Romans 7:14-19

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature [or flesh]. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing.

Believers have conflicting desires, as the battle between the spirit-filled nature and the sin nature rages. First, we know that Paul is a mature Christian; he speaks in the present tense in v13-25 and looks back to the past in v7-12. Second, we know that he is a mature Christian because of his estimation of the law. He calls the law spiritual and good. He has come to view the law like God views the law. Finally we see that he is a mature Christian because of his description of his relationship to the law. He agrees with the law and serves the law in his mind.

So Paul is mature, but he struggles. He says in v14, “I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.” Paul is not saying, “I am fleshly and immature;” rather he is saying that he still has a human nature—a sin nature. He is saying, “You need to know two things about me: (from chapter 6) I have died to sin, and I have been raised to newness in Christ, but (in chapter 7) I still have a sinful nature.” Paul acknowledges that he is not entirely sanctified, not completely perfected, not without sin. He still struggles with sin. He doesn’t want us to think that we are perfected upon believing or shortly thereafter. It is a lifelong struggle. Only the Christian is more than “flesh.” Only the one who believes on Christ is born again and has a new nature and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Before that happens to us we are merely “flesh,” merely human. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh,” Jesus said in John 3:6. Only when we are born again can we say, “I am more than flesh. I now have the Holy Spirit. I now have a new nature.”

Paul is complaining in verse 15, first, that his actions are not in accord with the new heart, new mind, and new spirit that God gave him. We have all died to sin in Christ. We have all been raised to newness of life. And Paul is saying here that his actions are not always consistent with his being a new creation. They don’t mesh with it. That is why he can say, “I don’t understand it. It doesn’t make sense.” He is saying that some of these deeds he does are sinful deeds and they are out of accord with what he desires to do. He has a conflict within him of which he doesn’t grasp the workings. The things that he wants to do and the things that he doesn’t want to do don’t necessarily reflect themselves in what he ends up doing or not doing. That’s because of the dual natures in believers. Once the Spirit indwells a human, there is conflict, spiritual battle ongoing. Paul shows us evidence of his being a new man in Christ by his desire to do what is right. But he is showing us that he has a sinful nature, because he doesn’t always do the right things, which he wants to do.

In v16, he indicates that his conscience actually bears witness to the fact that the law is good, by reminding him of the difference between what he knows that he ought to do and what he wants to do on the one hand, and on the other hand, what he actually ends up doing. In other words, Paul says, “Every time I don’t do what I know that I ought to do and what I want to do, I am being reminded again that God’s law is good, and I am the problem.”

V17 and 20 are often used to suggest that we no longer sin. The text says, “It is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.” Now Paul is not trying to get himself off the hook. He is not making excuses here. It is not that someone has come to him and said, “Paul you have sinned,” and he said, “No, the devil made me do it.” He is not saying, “That wasn’t me; that was the old man still in me,” as if there was this autonomous being within him creating a split personality. That is not what Paul is saying. Why does he say it like that if that’s not what he means? First, he is asserting the new creation, having already said that every believer is a new creation, raised to newness of life in Jesus Christ. He is confirming that the sin which is still in him is not the product of that new creation. When you look at a believer in sin, you need to realize that sin doesn’t come from the work of the Holy Spirit. Yet he expresses that there continues to be a sinful nature in him. He does go on sinning. And the presence of that new man does not mean that he does not sin. Third and finally, he explains that sin is the continuing product of the sinful nature. That nature no longer represents his master. It once was, but he is now free from that. His new master is the Spirit-filled nature, and so any sin is rebellion to the new master.

Paul here in v18, again, mentions his still sinful nature and his inability to do good deeds, those deeds which he wants to do. Augustine in The Confessions, says, “Lord, the good in me, You wrought. The rest is my fault.” That is how he sums up his whole life, and that is what Paul is saying here. He is affirming that nothing good dwells in him. But again, he is not characterizing his whole self; the new creation is good, but that came from God, not from “in him.” He says that there is nothing good in him, that is, in his flesh. There is nothing good in the sin nature of man. And so Paul doesn’t say, well, there is no good in me in the inner man, because he knows that God in His grace has wrought good in him by the indwelling Holy Spirit. In v19, Paul says that we exhibit our lack of goodness in two ways: sins of omission and commission. We can’t keep the law, though we love it; we do things contrary to it, though we shouldn’t.