The apostle assures his readers that he is not saying anything is wrong with the law. "So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good." (Romans 7:12) He said in yesterday's passage that since human nature is perverse, knowing the law made him more aware of his sinfulness, yet at the same time it made him want to sin all the more. The fault was not in the law, but in him.
"Did that which was good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful." (Romans 7:12-13) It's easy to see why the Apostle Peter once said of Paul, "His letters contain some things that are hard to understand." (2 Peter 3:16) Paul anticipates that some of his enemies might accuse him of saying the law itself is sinful since thinking about things we are forbidden to do often has the effect of making us want to do those things. But he says no, the law is holy and man is unholy. God was right to give us the law because without the law we would not have recognized sin as sin. We need to recognize sin as sin so we can admit our faults and failures to the God who is able to impute righteousness to us. We need to recognize sin so we will want to die to our old selves and be made new in Christ.
"We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer myself who does it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do---this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who does it, but it is sin living in me that does it." (Romans 7:14-20) Who sold Paul (and us) into slavery to sin? We sold ourselves! Paul already told us that we are slaves to whatever we have chosen to obey. (Romans 6:16) When we lived in sin before we came to Christ we were slaves to sin. Even after our conversion we sometimes have to struggle against temptation. We know what is right and we want to do what is right, but our carnal natures try to rebel against our spiritual natures. "For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh." (Galatians 5:17a) Before Paul came to Christ he understood that the law was good. He knew he ought to obey every single word of it. Yet no matter how much he wanted to obey the whole law, he couldn't. He was able to obey some of it, perhaps even most of it, but not all of it. This caused him to have to admit to himself he couldn't obtain righteousness on his own. He needed something more than his own pitiful efforts to make him right with God.
"So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me." (Romans 7:21) Satan doesn't attack us when we're living in sin because we are already right where he wants us. He attacks us when we're living for Christ. Or, as I once heard Dr. Charles Stanley remark, "If the devil isn't bothering you, you aren't bothering him." If we are living effective, fruitful Christian lives we can be sure that evil will be right there with us, trying to entice us into sins that will cause unbelievers to scoff at Christians and to scoff at Christ.
"For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me." (Romans 7:22) Paul used to be a Pharisee. That entailed spending every waking moment meditating on the law, debating the law, and applying to law to everyday life. Yet the more he studied the law the more he understood he was a lawbreaker. He loved God's holy word and desperately wanted to live a life that pleased the Lord, but his carnal nature caused him to do things he didn't want to do. He couldn't understand why he would do things he didn't want to do. I think by the time he met the Lord Jesus on the Damascus road he was in deep spiritual distress. I think he was a very troubled man who was angry with himself, which is likely why he took out his anger on the growing Christian movement. Now he is a new creature in Christ, and he knows that through Christ he can obtain grace for his failures when he asks forgiveness with a sincerely repentant heart. But as much as he loves the Lord Jesus, he still sometimes finds his flesh struggling against the Spirit. We can relate to that, can't we? We are far better people in Christ than we were before, but our flesh still struggles against the Spirit.
Coming face to face with his weakness and failures caused the Apostle Paul to cry out, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?" (Romans 7:24) He came to a point where he admitted in horror, "I'm wretched! I'm corrupt! I can't make myself clean! What am I going to do? Who is able to help me?"
Who indeed can help any of us? Paul gratefully supplies the answer, "Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Christ Jesus our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful nature a slave to sin." (Romans 7:25) In other words, no one but Christ can solve the conundrum of us wanting to serve the Lord with the mind but wanting to serve sin with the body. No one but Christ can solve the problem of humans not being able to obtain righteousness by the law. No one but Christ has the power to offer a method of absolution and redemption that is acceptable to a holy God.
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