Romans 7 Interpretation

sccs said:

Romans 7:14-25 says:

"For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin."

Please help me in understanding, interpreting and applying this passage!

1) Do we sin because we can't help it? If so, why does God hold us accountable to sin that we can't help but do?

2) Is there a disjoint between our mind and our flesh? Isn't it the mind that sins, not the flesh?

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Something occurred to me after my batpism which may help you in this. After I was baptized I felt the need to make myself worthy of the gift which I had been given and I set out trying to cleanse the desire to sin from my life. I looked at the 10 commandments as my guide and I set out to stop sinning.

The problem was that the harder that I tried to stop doing a particular sin, the harder it became to stop the sin. As paul says, "I have the desire to do what was right, but not the ability to carry out".

I tried and tried but kept failing and I cried out to God for help and a voice said, "I did not ask you to be perfect, Jesus has already done that for you". I then saw the cross and understood.

Through faith, we, as children of God, have been given our perfection through the cross but "we" need to embrace that cross. It is our key to salvation. Jesus paid the price for our sinful nature through his death and his blood cleans us.

We cannot stop sin through our own foolish attempt and we need to surrender to the Holy Spirit so that God truly lives within us and is our guide. That Holy Spirit can take away the desire to sin which our nature cannot.

Too many Christians receive the gift but don't know what to do with it. Instead of opening the gift, they put it aside and do not open it. Far too many Christians are like the lame man who who was healed of his aflliction but did not try to stand up and walk.

We are called to walk in the Spirit and that is what Paul is referring to. Through the Law came knowledge of sin but the Law cannot make us holy. The gift of God Spirit makes us holy. Don't walk to the law, walk in the Spirit.

I think Paul is describing a kind of split mind. You know what is right. You're committed to Christ. But you're not fully there yet. You still have the old desires.

You're certainly responsible for your choices. It's you making them. But there's a sense in which it's not the real you, because the real you is committed to God. That commitment just hasn't gotten to all of you yet. And frankly, it may not ever, in this life.

Paul uses the term "flesh" to refer to the unredeemed part of us. Of course flesh doesn't make choices. The will does. So it's not literally a different part of us. It just feels that way.

I'd take Paul's comments as sort of poetic. You don't want to take his comments too literally, concluding that all Christians have multiple personality disorder, or that the body is the cause of sin and the mind is pure. People have maintained the latter, but it's not really Christian because it ends up denying that God made everything, mind and body, and called it all good. And it's not just the body: the mind and will are source of the most serious sins.

sccs said:

Romans 7:14-25 says:

"For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin."

Please help me in understanding, interpreting and applying this passage!

1) Do we sin because we can't help it? If so, why does God hold us accountable to sin that we can't help but do?

2) Is there a disjoint between our mind and our flesh? Isn't it the mind that sins, not the flesh?

Click to expand...

Romans 8:6
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Ask the Lord for His Holy Spirit, and the Spirit will guide you into all Truth.

If a man is spiritually minded he will no longer desire to walk in the way of fulfilling the fleshy desires which are manifest in those of a carnal mind.

InSpiritInTruth said:

For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Ask the Lord for His Holy Spirit, and the Spirit will guide you into all Truth.

If a man is spiritually minded he will no longer desire to walk in the way of fulfilling the fleshy desires which are manifest in those of a carnal mind.

Click to expand...

I have just read an excellent transcript of a John MacArthur radio broadcast on this very subject in Romans 7 vs 14 to 24
here is the link to the radio broadcast

Search for.....( why do I still sin ) on Grace to you. gty.org

Here you will find the answers you are looking for.......
may the Lord be with you

Dear SCCS, I don't know if you really want the answer or not but Paul is referring to the state of a non-Christian not a Christian in these verses. We can simple prove this in 2 ways.

1. In Romans 8:1 Paul states: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." If you are still walking after the flesh you are still under condemnation.

2. Romans 7:5 states: "For when we were (PAST TENSE) in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death."

Between Romans 7:5 and Romans 8:1 Paul is simply writing about a persons struggle to live right who are lead by the flesh.

I will add that while I don't believe Paul to be a inspired writer from God, I was a follower of his for many years and through time came to see err in his doctrines and have since abandoned Paul to become a follower of the teachings of Christ and now see Paul as a hieratic.

sccs said:

Do we sin because we can't help it?
Yes, Romans 11:32 For God has bound all men over to disobedience …

If so, why does God hold us accountable to sin that we can't help but do? Romans 11:32 … so that he may have mercy on them all.

Is there a disjoint between our mind and our flesh? Isn't it the mind that sins, not the flesh?
There is enmity (war) between our natural and Spiritual selves.
1 Corinthians 15:44-49 … If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. … And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.

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Romans 7 Interpretation

Romans 7:14-25 says:

"For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin."

Please help me in understanding, interpreting and applying this passage!

1) Do we sin because we can't help it? If so, why does God hold us accountable to sin that we can't help but do?

2) Is there a disjoint between our mind and our flesh? Isn't it the mind that sins, not the flesh?

Click to expand...

Romans 7 is about a wife that remarries after her husband is dead. A woman is not called an adulteress if she remarries after her husband is dead. The law of her husband no longer has power over her. If she remarries while her husband is alive, she is called an adulteress.

That is how it is with "you" my dear friends. The romans have been made part of the body of Christ and are dead to the "power" of the law. The romans are free to belong to Christ who has been raised to life, so that Israel can serve God. When Israel had only selfish desires, the law made Israel have sinful desires. "It made every part of our bodies into slaves who are doomed to die".
Israel is like dead people; the law has no power over Israel. Now Israel can serve God in a new way by obeying the Spirit; Israel is now made strangers traveling in a foreign land, not in the old way by obeying the written law.

Pharisee Paul advises widows and virgins not to remarry. A widow is married to her dead husband who has been raised to life, and the virgin is married to the Lord.

it is by grace that we live

sccs said:

Romans 7:14-25 says:

"For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin."

Please help me in understanding, interpreting and applying this passage!

1) Do we sin because we can't help it? If so, why does God hold us accountable to sin that we can't help but do?

2) Is there a disjoint between our mind and our flesh? Isn't it the mind that sins, not the flesh?

Click to expand...

1) Paul says, as believers, we sin because of our carnal nature. 1 John 1:9 says if we CONFESS, that means that if God touches our heart and say it is sin, we agree. Verse 10 shows if we claim we have not sinned, this relates to confession. Verse 9 goes on to say God forgives it and PURIFIES us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 2:1-2 affirms how Christ works in our lives.

2) We have a carnal nature, a spiritual nature and a soul or mind if you will. Our natures are always fighting for control of our souls.

Even Paul had these problems, which are common to all mankind. We need to make sure we don't have unconfessed sin in our lives and move on.

sccs said:

Romans 7:14-25 says:

"For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin."

Please help me in understanding, interpreting and applying this passage!

1) Do we sin because we can't help it? If so, why does God hold us accountable to sin that we can't help but do?

2) Is there a disjoint between our mind and our flesh? Isn't it the mind that sins, not the flesh?

Click to expand...

Romans 7 speaks about the battle between our flesh and our minds and later gives the solution to the problem. We human being are all carnal or sinful. Sin is what we do naturally. In Romans 3, Pauls tells us that the law gives us the knowledge of sin. So we know what is right and wrong based on the law of Go d in our mind, however, our flesh will have us to go against what is right and do what is wrong. The law only gives us the knowledge. Knowledge cannot suffice to change our sinful behaviour.

In verse 27 Pauls tells us that it is through Jesus that we can actually perform the right that is in our minds instead of the wrong. A Christian is supposed to be a converted individual who is supposed to be a new creation and walking after the spirit instead of the flesh. It is only this transformation that can solve the delimna that Paul described. In Romans 8:7 Paul tells us that the carnal mind is emnity against God and is not subject to the law of God. A carnal mind cannot do what God commands. But a man walking after the spirit would be freeeeee to do what is in his mind and is not bound to follow the lusts of his flesh.

People misunderstand freedom in Christ to mean freedom to do not have to obey laws. The freedom is firstly being free from the penalty of sin, but it is also freedom to do what is right and not in bondage of your own sinful nature. That is how I would explain Romans 7.