Since works/fruits are a sign of your faith, and faith alone is dead/means you are not saved, can someone please explain to me what is happening here:
Romans 7:19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. 21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.
Hi Kim,
What a wonderful question. It is a passage in the bible that is often quoted, and the most misunderstood. To understand it better lets look a little earlier in the same chapter, AND carry it through into Romans 8. It will make more sense as we go along.
Romans 7
7 What shall we say then?
Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”
8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all
manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin
was dead.
>the Law is not sinful. The Law exposes the CONDITION of mans heart. The Law exposes SIN. It what we INHERITED from Adam's nature, such that all born into this world are born into this nature. A baby however is not guilty under the Law, as we will see below. You only fall under the death penalty through conscience. Paul will explain this shortly.
9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
10 And the commandment, which
was to
bring life, I found to
bring death.
11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed
me.
> What Paul is saying here is that he was once without guilt (a baby, or a young child). However when he reached an age of accountability, and he, either through the law or conscience (law written on the heart) became aware that he had transgressed either the law or his conscience. He knew that what he was doing was wrong. The moment he did this, he came under the spiritual death penalty. That which was in Pauls inherited nature (sin) took advantage of the fact that there was a law, and slay him.
12 Therefore the law
is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
13 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.
>Paul says here that the problem is not that the law is evil, or that the law is the killer. Rather sins true nature is fully exposed for what it is. IT (Sin) is the killer.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
>Paul acknowledges the condition he has inherited from Adam
15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.
16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that
it is good.
17 But now,
it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but
how to perform what is good I do not find.
19 For the good that I will
to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not
to do, that I practice.
>Paul here writes as someone who was one of the most zealous Pharisees. Before he came to Christ, nobody at the time had more passion in pursuing and persecuting the Church, for he was the chosen vessel by the leaders to chase down every Christian believer and throw them into prison or have them killed. He had a love for God’s word as given in the Torah, and truly believed he was doing God’s work by persecuting the church. Yet we find this same man saying that even throughout all of his zeal for the Law of Moses, he could not actually fulfil the law of Moses. For the good that he WANTED to do, he couldn’t. And the evil that he wanted to AVOID, he couldn’t.
20 Now if I do what I will not
to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
22 For I delight in the law of God according to 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.
>Here we have a situation of the AS YET unregenerated man, who is comprised of BODY (FLESH) and a SOUL. He is saying here that there is a nature that dwells within Paul’s BODY/FLESH that leads and directs his actions, and overpowers his MIND such that His mind is subject to the desires of fulfilling what his fleshly nature wants. Even though by his mind he DOESN’T WANT TO fulfil the desires of the flesh, he finds himself powerless to resist its drawings. He acknowledges he is a prisoner in this state. (IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT PAUL IS STILL EXPLAINING WHAT HIS LIFE WAS LIKE BEFORE THE CONVERSION)
24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of 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.
>Paul here realises he needs a SAVIOUR from this condition. And he rightly identifies that the only solution is Jesus Christ. His mind is a slave to God’s Law, but he carries around with him the flesh which is a slave to sin. How does he receive this victory? This is answered in the very next verses in Chapter 8.
Romans 8 (a continuation)
8 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who[
a] do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
>Here we have the solution that Jesus Christ brings. He gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit. He knows that your old nature is powerless to ultimately resist the flesh, so he gives us the gift of the Spirit of Grace to LEAD US.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God
did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
>A new law, called the “Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus” comes into effect, which supercedes and nullifies the “Law of the Sin and Death”. To those who choose to be led by the Spirit of God, we have absolute security and salvation. Sin is NO LONGER the Master. Its power to slay you has been dethroned. If you will get into agreement (your Mind/Soul) with living according to the Spirit, and not according to the flesh, then there remains no condemnation upon you. And the powervto live by the Spirit exists. You are no longer a slave to your old nature. We become slaves unto righteousness in Christ Jesus. How then do you live your new life accordingly? Let’s see in the next verses.
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those
who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be [
b]carnally minded
is death, but to be spiritually minded
is life and peace.
7 Because the [
c]carnal mind
is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
>Here is how you live out your life in the Spirit. By what you SET YOUR MIND UPON. This is still your choice. Do you set your mind (SOUL) upon the flesh ---- well then you will fulfil the lusts of the flesh. Do you set your mind on things ABOVE, i.e. the things of the Spirit. Well then you will be led by the Spirit and NOT fulfil the lusts of the flesh.
So in summary, the Romans 7 piece now becomes clearer. It was never meant to be taken out of context like it has been done throughout the church age. It is the state of helplessness that Paul found himself in before his conversion experience.
