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Romans 7:14–17
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin (Rom. 7:14).
The law of God, a good and holy thing, causes our sin to stand out in bold relief, which causes us (as the Holy Spirit works in our hearts) to realize our hopelessness, which causes us to flee to Christ for the righteousness we need. In Him we receive justification, being made right with God and being given the ability to choose obedience over rebellion. After that, many believers expect constant peace and happiness in life. However, as Paul moves to show in Romans 7:14–25, salvation delivers us from the condemnation of the law but not from its jurisdiction. The sinful nature remaining in us continues to tug us in the direction of disobedience to God. Therefore, the law stays in our faces even when we become believers, revealing our remaining shortcomings to drive us onward toward actual holiness. Thus, it is completely logical that we would experience greater struggles as Christians than we ever encountered as unbelievers. As evidence, Paul points to his own life, showing that he—an apostle of Christ—experiences a mighty struggle with sin.
These verses of Romans 7 are well-known for their depiction of the struggle against sin. But commentators have struggled to understand what stage of his life Paul is addressing. Various scholars have identified this struggle as taking place before his conversion, during a period in which the Holy Spirit was drawing him to Christ, after his conversion but while he was still an immature believer, or in his present state as a mature Christian. The shift from the past tense (Rom. 7:7–13) to the present tense (7:14–25) and Paul’s profession of love for God’s law (v. 22), a love only believers experience, are two of the major arguments that this struggle is Paul’s present experience.
Paul wastes no time identifying the root of the problem. The law, he says, is “spiritual”; it is the standard for life governed by the Spirit. He, however, is “carnal,” meaning he still has a sinful nature. Though he has died with Christ and so has died to the law, sin still has a strong hold on him. Thus, though he wills to obey, he sins, and though he hates to sin, he still does. He is baffled by this battle but he has this comfort: The fact of the battle shows he loves and agrees with the law. A good work has begun in him, and though sin remains and holds him back, God has promised to do something about that (Phil. 1:6).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
In your struggle against sin, you may have had occasion to wonder whether you were truly saved. If so, be comforted. If you did not agree with the law (that is, with God’s perspective on righteousness), you would not fight to obey it, and you would not agree with it if you were not saved. Rejoice in the assurance that you are in union with Christ.
For Further Study
- John 14:15, 21–24
- 2 Peter 1:3–11
- 1 John 2:3–5
- 1 John 5:3