Romans 7:25 “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.”
Was Paul there above speaking of his current situation there, after having matured in Christ?
Or, was Paul there just showing empathy and projecting back to the time when he, like many of his listeners, was new to Christ, having just met up with Christ?
We know that Paul believed practice makes perfect and that we must practice God's righteousness as found in God's words in order to perfect that righteousness in ourselves. Compare the following statements by Paul:
1 Corinthians 9:27 “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”; Romans 2:23-24 “Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.”
The first objection to what I said there is probably the claim by some that Paul says we are not supposed to keep God's law. They will sight Galatians 5:3 “For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.”
Yet these same objectors would be at a loss to explain why then Paul did have Timothy circumcised:
Acts 16:1 “Then came he to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek:
2 Which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium.
3 Him would Paul have to go forth with him; and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters: for they knew all that his father was a Greek.”
It is then rather obvious that these objectors have not fully understood Paul at places such as Galatians 5:3.
It is rather obvious that these objectors do not know what constitutes trying to keep that Old Law and what does not. Though they think they know and are qualified to teach, they see as inside a box which hides from them the peripheral details needed to complete their understanding. As a result, they are popularizing an incomplete picture to others which closes the minds of these others to be able to only see inside that same box.
These same ones see all that Paul said in Romans chapter 7 as though from inside a self-made box. But you can get free from that box if your love of God and your desire for his truth is strong enough.
Romans 7:25 “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.”
Taking that alone or even with just the few prior verses sure makes it seem that Paul was speaking of his present situation, doesn't it. And Paul was speaking of the present situation of those who had only recently met up with Christ so as to be able to exclaim, Romans 7:24-25a “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. ...”
As a good teacher does, Paul transferred himself into the place of his listeners:
1 Corinthians 9:19 “For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.
20 And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;
21 To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.
22 To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
23 And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.
24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”
Paul did not ever allow himself to fall back to the old man he was before Christ. Paul walked perfectly in Christ, keeping his body of flesh in perfect tow to the spirit of his mind which had been renewed in the likeness of Christ's mind. 1 Corinthians 2:16 “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”; Colossians 3:9-10 “Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him..”;
Ephesians 4:20 “But ye have not so learned Christ;
21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
In Romans chapter 7, as a good teacher, Paul transferred himself into the current place of his listeners: Romans 6:19 “I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.”
Also as a good teacher, Paul credited these converts to Christ as caring to try: Romans 7:5 “For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.”
There at Romans 7:5 clearly Paul is saying, (1) We are not supposed to any longer be in the flesh so as to cater to it's former lusts, and (2) as we are no longer living to the flesh to do the will of it's lusts. the motions of sin no longer are or at least should not be any longer working in our members.
What he said just before at Romans 7:4 bears that out: Romans 7:4 “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.”
And what Paul said just after also bears that out: Romans 7:6 “But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”
Again showing he is transferring himself into their place: Romans 7:7a “What shall we say then?..”
This is a good place to remember: Romans 6:19a “I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh...”
Romans 7:7 “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.”
The child accompanies his parents into the grocery store where the child sees a counter full of luscious cherries which makes his mouth water. The child also sees people walk by that counter and freely pop a single cherry or even a couple into their mouths. How does the child have the capability to know they are doing wrong? The child can only think it OK for him to also do it. We were born into a world similarly already infested by sin. (Atheists have a hard time with this one as they feel they would have automatically known right from wrong with no one ever having to tel them. They are oblivious to what they know being because God previously gave his law.)
May we not be similarly oblivious to what Paul is speaking about here.
Romans 7:8 “But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.”
The child had no way of knowing it was wrong to steal cherries as he saw everyone else doing this. There was no reason for the child to question how the owner felt about it, for if the owner did not like it then why was nothing happening to those who were doing it? No cause was there for the child to even consider it. Ecclesiastes 8:1 “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”
The child desired the cherries. Sin made it look like it was OK to just take of the cherries. Sin deceived the child for God's law said it is wrong to steal but sin made it appear that stealing was not stealing.
These are simple everyday experiences of life which Paul addresses but you are causing all that to be ignored by a false doctrine of an irreversible sin nature in the flesh of which Paul makes no such claim.
Yet speaking with empathy for his listeners, Paul relates to the situation of the Gentiles who were never under that Old Law by resorting to the time when that law was not yet in the world. He clearly has in mind, “For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Romans 5:13), when he says, “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.” (Romans 7:9-10) Thus he shows the Gentiles how all he is saying applies to them, also, for they now are getting to know God's law, in a better way, free from it having to penalize them with death.
Yet speaking as the man before he got to know Christ, Paul says: Romans 7:11 “For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.”
The little boy who had begun taking of the cherries because sin appeared to be not so sinful by everyone's doing it, now finds out it was wrong to be stealing the cherries but he has already formed a habit toward acting on his desire for the cherries and satisfying that desire by freely taking of the cherries. The sudden revelation that it is wrong does not quickly cause that formed habit to leave the child.
However, in Christ that same child will learn how to resist his flesh that the habit can then die and become completely gone.
You have been taking normal everyday things and making them complicated to others by your inaccurate beliefs as to what Paul was teaching.
Yet speaking with empathy for those who yet have to struggle with this infirmity of the flesh (Roman 6:19a) (for as we see at Romans 7:5, that should be a thing of the past), and because sin had apart from law been making itself to appear not so sinful, Paul says, “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.” (Romans 7:12-13)
Paul is yet speaking as the man yet in ignorance of how to live by God's righteousness which was taught us in Christ, speaking as the man before he met up with Christ, Paul's old man. And Paul quite clearly continues speaking with that same transference of himself back to the old man all the way through verse 24.
Then in verse 25 Paul alludes to that old man having just met up with Christ. And in Romans chapter eight speaks more about how that flesh can be brought under subjection by the spirit so that it no longer poses a temptation by the habits sin's deceptions worked upon it produced in it.
You are wrong. You are wrong. You are wrong.
And you are liable for not taking care to understand before speaking it to others.
I will need those sunglasses out there today, LOL.