Good question and I appreciate this kind of debate. I know exactly where you're coming from and I would be asking the same questions if I thought Paul was "sold as a slave to sin". But the verse doesn't say that he was sold as a slave to sin, it says he was sold under sin. Every word in the bible matters and we can't make them say something that they don't say.
What does it mean to be sold under sin? Paul at some time in his life was bought by someone... when that person bought Paul, Paul was under sin. So the question is - who bought Paul?
1Co 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
1Co 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
I have to see if you agree with this before I continue.
I am afraid I do not agree. I think the NIV is considered a very good translation, scholars from all over the world took 15 years to comply my edition of it. However, I will turn to the KJV in response initially:
For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin verse ch7:14 kjv
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.[SUP]7 [/SUP]Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
[SUP]8 [/SUP]So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God Rom 8:6-8 KJV
All over the place the Paul of Romans 7 contradicts the rest of his writings.
Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? [SUP]17 [/SUP]But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Rom 6:16-18 NIV
Notice in the above, Paul tells the romans they used to be slaves to sin, but they obeyed the form of teaching they had been given(the Gospel of grace Paul preached) and were set free from sin(being slaves of sin, where sin dominated their lives) and became slaves of righteousness(which leads to holiness verse19)
So by following Paul's Gospel message the romans will not be slaves to sin, this concurs with romans 6:14
In romans 7:14-25 Paul definitely was speaking of being a slave to sin
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin verse 14
For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do verse 15
For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. [SUP]19 [/SUP]For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. verses 18&19
Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. [SUP]22 [/SUP]For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; [SUP]23 [/SUP]but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me verses 21-23
I see no point in continuing this. The case is proved as far as I am concerned. However, I am sure no matter what I write you will not accept it, so I think it would be best to leave it there.
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