The Captivity of Man

Like every good debater, the apostle Paul has been building a great argument here in Romans 7 for quite some time. Now, I remind you that Paul had began this parenthesis on account of what he had said in Romans 5:20–21 “Now the Law came in so that the transgression would increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Such a statement – that the Law came in, by the side as an addition for the sole purpose to increase transgression, can of course bring great anguish to the Jew who has lived their entire life with the Law in sight, and even those gentiles endeavouring to become acceptable to God.

So, after having first dealt with the question of sin raised by those same verses in his first parenthesis throughout chapter 6, he has turned in a second parenthesis to the question of the place and purpose of the law in chapter 7.

And for certain, there are many who have been alarmed at Paul’s doubling-down on this idea that the Law is not permanent found in Romans 6:14, where he wrote, “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

And so, lest anyone take a wrong idea so as to say that Paul is entirely dismissing and disparaging the Law, he has been endeavouring to prove beyond doubt what the place and purpose of the Law is, both positively and negatively.

Positively, Paul has been careful to lay out for us what the Law was designed and ordained by God to do – namely, to demonstrate to us the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the terrible dominion it holds over each and every person who has ever been conceived.

But he has also been likewise concerned that we should understand what it can not do, what it was never meant to do; namely, that the Law can never deliver us, it can never remove a person from that great tyranny of sin.

And so, Paul has been building a great argument all through this chapter like a master debater, laying out his thesis from the very first, “that the law is master over a person as long as he lives” in verse 1, then honing in even more in verse 7, saying “I would not have come to know sin except through the Law”, and then the momentous statements of Romans 7:13, “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 working out my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.”

The apostle Paul has been working this out for us in detail piece by piece, making a statement and then proving it, holding it up for inspection and analysis, until now at last he has brought us along to the point where he can draw out a conclusion for us, holding his discovery up before us for our edification. And he summarizes that finding in this way in verse 21, somewhat similar but looking far deeper than he had in verse 14, saying:

Romans 7:21 LSB

I find then the principle that in me evil is present—in me who wants to do good.

After all that has happened, this man finds not just a principle, but the principle; meaning that what he has found is so pervasive and universal, that exceeds everything else he has ever discovered about himself or anybody else, so much that his experience has proven beyond doubt that this is a veritable law, a principle which proves itself to be true. And it certainly wasn’t what he was looking for, it was something unexpected for this man the Law has come to.

He had expected at one time that he was alive and sin was dead – he was sure of that, his mind was settled on the matter. But ever since verse 7 he has been explaining to us in greater detail that then the Law of God had come to him and so disabused him of that notion he once had, that he could never turn back to that old way of thinking.

And so once the Law had come to him, he recognized that he had in fact not met its demands previously, that he had fallen short of what was required. And so he has now tried to follow it according to his new and fresh understanding, but discovers that he has once again failed to do what it demands he do, and likewise has failed to flee what it demands he avoid. And so, rather than meeting its demands, he is forced, seemingly against his will, to admit that though the willing is present within him, the working out of the good is not, he does the evil he desires to avoid.

And so now in the culminating verses before us today, we see what happens when this man brings all of these various things up to the front of his mind, to consider why this is now the case – that is the burning question Paul is answering in these verses before us today!

For this man has found that though he wants and desires to do good, instead evil is present within him, even so. The Law has come to this man, and when he honestly examines himself in light of that Law, cannot help but to discover that even though he affirms and indeed loves that holy and just Law of God, upon this inspection of himself cannot help but realize that even though he loves that Law and wants to do good according to it, he cannot do so. His will alone, for from being indomitable, is indeed itself dominated by something else, something so pervasive and so powerful that it seems to be a greater and more certain principle than any other he has experienced – such as that of gravity or of night following day. Truly, then this principle is a law invariably at work within him, not in the vein of a command, but of an inviolable principle, that evil is present within him, even when he wants to do good, when his mind is bent upon doing good, he discovers that evil is always there standing against him.

Very well then, Paul has laid down the principle proposition before us, and in his characteristic manner he will now go on to once and for all prove it beyond doubt in verses 22 and 23, saying…

Romans 7:22–23 LSB

For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in my members, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a captive to the law of sin which is in my members.

Now you will note that this man had begun in verse 12, acknowledging that the Law, that in addition to being holy and righteous, was also good. Then in verse 14, he describes it as spiritual. In verse 16, he has progressed yet further to say he not only conceptually acknowledges that it is good, but that in point of fact, he agrees whole-heartedly with the idea that it is truly good. And now in verse 22, he goes yet further in his thinking, “I joyfully concur with it in the inner man!” Acknowledgement, then agreement, and now on to delight in the inner man.

Now, we ought to be clear on what he means, because many go astray at this point. We don’t see the “inward man” in scripture very often, in fact the only other places in scripture I am aware of this phrase ἔσω ἄνθρωπος being used is in 2 Corinthians 4:16, where this same apostle writes “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day”, and a third instance in Ephesians 3:16, where he writes “that He would give you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,”.

But while Paul is referring to people who are undoubtedly Christians in those verses, he is not using this term in a soteriological sense (meaning dealing with the salvation of a person), but in an anthropological sense, as a general analysis of man.

And this thinking is in line with the common use of this term in Paul’s day, it is meant to distinguish the inner, invisible part of a person as contrasted and opposed to the outward, visible part of a person; ἔσω versus ἔξω, inward verses outward, that which cannot be observed by the eyes, even of a doctor, contrasted with that which can be seen and touched.

Surely, the text of 2 Corinthians 4:16 brought out this contrast for us most explicitly, contrasting “our outer man” which is decaying with the inward man which is able to be renewed.

We can confirm this thinking for ourselves in Paul’s reiteration of the idea in verse 23, in which he refers to this same idea while referring to “the law of my mind”, the mind being one and the same with the inward man, in agreement and delight in the “law of God”.

And what we must recognize here, is that this man, in his mind, joyfully concurs with the Law of God, and it’s important that we recall what we learned last time about the will of this man. For he not only commends the Law of God from an intellectual point of view, but even further, he is inclined toward the Law of God in his affections, the affections of his will.

Again, to review what we learned last time, a man when properly viewed is body and soul or spirit. This soul or spirit consists of faculties, the primary faculty being the mind, the secondary faculty being the will which consists of affections and choice. There are 2 primary affections, love and hate, which are determined by the primary faculty of the mind. We are inclined toward that which we love, and are repulsed away from that which we hate.

And so we find that this man is looking favorably at the Law of God with both of his faculties – he favors the Law with the primary faculty of his mind, but also within the secondary faculty of his will, namely within his affections, he loves the Law and so when he is drawing near to it he experiences delight and joy in it.

And so, if everything were working the way it should, when the moment of choice arrives although he expected that he would follow the law, he instead has found that as a general rule, he does not do so.

For he has discovered there is a another law in his members, one which is not simply in addition to the Law of God which he loves in his mind, but it is also fundamentally different than that Law, such they are readily distinguishable from each other.

They are so different, that these two Laws are in conflict with each other, they are opposed to one another.

And yet, even describing it merely as opposition does not suffice, for this law in his members is engaging open and active warfare, it is continually strategizing as to how it might take advantage over the holy law of God as that law progressively comes to this man at different points. The greek word here, ἀντιστρατεύομαι, is to be found only in this one verse in scripture although it is more widely used in other Greek writings, and it speaks of not only fighting as an individual soldier, but rather to the far larger context of waging a strategic and protracted military campaign, with the explicit purpose of overthrowing its enemy.

In other words, this is not merely some static and formal posturing which can be easily dismissed or avoided, no! Instead, this different law within my members is waging an active and dynamic war against the law of my mind; it seeks out where the Law of God has come to a person, and attacks at that very point, seeking to overthrow the holy and righteous Law of God, and its strength within them, to prevent the carrying out of that Law. As certainly as he delights in the Law of God with his mind and desires to do it, this other law that is in his members demands the opposite, using the all of the forces at its disposal in order to dominate, the subterfuge of the spy, the placards of the propagandist, the attractiveness of the model, its forces and its reserves.

This war it wages is a total war, and not only does this law wage war against the Law of God he loves with his mind, but it is the unqualified victor of this war, the realization is that having waged the war, this different law is now “making me a captive” to itself.

It is one thing to fight a war against and enemy in which one side or the other is killed, but it is wholly and completely different when one side so completely overwhelms the other that the people are taken prisoner, as at the point of the spear, the conquered man utterly defeated so as to be helplessly controlled by the victor.

And the man speaking here, says that this has happened to me – not just my members, not just my mind, but to me myself, the total person; I am a captive prisoner, I have been defeated and conquered, I am bound and chained to the ‘law of sin which is in my members’, and I have no possible way of escape! To say that this is some mere tendency, or that the extent may be uncertain but on the whole we may have victory over sin though we may fail occasionally, is to utterly deny what the apostle has told us in these verses. Even worse is that dualistic view which claims that we may sin in our flesh but not in our mind and therefore not be held accountable; each of these deny the plain meaning of Romans 7:23, “but I see a different law in my members, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a captive to the law of sin which is in my members.”

No, the meaning and thrust ought to be clear to us regarding this man; though this man loves the Law of God, this other law of sin has won over against the Law of God!

Now to be clear, this does not mean that no effort was expended, nor does it mean that no battle was waged. Quite to the contrary! It is the essence of a war that there be skirmishes and battles, that there are losses and gains, that the lines are drawn and contested. It should not be lost on us, that Paul has chosen to use a particularly militaristic term here when he says that war was waged. An uncontested action cannot be described in this manner, especially by a person such as Paul, this master of language and debate, who grew up in the university city of Tarsus and then later in the epicenter of Jewish culture in Jerusalem.

No, when this man says that he “wants to do good”, that he “joyfully concurs” with the Law of God in the inner man, this is no idle statement. He really does want to do good, he is trying to do good, in fact he is striving to do good, perhaps as he’s never done before. He’s given up the apathy he once had toward the Law of God, he himself is battling continually to follow the Law of God, to meet its demands.

Not only that, but he has been emboldened and empowered by the knowledge he’s gained of the Law; on account of the understanding he has of it through it coming to him, he works incessantly against sin in his life. He is, in other words, doing everything he possibly can to stand righteously before God.

And yet, despite these efforts he has spent fighting against sin, he finds himself not only defeated by sin, but in a seemingly worse situation than before.

Before, he felt he was alive and sin was dead. Now? He realizes that he is defeated, a captive to sin, forced against the law of his mind to sin yet further. But then the Law came to him, and though it was to lead to life, it has led to his clear and certain captivity to sin. His knowledge of the Law has not helped! Even his love of the Law has not helped! The delight he has in the Law has proven itself to be no help at all to him!

No, after all that has happened, this man finds that he is a prisoner of war, having been swallowed up by this enemy who has proven far too powerful for him to overcome, or even for the Law of God to overcome.

This different law, the law of sin, wages and wins this war over him. There is a dangerous and naïve belief even among believers that sin is simply some failure, a defect in a person. And in truth, sometimes knowing the language doesn’t particularly help us when we simply define sin as “mark-missing”, ending our thoughts on sin with Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and say “there it is, it’s just a falling short of the standard.” While that may be true, it falls far short of the terrible and awful truth of sin.

For we must understand the terrible reality of sin. It is evil, it is malicious, and it is an incredibly powerful force – more powerful than even the perfect Law of God! When Paul wrote in Romans 5:21 that “sin reigned in death”, he meant exactly that. It is a real and positive force, meaning that it acts rather than reacts. It is not some mere lacking of holy righteousness, but it morbidly despises holy righteousness and seeks continually to force a person away from that mark.

What, then, does all of this tell us regarding the place and the purpose of this Law of God that the this law of sin has so completely overcome? Surely, the man who the Law has come to has affirmed this Law, he sees and agrees that it is holy and righteous and good! In this, there is a certain degree of rightness in saying that this man is not really an unregenerate man, for he is no longer in that condition in which he feels himself alive and the Law dead.

What’s more, he’s come to understand that it is also spiritual. His mind and his affections are fixed upon it, and even still the incredible power of sin has overwhelmed him and taken him captive to its power. So, this man likewise cannot be a Christian believer, for although he is acutely and painfully aware of his failure to do righteousness, he can only find yet further defeat.

Truly, this man discovers within himself the truth of what Paul wrote in Romans 5:20, “the Law came in”, and on account of the Law coming in to him, his own transgression has increased. Sin reigns over him as a malicious captor. It actively and purposefully fights successfully against the Law of God, the law which this man has joyfully concurred with and delighted in.

Is it no wonder to us, then, that this man whom the Law has come to is so filled with despair and anguish that he will cry out in the next verse, “Wretched man that I am!” For here now he admits that he has attempted everything to no avail, he has even reversed his course and mind regarding the Law of God, and even still he finds himself not only no closer to righteousness, but indeed he feels even further away from righteousness on account of his captivity in sin. Not only has he discovered that he stood condemned by his sin, now he has realized also that even this knowledge and a true loving affection for the Law of God are unable to provide relief.

Truly, to this man the Law has come to, has realized the utter sinfulness of sin.

And in so doing, the Law accomplishes its task.

So the question before you today, is whether or not the Law of God has come to you in this way? Have you seen your sin for the vile offense it is to God? Have you realized in your soul that by works of the Law no flesh will be justified? Further, have you, as this man, realized that simply loving and knowing the Law is not sufficient for righteousness? For just as the Law is unable to justify, so also is it unable to sanctify a man. For sin is man’s captor, and it does not willingly give him up. He is entirely unable to free himself.

What is Paul telling us in these verses? He’s telling us that justification, sanctification, and righteousness must come from some other source than even the holy, righteous, and good Law of God. The Law proves that we are unable to save ourselves.

Let us pray!