Romans 7.25b-Paul's Conclusion-He Serves The Law Through His New Nature But Sin Through His Flesh
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday October 8, 2008
Romans: Romans 7:25b-Paul’s Conclusion: He Serves The Law Through His New Nature But Sin Through His Flesh
Lesson # 238
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 7:14.
Last evening we studied Romans 7:25a and in this passage Paul expressed his thanks to the Father for his deliverance from the power of his sin nature through the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This evening we will complete our study of Romans chapter seven by noting Romans 7:26b and in this passage, Paul presents his conclusion by stating that he serves the Law through his new nature but the sin nature through his flesh.
Romans 7:14-25, “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.”
“So then” is composed of the “inferential” particle ara (a&ra) (ar-ah), “so” and the “transitional” or “resumptive” use of the post-positive conjunction oun (ou@n) (oon), “then.”
In Romans 7:25b, the particle ara is inferential suggesting that the statement to follow is a conclusion or inference from Paul’s preceding statements in Romans 7:14-24 since his statement in Romans 7:25b summarizes his statements in Romans 7:14-25a.
In Romans 7:25b, the conjunction oun resumes Paul’s previous train of thought in Romans 7:14-24 after his parenthetical remark in Romans 7:25a.
Oun is introducing a summarization of this remark that is the result of an inference.
The particle ara closes the parenthetical remark in Romans 7:25a.
Together, ara oun emphasize the logical connection between Paul’s statements in Romans 7:14-24 with his statement to follow in Romans 7:25b.
Romans 7:25, “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.”
“On the one hand” is the conjunction men (me\n) (men), which is employed with the conjunction de (deV) (deh), “but on the other hand” in a correlative sense.
Together, they demonstrate the contrast between Paul as a servant of God’s Law by means of the mind of his new Christ nature with that of his being servant of his Adamic sin nature by means of his flesh.
“My mind” is the noun nous (nou$) (noose), which refers to the spiritual desires, purposes and judgments of the regenerate heart or in other words, the new Christ nature.
The “inner man” in Romans 7:22 is directly related to the expression to nomo tou noos mou, “the propensity of my mind” in Romans 7:23 and this expression in Romans 7:25b the “mind” originates with the “inner man.”
At the moment a sinner is declared justified by God through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior, the Holy Spirit creates a human spirit for the imputation of eternal life by God the Father, which makes the believer a new spiritual species meaning he now possesses the divine nature.
Titus 3:5, “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.”
This human spirit with eternal life imputed to it composes the believer’s new nature, i.e. the new self and this new nature is the nature of Christ.
This act of regeneration makes the believer a new spiritual species, which is the nature of Christ that can never sin and that is described in Scripture by many phrases such as the “new self, new man, new creation.”
2 Peter 1:4, “For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
We are commanded to put on the new Christ nature in order to practice the righteousness of God, which manifests itself in loving one another as Christ loved.
Ephesians 4:24, “and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”
The inner man, the new Christ nature is strengthened with power through the Spirit when the believer obeys the voice of the Spirit, which is heard through the communication of the Word of God.
Ephesians 3:16, “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.”
In Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3, the apostle Paul uses the expression “old man” to refer to the old Adamic sin nature and the expression “new man” to refer to the new Christ nature.
Therefore, in Romans 7:23, the noun nous, “mind” is the mind of new Christ nature.
The word functions as a “dative instrumental of means” indicating that Paul serves the Law of God “by means of” his mind, i.e. his new Christ nature.
Romans 7:25, “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.”
“Am serving” is the verb douleuo (douleuvw) (dool-yoo-o), which refers to Paul’s “status or condition or position of being a servant” of the Law of God, which is accomplished by means of the new nature.
“The law of God” refers to the Mosaic Law.
“With my flesh” is the noun sarx (savrc) (sarx), which refers to the physical body of the apostle Paul, which is where his sin nature is located.
The word functions as a “dative instrumental of means” indicating that Paul serves his sin nature “by means of” his flesh, i.e. his physical body, which is corrupted by the sin nature.
“The law of sin” is composed of the noun nomos (novmo$) (nom-os), “the law” and the noun hamartia (a(martiva) (ham-ar-tee-ah), “sin.”
These two words appeared together in Romans 7:23.
In this passage, the noun nomos means, “propensity” and the noun hamartia refers to the sin nature and together, they referred to the propensity of the sin nature to disobey the Law of God.
Romans 7:23, “However, I habitually recognize a different kind of propensity in my members as perpetually waging war against the propensity originating from my mind and in addition perpetually making me a prisoner of war with respect to the propensity originating from the sin nature, which does perpetually exist in my members.”
Here in Romans 7:25, this is how the two are used.