Romans 7:7-25--The Law and Sin

Romans 7:7-25
English Standard Version

The Law and Sin
7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

​21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

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I think this passage is very important for us today.  We like to treat the Law like it somehow is "sin" or "evil," but Paul (like the Psalmist in Psalm 119) says that the Law is good, because without it Paul wouldn't know that he was a sinner in need of a Savior.  The Law defines sins, exposes sin, and works along with the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin.  Paul uses the example of not knowing that he was covetous (someone who desired things that that didn't belong to him) until he read the tenth commandment that in short says, "Thou shalt not covet" (it says much more then this to actually spell out all the things which you should not covet).  After reading this commandment, Paul was convicted and knew he was guilty of coveting, though before he knew the commandment, he felt no guilt.

Paul makes the argument that although the Law promises life to those who are fully obedient to them, we realize that none of us can be fully obedient to them and that we are under the Curse of sin and death.  Our righteousness is not good enough and we need a substitute--someone who is as righteous as God Himself who can stand in our place and take our unrighteousness and give us His righteousness instead--definitely not a fair trade, but our only chance of us making it to heaven and obtaining eternal life.  The fact that the Law helps us to realize this makes it both good and holy.  There is nothing inherently wrong or evil with the Law and Jesus said that not even the smallest part of the Law will pass away until all has been accomplished, "18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished." (Matthew 5:18).

It is not the Law that brought forth death in Paul, but the sin which the Law simply acted as a mirror to let Paul see.  Paul is saying that it's like how a person doesn't know they are dirty if they don't look in the mirror.  It's not the mirror that makes them dirty, but it's the mirror that exposes that fact to them.  It's also not the mirror that is able to clean the person up.  Instead the person needs to examine themselves in the mirror and use something else greater than the mirror--soap and water--to wash themselves.  Paul will make a similar argument here that the Law was never enough to cleanse a man, and that we've always needed grace to be our "soap and water" to clean us up once we look at ourselves in the mirror of the Law and see our dirty reflection staring back at us.  (See James 1:22-25).

Paul says that because the "natural man" (his old sin nature) and the "spiritual man" (the Spirit of Christ living within him) are constantly at war with one another that Paul does things that his spirit doesn't want to do and doesn't do things that his spirit wants to do because there are times that the natural man still wins the battles.  Everything that comes from our flesh is evil and should be undesirable as we should be completely and totally controlled by the Spirit if we want to be pleasing to God and live a life of integrity that is consistent with the new identity that we claim in Christ.  This is not something we can do by our own willpower as our will will desire the things of the flesh, but we must instead walk by the Spirit and be Spirit-controlled (even though we call this self-control) in everything we are and everything we do.

Paul says that every time he does something right according to the Law, he cannot boast because he knows that means that evil is just around the corner (he will mess up soon enough).  God in the new nature he gave Paul caused him to love the Law--I find that so important here.  Paul says that it is his flesh (the sin nature within him that was to be put to death at the cross but somehow keeps rearing its ugly head) that is a different kind of law that his members (his body) want to obey--the "law of sin."  Paul once again says that his spirit loves the law of God and even that his mind usually wants him to obey the law of God, but his body obeys the law of sin and so body, mind, and spirit are constantly at war with each other until one day when our bodies will die and we will be changed to be completely like Christ and there will no longer be any war because everything will be made new and we will be freed from the power of sin, the penalty of sin, and the very presence of sin.  Sin may sometimes rule in our mortal bodies, but these perishable bodies will die and be "planted" in the ground and something better than the seed that was planted will grow--an imperishable, perfect body that is made in the very likeness of Christ.  It will be the same person with a new body and who no longer will have the old man to wage war against the spiritual man--only the spiritual man will exist.

The last two verses of this passage sum up our position as believers caught in the middle right now, "24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin."  We are in an agonizing battle where every day we are fighting against ourselves, but one day Jesus will set us free from this battle.  For now though we thank God that He has given us a new spirit and changed our mind, even though we have to deal with our old bodies that want to obey the law of sin for now.