Romans 7:20-25a

Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!

V20-23 – The sin nature at work in me. Paul is going back to what he said in v17 and elaborating on it. What is he adding? Two things: First, the very fact of the presence of sin in his life is proof that there are two principles at work in the believer. His new self, the new master, is the product of God, of union with Christ by grace. It is characterized by the Spirit and the love of the law of God. But on the other hand, the flesh, the sinful nature, is characterized by sin and actions contrary to the law of God. Second, notice how Paul refers to sin here. It is like an alien force. Sin doesn’t make sense; it doesn’t go with the new creation, and it is not produced by the new creation that God has wrought in us through Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit. Paul goes on to elaborate on this in v21-23.

V24-25a – What a wretched man am I! Who will conquer my sin nature, my flesh? Praise God for Christ! Because of his feelings of bondage to sin, he cries out in misery. The believer can never ever be complacent about sin. Paul is miserable, because he doesn’t just want forgiveness; he wants to be rid of sin permanently. And he knows Christ will do it! The believer wants to live in a state free not only from the domination of sin, but from the presence of sin. The struggle is this: We know what we ought to do, but we are not doing it. How can the law help us with that?

Paul interestingly calls his body a “body of death.” Some have taken this to show that Paul denies the importance of the physical and holds only to the importance of the spiritual. But, as we know, that is not what Paul means. Paul is expressing that the body leads to death because of sin. The body, the sin nature, has brought death to mankind. Sin has its hold on the body, and only Christ can change that. Looking ahead in Romans 8:10, “the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is alive because of Christ.” And then 8:23: “We groan within ourselves, having the Spirit, but waiting for the redemption of our bodies.” It’s as good as done, but yet to be realized in time. And so we groan. And we cry out.

Picture Paul visiting the legalistic Jews’ office and saying, “Please help me with this. I’m frustrated. I know what I ought to do, but I can’t do it. I know what I shouldn’t do, but I seem to end up doing it anyway.” And they answer, “Well, Paul, just obey the law.” Paul says, “No, I don’t think you understand. That is my problem. I know what the law says, and I am not doing it. In fact, I’m doing those things I shouldn’t be doing.” So Paul is effectively illustrating his whole point, saying, “The law can’t be the answer. It can’t help me.” And in v25, he says, “Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” In other words, the answer to Paul’s salvation and his assurance of salvation is not the law, not law keeping; it is God’s grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul, even in reminding us of the ongoing struggle of the believer with sin, is also reminding us again that salvation has to be by grace. And assurance of salvation has to be by grace as well. Our law keeping will never measure up to what we, as believers, know the law demands.