Romans 7 Study Notes

7:14-25 This section is probably the most difficult and controversial passage in the letter to the Romans. For the most part the Eastern Church has interpreted it as referring to an unregenerate person (e.g., Paul before his conversion). The Western Church has followed Augustine, Martin Luther, and John Calvin in thinking it refers to a regenerate person (Paul after his conversion). Some suggest a mediating position. One such view interprets the subject as an OT believer who loves the law (Pss 1; 119) but struggles to perform it. Living before Christ and Pentecost, this person does not have the permanent and empowering gift of the Holy Spirit, as do new covenant believers. Another view holds that the subject is almost converted to Christ and is now under conviction of sin by the law.

The view that the subject of vv. 14-25 is a regenerate person is sometimes modified in the following ways. (1) The subject is saved but has not had “baptism” in the Pentecostal sense or a second work of grace (as held in some types of Wesleyan theology). (2) The subject is an immature believer, not yet equipped for warfare with his fleshly desires. (3) The subject is a believer trying to become sanctified by legalism.

The view outlined here takes the position that the subject is a regenerated believer, most obviously Paul himself but generically every believer. Paul describes the new self in relation to the law of God and is looking at only one aspect of the person. The new self will be considered in relation to the Holy Spirit in the next section where the Holy Spirit is mentioned twenty-one times. The main reason for the position offered here is a consideration of what this person’s problem really is. In v. 14 he is said to be of the flesh (Gk sarkinos, not sarkikos). Many translations confuse these two Greek words. The first word emphasizes composition while the second emphasizes tendency (“fleshy” vs. “fleshly”). In v. 18 in my flesh means the whole fallen nature that needs the resurrection body (Php 3:21). In v. 24 the wretched man cries out to be rescued (“out,” Gk ek) from this body of death. As a believer in Christ, Paul longed to be delivered from the fallen human body which still has indwelling sin.

7:14-15 The law is from God and is therefore spiritual, but Paul is of the flesh (a metaphorical reference to spiritual fallenness) and thus finds himself conflicted with the heavenly law of God.

7:16-17 Paul agreed with the law and its goodness, but sin is an alien power that has residence within him and causes him to do things he hates.

7:18-19 Even after conversion, there is no part of a person that is sinless, no place without sin’s presence, and the believer is unable to keep the whole law. The only good in a believer is the presence of the Holy Spirit.

7:20-23 In the inner self (Gk eso anthropos), in one’s deepest recesses, the believer delights in God’s law, but he finds this alien power living within, waging war with him and taking him prisoner to the law of sin.

7:24-25 Many modern commentators and translators try to reorder these verses, but the order makes sense if the interpretation outlined above is followed. In v. 24 the subject cries out for deliverance from the fallen human condition. A cry of thanksgiving is then offered to God because the subject knows that Jesus will deliver him from his body. The believer recognizes that in his mind he wants to serve God’s law since it is holy, just, good, and spiritual, but at the same time his fallen nature is in the service of this alien power—sin.