A Note On Romans 7

I have had a number of Christians tell me about Romans 7 when I tell them I do not believe Paul taught about a “sin nature” for the Christian. Romans 7 tells us right up at the top of the chapter that Paul is talking to those who are into or know the law. And then the context of the whole chapter is how we can see it’s all about Israel and their Law and how they toy with their flesh.

What Paul talks about in the seventh chapter of Romans is what occurs to the believer who still thinks the Law applies to them. They end up spiritually dying by the commandment and realize that the commandment does not produce life. The war is with their flesh because they are still believing the Law has power over them.

The eighth chapter of Romans is where it explains how we overcome this whole issue by living in the spirit and being dead to the Law. We cannot live by faith in what Christ has done for us and still think our obedience to written laws are necessary. To do so takes away from the perfect work of Christ and places salvation and righteousness back in our own hands. Romans 8 states “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin…”

The interpretive key is to read Romans 7:14–25 as part of Paul’s larger argument rather than beginning with the question “Is this Paul before or after he became a Christian?” Paul is describing the predicament of the person under the Law confronted by Sin. Notice the vocabulary: “the law is spiritual” (Romans 7:14), “I am carnal, sold under sin” (Romans 7:14), “sin that dwelleth in me” (Romans 7:17), “bringing me into captivity to the law of sin” (Romans 7:23), and “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24).

That condition should be compared directly with what Paul has just said in Romans 6 and immediately says in Romans 8. In Romans 6:14 he tells us “sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” In Romans 6:17–18 they had been “servants of sin” but had now been “made free from sin.” Yet the “I” of Romans 7 says “I am carnal, sold under sin” and describes himself as being brought “into captivity to the law of sin.”

Then Romans 8 supplies the resolution: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” because “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1–2). So the rhetorical identity of the “I” of Romans 7:14–25 is describing the condition from which Christ provides deliverance, and not simply establishing the normal permanent condition that Christians should find themselves in.

And yes, there is a very real element of inability in the passage. Paul says: “I want to do what is right, but I can’t.” But we need to ask why he cannot. Paul’s argument is not merely “Human beings have a sinful nature and therefore everybody throughout history is constitutionally incapable of doing good.” His argument concerns the relationship between Law, Sin, and Death.

Paul says “I had not known sin, but by the law” (Romans 7:7), “sin, taking occasion by the commandment” produced transgression (Romans 7:8), and the commandment that was “ordained to life” was “found to be unto death” (Romans 7:10). Sin used the commandment to deceive and kill (Romans 7:11). That is why Paul concludes: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” And the answer is: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” because Christ is the answer to that covenantal predicament.

Romans 8 explains the deliverance and this is why the question should not be was Paul saved or unsaved when he felt this way in Romans 7. Paul is constructing a theological argument about the predicament of those under the Law: the Law itself was holy and good, but sin exploited the commandment, producing condemnation and death. The Law could identify and condemn sin, but it could not liberate its subjects from sin’s power.

This explains why Romans 7 cannot simply be lifted out of its first-century covenantal setting and turned into a timeless psychological description of how Christians have a sinful nature and therefore unable to see themselves as the righteousness of God in Christ. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

In Romans 7 Paul is explaining the very Law–Sin–Death problem that Romans 8 says Christ has delivered us from. And this is why Christians can be close to the Christ because the spirit of Christ is very much involved in communication with those of us who are called to have fellowship with Jesus Christ. “God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9).