Now, let's read it in context:
"Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?" (Romans 7:1)
Paul was speaking to those who knew the law and about how the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives.
"For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. 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." (Romans 7:2-4)
In the same manner in which a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives and she is only free to be married to another if her husband is dead, saints who were once bound to the law are now dead to the law by the body of Christ and they are now married to Christ that they might bring forth fruit unto God. IOW, in the same manner in which a woman is under the dominion of her husband as long as he lives, a person is under the dominion of the law of sin and death as long as it lives. It is not until the law is dealt with by the body of Christ that such a dominion ceases.
"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." (Romans 7:5)
FOR WHEN WE WERE, past tense, IN THE FLESH.
Now, what do you suppose that that means?
Again, Paul regularly used the words "law" and "flesh" interchangeably and he did so right here. Yes, WHEN WE WERE IN THE FLESH, contextually, refers to the time WHEN WE WERE UNDER THE LAW and at such a time the motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. Yes, under the law the motions of sin in our members brought forth fruit unto death whereas Christians who have been married to Christ now bring forth fruit unto God. Of course, in your mixed up theology, Christians still bring forth fruit unto death because they are basically powerless against sin in that they allegedly have some sort of "flesh" that causes them to behave in ungodly manners...even though Paul said WHEN WE WERE IN THE FLESH or WHEN WE WERE UNDER THE LAW, past tense.
"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." (Romans 7:6)
Again, being delivered from the law and no longer being in the flesh are the same thing...whether you like it or not. Those who are delivered from the law serve in newness of spirit and/or those who are no longer in the flesh bring forth fruit unto God.
"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 concupiscence. 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" (Romans 7:7-13)
Paul understood full well that the law is holy and the commandment holy, just and good. What was the problem then? Well, this takes us to your quote:
"For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin." (Romans 7:14)
Again, a man with only an outward circumcision in the foreskin of his flesh can never keep a spiritual law. It is only when one has truly been circumcised inwardly, in the heart or in the spirit, that he can truly obey a Spirit God and His spiritual law:
"For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." (Romans 2:28-29)
Do you honestly believe that Paul was here referring to himself as somebody who was carnal and sold under sin AS A CHRISTIAN? If you do, then you're out of your mind. Paul was employing the historical present here in the Greek. Read up on it if you're not familiar with what that is. Paul was anything but carnal and he rebuked others who were carnal and he certainly wasn't sold under sin as a Christian. In fact, he had just finished saying how that sin has no dominion over Christians. Why not? Well, because they were no longer under the law or no longer in the flesh:
"For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace." (Romans 6:14)
You, on the other hand, would have us to believe that sin still had dominion over Paul while he was under grace. Why is that? Whatever your motivation or whatever your problem, Paul was speaking in Romans chapter 7 of his condition pre-salvation or while the law of sin and death still had dominion over him. Guys like you need to pull verses totally out of their contexts to promote your error. I'm not buying it and no Christian should.
"For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good." (Romans 7:15-16)
Why was Paul here consenting unto the law that it is good if he wasn't talking about his condition while he was yet under the law? Again, sin has dominion over a man while he is yet under the law and this is what Paul was talking about here.
"Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 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. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 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. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 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." (Romans 7:17)
Again, Paul referred to the law of sin and death which was at work in his members as an unsaved man under the law and he had previously mentioned bodily members in relation to sin in this manner:
"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace." (Romans 6:12-14)
Christians now possess the power to not let sin reign in their mortal bodies in that they need not yield their members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin because sin shall not have dominion over them FOR THEY ARE NOT UNDER THE LAW. I could easily continue on to chapter 8 where Paul again contrasted the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus with the law of sin of death, but you apparently see no difference between the two in that you apparently believe that Christians are still in the flesh and therefore powerless against sin. You need to renounce that nonsense and the sooner the better.
