In Romans 7.7-25 Paul Speaks From His Own Christian Experience With The Law And His Struggle With His Sin Nature
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday August 28, 2008
Romans: In Romans 7:7-25, Paul Speaks From His Own Christian Experience With The Law And His Struggle With Sin
Lesson # 217
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 7:1.
This evening before we enter into a detail study of the second paragraph contained in Romans chapter seven, which appears in verses 7-25, we are going to spend this evening demonstrating that in these verses Paul is speaking from his own Christian experience with the Law and his struggle with his sin nature.
We will also demonstrate that verses 14-25 are written by him regarding his relationship to the Law but from the perspective of his present regenerate condition without the aid of the Holy Spirit.
The reason why we are doing this is that there has been an enormous debate among exegetes and expositors of Romans 7 regarding the significance of the first person singular (“I”) form of all the verbs including the personal pronoun ego, “I” and how to understand who they refer to.
It is important to determine who the “I” in verses 7-25 is referring to because it affects to some extent the way we understand Paul’s presentation of the Law but even more the way we understand the Christian way of life.
The identification of this “I” in chapter seven affects dramatically the interpretation of individual verses.
Thus far in our studies of chapter seven, we have noted in detail the first paragraph that appears in verses 1-6.
Romans 7:1-6, “Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.”
Now, the second paragraph is found in verses 7-25.
Romans 7:7-25, “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.’ But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 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. For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 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. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 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. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 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. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man 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. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 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.”
There are four main identifications for the first person singular (“I”) form of all the verbs in chapter seven including the personal pronoun ego, “I” and how to understand who they refer to.
First of all, some interpreters consider the first person singular of the verbs in Romans 7:7-25 and the personal pronoun ego, “I” that appear in the passage as signifying that Romans 7:7-25 is “autobiographical.”
Those who hold this view believe Paul is describing his unregenerate experience as a Jew under the Law, or his immediate post-conversion struggle or his continuing struggle to obey the Law as a Christian.
Then, there are those believe that the “I” in Romans 7:7-25 describes the experience of Adam and corporate solidarity with him.
Others interpret the “I” in Romans 7:7-25 to be a representation of the nation of Israel and the continuing situation of the unregenerate Jews under the Law.
Lastly, there is the view that “I” in Romans 7:7-25 as being nobody in particular and everybody in general since as some contend verses 7-12 cannot be identified with any particular person or experience.
This last view is incorrect because not everybody received the Mosaic Law but rather the Jews specifically.
We must remember the context, in Romans 7 as we have noted in detail in the first six verses that Paul is clearly addressing his fellow Jewish Christians in readers who were in Rome and very familiar with the Mosaic Law (See Romans 7:1) and is teaching them that they are dead to the Law.
That Paul is addressing the Jewish Christians in Rome is indicated in Romans 7:1 by his parenthetical statement “I am now addressing those who are very familiar with the Law through instruction.”
Thus, when he uses the term “Law” in chapter seven he is referring specifically, to the Mosaic Law, i.e. the Jewish law and not to an axiom of political justice both Jewish and Roman.
This would also refute the interpretation that “I” in Romans 7:7-25 describes the experience of Adam and corporate solidarity with him since the Law was given to the nation of Israel centuries after Adam as indicated through a comparison of Genesis 2-3, the book of Exodus and Romans 5:12-13.
Lastly, Adam never received a prohibition not to covet as the nation of Israel did through the Law given to Moses at Mount Sinai.
The problem with the view that the first person verbs and the personal pronoun ego, “I” refer to the nation of Israel is that there is no precedence in the New Testament and in particular the Pauline epistles for their being used in such a way.
Some contend that the expression elthouses tes entoles, “when the commandment came” in Romans 7:9 refers to the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai, which would indicate that Paul is identifying with his Jewish countrymen.
However, this interpretation is incorrect rather it is referring to Paul’s awareness of the significance of the commandment (“do not covet”) at his conversion since Paul is speaking in the first person and there is nothing in the context indicating that he is speaking of the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai.
Also, those who contend that the first person verbs and the personal pronoun ego, “I” in Romans 7:7-25 are a representation of the nation of Israel use the expression ego ezon choris nomou, “I was once alive apart from the Law” as evidence to support their view stating that it refers to Israel before the giving of the Law.
However, this is incorrect but rather it refers to Paul’s conversion experience when he became aware of the significance of the tenth commandment in Exodus 20:17 prohibiting coveting.
Once he became aware of its significance, he became aware that he was guilty of violating this commandment.
Romans 3:20, “Because each and every member of sinful humanity will never be justified in His judgment by means of actions produced by obedience to the Law for through the Law there does come about an awareness of the sin nature.”
Again, Paul’s use of the first person plural and the lack of any contextual evidence that he is speaking of the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai make it clear that the apostle is referring to his own conversion when he became aware that he had violated the tenth commandment.
Therefore, the first person verbs and the personal pronoun ego, “I” in chapter seven and the statements mentioned above in Romans 7:9 do not indicate that Paul is identifying with his Jewish countrymen.
Therefore, we are left with only one interpretation that makes sense and that is the “autobiographical” interpretation meaning that when Paul employs the first person verbs and the personal pronoun ego, “I” in chapter seven he is referring to his own personal experience.
The question arises, “Is he referring to himself and in his unregenerate state or regenerate state?
This problem is resolved if we take into consideration that in Romans 7:7-13, all the verbs that Paul employs are in the aorist tense, which refers to his conversion experience.
The aorist tenses in these verses can only be explained if Paul is describing his experience with the Law when he became a Christian.
Therefore, in Romans 7:7-13, the personal pronoun ego, “I” and the first person verbs in the aorist tense are signifying Paul the moment he got saved.
That Paul is referring to himself in his conversion experience is indicated by his statements in verses 8-11 that the sin nature killed him through the Law when he became aware as a Christian that he had broken the Law.
In verses 7-11, Paul describes himself as dying spiritually when he became aware that he had violated the Law and then a struggle ensues for the rest of the chapter.
This struggle with the sin nature, and the fact that Paul says that the sin nature killed him through the commandment would only take place in a regenerate or born-again person and never an unregenerate or unsaved Jew.
Remember, the unregenerate Jew was occupied with externals and strict adherence to rule and regulations.
Philippians 3:5-7 reveals that Paul was satisfied that he was fulfilling the Law when he was unsaved, thus there was no struggle with the sin nature and the Law.
Once Paul became saved, the Law exposed the fact that he could not keep the perfect standards of a holy God.
Then, beginning in Romans 7:14, he switches for the remainder of the chapter to the present tense, which clearly signifies his struggle with sin as a Christian.
That Paul is speaking of himself is indicated by his statement in Romans 7:22 that he delights in the Law of God, which only a regenerate person has the capacity to do.
Also, only a regenerate person would seek to obey and serve the Law as Paul says of himself in verses 15-22.
The unregenerate do not seek after God (Romans 3:11) and cannot submit to the Law of God (Romans 8:7).
An unbeliever does not hate sin as Paul says he does in verse 15.
Furthermore, only a Christian possesses an “inner man,” which refers to the new nature and is mentioned in verse 22.
Verse 18 is harmonious with salvation suggesting that there is a part of him that is good, other than the flesh and is the mind that must serve God.
Verse 25 forms the fitting conclusion, a summary statement, in which he appropriates the struggle to the present time.
Paul’s victorious statement of his deliverance by God through Christ also makes clear that he is speaking from the perspective of being regenerated, i.e. born-again.
The expression in verse 14 that he is sold into bondage to the sin nature has been interpreted as Paul referring to his unregenerate condition.
This is incorrect because again, Paul is using the present tense, which signifies that he is speaking from the perspective of his regenerate condition.
Thus, a better interpretation is that the expression “sold into bondage to sin” refers to the fact that even though the Christian is in union with Christ, he still possesses a sin nature, which resides in the genetic structure of his physical body, which is denoted by the noun sarx, “flesh.”
Therefore, verses 14-25, Paul is speaking from the perspective of his regenerate state and is describing the effect of the Law on the mind of the regenerated Jew.
He is describing his struggle that he has with his sin nature, which is exposed by the Law of God.
When he gets to chapter eight, then he describes the means by which the regenerate Jew can experience victory over the sin nature through the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:1-8).
Therefore, in Romans 7:14-25, Paul is describing his regenerate experience in dealing with the Law and his sin nature “apart” from the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.
If one is seeking to obey the Lord’s will without the enablement by the Spirit, it will be a frustrating struggle.
Understanding that the “I” in verses 14-25 is referring to Paul’s regenerate state and his struggles with his sin nature in relation to the Law minus the Holy Spirit is important since it will give us encouragement as Christians in the twenty-first century to deal with our battles with the sin nature.
It will also teach us the importance of the Holy Spirit in enabling us to experience victory over the sin nature.