14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. 16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. 17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Do you hear the struggle, the battle that is raging within Paul as he wrote this passage? Every tense used in this section of the scripture is the present tense. “I am carnal. “That which I do.” “In my flesh dwelleth no good thing.”

 

I once had a college professor say that Romans 7 was about salvation, that Paul was looking back and reviewing the conviction he felt before he was saved by faith. But you know better, don’t you?

Because you have seen that Romans 3 was about sin and our guilt, Romans 4 and 5 about salvation through faith and Romans 6 about victory over Sin. So why would Paul suddenly go back to the time when he was lost? No, the situation Paul is describing was the struggle he fought as a saved, justified, redeemed Child of God.

 

Paul puts it this way. He says there are two parts of himself, his true self, his reborn soul, the inner man but there is also the flesh, his physical body, the outward man. In his inward man, the true part of himself, he wants to serve God, but in his outward man, his flesh he cannot. Romans 7:15-17 15

For that which I (his true, saved self) do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. 16 If then I do, that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. 17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me (the flesh the physical outer man.)

 

This battle is fierce, intense and the outcome is always the same, the flesh wins every time. Romans 7:18-20 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 19 For the good that I would, I do not: but the evil, which I would not, that I do. 20 Now if I do, that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

 

These two parts of Paul, his inner soul and his outer flesh, are constantly in battle and Paul says he always loses the battle and is brought into captivity to the law of sin, which is in his body. Romans 7: 21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

 

Paul says I keep doing battle with the law and I keep losing. The law of sin in my members is too strong for the law of my mind which loves the law of God. He is made a prisoner and brought back to the stocks in the chains of sin and the law.

 

The result is that Paul cries out in his defeat in, Romans 7:24 24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

 

And in that cry is the surrender of his own power, his surrender of the law of his mind, even his surrender of the law of God. He surrenders the battle fought in his own strength, cries out and God answers his cry in vs 25 Romans 7:25 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Paul gives up trying in his own power to please God by keeping the law, he cries out from what he now knows is a body of death that has left him a wretched man and God hears and delivers him from the body of death, that old nature he wouldn’t leave in the grave.

Listen to what Paul is saying…

Do you recognize that we are fighting the same battles as Paul? Do you also see that just like Paul, we are being defeated? And we are being defeated because we are fighting to win a war that Jesus has already won and that I could never win.

 

You’ve probably heard the story that preachers often tell, about a man who said that his struggle with sin was like two dogs, one black and one white, dogs that were constantly at each other’s throats. He asks his audience, “Do you know which one will win?” Then he replies, “The one I feed.” Now that’s a great illustration about sin and allowing it to have power in our life, but it is exactly the wrong illustration here, you know why, because the fight, between those two dogs, is already over. Instead of trying not to feed one of the dogs, you need to take a rolled-up newspaper, whack them both on their hind quarters and yell, “Get out of here.”

 

When it comes to the Christian and the law, quit fighting, there shouldn’t be a battle anymore because Christ won this war!

 

Paul again warns the Galatians of trying to win what Jesus has already won in Galatians 3:10-13 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith…

 

We must see that this battle as one we can’t win and shouldn’t even fight.

Galatians 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us…

Like Paul we must admit defeat, surrender our own strength and cry out for deliverance from this wretched body of death. We must cry out to the only one who has conquered sin, death and the grave. The one who has already claimed the victory. I must cry out for Jesus, my savior, my deliverer.