Have you ever had another Christian share with you a deep, dark struggle? Maybe this confession came through an email, a phone conversation, or a heart-to-heart discussion. It may have come from your spouse, your child, a relative, or a friend. The confession may have been: (1) “I’ve been committing adultery.” (2) “I’m a homosexual.” (3) “I’m an alcoholic.” (4) “I’m getting a divorce.” (5) “I beat my children.” Can you think back to the last time you were on the receiving end of such a confession? What went through your mind? How did you feel? Did you think less of this person?

In Romans 7:7-25, we will be studying one of the greatest confessions in the Bible. It was penned by one of the greatest men who has ever lived. This passage also happens to be one of the most perplexing passages in the entire Bible. Although there are many different views on how this passage should be understood, it seems to me that the most obvious explanation is the best one. Paul is speaking of his own personal experience.

But how can an apostle, a great missionary, an incomparable theologian, admit to such struggles as are recorded here in his own Christian experience? Before answering that question, allow me to ask you a few more questions: Since you became a Christian have you ever said, “I don’t understand what I do-for what I want to do I don’t do, but what I hate, I do?” Have you ever said, “When I want to do good, evil is right there with me?” Have you ever felt like a “wretched person”? Is there a besetting sin in your life? A nasty habit you haven’t been able to whip? A person you can’t love? An attitude you can’t seem to change?

If you are like me, I’m sure you can relate all too well. Well, if we can admit as much, why is it so unbelievable that Paul would also struggle with sin after he became a Christian? One thing we so easily forget, and so often need to be reminded of, is that there really are no superstar-Christians. Yes, certainly some are more mature and committed than others; some have taken on the character of Jesus Christ more than others; some have conquered more bad habits than others; but none has arrived!

Before we look at our passage, let’s recall where we have been. Romans 1:18-3:20 dealt with the problem of sin. Romans 3:21-4:25 discussed our need for salvation. Romans 5:1-8:39 deals with sanctification-our need to continually grow in Christ. So we are now looking at how we can mature in Christ and be all that He wants us to be. It is important to note that the entire book of Romans, up to 7:6, is written in the third person (”you”). Then in 7:7, Paul shifts to the first person (”I”), indicating that he is sharing his personal story, his autobiography. From 7:7-13 he speaks in the past tense, but from 7:14 to the end of the chapter he shifts to the present tense. My conclusion is that, in 7:7-13, Paul is describing his life while under conviction, immediately preceding his Damascus Road experience, while beginning in 7:14; he is describing his life after receiving Christ. In these 19 verses, Paul is going to explain two biblical fundamentals.

[Paul begins by explaining that...]

1. We can’t please God by serving the Law (7:7-13). Although Paul has already made this clear in previous chapters, he wants to drive home his point even further. In 7:7, Paul continues his practice of asking rhetorical questions and concluding with an exclamation, “What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be!” Right from the get-go, Paul wants to make sure we understand that the Law is not sin. Paul’s response to this notion is, “On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COVET.’” Here, in verse 7, Paul gives one of the benefits of the Law: The Law reveals sin.

Without the Law, Paul would not have known how sinful he was. Interestingly, Paul refers specifically to the tenth commandment: “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.” The word translated “covet”(1) is a neutral term. Yet, the word typically refers to an illegitimate desire and is most often translated “lust.” Why did Paul choose this particular commandment? Because it convicts the heart! The first nine commandments can be publicly verified. One can demonstrate that he has kept the first nine commands because they are external commands. But the final commandment cannot be verified because it is an internal matter of the heart. So in an external sense, it is possible to keep the first nine commandments, but we all must acknowledge that our inner desires and longings are often very wrong. I believe James had this commandment in mind when he wrote in James 2:10, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.”

How many of you hate getting rid of things that you have become accustomed to? I can be that way. I used the same hairbrush for years. In fact, this brush was the nastiest brush you have ever seen. After years and years of use, it accumulated all kinds of hair, dust, and dirt. It hardly looked like a human should be using it. Lori said as much and insisted that I get rid of it. But I didn’t want to part with this brush. I didn’t care if it was nasty, so day after day I used this brush until more and more bristles came off. Finally, I knew this brush had served its purpose. The Law must be contrasted with my brush. If you lose one bristle off a brush, it’s not a big deal; you can keep on using it. However, if you break even one law, you are fit to be thrown away.(2)

In 7:8, Paul states, “But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.” Once Paul came to understand the true meaning of “coveting” he went on a sin shopping spree. Sin “produced” in Paul “coveting of every kind.” In the latter half of verse 8, Paul said, “For apart from the Law sin is dead,” however, we have just seen that sin uses a good law as an “opportunity.” The word translated “opportunity” was often used in military and commercial contexts to denote the base of operations for an expedition or war.(3) What is the point? Sin has used the Law as a base of operations to carry out strategic warfare against mankind.

In 7:9-11, Paul writes, “I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.” In his pre-Christian days Paul had fancied himself as “alive” spiritually, but when the full implications of the Law dawned upon him, he was defeated with guilt and “died” in the sense of depression and defeat in his spiritual struggle. Sinful man is incapable of keeping the Law to the degree that God demands. Therefore, as a result of the sin that existed in Paul, he was deceived and eventually killed. In 7:12, Paul continues his argument. In fact, he goes out of his way to make his case. He writes, “So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” This is quite an endorsement from a man who has spent much of Romans critiquing the Law. This means we must understand God’s purpose for the Law. The purpose of the Law from an Old Testament perspective was twofold: (1) to manifest the glory of God(4) and (2) to provide for the good of Israel.(5) The purpose of the Law from a New Testament perspective was threefold: (1) to reveal sin,(6) (2) to drive sinful man to Christ(7) and (3) to foreshadow Christ.(8) These are the reasons why Paul can say the Law is “holy and righteous and good.”

The problem is NOT with the Law; the problem is with sin! Paul explains this concept even further in 7:13: “Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.” Verse 13 vilifies the Law and incriminates sin as the culprit. It is interesting to note there are at least 15 Hebrew words in the Old Testament for sin. There are about as many different words in the Greek New Testament. Such a rich vocabulary in both Testaments reveals fully what God thinks about sin in all its forms. It is exceedingly sinful.

It was sin that killed Paul. Last weekend, our two-year-old, Justin, decided to do something that he was forbidden from doing. He climbed up into our medicine cabinet and polished off an entire bottle of Tums! Although we had told him again and again not to do this, it was too great of a temptation for him. The forbidden is so desirable to him. Lori immediately called Poison Control and found out that he was going to live. But the dispatcher said he would send us some Mr. Yuk stickers for Tums bottles and the like. Unfortunately, I’m not sure that we will find Mr. Yuk stickers to be the solution either. Justin may find Mr. Yuk to be even more enticing! Why? Because he loves to sin and any law meant to keep him from sin drives him to sin all the more.

[We can't please God by serving the Law because we are sinners by nature and by choice. We desperately need divine intervention. Now we will learn a second biblical fundamental...]

2. We can’t please God by serving the flesh (7:14-25). In Romans 6, the problem was, “How can I stop doing bad things?” while the problem here is, “How can I ever do anything good?”(9)

• Paul states the problem three times: Verse 14: “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.” Verse 18: “Nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.” Verse 21: “The principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.”

The problem is very straightforward: Our flesh is contaminated with sin. Our flesh is like the structure of a house that’s been eaten up by termites. You can paint the inside, put down new carpet, and buy new furniture, but you have not fixed the structural problem. Tony Evans says, “The flesh is like a bad in-law; you can’t get rid of it! It just keeps hanging around!” This will continue to be the case for the rest of our earthly lives. The flesh is with us until God gives us a new body that is free from any of the contamination of sin.

• Paul then describes the war he experienced three times: Verse 15: “What I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.” Verse 18: “For the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.” Verses 22-23: “For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,(10) but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind.”

The believer wages an agonizing war. Did you ever stop to realize that there was no war that raged within you before you became a Christian? Prior to trusting in Jesus, you were shackled in sin, you were a prisoner of the Devil. But once you trusted in Christ, you became an enemy of hell! In your unsaved state, you were absolutely no threat to Satan, but now you are a real threat and he is going to do everything he can to render you ineffective and unfruitful.

• Finally, Paul explains the reason for the problem three times: Verse 17: “It is sin which dwells in me.” Verse 20: “It is sin which dwells in me.” Verse 24: “It is the body of this death!”

Paul reminds us once again that as long as we are in this body, we will battle sin. The sad truth is: Although we have died to sin, sin has not died to us. While the believer is free from the power of sin, he still struggles with the presence of sin. Yet, the book of Romans is full of great news: (1) We have a new position. Through the finished work of Christ, God has declared us not guilty.

(2) We also are a new person. When you trusted in Jesus Christ, you became a new person who possesses a new nature. (3) This results in a new power. You are no longer ruled by your old nature. Now, you have a new nature that releases in you the power to say “no” to sin. Yes, you will battle sin for the rest of your life, but you no longer have to be ruled by it.

In Romans 1-4, Paul demonstrated that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, now in chapter 7, Paul shows the need for that same grace in sanctification. This is a reminder to us that God’s grace is still necessary, not only for holy standing, but also for holy living, because man in his own power is powerless to gain either.

What is Paul’s final conclusion? Look at 7:24. Paul cries out, “Wretched man that I am!” The word “wretched”(11) is used only one other place in the New Testament. In Revelation 3:17 where Jesus says to the church of Laodicea, “Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.” This is a hard verse, isn’t it? Yet, Paul calls himself a “Wretched man!” Obviously, Paul is in utter anguish! Only a mature believer reaches the place of both self-disgust and self-despair.

Paul goes on to ask, “Who will set me free from the body of this death?” The imagery Paul uses here is very interesting. In his day, if you killed someone, one of the ways you might be punished was by having the dead body of your victim tied to your body. You would be face-to-face with the person you killed. When they tied that dead body to you, that cadaver signed your death warrant because as decay set in on the cadaver, it would begin to penetrate the pores of your skin, poisoning your blood, and ultimately killing you. So you were looking death in the face as you dragged a dead body around with you. What you wanted more than anything was release from that body. That’s a gruesome image, but it pictures well what Paul is saying here. He was dragging around the dead carcass of his sinful flesh. It was dead because it had been put to death by Paul’s death with Christ, but it was still weighing him down. You are trapped in your flesh until Christ releases you.(12)

In 7:25, Paul wraps up this passage with some good news and some bad news. He gives the good news first: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” We can have victory through “Jesus Christ our Lord!” We will find out next week that this is made possible only through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. However, there will forever be battle on this side of eternity. Paul reminds us of that in the last sentence of chapter 7: “So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.”

In Colossians 3:4, Paul referred to Christ as “our life.” That is a profound statement because it means Jesus Christ did not come merely to be our helper, our divine assistant. He did not come just to take part in our lives, but to take over our lives.

My senior year of high school, I had two weight lifting classes. My weight lifting partner was Todd Lewis, a 5′8″ 160 pound dynamo. Although he was relatively small, he was the strongest power lifter in the history of our school. Whenever Todd worked out, he lifted weights that I couldn’t even roll down a hill in a hurricane. I used to joke with Todd and say that the bulk of my workout was just to “spot” him. A “spot” is when your partner needs just a little touch from you to finish a particular lift. Often Todd needed me backing him up, prepared to give the bar a little nudge!

Spotting has no place in the Christian life. God doesn’t want us to exert all of our human energy and then look to Him if we need Him to complete the task. He wants to be our life. He wants us to be consumed with Him!

So how can we practically ensure that Christ is our life? By feeding our new man! How many of you like water? I must confess I have never liked water. Water is always my last drink of choice. However, I have been learning a great deal about the benefits of drinking water. I have been reading a book entitled Maximum Energy(13) that suggests we should cut our body weight in half and drink that many ounces of water. So if you weigh 200 pounds, you should be drinking 100 ounces of water. I started doing that several weeks ago and have found that I now enjoy drinking water and have lost my desire for Dr. Pepper and Mountain Dew. If the Holy Spirit moves in a mighty way, I may consider trying this with vegetables as well.

The point is: If we are to wage war with our dislike for sin, we must starve our flesh and feed our spiritual appetites. This means throughout the day we ask ourselves the simple question: How can I satisfy my true hunger? What is your true hunger? Whether you know it or not, your true hunger and thirst is to live a life that honors God. If you have placed your faith in Christ, you literally yearn to love God and worship Him constantly. Therefore, we must find ways to satisfy this thirst. We must bloat ourselves with the Living Water.

This means that we look for opportunities to spend time in God’s Word. This can be done throughout the day (e.g. reading the Word, meditating on the Word, listening to Christian radio or tapes, fellowshipping with other believers, etc.). We must constantly be feeding our inner man or else the desires of the flesh will consume us and bury our inner man.

Right now, you may be immersed in a sexual struggle. You may be addicted to pornography or masturbation. You may fight the temptation to be immoral or adulterous. You feel the war raging within you. There is help for you when Christ becomes your life!

Maybe your struggle is with your tongue. You struggle with gossip, slander, backbiting, or plain talkativeness. God wants to help you in this struggle. But He wants you to relinquish your hold on your life. He wants you to submit yourself to Him. Will you do so?

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Copyright © 2001 Keith R. Krell. All rights reserved. All Scripture quotations, unless indicated, are taken from the New American Standard Bible, C 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1977, and 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, and are used by permission.

Permissions: Feel free to reproduce and distribute any articles written by Keith Krell, in part or in whole, in any format, provided that you do not alter the wording in any way or charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. It is our desire to spread this information, not protect or restrict it.Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: by Keith Krell, Timeless Word Ministries®, 2508 State Ave NE Olympia, WA 98506, 360-352-9044, www.timelessword.com

Notes

1. Gk. epithumeseis describes a desire or longing. (back)

2. See Lev 18:5; Gal 3:12; James 2:10.(back)

3. Gk. aphorme, BAGD, 127c.(back)

4. See Exod 19:5-6; Lev 19:2; Deut 4:6-8; 10:17-19.(back)

5. See Deut 10:12-13 and 28:1-14.(back)

6. See Rom 7:5; 1 Cor 15:56; Gal 3:19.(back)

7. See Rom 10:4; Gal 3:19, 22-25.(back)

8. See Luke 24:27, 44-45; John 5:39, 46; Rom 15:3-4; Col 2:17; Heb 10:1.(back)

9. Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor, 1989), 537. (back)

10. Cf. 2 Cor 4:16; and Eph 3:16 are the only two places in the NT where we find the phrase “inner man” (eso anthropon). In both contexts, the term is used of believers.(back)

11. Gk. Talaiporos. (back)

12. Tony Evans, The Promise (Chicago: Moody, 1996), 176. For a fuller description of the historicity behind this illustration, see Kenneth Boa and William Kruidenier, Holman NT Commentary on Romans, vol. 6 (Nashville: Holman, 2000), 232-233.(back)

13. Ted Broer, Maximum Energy (Lake Mary, FL: Siloam, 1999), 37-53.(back)

All Scripture quotations, unless indicated, are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1977, and 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, and are used by permission.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
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