After warning of the coming judgment, the apostle Peter wrote,“Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen” (2 Peter 3:14-18). The 7th chapter of Romans is most certainly among those things written by Paul that are hard to understand and perverted by the unlearned and unstable unto their own destruction. It is often taught, and widely accepted that, in Romans 7, Paul is describing himself as a born again believer who wants to do God’s will but can’t ever get any real victory over sin. The thought is that in stating he could not find power to overcome sin, Paul’s message is that Christians will always sin but it’s okay because God’s mercy and grace now covers them if only they “believe”, their mind agrees with God, and they are trying their best to do right. Although the passive reader, the unlearned, and the unstable may arrive at the former conclusion, it is perverted and leading many to destruction. Those who have been seduced by this teaching have a false sense of security through supposing to justify sin in their own lives by comparing themselves with Paul and his condition in Romans 7. In doing so, whether they realize it or not, this is blaming God for their sin by denying His power to deliver them and all the while daring Him to judge them.

Yes, we must rely solely upon God’s mercy and grace to be saved, but these are not insufficient as to leave us in a sinful state. Nor are they means to justify sinful behavior. Instead, as Paul wrote in Romans, and all of his letters, mercy and grace are the love and power of God to overcome sin and live righteously unto everlasting life. According to Romans 8:28-29, God has purposed for those who have been called to be conformed to the image of Jesus. Furthermore, 1 John 2:6 says, “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked”. How could any believer walk as Jesus walked and still have sin rule his life? The church will never be conformed to the image of Jesus so long as it is being persuaded by false teachers and incorrect doctrine that it is impossible to walk out our daily lives without sinning. Are not all things possible with God? (Matt. 19:26, Luke 18:27). The Holy Spirit is using this article to dispel incorrect doctrine, provide you with understanding, and prevent you from being led away with the error of the wicked.

Bearing in mind what Paul wrote in Romans 6 is essential to understanding what he wrote in chapter 7. Open your Bible and read Romans 6 before going on. The Holy Spirit would not lead the apostle to write what he did in the 6th chapter and then contradict those things in the 7th. Throughout Romans 7, Paul is defining why the Old Covenant Levitical law had its place but was, nevertheless, insufficient to save man, and that Jesus is the means to accomplish what the law could not. In verses 7-13 he writes, “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscense. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.” The law isn’t sin; it causes man to realize what sin is, and that it produces death. Paul is merely placing himself into mankind’s position to illustrate why the law was necessary. This is apparent because in Romans 5:12-14 he had already written, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned over the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come”.Although sin is not counted against man when there is no law, death reigned before the law and it still reigns over everyone who has not repented and believed the gospel. Therefore, Paul could not have been saying that he had the eternal life before the law and then died when the law came and sin was revived. In saying these things, Paul is using himself to illustrate man’s state of awareness. Through the law, man becomes aware of his sin, that sin is exceeding sinful, and that he is in a state of death. It was through this that the law showed man his need for a redeemer (Gal. 3:24).

The 14th verse provides some of the best evidence that Paul is placing himself in an illustration to reveal man’s state of death and hopelessness while under the law. It says, “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin”. Now look at what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:20 saying, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s”. Man was bought from being under sin and living carnally by the blood of Jesus! Paul could not or would not be referring to himself as a born again believer who is sold under sin. No, he is drawing a picture of man’s condition that is concurrent with still being under the law and without the life of Jesus.

Paul continues to draw the picture in verses 15-23. “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members” (NKJV). Here is the picture of a man who has come to know the law and agrees that it is good but can’t find the power to do it. Through wanting to perform the good, and continuing to do the bad, he finds that sin dwells in him, and that the sin in him causes the evil to manifest. Although he delights in God’s law, he recognizes that a war is raging within himself between the law of sin in his members and the law of God in his mind. The law of sin in his members refers to the knowledge of good and evil that man acquired through Adam in the Garden of Eden. A person will continue to be in bondage to sin until he is delivered from the knowledge of good and evil (the law of sin and death).

In the next verse, while realizing his wretched condition, man looks for a way out. “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (vs. 24). Here is another piece of evidence that Paul has been using himself in an illustration. As a born again believer and apostle, had he not already been delivered? Is he not the one who wrote Romans 6:22 saying, “But now being made free from sin, and servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life”? Did the same man not write, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20)? Was it not Paul who wrote, “Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.” (1 Cor. 15:34)?Paul is also the one who wrote, “Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me” and “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Cor. 4:16 & 11:1). Was Christ in bondage to sin? Of course not, and neither was Paul. Think about it. If Paul did what he did not want to do, and did not do what he did want to do, we would have to discount most of the New Testament! In verse 25, he reveals the answer to man’s dilemma and ends the illustration. “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin”. Man gets delivered from the bondage of sin when he repents and believes the gospel to be crucified with Jesus and begins to walk in the Spirit through regeneration. This is so apparent through what is written in Romans 6, Ephesians 2:1-10 & 4:17-24, Titus 3:3-8, and the 3rd chapter of 1 John. Those who pervert the scriptures in Romans 7 maintain that Paul says man is okay with sin in his life so long as he serves God with his mind and tries his best to please Him. Nothing could be further from the truth! Look at the first 4 verses of Romans 8. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit”. There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. As the verse says, these are people who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. In Romans 7, Paul’s description is one of a person who is enslaved to walking after the flesh. It’s not a description of himself as a born again believer, but of a man without the Holy Spirit. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus refers to the regeneration of the Holy Spirit that comes through repentance and believing the gospel; becoming a partaker of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:3-4). This law, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, makes man free from the law of sin and death that was holding him captive in Romans 7. Though it fulfilled its purpose, the law could not make man righteous because it could not destroy the root of sin and regenerate a new creature. What the law couldn’t do, God did by sending Jesus, “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”.

There are multitudes of people who, like Paul’s illustration, have come to know God’s will, know that it is good, and even delight in it. However, they cannot find the power to do it. Instead, they struggle to do what is right but continue doing the very things they hate. Whether it’s because of being seduced by false doctrine or an unwillingness to lose their life and believe the gospel, sin still has dominion over them. Paul was not preaching a weak gospel that leaves man in bondage to sin. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is the power to be free indeed! (John 8:36). Keep your focus off yourself and your ability, or inability, to surrender and obey. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. All things are possible to him who believes! (Mark 9:23)