Confessions of an Unregenerate Jew | Romans 7:7-25

Introduction: Defining the Context

There are some who teach that in Romans 7:7-25 Paul is speaking as a Christian struggling with sin. Such an interpretation utterly contradicts the apostle’s teaching in the previous chapter where he reminds Christians that they have been ‘freed from sin’ (6:7), to count ourselves ‘dead to sin’ (6:12) and that ‘sin shall not be our master’ (6:14) for we have been ‘set free from sin and have become slaves to God’ (6:22). Yes, Paul recognizes that Christians may still allow sin in their lives, but his underlying message is that ‘our old self was crucified with Him (Christ) so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin’ (6:6).

By contrast, in 7:7-25 he refers to himself as ‘unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin’ (7:14) that he ‘has a desire to do what is good but cannot carry it out’ (7:18) and he is a ‘prisoner of the law of sin’. A Christian cannot be ‘set free from sin and have become slaves to God’ and at the same time ‘unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin’. We cannot claim that ‘the body of sin has been rendered powerless’ and then that ‘we have a desire to do good and cannot carry it out’. Either we have been ‘set free from sin and have become slaves to God’, or we are a ‘prisoner of the law of sin’. All of these statements are direct opposites of each other therefore, they can never be used to be speaking of a person whose spiritual condition has not been radically changed through new birth. 

Readers will notice that Paul changes tenses throughout the narrative, especially after verse 13. Generally speaking, from verses 7-12 he speaks in the past tense, but from 12-24 he reverts to the ‘historical present’, a tense used to speak of a time in the past from a present perspective and also referred to as the ‘dramatic present and narrative present’. But the conclusive statement of Paul comes in verse 24 where he states, ‘who will rescue me from this body of death?’ Paul is not speaking of his physical death and being taken from this world, but being given the power over sin in this life, the theme of chapter 8.

I. An Anticipated Question

7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what it was to covet if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead.

In verse 7 Paul anticipates a question: ‘Is the law sin’? His immediate answer to this question comes in the form of an emphatic ‘no’ and a summary answer: ‘Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law’. This is the same conclusion the apostle writes in 3:20 that ‘rather, through the law we become conscious of sin’. These statements are the purpose of 7:7-23, firstly to show that it is through the law that we become conscious of sin, and just as importantly, how powerless we are in our flesh (sarx) to refrain from sin in our unregenerate state. Thirdly, Paul wants to show that our becoming conscious of sin awakens our autonomous nature, the spirit of lawlessness (anomia). He has already underlined this point in 6:19. Our demand to live by our own standards is really an admission that, even though we may have tried, we cannot master our own bodies and minds. Notice the force of Paul’s words in 6:19.

‘…Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness’.

In the original language Paul states that in our unregenerate state we ‘yielded the members of our bodies in slavery to impurity and from lawlessness to lawlessness’. The term ‘lawlessness to lawlessness’ is ἀνομίᾳ (anomia) the root and principle of sin and rebellion.  

Therefore, in 7:7-8 Paul’s observation is as follows. Through becoming conscious of the law I understood what it was to covet and recognized myself as covetous. It was as if the sin of covetousness suddenly came alive in me through recognition, and the recognition, fueled by my desire for autonomy, became rebellion (anomia) and produced ‘every kind of covetous desire’. It is interesting that Paul chose the example of coveting rather than other commandments such as murder or following false gods. He doesn’t tell us at what age this recognition of right and wrong becomes conscious, however, young children do not have the cognitive abilities or desire to plan murder or choose to follow false gods, whereas coveting is one of the first forms of sin that children exhibit.

Paul then states that ‘apart from the law, sin is dead’, a similar statement he made previously in 5:13 where he writes, ‘sin is not taken into account when there is no law’. For a child, their parent or caregiver is the one who administers the ‘law’, the one who draws the line between right and wrong. Although standards may differ in various cultures, all societies have norms of right or wrong behavior which parents are expected to teach their children to obey. God recognizes the authority of parents, whether or not the parent is Christian, and in as much as a parent is teaching laws which correspond to His law, a child who disobeys has embraced rebellion and sin.

II. ‘Alive apart from the Law’

‘9 Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good’.

Those who teach that we are ‘totally depraved’ or inherit the sin/guilt of Adam at conception and are ‘born sinners’, fundamentally deny the doctrine of regeneration. The word regeneration means something which was alive, died, and was made alive again, RE-generated. If we are conceived spiritually dead we were never ‘alive’ in the first place, therefore, the term ‘regeneration’ can never apply.

Paul, however, contradicts this theology absolutely, and there is no biblical support for the tradition introduced by Augustine of Hippo around 396AD, that any child inherits sin, either at conception or birth. There are several videos on this topic on my YouTube channel, and this doctrine is studied in depth in my Practical Systematic Theology.

 https://stevecopland.com/practical-systematic-theology-book

Paul has already told us that apart from knowledge of the law ‘sin is dead’ and now he expands on that doctrine. Before he consciously sinned we was ‘alive’, but, ‘sin sprang to life’ and he died, that is, died spiritually, becoming separated from God through willful disobedience.

‘11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good’.

Verse 11 echoes what occurred in the Garden of Eden. There is no opportunity to disobey where there is no commandment. Once the commandment was given, sin (ἁμαρτία-hamartia) has an opportunity to manifest or not. In Eden, the Serpent, who is the first sinner, tempted Eve and deceived her, and in the above passage, the root of sin itself, the desire for autonomy (anomia) deceived Paul for ‘there is a way that seems right to a man and the end thereof are the ways of death’ (Proverbs 14:12). Once the commandment was willfully broken, that same commandment was enforced and spiritual death was the result because the commandment reflects the standard of God who is ‘holy, righteous and good’.

‘13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful’.

Those who are ignorant of God’s standard of morality generally comply to their own standard or the standard of the cultures in which they live. God’s law declares God’s standard of morality and holiness, and in this way, sin is ‘recognized as sin’. Willfully rebelling against God’s law brings spiritual death, and in this way, sin is recognized as ‘utterly sinful’ for its consequences are dire indeed.

‘14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 

19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work in my members’.

In order to understand Paul’s words we must remind ourselves of who he is writing to. From chapter 2 Paul has been addressing the Jewish Christians in Rome (2:11, 17, 24, 3:1, 4:1, 12, 7:1) and does not specifically write to the Gentile believers until 11:11ff. The Gentile nations had their own standards of morality, standards which were designed to cater to the desires of the flesh nature (sarx). They sacrificed children, worshipped fertility gods and goddesses, raped and pillaged. The Greeks and Romans created gods to fulfill every whim of the flesh, gods of drunkenness, orgies and the like. Those living in such cultures never compared themselves to the standards of God’s holy law for they did not know that law. Therefore, they never struggled with the desires of their flesh natures as their cultures simply insisted they indulge them, albeit, there were the few who had a conscious instinct that such practices were wrong and showed that ‘the requirements of the law were written on their hearts’ ( Romans 2:15).

Life for the Jewish nation was very different. As Paul has stated, the law forced them to recognize God’s standard of holiness and, by comparison, their own utter sinfulness. And herein lies the paradox of the unregenerate human condition. On the one hand, we may delight in all that is good, holy and perfect, for we are made in the image of He who is good, holy and perfect. And on the other hand is the human desire for autonomy and independence, the part of our natures that demands to live our own way. These two are at war with one another. The mind understands and delights in God’s standard of holiness, and the flesh demands to be satisfied.

In the unregenerate person the flesh nature dominates and we become slaves to its desires and demands, a state of habitual sin. We know we fall short of God’s standard and glory, but are powerless to change. Every year, on New Year’s Eve, millions make resolutions to change their sinful habits; they determine to stop smoking, or getting drunk, using foul language, or walking away from a sinful relationship. But without the indwelling divine nature, these resolutions ultimately fail, for the mind must be transformed, the flesh must be brought into conformity with God’s standard, and our bodies must be offered as living sacrifices to God (Romans 12:1-2). Only through being born again, regenerated and indwelt by the Triune God, can this process of change be successful.

Paul’s Jewish audience understood this dilemma and paradox from personal experience. He writes in the historical present in order to show empathy, to remind his readers that he too was at war with his flesh, even as a fanatical Pharisee (Galatians 1:14). He knew that ‘nothing good lived in his flesh’, that he ‘had the desire to do good but could not carry it out’. He recognized that he was a ‘prisoner of the law of sin at work in his members’, that is, in his fleshly nature.

‘24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.’  

Notice the tenses here. Paul asks ‘who will rescue me’, not ‘who has rescued’ me, therefore, he is still using the historical present to the end of chapter 7. And as a way of reminder, in chapter six the apostle has already stated that Christians have been ‘freed from sin’ (6:7), to count ourselves ‘dead to sin’ (6:12) and that ‘sin shall not be our master’ (6:14) for we have been ‘set free from sin and have become slaves to God’ (6:22) for ‘we know that our old self (the flesh nature) was crucified with Him (Christ) so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless that we should no longer be slaves to sin’ (6:6).

The regenerate person may fail on occasions, but our flesh is no longer a ‘slave to the law of sin’, for it has been crucified with Christ and rendered powerless to keep us from living for Christ.  

In Summary

If you, as a Christian believe that you have the desire to do what is good, but cannot carry it out, you are already defeated. By contrast, Peter tells us that through becoming partakers of the divine nature we have ‘everything we need to live a godly life’ (2 Peter 1:3-4).

All Christians struggle against our flesh natures, for our bodies make demands on us, and old habits take time to be replaced by godly habits. But understand this incredibly important point. We are never condemned in our struggle, but rather our struggles prove our desire to live for Christ and to show our love for Him. In this, I have no doubt that in our efforts to be holy as He is holy, we give Him joy. 

Steve Copland