Rom. 7:19-25 - War! Flesh vs. Mind

19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.
22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,
23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

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- - - Who Will Set Me Free? - - -

V. 19 - "For the good that I want" - Same song. Second verse. I see the good way, but I do not walk in it. See verse 15, above.

V. 20-21 - "I am no longer the one doing it" - This is a reprise of verse 17, above. The sin within me is the driving force in my life and behavior.
Verses 20 and 21 are an “If-Then” statement: IF I know better, but I sin anyway, THEN there must be a power that is controlling me, driving me away from I know is best. Paul labels this power as the principle that evil (sin) is within and not external.

V. 22 - “Joyfully concur with the law of God” - Paul is not grudgingly admitting God is right. Is this amazing or what? Who can “joyfully” admit they are a sinner and have no control over the sin? Who admits they are totally lost? Usually we are forced to cry, “Uncle!”. We can be free from the power and penalty of sin, but not through the Law. What is the answer? Jesus Christ our Lord! See verse 25 below!

V. 23 - “waging war against the law of my mind” - My mind says this is the right way to live, but I fail to live that way. My body, my actions are in opposition to what my mind says. The law of sin is more powerful than the power of my mind. I am under that awful power, therefore am a slave to the power of sin. My old nature is too powerful to successfully oppose.

V. 24 - “Wretched man that I am.” - I am a slave! Who will set me free? Paul is emphasizing that it is beyond our human powers to break free from sin and its penalty. Your sin nature owns you. Is there no hope for me? 

V. 25 - “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” - The answer: Jesus Christ our Lord! God sent Jesus to save us from sin. He came to break the chains of slavery to sin.

“on the one hand... but on the other” - This is the dilemma, the paradox of our faith. The two natures are constantly warring within us. The old nature (fleshly, worldly nature, the sin nature) wars against the new life given to us by God. The big difference is now we have the Holy Spirit within us. We have Jesus to empower us to live for Him rather than for sin.

This will be more fully developed in Romans, chapter 8.
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end of Chapter

Rom. 7:15-18 - We Have This Dilemma

15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.
16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.
17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.

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- - - It's My Fault! - - -

Verses 15-25 seemingly are a scream of frustration - almost like raw emotion thrown into a sea of reasoned logic. Paul has reasoned us through the following:

God has revealed Himself; we have rejected Him. The Jews have had all the advantages; but they, too, have rejected His message. Abraham’s faith, not His works earned approbation; he is our example. The Law is Holy and Righteous. The Law cannot save us, but it can show us where we fall short.

Can we see or feel the frustration? The Law is Holy and Righteous, but it does not, cannot, save us. If a Holy and Righteous Law is useless, what hope have we?

This section drives home with emotion what logic might not do. We cry, “The Law has no power to save us! There is no hope! We are dead! What are we to do?”

Praise the Lord! We are not left hanging there.

V. 15 - “for I am not practicing what I would like to do” - The human condition. God has told us what He expects. We have the knowledge. We seem to lack is the ability to act correctly on that information. So, we stand back, baffled. “Why? Why can’t I do what’s right?”

V. 16 - “I agree with the Law” - I do what is sin. I know it is sin because the Law warned me. I know I shouldn’t do it, so I am forced to admit the Law is right, the Law is good and righteous. Before the Law operated in my life, I was doing the same things I do now, but was woefully ignorant and it didn’t bother me too much. Now, I am no longer ignorant. It makes little difference in my behavior. Now, I am wracked with guilt and shame because I know what I do is sin.

V. 17 - “sin which dwells in me” - It is clear that sin’s power over me is greater than the Law’s ability to warn me away. The Law, though spiritual, has no spiritual power to deliver me from sin.
The Law is a traffic cop. “Sir, do you know how fast you were traveling?”
“Uh. About 70.” (My answer, if I am to be truthful, which I might as well do so since he has caught me on radar.)
“Do you know the speed limit here is 55 mph?”
“Uh. Yes.”
“I’m going to have to write you a ticket for speeding.”

It is not the policeman's fault I was driving over the limit. It is not the law's fault I was over the limit. It is mine alone.

V. 18 - “nothing good dwells in me” - The problem is not external. It is not the holy and righteous law handed down by God, it is my sin nature within me.

“the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. “ - it is the ‘willing’ not the ‘will’ to do the righteous thing. The willing is more a want than driving force. I kinda want to do what is right, but not enough to make a commitment to do. I think in the second “Star Wars” movie (Episode 5) where Luke Skywalker is in training. He is chided for failing a task, and he whines, “I’m trying.” The master Jedi, Yoda, tells him, “There is no try! There is only Do, or Not Do!”
That is our cry, our lament. “We wanta do what’s right. We just cant do it.” Our old nature does not have the power to do it, any more than the Law can empower us.

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Rom. 7:13-14 - Law Does not cause Death

13 Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.
14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.

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- - - The Law is Spiritual - - -

V. 13 - “did that which is good become a cause of death” - The Law does not keep us from sinning. The warning is not the cause of spiritual death. You are the cause of your own spiritual death.

“through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful” - The Law shows us the price (cost) of sin is death. This is a good thing. Why? Knowing the facts can bring into focus what is important.
Sin causes death. We are fully warned that our death is caused by our sin. Whether we know sin is the cause of our death or not matters little - the result is the same. Without the Law, our only excuse (which is an extremely lame excuse) is that we were not paying attention. We ignored God’s glory. The commandment becomes like a slap up along the side of our head.

So what was always sin is now utterly sin because Now You Know. There is no ‘maybe’ or ‘might be’ or ‘could be’ - there is now no excuse. When you play golf and hit your ball into a penalty area, the rule says that if any part of the ball touches the penalty area line it is considered to be in the penalty area. There is no room for argument whether the ball is half-in, or partially-in. If it touches the line, it is the same as being totally over the line. That is what God is saying here. There is no ‘almost a sin’ or ‘just a little sin’, it is wholly and utterly sin.

V. 14 - “the Law is spiritual” - Secular government laws are written by men for men (for the ‘politically correct ‘- for people by people). The Law was given to us by a Holy and Righteous God. “God is a spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (See: John 4:23-24).

“I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin” - What a contrast! The Law is spiritual. I am not. Sometimes Christians tend to ‘discount’ the Law, since we know salvation is not by works but by faith. By extension, works and the Law are not spiritual. This line of reasoning shows our misunderstanding. 

The problem is not the Law. The problem is we inherited sin nature from Adam’s sin - his rejection of God’s command. We are forever under that sin because we cannot offer the perfect sacrifice. The cost to redeem us is beyond, far beyond, our ability to pay. Until that price is paid, we are enslaved to sin, to the penalty, to death. (See: Rom. 6:16, 17, 20; Jam. 1:12-15)

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Rom. 7:7-12 - Law Reveals our Sin

7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET."
8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.
9 I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died;
10 and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me;
11 for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
12 So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

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- - - Is the Law Sin? - - -

V. 7:7 - “Is the Law sin? May it never be!” - A fair question. If the Law points out sin, does that make it sinful? When our criminal law forbids us to rob banks. Is the forbidding or is the robbing wrong? Of course the Law, or our laws are not the sin or source of sin. Plus, the Ten Commandments and Torah were handed down by a Holy and righteous God.

“I would not have come to know sin” - The Law is there so we will not be ignorant! To be clear, adultery or covetousness are sins whether we know it or not. How do we repent if we don’t realize the sin of our actions? But when revealed, there is now no excuse. Before the Law exposes the sin, we may have unsettling and unfocused feelings about certain activities - but we don’t know for sure.

V. 7:8 - “produced in me coveting of every kind” - So, he had no idea, then he is told coveting is a sin. Suddenly, he realizes we wants all kinds of things, especially when others have them.

“Apart from the Law sin is dead” - Is this saying sin does not exist outside the Law? In other words, if you can remain ignorant of the Law, you can get away with almost anything. I’m pretty sure that is NOT what this verse says. For example: If someone tells you that the newer model VW Bugs have a small flower vase on the dash. You will begin to see VWs with plastic flowers on the dash, and think, “I never noticed that before.” They’ve been there for years, you just weren’t aware of them.
In a similar way, sin has always been there, but without the Law identifying the sin, you might not know the sin. You would not know that sin leads to death.

V. 7:9 - “when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died” - The reality of the wages of sin became known. Once you know and understand that sin and death are inextricably joined, you know the ultimate fate - death. A movie from a few years ago was titled, “Dead Man Walking”, about death row inmates. This is an apt title for the person who has just realized sin and its consequences.

V. 7:10 - “this commandment... proved to result in death“ - The Law was given to show the Israelites how to live for God - things to do, and things to not do. The downside of the Law there is no excuse - we now know we need salvation.

The New Living Translation reads thusly: “At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life, and I died. So I discovered that the law's commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead.” (Rom. 7:9-10)

The key concept here is “spiritual death” - eternal separation from God. Physical death is ahead for us all - one of the consequences of the original sin. Spiritual death is also a result of sin, but is inevitable only for those who reject the gift of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. This consequence is far more serious than physical death.

V. 7:11 - “Sin... Deceived... Killed” - The deception of sin leads us into eternal separation from God. We are deceived in a couple of ways.
We believe we are in control of our lives and our future. Our sin nature tell us since we are the ultimate end of the evolutionary process, we are the ultimate decider of right, wrong, the direction of our lives. The problem: this ignores that God is in charge.

We want to believe that if we do more good than bad the ‘scales of justice’ will be in our favor. We like to think our lives are graded on the basis of a ‘curve’. The problem with this line of thinking: it ignores that God is perfect, and the ‘grade’ is more like a plumb line. (A plumb line shows what is perfectly vertical.) Either we are perfect, or we are lost, deceived, and dead. It is impossible for our natural self to be perfect in our own power.

We want to believe if we tell ourselves every thing will be fine, it will be. “If it is so natural, how can it be wrong?” The problem: sin has warped our view and understanding of what is good and right. What we see as good and right, God sees as sin against Him.

V. 7:12 - “So then, the Law is Holy” - Is this a big jump - going from the Law identifying sin, to the Law is Holy? The Law says, “Do not covet.” Coveting is the sin. The Law warning us avoid sin is not sinful. If a sign on the freeway warns you that sharp curves are ahead and your speed should be less than 60 mph, it is not the sign’s fault if you are going 75 mph and careen off the road into the canyon.
It is good for the Law to warn you about sin. It is good for you to know what to avoid. You can either ‘blunder’ into sin by being ignorant of sin, or you can go forward, head up, knowing you are sinning. Sinning on purpose means you are rejecting God’s warning. God is holy, righteous, and good, and you must bear the consequences of your decisions.

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