Romans 7: The Loser

Romans 7 is a toughie. Seriously, it is the one and only passage where Paul seems to describe a losing battle with sin and the sinful nature. What is he talking about? Is this the normal Christian life? Most Calvinists, following St. Augustine, say yes...this is as good as it's gonna get, at least until we die and move on.

I'm an Arminian of the old John Wesley style. I read Romans 7 by first looking at the context of the entire New Testament, and then of Romans chapters 6 and 8. If you list all the other passages that teach that the Christian life should be characterized by defeat, weakness, and compromise, you get...zero. They're just not there. The New Testament is a holiness book, and the expectation throughout is that a life of victory is truly possible. There are so many verses, it is almost easier just to hand you a Bible than to list them.

"Let those who name the name of Christ depart from iniquity...I write this to you so that you do not sin...no one who lives in him continues to sin. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him...do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you in holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written: 'Be holy, for I am holy.' ...die to sin and live for righteousness...it is God's will that you should be sanctified...God did not call us to be impure but to live a holy life..." And on and on and on.

Likewise, chapter six and eight of Romans stand athwart chapter seven like enormous book ends, each one promising freedom and claiming victory over the sinful nature. Are we really to read the defeat and frustration of Romans 7 as the context in which to read those passages, or vice versa?

Romans 6 --- you are dead to sin, you cannot live in it any longer...no longer slaves to sin...do not let sin reign...sin shall not be your master...you have been set free from sin...

Romans 7 --- You are a prisoner/slave to sin.

Romans 8 --- The law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death!

So how are we to understand Romans 7? I believe that common sense and a straight forward reading of the context and the text itself reveals that Romans 7 is Paul's retrospective on life before he met Christ; it is the misery of a man who knows God's law, but has only the resources of his own strength to overcome the power of indwelling sin. Thus in chapter 7, the Spirit is mentioned only once; in chapter 8, some thirty one times. In chapter 7, grace is never mentioned, although law is named twenty times. The Greek pronoun ego, which, when used, is an emphasized "I," occurs eight times in chapter 7. Chapter 7 ends with a doubly emphasized "I, myself." This word never appears in chapter 8. My heading for chapter 7 would be: "The law as useless in helping us struggle against indwelling sin." And then chapter 8:3 - "What the law was powerless to do..." The Spirit of Jesus in us can do!

7:1-6 Dead to the Law

Paul's argument here is that death cancels all contracts, such as marriage. We were metaphorically "married" to the law, but now through our union with the death of Christ, we have died in that relationship. Now we are free to remarry and "belong to another," the risen Christ. Now we can bear fruit for God!

Verse five says "while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death." (This is what is spelled out in detail in 7:7-25, the frustration section).

Verse six says "But NOW we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit!" (This will be described in chapter 8).

7:7-13 Sin and Law

Sin is personified as a sly enemy who enlists the law as an unintentional accomplice. We can't blame law for our trouble; but law adds a tingle of the enticement of forbidden fruit to temptation. Actually, what is to blame for that is the sin nature working in all of us, making us want to violate God's law.

It is important to know the difference between "Sin" as the sinful nature, indwelling sin, original sin, whatever name you want to use, and "sin" as sinful acts or behaviors. I inherited my sinful nature from Adam; sins are what comes flowing out of that bent to my spirit. I think it is the same distinction Jesus made between the tree and its fruit; nature and behavior.

7:14-25 The Hopeless Struggle against indwelling sin

John Wesley calls this "the miserable bondage of those still under the law...truly convinced of sin, but not able to conquer it." I know what is right and good, part of me wants to obey God, but I find this OTHER desire in my nature that pulls me downward, like a bowling ball strapped to an Olympic swimmer...this section builds to the frustrated cry of verse 24, "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" I believe Paul is referring here to a horrible ancient custom by which some tyrants punished murderers by chaining them to the corpses of their victims. It guaranteed several gruesome days and finally a horrible death. The sinful nature feels like THAT...who will set me free?

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ! Paul shouts. There is a deliverer!

The end of verse 25, however, seems oddly out of place. "So I will just resign myself to serve sin with my body, but at least in my mind I will serve God." What? Just live in some kind of bizarre cognitive dissonance?

I know of at least four various interpretations for this verse and its placement.

1. Paul is just giving up. Who will deliver me from this body of death? Nobody...at least until I die. I'm stuck in this frustration.

2. Some argue that these words were moved from earlier in the chapter to here; Paul intended to end the passage with praise for Christ his deliverer. I do not believe we have any manuscript evidence for this, though.

3. Some contend that the words are not from Paul at all, but are so out of place they must have been inserted by some early scribe and copied into all subsequent manuscripts. Again, no hard evidence exists for this.

4. I would argue for the fourth view. Paul says "I, myself" in the sense of meaning "I, on my own, apart from the Spirit's help...I would be stuck in this mess." But he immediately goes on into chapter 8 to talk about life in the Spirit. I am NOT on my own! I have the indwelling Spirit of Christ!