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More Romans commentaries
Romans 4:1-8
Abraham Justified by Faith
Romans 4:9-25
The Promise for All Who Have Faith
Romans 5:1-11
What It Means To Be Acceptable to God
Romans 5:12-21
Death in Adam and Life in Christ
Romans 6:1-11
Death to Sin, Alive to God
Romans 6:12-18
From Slaves of Sin to Slaves of God
Romans 6:19-23
It is Impossible to Be Neutral
Romans 7:1-13
An Example From Marriage
Romans 7:14-25
The Battle With Sin
Romans 8:1-11
Living by The Power of God’s Spirit
Romans 8:12-17
Sonship Through The Spirit
Romans 8:18-27
From Suffering to Glory
Romans 8:28-30
God Works in “All Things” For Our Good
Romans 8:31-34
If God is For Us Who Can be Against Us?
Romans 8:35-37
God’s Everlasting Love
Romans 8:38-39
It is Impossible to Separate Us From Christ
Romans 9:1-13
Israel’s Rejection of Christ
Romans 9:14-24
God’s Anger And Mercy
Romans 9:25-33
The Stone That Made People Stumble
Romans 10:1-4
Israel Needs The Gospel
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The Battle With Sin
Romans 7:14–25
» View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway)
A man is driving with his wife at his side and his mother-in-law in the back seat. The women just won’t leave him alone. His mother-in-law says, “You’’re driving too fast!” His wife says, “Stay more to the left.” After ten mixed orders, the man turns to his wi … More
Having explained what the Law does, Paul now explains what the Law cannot do. The Law cannot set you free (v. 14). Paul doesn’t understand why he acts the way he does (vv. 15-20). What he doesn’t want to do he ends up doing and what he wants to do he ends up not doing. The Law cannot deliver us from the old nature. While the inward man may delight in the Law of God (Psalms 119:35) the old nature delights in breaking the Law of God. It is not surprising that the believer under Law becomes tired and discouraged and eventually gives up! What can be more discouraging than trying to live a good life, only to discover that the best you can do is still not good enough?
Paul sees two spiritual laws at work (vv. 21-24). The one is what can be called the law of God. This law is holy, just, and good. It demands absolute perfection as a standard of behavior, because perfection is God’s minimum requirement which is consistent with His own holiness. Then there is an opposite law, which Paul refers to as the law of sin. When Adam fell in the garden he placed the whole human race under this law. Anyone who ignores this law will ultimately wander hopelessly astray from the truth. Yet most of the universities and schools of our day teach every law known to science, except the law of sin. Yet the fact remains that the law of sin is what really explains why people do what they do.
The “law in my members” is the sin deep within us. It refers to everything with us that is more loyal to our old way of selfish living than to God. This inward struggle was as real to Paul as it is for us. We can learn from Paul what to do about it. Whenever Paul felt lost, he would go back to the beginnings of his spiritual life, remembering that he had already been freed by Jesus Christ. It is the law of sin that causes the eyes to look involuntarily with lust, the tongue to wag with gossip, and the ears to strain to hear that which is improper and impure. With the conflicting potentialities, purposes and principles of these two laws the believer can sometimes almost be pulled apart. The only way of escape is “through Jesus Christ our Lord” (v. 25).
Application
If I depend on the energy of the flesh I cannot serve God, please God, or do any good thing. But if I yield to the Holy Spirit then I will have the power needed to obey His will.
Romans 7:14-25 (English Standard Version)
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 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. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 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. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 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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