathy
and sleepin 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 centraldepths. Such a
disclosure is not fit for all scenes and times; the conflictof the soul is too
solemn to be profaned by casualspectators. Yetwhat 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 satisfiedwith such a condition, and calls aloud
for aid. Would that this sense ofthe 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 foreignbody, a disturbing element, an intruder.
3. There is comfort in the very convictionof helplessness. The apostle sums up
his experience as if to say, "My human purposes come to nought. Betweenmy
will and the performance there is a sadhiatus. I find no help in myself." A
lessonwhich 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, "Feedmy 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 assumedour body of death, crucified
it, and glorified it. Thus he "Condemnedsin 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. Strongeris he who is for
us than all againstus. 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 wearinessand 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 calledthe flesh with its
corruptions and lusts. The body, intended to be an instrument and servant of
the soul, has become its sovereign, and keeps allits powerof intellect and
consciencein 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 quickenedconsciousnessofits condition. "O wretched man that I am!
"The vast majority of souls, alas I are utterly insensible to this; hence they

remain passive. Whatquickens the soul into this consciousness?"The law."
The light of God's moral law flashes on the conscienceand startles it.
2. An earnestdesire 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 "soldierin conflict"
who looks round for succour. He is in the fight; he sees the enemy advancing
againsthim, with spearin hand, and chains ready to throw over him; the
soldier sees his danger, feels his weaknessand helplessness, yethas no thought
of yielding; he cries out, "Who shall deliver me?" But it is not the cry of a
vanquished but of a contending soldierof Jesus Christ.
(F. Bourdillon.)
Victory in the hidden warfare
Bp. S. Wilberforce.
To enter into the full meaning of these words, we must understand their place
in the argument. The greattheme 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 ofthe sinner. In the sixth he proves that this
truth, instead of being any excuse for sin, was the strongestargument 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 crookedline can be known until it is placedbeside something that is
straight. But when the law raisedbefore 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-contentedimpurity;
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 againby evil. "How to perform that which
was goodhe found not." Yea, "whenhe would do good, evil was presentwith
him." In vain there lookedin upon his soul the blessedcountenance ofan
external holiness. Its angelgladness, ofwhich he could in no way be made
partaker, did but render darkerand 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 againstthe 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 gleamof 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 greattruth of the redemption Of our nature in Christ Jesus is
the only link of brotherhood betweenman and man. To deny our brotherhood
with any of the most miserable of those whom Christ has redeemed, is to deny
our own capacityfor perfect holiness, and so our true redemption through
Christ.
2. Here, too, is the only warrant for any reasonable efforts fortheir
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 effortto restore any sinner, is a declarationthat we believe that we
are in a kingdom of grace, ofredeemed 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, comesagainas 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 earnestman must, if he sets himself to resistthe 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 knowledge ofGod'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, letus ever hold it fast, even as our life.
2. Noris it needful to lowerthe 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 safeguardagainstbeing abused; for what canbe so
loud a witness againstallowedsin 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
poweragainstsin, 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 commonestform of self-deception— the
allowing some sin in ourselves, becausein other things we deny ourselves,

because we pray, because we give alms, etc. And this self-deceptionis 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 earnestlyclaim 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 allwill
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 conquestover the evil which is in us. So that, to sum up
all in one blesseddeclaration, "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 BODYOF DEATH OF WHICH THE
BELIEVER COMPLAINS.
1. Indwelling sin is calledthe body of this death, as it is the effectand remains
of that spiritual death to which all men are subject in unregeneracy.
2. The remains of sin in the believer is calledthe body of this death, on
accountof the deadness and dulness of spirit in the service of God, which it so
often produces.
3. Remaining depravity is calledthe 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 ofdissolution; as it is sin that has introduced into
the material frame of man those principles of decaywhich will bring it to the
grave;as it is sin which is the parent of those evil passions which, as natural
causes, waragainstthe health and life of the body, so it is the inbred sins of
the believerthat require his flesh to see the dust.(2) But this is not all.

Remaining depravity tends to spiritual and eternaldeath, and on this account,
also, is justly calledthe 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.
2. Remaining sin is thus painful to the Christian, from the constantstruggle
which it maintains with grace within the heart. Even in eminent saints the
contestis 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 aspirationafter a freedom from
imperfections which scarcelybelongs to the presentstate.
III. THE EARNEST LONGINGS AND CONFIDENT AND JOYFUL
ASSURANCE OF DELIVERANCE FROM INDWELLING SIN WHICH
THE CHRISTIAN ENTERTAINS.
1. Mark his earnestlongings — "Who shall deliver me?" The language
implies how wellthe 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 withthis view two things most unwelcome to the feelings of nature
affliction and death.
2. Mark his confident and joyful assurance ofdeliverance. Weak in himself,
the Christian is yet strong in the Lord. All the victories he has hitherto
achievedhave 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 ofall the other evils in which he has been
involved, and when sin is destroyed within and put forever away, nothing can
be wanting to perfecthis blessedness. Wellthen 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 appearedon the same card, one clearand the
other obscure. The fully developedportrait was the obvious likeness ofthe
living person; and the indistinct portrait was supposedto be the likeness of
some dead friend, produced by supernatural agency. The mystery, however,
was found to admit of an easyscientific explanation. It not unfrequently
happens that the portrait of a personis so deeply impressed on the glass ofthe
negative, that although the plate is thoroughly cleansedwith strong acid, the
picture cannotbe 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 washedin the
blood of Christ; and beholding the glory of Christ as in a glass, he is changed
into the same image. And yet the ghostof 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 sanctificationof the
Spirit, carried on through discipline, burning as corrosive acid, cannot
altogetherremove 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
besethim returned with fresh power in circumstances favourable to it.
I. THE "BODYOF DEATH" IS NOT SOMETHING THAT HAS COME TO
US FROM WITHOUT, an infected garment that may be thrown aside
wheneverwe 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 evil
leaven, corrupting and decomposing everygoodfeeling and heavenly
principle, and gradually assimilating our being to itself. There is a peculiar

disease whichoften destroys the silkwormbefore it has woven its cocoon. It is
causedby a species ofwhite 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 ofexistence, retrogradesto the
lowercondition of the inert senselessvegetable. And like this is the effectof
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, insteadof developing a higher and purer
nature, is reduced to the low, mean condition of the slave of Satan.
II. NONE BUT THOSE WHO HAVE ATTAINED TO SOME MEASURE OF
THE EXPERIENCE OF ST. PAUL CAN KNOW THE FULL
WRETCHEDNESS CAUSED BYTHIS BODYOF DEATH. The careless
have no idea of the agonyof a soul under a sense ofsin; of the tyranny which
it exercises andthe misery which it works. And even in the experience of
many Christians there is but little of this peculiar wretchedness.Convictionis
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 ofthe 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 wretchedman 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 NOT MAN'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 renewedself is the spectralform of our old self,
let us remember that behind all is the image of Godin which we were created.
The soul, howeverlost, 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 assumedour
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 ceaseto
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 secondpersonality
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 creationof new desires and appetites, becomes
such a powerover man that Paul represents it as a personality, the thing
becomes anego.
II. AS A PERSONALITYIT BECOMESA TYRANT. It is representedin 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 ofthis tyranny, as he does when the "commandment" flashes upon
the conscience,the soul becomes intensely miserable, and a fierce battle sets in
betweenthe 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 ofnature, but failed (see chap. Romans 1). He became
more enslavedin 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 weariedas 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 carnalnature 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 realand
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 ofthe new religionof science,"aboutmatters of which,
howeverimportant 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 necessaryto be
possessedof 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 againstthis cool
setting aside of everything that cannotbe seenor handled? And is that instinct
a low one? or is it the instinct of minds that come nearestto Divine?
3. Which is the higher type of man — which do you feel has gotthe firmer
grip of the realities of life — the man calmly bending over the facts of outward
nature, and striving to secure, as far as 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 — goodand evil, light
and darkness, Godand the devil, being to him tremendous realities — his soul
being the battlefield of a warbetweenthem, in the agonyand shock of which
conflict he is constrainedto 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 ofsuch 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 orseas.
4. Minds wholly engrossedwith intellectual or selfish pursuits may be
unconscious ofthis conflict, and disbelieve its existence in other minds. So
may minds that have reachedthat stage which the apostle describes as "dead
in sin"; but to other minds, minds within which consciencestilllives, within
which exclusive devotion to one thought or interest has not obliterated every
other, this conflictis 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 knownthat consciousness, andknown its terror and power of darkness
when it was roused into active life? it is of this consciousnessPaulspeaks.
Under the pressure of it he cries out, "Who shall deliver me from the body of
this death?"

5. And what answerdoes 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 steadfastregularity of the law and order of external nature add new
bitterness to the conviction that he has forgottena higher law and disturbed a
still more gracious order? Is not the very conviction of the weaknessofhis
own will one of the most terrible elements in his distress? Speak to a man
under this consciousnessofthe powerof 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 feeblenessappalls him, and you mock him,
as if you spoke to a man in a raging fever of the necessityof 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 ofenergy outside himself,
who should restore the wastedstrengthfrom his own fountains of life — who
should sayto 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 actualdeliverance from an
actualfoe — not a promise of exemption from some future evil. And it was
this that Paul realisedin Christ. To him to live was Christ. The presence and
the powerof Christ possessedhim. It was in this he found the strength which
gave him the victory over the body of death. He found that strength in the
consciousnessthathe was not a lonely soldier, fighting againstan
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 neededfor 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 consciousnessofthis struggle, the engagementin 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
sweetestmusic, and he says there is no harmony in it. I show a man who is
colourblind two beautifully contrastedtints, 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 accountof 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 wretchto separate himself from his disgusting burden.
The carcasewas 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 whithersoeverhe 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 wretchedman 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 death
Doddridge 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 carcasetiedto a living body, to be draggedalong with it

whereverit goes?"He adds in a note: "It is wellknown 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 sadcase representedcannotsurely 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, chokedwith stench, in loathed embraces tied,
The lingering wretches pined awayand 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, whichmay not till death be laid aside." (Kitto.)
During the reign of Richard I, the following curious law was enactedfor 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 slayershall 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 specialorgans, inferior to one and anotherof the animals,
he is collectivelyby far the superior of everyone. And yet, large as he is, man
is not happy in any proportion to his nature, and to the hints and fore gleams
which that nature gives. He has, in being clothed with flesh, all the points of

contactwith the physical world that the ox or the falcon has. He is born; he
grows up with all the instincts and passions ofanimal 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 creationin
a vivid contrast. He is endowed with reason, moralsentiment 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 betweenman'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 raisedto their true life the struggle has been
always severe. To have the powerover our whole organisationwithout a
despotism of our animal and selfishnature is the problem of practicallife.
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 draggeddown by the appetites;so that the moral sentiments
and the reasonshall shine clearand beautiful?
II. WHAT REMEDIESHAVE PROPOSED!
1. To give way to that which is strongest, has been one specialmethod of
settling the conflict. Kill the higher feelings and then let the lowerones romp
and riot like animals in a field — this gives a brilliant opening to life; but it
gives a dismal close to it. Forwhat 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 greatdarkness, and lie down to mourn
and die.
2. Another remedy has been in superstition. Men have sought to coverthis
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 betweenthe 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 certainrules of doing what we cannothelp, 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 fragrantbecause it is not
remedial; but if regardedas a remedy, how poor it is!
5. Then comes scientific empiricism, and prescribes the observance ofnatural
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 chestbefore it, and say,
"Rise, and selectthe 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 reachof every being in the world,
that He shall exert a controlling power on the spiritual realms of man's
nature, and, by giving powerto it, overbalance and overbearthe despotismof
the radicalpassions and appetites. There is a story of a missionary who was
sent out to preachthe gospelto the slaves;but he found that they went forth
so early, and came back so late, and were so spent, that they could not hear.
There was nobody to preach to them unless he should accompanythem 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 workedwith 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 darkenedhearts. That is the story over againof God manifest
in the flesh.
2. Many things can be done under personalinfluence 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 shadowyform; 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 greatthick-lipped black man, who
was always doing kind things, said, "I will go with you." Oh! sweetermusic
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 somebodyto
succourme. Let anything be done by direction and how different it is from its
being done by personalinspiration. "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." DownI 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 saythat you
have one friend, at any rate. Now do not be discouraged;keepup a good
heart." And when I am gone, the man wipes his eyes, and says, "Godknows
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
stretchedhimself 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 againstthem, and give them the warmth of his sympathy, how many
would be saved!That is the philosophy of salvationthrough Christ — a great
soul come down to take care of little souls; a greatheart 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 saythat an army is destroyed, you do
not mean that everybody is killed; but that, as an army, its complex
organisationis broken up. To spoil a watchyou do not need to grind it to
powder. Take outthe 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 watchthat has no
mainspring? What spoils a compass? Anything which unfits it for doing what

it was intended to do. Now, here is this complex organisationofman. The
royalties of the soul are all mixed up. Where conscienceoughtto be is pride.
Where love ought to be is selfishness. Its sympathy and harmony are gone. It
is not necessarythat a man should be all bad to be ruined. Man has lostthat
harmony which belongs to a perfectorganisation. And so he lives to struggle.
And the struggle through which he is passing is the cause ofhuman 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 ofmy own soul, and having been conversantwith the experiences
of others, what I want is power. And that is what they lack who deny the
Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. God can cleanse the heart. Man cannot.
And that God whom we canunderstand is the God that walkedin 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 ofa 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, andpilgrimages; or, to their
greaterwatchfulness 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 shedas an atoning sacrifice forsin.

2. A perfectand 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, FINDINGRELIEF 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 disinterestedspirits, bringing the joyful news to our apostate
world, sung, "Gloryto God in the highest, for peace on earth, and goodwill
towards men." And surely, if we who are redeemedto 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 Emersonis the philosophy of icicles;the religion of
Theodore Parkerwas a sirocco ofthe desert covering up the soul with dry
sand; the religion of Renanis the romance of believing nothing; the religionof
Thomas Carlyle is only a condensedLondon fog;the religion of the Huxleys
and the Spencers is merely a pedestalon 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 groanat the base. Tellme where there is one man

who has rejectedthat gospelfor 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
T. Oliver., J. Lyth, D. D.
I can wellremember a portion of a sermon which I heard when I was only five
years of age. I recollectthe castof the preacher's features, the colourof his
hair, and the tone of his voice. He had been an officerin the army, and was in
attendance on the Duke of Wellington during the greatbattle of Waterloo.
That portion of the sermonwhich I canso well remember was a graphic
description of the conflictwhich some pious souls have experiencedwith the
powers of darkness before their final victory over the fear of death. He
illustrated it by drawing in simple words a vivid descriptionof the battle at
Waterloo. He told us of the cooland 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
showedsigns of weakness, whenthe 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 Englishbrigade. Wellington then calculatedhow
long it would take to complete the triumph. Taking from his pockethis gold
watch, he exclaimed, "Twentyminutes more, and then victory!" When the
twenty minutes had passedthe Frenchwere completely vanquished. Then the
Duke, againtaking out his watch, held it by the short chain, and swung it
around his head again and again. while he shouted, "Victory! Victory!" the
watchflew out of his hand, but he regarded gold as only dust comparedwith
the final triumph. This graphic description made a powerful impressionon
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 exclusivelyengagedin conducting
specialservices, my memory has brought before me the preacherand 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 NECESSARYCONCLUSION?
1. That there is no deliverance by the law, or by personaleffort.
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 spirit, or with his renewedmind. His whole

man, all that can be calledhimself, is employed in a life of evangelicaland
universal obedience.
II. THE BELIEVER MAY MEET WITH MANY INTERRUPTIONSWHILE
HE IS AIMING TO SERVE THE LAW OF GOD. "With my flesh the law of
sin."
1. Had our apostle contentedhimself with the former part of this declaration,
it would doubtless have been matter of greatdiscouragementto the children
of God. But when we find that the apostle himself confessethhis weakness and
imperfection, whose heart would not take courage, andgo forth more boldly
to the conflict than ever?
2. After all the encouragementaffordedto 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 observationon the close connectionin 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 onunceasinglyand 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 ofsin, and therefore of
death. If only it could be releasedfrom that, the distractedsoul 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 carnalappetite and sin and death are inextricably mingled.
To complete this deliverance the triple resurrection—ethical, spiritual, and
physical—is needed.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
7:23-25 This passagedoes notrepresent the apostle as one that walkedafter
the flesh, but as one that had it greatlyat heart, not to walk so. And if there
are those who abuse this passage, as theyalso 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 ofthe abuse of
such as are blinded by their own lusts, to find fault with the scripture, or any
just and wellwarranted 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 bemoanhimself
as a wretched man, constrainedto what he abhorred. He could not deliver
himself; and this made him the more fervently thank God for the way of
salvationrevealedthrough 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 andobey the law of God; but with the flesh, the carnal
nature, the remains of depravity, I serve the law of sin, which wars againstthe
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 atonementand 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 actin all points agreeable to the law, in
his mind and conscience, but was hindered by indwelling sin, and never
attained the perfectionthe law requires. What can be deliverance for a man
always sinful, but the free grace ofGod, as offered in Christ Jesus? The power
of Divine grace, andof the Holy Spirit, could rootout 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
wretchedstate from which Divine grace saves them; might be kept from
trusting in themselves;and might ever hold all their consolationand hope,
from the rich and free grace ofGod in Christ.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
O wretched man that I am! - The feeling implied by this lamentation is the
result of this painful conflict; and this frequent subjectionto sinful
propensities. The effectof this conflict is,
(1) To produce pain and distress. It is often an agonizing struggle between
goodand 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 controlof 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 orof
reasonaid? In vain all these are tried, and the Christian then calmly and
thankfully acquiesces in the consolations ofthe 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 ofits own weakness, andlooking 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 desiredto be delivered. The expression"body of this
death" is a Hebraism, denoting a body deadly in its tendency; and the whole
expressionmay mean the corrupt principles of man; the carnal, evil affections
that lead to death or to condemnation. The expressionis one of vast strength,
and strongly characteristic ofthe apostle Paul. It indicates,
(1) That it was nearhim, attending him, and was distressing in its nature.
(2) an earnestwish to be delivered from it.
Some have supposed that he refers to a custom practicedby 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 deeperfeeling; none more
feelingly indicate the necessityof the grace ofGod to accomplishthat to which
the unaided human powers are incompetent.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
24. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?—The apostle speaksofthe "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 seatof the
lowerappetites (see on [2218]Ro6:6, 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 draggedhim down. But the
language is not that of a sinner newly awakenedto the sight of his lost state;it
is the cry of a living but agonized believer, weigheddown under a burden
which is not himself, but which he longs to shake off from his renewedself.
Nor does the question imply ignorance ofthe way of relief at the time referred

to. It was designedonly to prepare the wayfor that outburst of thankfulness
for the divinely provided remedy which immediately follows.
Matthew Poole's Commentary
O wretched man that I am! The word signifies one weariedout 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 Psalm55:6. One calls this verse, gemitus sanctorum, the
groanof the godly.
From the body of this death; or, from this body of death; or, by a Hebraism,
from this dead body, this carcassofsin, to which I am inseparably fastened, as
noisome every whit to my soul as a dead carcassto 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 Bible
O wretched man that I am,.... Not as consideredin Christ, for as such he was a
most happy man, being blessedwith all spiritual blessings, andsecure from all
condemnation and wrath; nor with respectto 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 persuadednothing
could separate him from the love of God; and that when he had finished his
course, he should have the crownof righteousness laid up for him: but this
exclamationhe made on accountof the troubles he met with in his Christian
race;and not so much on accountof his reproaches, persecutions, and
distresses forChrist'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 accountof that continual combat between, the flesh and spirit in him; or by

reasonof that mass of corruption and body of sin he carriedabout with him;
ranch such a complaint Isaiahmakes, Isaiah6:5, 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, ormakes
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 subjectto death
for sin; and suppose the apostle expresseshis desire to quit it, to depart out of
it, that he might enjoy an immortal life, being wearyof 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 elsewhereexpressesan earnestlonging 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 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 wearyof the present life, and wantedto be
rid of his mortal body, this did not arise from the troubles and anxieties of life,
with which he was pressed, whichoftentimes make wickedmen long to die;
but from the load of sin, and burden of corruption, under which he groaned,
and still bespeakshim 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 lodgedin him, which is called"a body",
because ofits fleshly carnal nature; because ofits manner of operation, it
exerts itself by the members of the body; and because it consists ofvarious
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 calledthe body of
"this death", referring to the captivity of his mind, to the law of sin, which
was as death unto him: and no wondertherefore he so earnestly desires

deliverance, saying, "who shall deliver me?" which he speaks notas 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
assuredof it, and therefore gives thanks beforehand for it; but as expressing
the inward pantings, and earnestbreathings 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} wretchedman 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 Commentary
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

consciousnessofthe regenerate man, as if he “as it were” were crying ever
afreshfor a new Redeemerfrom the powerof the sin still remaining in him
(Philippi), does this wail and cry for help accord. The regenerate manhas 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 passed
away. Comp. Jul. Müller, v. d. Sünde, I. p. 458 f., ed. 5. The objectionof
Reiche, that Paul would, according to this view, speak of himself while he was
thinking of men of quite an opposite frame of mind, is not valid; for that
longing, which he himself had certainly felt very deeply in his pre-Christian
life, and into whose painful feelings he transports himself back all the more
vividly from the standpoint of his blissful state of redemption, could not but,
in the consistentcontinuation of the idiosis, be here individualized and
realized as present through his ἐγώ. And this he could do the more
unhesitatingly, since no doubt could thereby be raisedin the minds of his
readers regarding his present freedom from the ταλαιπωρία overwhich he
sighs. Reiche himself, curiously enough, regards Romans 7:24 as the cry for
help of Jewishhumanity, to which “a redeemedone replies” in Romans 8:1;
Romans 7:25, standing in the way, being a gloss!
ΤΑΛΑΊΠ. ἘΓῺ ἌΝΘΡ.]Nominative of exclamation:O wretched man that I
am! See Kühner, II. 1, p. 41; Winer, p. 172 [E. T. 228].
ταλαίπ., Revelation3:17, very frequent in the tragedians:Plat. Euthyd. p. 302
B; Dem. 548. 12, 425. 11.
ῥύσεται] Purely future. In the depth of his misery the longing after a deliverer
asks as if in despair: who will it be?

ἐκ τοῦ σώματος τ. θανάτου τούτου]τούτουmight indeed grammatically be
joined to ΣΏΜΑΤΟς (Erasmus, Beza, Calvin, Estius, and many others,
including Olshausen, Philippi, Hofmann, and Th. Schott), since one may say,
ΤῸ ΣῶΜΑ Τ. Θ. ΤΟῦΤΟ;but the sense is againstit. For that which weighs
upon him, namely, the being dependent on the body as captive of the law of
sin, lies in the factthat the body belongs to this death, i.e. to the death
incurred by sin (which is not physical, but eternaldeath, comp. Romans 7:10
ff.), consequentlyto this shameful death, as its seat;not in the fact that this
relation takes place in the present body, or in a present time posited with the
quality of the earthly body. If the words of the person who exclaims should
amount to no more than “the hopeless wishto getrid of the body, in which he
is compelled to live,” without expressing, however, the desire to be dead
(Hofmann), they would yield a very confusedconception. Moreover, by
postponing the pronoun, Paul would only have expressedhimself very
unintelligibly, had his meaning been hoc corpus mortis, and not corpus mortis
hujus (Vulgate). Comp. Acts 5:20; Acts 13:26. The correctexplanation
therefore is: “Who shall deliver me, so that I be no longerdependent on the
body, which serves as the seatof so shameful a death?” or, in other words:
“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 seatof this shameful
death?” Comp. Romans 8:9, Romans 6:6, Romans 7:5; Romans 7:10 ff.;
Colossians 2:11. With what vivid and true plastic skill does the deeply-stirred
emotion of the apostle conveythis meaning! underneath which, no doubt,
there likewise lies the longing “aftera release from the sinful natural life” (Th.
Schott). In detail, τίς με ῥύσεται corresponds with the αἰχμαλωτίζ.με τῷ νόμῳ
τῆς ἁμ. in Romans 7:23; ἐκ τοῦ σώμ. with the τῷ ὄντι ἐν τοῖς μέλεσί μου in
Romans 7:23; and τούτου denotes the death as occasionedby the tragic power
of sin just described also in Romans 7:23; the genitive relation is the same as
in Romans 6:6. The rendering “mortal body” is condemned by the close
connectionof τούτου with θανάτου, whether(inconsistently enoughwith the
context, see Romans 7:23; Romans 7:25; Romans 8:1-2) there be discoveredin
the words the longing for death (Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact,
Erasmus, Pareus, Estius, Clericus, Balduin, Koppe, and others), or, with
Olshausen(introducing what is foreign to the argument), the longing “only to
be redeemed from the mortal body, i.e. from the body that through sin has

become liable to perish, so that the Spirit may make it alive.” Finally, as in
Romans 6:6, so also here, those explanations are to be rejectedwhich, in
arbitrary and bold deviation from the Pauline usage, take σῶμα not of the
human body, but as “mortifera peccatimassa” (Calvin, Cappel, Homberg,
Wolf); or: “the system of sensualpropensities (σῶμα), which is the cause of
death” (Flatt); or: “deathconceivedas a monster with a body, that threatens
to devour the ἐγώ” (Reiche).
Expositor's Greek Testament
Romans 7:24. ταλαίπωρος ἐγὼ ἄνθρωπος·τίς με ῥύσεται;“a wail of anguish
and a cry for help”. The words are not those of the Apostle’s heart as he
writes; they are the words which he knows are wrung from the heart of the
man who realises thathe is himself in the state just described. Paul has
reproduced this vividly from his own experience, but ταλαίπωρας ἐγὼ
ἄνθρωπος is not the cry of the Christian Paul, but of the man whom sin and
law have brought to despair. ἐκ τοῦ σώματος τοῦ θανάτου τούτου:“This
death” is the death of which man is acutely conscious in the condition
described: it is the same as the death of Romans 7:9, but intensely realised
through the experience of captivity to sin. “The body of this death” is
therefore the same as “the body of sin” in chap. Romans 6:6 : it is the body
which, as the instrument if not the seatof sin, is involved in its doom.
Salvationmust include deliverance from the body so far as the body has this
characterand destiny.
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
24. O wretched man, &c.] Lit. Miserable man [am] I. The adjective indicates a
state of suffering; the pain of the inner conflict as felt by the regenerate
“mind[38].”
[38] In Lord Selborne’s Book ofPraise will be found a most remarkable
Hymn, (No. ccclxx), beginning “O send me down a draught of love.” The
whole Hymn forms a profound and suggestive commentaryhere.

from the body of this death] Better, perhaps, out of this body of death. The
Gr. admits either translation. The best commentary on this ver. is Romans
8:23, where the saints are said to “groan, waiting for the redemption of their
body.” Under different imagery the idea here is the same. The body, as it now
is, is the stronghold of sin in various ways, (see on Romans 6:6,) and is that
part of the regenerate manwhich yet has to die. The Apostle longs to be free
from it as such—as sinful and mortal; in other words, he “groans for its
redemption.” Cp. Php 3:21; 2 Corinthians 5:4; 2 Corinthians 5:8.
Such an explanation is surely preferable to that which makes “body” mean
“mass” or“load.” Some commentators, again, trace a metaphorical reference
to the cruelty of tyrants, (e.g. Virgil’s Mezentius,)who chained the living and
the dead together. But this is quite out of characterwith the severelysimple
imagery here.
Bengel's Gnomen
Romans 7:24. Ταλαίπωρος ἐγὼ ἄνθρωπος)[“O wretchedman that I am!”
Engl. Vers. But Beng.]wretchedme, who am [inasmuch as I am] a man! Man,
if he were without sin, is noble as well as blessed;with sin, he rather wishes
not to be a man at all, than to be such a man as man actually is: The man
[whom Paul personifies]speaks ofthe state of man in itself, as it is by nature.
This cry for help is the lastthing in the struggle, and, after that henceforth
convinced, that he has no help in himself, he begins, so to speak, unknowingly
to pray, who shall deliver me? and he seeks deliverance andwaits, until God
shows Himself openly in Christ, in answerto that who. This marks the very
moment of mystical death.[80]Believers to a certain extent continue to carry
with them something of this feeling even to the day of their death,[81]Romans
8:23.—ρύσεται, shalldeliver) Force is necessary. The verb is properly used;
for ρύεσθαι, is, ἐκ ΘΑΝΑΤΟΥ ἕλκειν (to drag from DEATH), Ammonius
from Aristoxenus.—ἐκ)from.—τοῦ σώματος, from the body of death) the
body being dead on accountof sin, ch. Romans 8:10. The death of the body is
the full carrying into execution of that death, of which Romans 7:13 treats,
and yet in death there is to be deliverance.—τούτου)σῶμα θανάτου τούτουis

said for σῶμα θανάτου τοῦτο,the body of this death, for, this body of death.—
Comp. Acts 5:20, note.
[80] The becoming figuratively dead in a spiritual sense to the law and to sin,
ver. 4.—ED.
[81] This longing for deliverance from the body of this death.—ED.
Vincent's Word Studies
Wretched(ταλαίπωρος)
Originally, wretched through the exhaustion of hard labor.
Who (τίς)
Referring to a personaldeliverer.
Body of this death (τοῦ σώματος τοῦ θανάτου τούτου)
The body serving as the seatof the death into which the soul is sunk through
the powerof sin. The body is the literal body, regardedas the principal
instrument which sin uses to enslave and destroy the soul. In explaining this
much-disputed phrase, it must be noted: 1. That Paul associatesthe dominion
and energyof sin prominently with the body, though not as if sin were
inherent in and inseparable from the body. 2. That he represents the service of
sin through the body as associatedwith, identified with, tending to, resulting
in, death. And therefore, 3. That he may properly speak ofthe literal body as
a body of death - this death, which is the certain issue of the abjectcaptivity to
sin. 4. That Paul is not expressing a desire to escape from the body, and
therefore for death. Meyerparaphrases correctly:"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 seatof this shameful death?" Ignatius, in his letter to
the Smyrnaeans, speaksofone who denies Christ's humanity, as νεκροφό

PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
Romans 7:21-25 Commentary
Romans 7 Resources
Updated: Sun, 10/13/2019 - 15:34 By admin
PREVIOUS
NEXT
ROMANS ROAD
to RIGHTEOUSNESS
Romans 1:18-3:20
Romans 3:21-5:21
Romans 6:1-8:39
Romans 9:1-11:36
Romans 12:1-16:27
SIN
SALVATION
SANCTIFICATION
SOVEREIGNTY
SERVICE
NEED
FOR
SALVATION

WAY
OF
SALVATION
LIFE
OF
SALVATION
SCOPE
OF
SALVATION
SERVICE
OF
SALVATION
God's Holiness
In
Condemning
Sin
God's Grace
In
Justifying
Sinners
God's Power
In
Sanctifying

Believers
God's Sovereignty
In
Saving
Jew and Gentile
Gods Glory
The
Object of
Service
Deadliness
of Sin
Design
of Grace
Demonstrationof Salvation
PowerGiven
Promises Fulfilled
Paths Pursued
Righteousness
Needed
Righteousness
Credited
Righteousness
Demonstrated

Righteousness
Restoredto Israel
Righteousness
Applied
God's Righteousness
IN LAW
God's Righteousness
IMPUTED
God's Righteousness
OBEYED
God's Righteousness
IN ELECTION
God's Righteousness
DISPLAYED
Slaves to Sin
Slaves to God
Slaves Serving God
Doctrine
Duty
Life by Faith
Service by Faith
Modified from Irving L. Jensen's excellentwork "Jensen's Surveyof the NT"

Romans 7:21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who
wants to do good. (NASB: Lockman)
Greek:Heurisko (1SPAI) ara ton nomon to thelonti (PAPMSD)emoi poiein
(PAN) to kalonhoti emoi to kakonparakeitai;(3SPMI)
Amplified: So I find it to be a law (rule of actionof my being) that when I
want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present with me and I am
subject to its insistent demands. (Amplified Bible - Lockman)
Berkley:Consequently, I discovera law hat when I want to do right, wrong
suggestionscrowdin
Moffatt: So this is my experience of the Law: I desire to do what is right but
wrong is all that I canmanage; I cordially agree with God's law, so far as my
inner self is concerned,
NLT: It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I
inevitably do what is wrong. (NLT - Tyndale House)
Wuest: I find therefore the law, that to me, always desirous of doing the good,
to me, the evil is always present.
Young's Literal: I find, then, the law, that when I desire to do what is right,
with me the evil is present,
WHAT CONCLUSION DOES HE COME TO REGARDING HIS
CONFLICTING BEHAVIOR? WHAT IS THE PRINCIPLE HE
CONCLUDES?
I FIND THEN THE PRINCIPLE THAT EVIL IS PRESENT IN ME, THE
ONE WHO WANTS TO DO GOOD:Heurisko (1SPAI) ara ton nomon, to
thelonti (PAPMSD)emoi poiein (PAN) to kalon, hoti emoi to kakon parakeitai
(3SPMI):
Ro 7:23; 6:12,14;8:2; Ps 19:13; 119:133;Jn 8:34; Eph 6:11, 12, 13;2Pet2:19
2Chr 30:18,19;Ps 19:12; 40:12;65:3; 119:37;Isa 6:5, 6, 7; Zec 3:1, 2, 3, 4; Lk
4:1; Heb 2:17; 4:15

Romans 7 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
As you study these passagesrememberthe context. Beginning in Romans 7:14
Paul begins to discuss the conflict betweentwo natures. This sectionhas been
one of the most controversialin the New Testament. The majority of modern
commentators (men like John MacArthur, John Piper, William Newell,
Donald Barnhouse, etal) favor this sectionto be a description of a savedman
who is wrestling with the sinful propensities still present in the physical body
of every saved individual. Others feelPaul is discussing an unsaved man in
this section. Although I favor the former interpretation, the principles that
can be gleanedfrom Paul's teaching on this struggle are still applicable to all
men whatevertheir status regarding salvation. Click here for a summary of
the arguments that favor Romans 7:14-25 as a description of a believer over
an unbeliever (or vice versa), as there are legitimate points favoring both
interpretations.
The language clearlyindicates a purpose to summarize what has gone before.
Then (686)(ara) can be translated therefore, then, now, consequently and is
used to mark a transition to what naturally follows from the preceding
arguments.
I find - The Greek verb here is heurisko which gives us our English
"Eureka!" - I found it - This exclamationis attributed to Archimedes on
discovering a method for determining the purity of gold.
Find (2147)(heurisko)means to learn the locationof something, either by
intentional searching or by unexpected discoverylearn whereabouts of
something. It means to find, discover, come upon, happen to find, to learn
something previously not known, frequently involving an element of surprise.
Heurisko is the source of our English word eureka from an exclamation
attributed to Archimedes on discovering a method for determining the purity
of gold. The presenttense indicates continuous actions.
Leon Morris writes that "I find puts this as a discovery. It is not something
that Paul lays down as his presupposition, but a conclusionhe has reached
from a study of the facts. There is some emphasis on the factthat the self-

same “I” has both these opposite experiences. Paulinsists that he has the will
to do good. But the trouble is that evil is right there with me. He cannot escape
it. (Morris, L. The Epistle to the Romans. Grand Rapids, Mich.; Leicester,
England: W. B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press)
Wayne Barberwrites that…
Paul says, I find, actually I have discovered(heurisko)a principle, a "law,"
that "the evil (kakos)" is present in me. It is inherent in my flesh. He is simply
restating what he saidin Romans 7:18. In his flesh is a law (prinicple); it is the
very presence ofevil within his flesh, his body of sin. But, he says, he is "the
one who wishes to do good." Again, the word there is thelo—he has
"determined in his will" to do good. It doesn’tmake a lot of sense to me that a
person who is in Adam, under the law, doomed to the unrighteous works of
the flesh, ungodly, devoted to sin, and an enemy to all that God represents,
would say "I’m the one who wishes to do good."
The principle that evil is present - In Romans 7:22-23 Paul describes an
opposing principle, the law of God.
Principle (3551)(nomos) is used in this context to stand for the regulative
principle which exercisesa control overone. Clearly in this contextnomos
does not refer to the Mosaic Law, but to an inviolable spiritual principle (see
similar use Romans 8:2 [note]). It could be consideredanalogous to the
phrase, the "law" of gravity (but see Wuest's note below). Nomos is used in
the sense ofa principle of operation, similar to Paul's use earlierin the letter,
where he speaks oflaw of faith (Ro 3:27-note) and as he does in Galatians,
where he speaks ofthe law of Christ (Galatians 6:2).
Newellwrites that Paul…
now states as a settled conclusion, whathe has experimentally discovered. And
we all need to consentto the fact-evenif we have found God's way of
deliverance, that evil is present. It is the denial of this fact that has wrecked
thousands of lives! For evil will be present until the Lord comes, bringing in
the redemption of our bodies.
Wuest explains that law (principle)…

… could refer to a law such as the constant rule of experience imposing itself
on the will such as a modern scientific law, or the Mosaic law, or to the law of
sin which Paul speaks ofas in his members (Vincent). The last interpretation
seems mostin keeping with the times in which Paul is writing, and with the
context. The law in his members warring againstthe law of his mind is, of
course, the evil nature. Paul finds a condition that when he desires to do good,
this evil nature always asserts itselfagainstthe doing of that good. He brings
out the same truth in Gal5:17 (note) where he says,
“The flesh (evil nature) has a passionate desire to suppress the Spirit, and the
Spirit has a passionate desire to suppress the flesh. And these are set in
opposition to eachother so that you may not do the things which you desire to
do.” (
Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament:Eerdmans
)
In this verse Paul says that evil is the constantrule of experience imposing
itself on the will. Paul found that evil is still present in an individual whenever
he wants to do good.
Barnes has a goodexplanation of the law writing that…
There is a law whose operationI experience wheneverI attempt to do good.
There have been various opinions about the meaning of the word law in this
place. It is evident that [it] is used here in a sense somewhatunusual. But it
retains the notion which commonly attaches to it of that which binds, or
controls. And though this to which he refers differs from a law, inasmuch as it
is not imposed by a superior, which is the usual idea of a law, yet it has so far
the sense oflaw that it binds, controls, influences, or is that to which he was
subject. There canbe no doubt that he refers here to his carnaland corrupt
nature; to the evil propensities and dispositions which were leading him
astray. His representing this as a law is in accordancewith all that he says of
it, that it is servitude, that he is in bondage to it, and that it impedes his efforts
to be holy and pure. The meaning is this: "I find a habit, a propensity, an
influence of corrupt passions and desires, which, when I would do right,

impedes my progress, andprevents my accomplishing what I would." Comp.
Gal 5:17-note. Every Christian is as much acquainted with this as was the
apostle Paul. (Albert Barnes. Barnes NT Commentary)
MacDonaldadds that Paul…
finds a principle or law at work in his life causing all his goodintentions to
end in failure. When he wants to do what is right, he ends up by sinning.
(MacDonald, W & Farstad, A. Believer's Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson)
Lingering sin does battle with every good thing a believer desires to do. The
Sin Nature wants us to try to do goodapart from God. Even if basedupon the
Word of God but to take the truth, the Word and try to work it according to
the flesh.
The Lord warned Cain who was angry with Abel because his sacrifice was
accepted…
If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do
well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must
master it. (Genesis 4:7)
Here in Romans 7:21 Paul is saying that this "principle" still applies and sin is
always in the shadows, ready to pounce and lead us into disobedience. We
must master it! I don't understand exactly how Cain was to accomplishthis
but Paul goes onin the next verses (and Romans 8) to explain how believers
can accomplishthis task.
Haldane makes an interesting observationnoting that…
The evil propensity of our nature the Apostle calls a law (principle), because
of its strength and permanence. It has the force of a law in corrupt nature.
This proves that it is of himself, as to his present state, that the Apostle speaks.
None but the regenerate man is properly sensible of this law.
It does not refer to conscience, whichin an unregenerate man will smite him
when he does that which he knows to be wrong. It refers to the evil principle
which counteracts him when he would do that which is right.

This law is the greatestgrievance to every Christian. It disturbs his happiness
and peace more than any other cause. It constantly besets him, and, from its
influence, his very prayers, instead of being in themselves worthy of God, need
forgiveness, andcan be acceptedonly through the mediation of Christ. It is
strange that any Christian should even hesitate as to the characterin which
the Apostle uses this language. It entirely suits the Christian, and not in one
solitary feature does it wearthe feeblestsemblance of any other character.
(Haldane, R. An Exposition of Romans)
S Lewis Johnson offers an interesting analysis of this last sectionwriting that
in…
In the final cycle of the apostle's reasoning he points out that the enemy within
is strongerthan his renewedself(Ed note: referring to the Christian). The
new life alone is not sufficient for overcoming in the struggle for victory. The
another law which always wins the battle againstthe law of his mind and
brings him into captivity is the "law" of indwelling sin (cf. Romans 7:21, 25).
The believer, thus, is always in a losing conflict. The presenttenses of verse
twenty-three vividly portray the habitual struggle that always ends, it seems,
in defeat. And, finally, there comes the agonizing cry of verse twenty-four,
"Oh, wretchedman that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?"
The body is the body lookedat as that in which the death of indwelling sin is
located. Paulis now at the end of self, the only time God cancome in and
deliver the believer. No longer is he looking within; it is "who shall deliver
me?" It was Alfred Lord Tennysonwho wrote,
Oh! that a man would arise in me
That the man I am may ceaseto be
That is the cry of the concernedChristian, cognizantof his weakness in
himself and longing for deliverance from the thralldom of indwelling sin. In
the final verse of the sectionthe 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 answerto the longing for deliverance. He says here what he will say

in an expanded way in the next chapter (cf. Romans 8:1-11). The victory is
found in the continuing ministry of the Holy Spirit and in His final
deliverance at the resurrection.
Present(3873)(parakeimaifrom pará = near, with + keímai= to lie) (only
other NT use Ro 7:18) means literally to lie near and so to be adjacentto or to
be within reach(present tense = continually). It is used with the metaphorical
meaning in this verse which conveys the idea of to be at hand or be present.
Barnes explains that the idea of parakeimaimeans…
Is near; is at hand. It starts up unbidden, and undesired. It is in the path, and
never leaves us, but is always ready to impede our going, and to turn us from
our gooddesigns. Compare Psalm65:3, "Iniquities prevail againstme."
(Spurgeon's comment) The sense is, that to do evil is agreeableto our strong
natural inclinations and passions. (Ibid)
Wants (2309)(thelo) describes that desire (present tense = continually) which
comes from one’s emotions. It is a predetermined and focusedwill that one
sets to do. It is an active decisionof the will, implying volition (will) and
purpose. It is a conscious willing that denotes a more active resolution urging
on to action.
To do (4160)(poieo)means to make or to do and expressesactioneither as
completed or continued (present tense = continually).
Good(2570)(kalos)refers to that which is inherently excellentor intrinsically
good.
Can not all believers identify with the way Hendriksen sums up Romans 7:22
noting that…
The inflexible “law” to which reference is here made, and which the author of
this epistle—as wellas every believer—is constantly discovering, is this:
“When I want to do good, evil lies close at hand.” In view of the fact that,
according to Ro 7:17, 20, sinful human nature has establishedits residence in
Paul’s own house (his soul), and has done this with a wickedpurpose, the
statement“evil lies close athand,” is indeed very logical. This “evil,” here

personified, may be lying down, but is certainly not sleeping. It is pictured as
if it were watching the apostle to see whetherhe is about to carry out a good
intention. Whenever such a noble thought or suggestionenters Paul’s heart,
evil immediately interrupts in order to turn the gooddeed into its opposite.
(Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. NT Commentary Set. BakerBook)
Guzik writes "Anyone who has tried to do goodis aware ofthis struggle. We
never know how hard it is to stop sinning until we try.“No man knows how
bad he is until he has tried to be good.” (C. S. Lewis)" (Romans 7
Commentary)
Romans 7:22 For I joyfully concur with the law of Godin the inner man,
(NASB: Lockman)
Greek:sunedomai(1SPMI) garto nomo tou theou kata ton eso anthropon,
Amplified: ForI endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inmost self
[with my new nature]. (Amplified Bible - Lockman)
Moffatt: I cordially agree with God's law, so far as my inner self is concerned,
NLT: I love God's law with all my heart. (NLT - Tyndale House)
Wuest: ForI rejoice in the law of God according to the inward man. (
Young's Literal: For I joyfully concur with the law of Godin the inner man,
WHAT IS HIS ASSESSMENT OF THE LAW OF GOD?
FOR I JOYFULLY CONCUR WITH THE LAW OF GOD IN THE INNER
MAN: sunedomai (1SPMI)gar to nomo tou theou kata ton eso anthropon:
Ro 8:7; Job 23:12;Ps 1:2; 19:8, 9, 10;40:8; 119:16, 24, 35, 47, 48, 72, 92;Ps
119:97 104, 111, 113, Ps 119:127,167,174;Isa 51:7; Jn 4:34; Heb 8:10
Ro 2:29; 2Co 4:16; Eph 3:16; Col3:9; 1Pet3:4
For (gar) introduces the explanation of the conflict of goodand evil Paul had
just discussedin Romans 7:21.

I joyfully concur - This is a stronger expressionthan agree with the Law (Ro
7:16-note)
Joyfully concur (4913)(sunedomaifrom sún = with + hedomai = to be pleased
from hedos = delight, enjoyment) means to rejoice in with oneself, to feel
satisfactionconcerning, to joyfully agree (presenttense = continually). Others
attribute to it the meaning of inward satisfaction. Wouldan unsaved man
have this response?
Barnes has an interesting note on sunedomai writing that it…
occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It properly means, to rejoice with
any one; and expresses notonly approbation of the understanding, as the
expression, "I consentunto the law," in Romans 7:16 (note), but, more than
that, it denotes sensible pleasure in the heart. It indicates not only intellectual
assent, but emotion--an emotion of pleasure in the contemplation of the law.
And this shows that the apostle is not speaking ofan unrenewed man. Of such
a man it might be said that his conscienceapprovedthe law; that his
understanding was convincedthat the law was good;but never yet did it occur
that an impenitent sinner found emotions of pleasure in the contemplation of
the pure and spiritual law of God. If this expressioncanbe applied to an
unrenewed man, there is, perhaps, not a single mark of a pious mind which
may not with equal propriety be so applied. It is the natural, obvious, and
usual mode of denoting the feelings of piety, an assentto the Divine law
followedwith emotions of sensible delight in the contemplation. Comp. Ps
119:97, "O how love I thy law; it is my meditation all the day." Ps 1:2, "But
his delight is in the law of the Lord (see expositon)." Ps 19:7, 8, 19, 10, 11;Job
23:12. (Albert Barnes. Barnes NT Commentary)
Law (see note above)of God - This principle is opposedto the Law of sin,
which brings his members (i.e., his body, his hands, his tongue, etc.)into
captivity.
KJV Bible Commentary explains that…
Paul has come to the conclusionthat as long as the believer is alive there will
be a constantwarfare betweenthe old sinful nature and his delight in the law

of God. Unfortunately, when the believer attempts to win that battle in
himself, he is always defeated. Self-attempts to rid our members of the
tyranny of indwelling sin cause the frustration which underlies this passage.
(Dobson, E G, Charles Feinberg, E Hindson, Woodrow Kroll, H L.
Wilmington: KJV Bible Commentary: Nelson)
Inner (2080)(eso from eis = in, into) means Into, in, within. Eso when used
with a prefixed article ("the") assumes the role of an adjective. As used by
Paul, the inner man means the mind or soul.
Note that the only other use of the phrase the inner man (also by Paul) clearly
in context refers to believers…
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be
strengthenedwith power through His Spirit in the inner man (Ep 3:16-note)
Charles Ryrie writes that…
an unbeliever would not say this, further supporting the view that Paul is
relating his experience as a believer." (The Ryrie Study Bible: New American
Standard Translation: 1995. MoodyPublishers)
Henry Morris (who feels this sectionrefers to a believer) says
The "inward man" here is evidently the same as the new man, for the old man
(see note Romans 6:6) could never "delight in the law of God." (Morris,
Henry: Defenders Study Bible. World Publishing)
Hendriksen comments on the inner man writing that…
Now the apostle states thathe delights in God’s law according to his inner
being. When he uses such phraseologyhe is not copying Plato or the Stoics. He
is not expressing a contrastbetweenman’s rational nature and his lower
appetites. With Paul the inner man is the one that is hidden from the public
gaze. It indicates the heart. It is here that a new principle of life has been
implanted by the Holy Spirit. By means of this implantation the sinner has
become a new man, a person who is being daily transformed into the image of
Christ. (Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. NT Commentary Set. Baker
Book)

Romans 7:23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war
againstthe law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which
is in my members. (NASB: Lockman)
Greek:blepo (1SPAI) de heteron nomon en tois melesin mou
antistrateuomenon(PMPMSA)to nomo tou noos mou kai aichmalotizonta
(PAPMSA) me en to nomo tes hamartias to onti (PAPMSD)en tois melesin
mou.
Amplified: But I discern in my bodily members [in the sensitive appetites and
wills of the flesh] a different law (rule of action) at war againstthe law of my
mind (my reason)and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in
my bodily organs [in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh]. (Amplified
Bible - Lockman)
Berkley:But in my whole natural make-up I observe another law, battling
againstthe principles which my reasondictates, and making me a prisoner to
the law of sin that controls my members.
Moffatt: but then I find another law in members which conflicts with the law
of my mind and makes me a prisoner to sin's law that resides in my members.
NLT: But there is another law at work within me that is at warwith my mind.
This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.
(NLT - Tyndale House)
Wuest: But I see a different kind of a law in my members, waging waragainst
the law of my mind, making me a prisoner of warto the law of the sinful
nature which is in my members.
Young's Literal: but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging
war againstthe law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin
which is in my members.
WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENTLAW THAT WAS IN HIS MEMBERS?
SIN INDWELLING HIM --(Ro 7:17,20)WHAT WAS THE OTHER LAW &
THE 2 RESULTS?

BUT I SEE A DIFFERENTLAW IN THE MEMBERSOF MY BODY
WAGING WAR AGAINST THE LAW OF MY MIND [my agreement with
the law of God] : blepo (1SPAI) de heteron nomon en tois melesin mou
antistrateuomenon(PMPMSA)to nomo tou noos mou:
Ro 7:5,21,25;8:2; Eccl7:20; Gal5:17; 1Ti6:11,12;Heb 12:4; Jas 3:2; 4:1;
1Pet2:11
Ro 6:13,19
But (de) introduces another law (of sin) which contrasts to the law of God.
The real Paul rejoicedin God’s law. He recognizedit for what it was and
rejoicedaccordingly. But obeying it is anotherthing altogether, and to that he
now turns.
See (991)(blepo) means to see and frequently with the sense ofbecoming
aware of or taking notice of something.
D L Moody once wrote "I have more trouble with D .L. Moody than with any
man I know." (To that I have to say "Amen" regarding the man I see in the
mirror eachmorning!)
Different (2087)(heteros)means another but of a different kind. Paul saw a
law different from that of the spirit of life. The law he is referring to in context
is the Law of Sin "used in the sense 'principle' or 'rule of action', though with
the nuance that there is some elementof compulsion (he is made prisoner)."
(Morris)
Law (see note above)
Members (3196)(melos) refers to the members of body as the seatof the
desires and passions. ConsistentlyPaulproceeds from his basic position that
the body is not evil, though the forces of evil work through it.
Vine explains that melos in this context refers to…
A member or limb, here in the plural (see similar use in Col3:5 [note]), is
used morally, our actual limbs being used as instruments either for the world,

the things on the earth, instead of being put to death, or used for Christ and
His glory, and the things in the heavens. We thus either identify ourselves with
the old man [note], or with the new man [note]. (Collected writings of W. E.
Vine)
Here Paul is referring to the principle of indwelling sin (his unredeemed and
still sinful humanness) exerting its effectin the members of his body waging
war againsthis desire to obey God's law.
Harry Ironside writes that Paul…
He detected "anotherlaw," a principle, in his members (that is, the members
of the body through which the carnalmind works)that wars againstthe law
of his renewedmind (Romans 7:23). This principle he called"the law of sin
and death." It takes him captive to the sin-principle which is inseparable from
his physical members so long as he is in this life. Were it not for this principle
or controlling power there would be no danger of perverting or misusing any
human desire, or propensity. (Romans 7 Commentary)
Hendriksen comments on the law of Godand the war with the law of sin…
If “God’s law” should be interpreted as a governing principle, as has just now
been shown, logic requires that also this “different law” must be thus
explained. Clearly—as the apostle states in so many words—that“different
law” is the law of sin. How it operates has been indicated in verse 21. That it is
making the apostle, and all true believers everywhere, prisoners is probably
another way of expressing the thought of verse 14b. Again and again“the law
of sin” causes the author of this letter to do what he does not want to do, and
againand againit prevents him from doing what he wants to do, facts about
which he bitterly complains, and which he deeply and sincerelydeplores.
(Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. NT Commentary Set. BakerBook)
Waging war against(497)(antistrateuomaifrom antí = against+ strateuomai
= wage war, lead an army, be on active service, be engagedin warfare,
English words strategy, stratagem= trick) means to make a military
expedition or take the field againstanyone, and so oppose or waragainst. The

Jesus was the rescuer from the body of death

Jesus was the rescuer from the body of death

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Jesus was the rescuer from the body of death

Similar to Jesus was the rescuer from the body of death (20)

More from GLENN PEASE

More from GLENN PEASE (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (17)

Jesus was the rescuer from the body of death