Fatally Wounded By Our Sinful Nature
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.7 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives 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 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. 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.
So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 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 within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin Romans 7:14-25
Romans 7:14-25 naturally divides into two paragraphs (7:14-20 and 7:21-25). Both sections open with a positive statement about the law (7:14 ‘We know that the law is spiritual’; 7:22 ‘For in my inner being I delight in God’s law’). The tragedy though is that we cannot keep the law nor can the law keep (save) us. The weakness of the law is because of our sin, not because the law itself is at fault.
Taking first 7:14-20, there is a lot of overlap between 7:14-17 and 7:18-20:
(1) each begins with a statement about innate sinfulness (7:14,18)
‘We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin’ (7:14). ‘I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature’ (7:18). Although the law is ‘spiritual,’ the writer is ‘unspiritual’ (literally: fleshly) still possessing and being oppressed by a self-centred nature leaving him ‘a slave to sin’ (7:14). Because Paul writes that this person has ‘the desire to do what is good’ (7:18) his description ‘I know that nothing good lives in me’ (7:18) must be understood as an inability to turn the desire into action and not that the person is as bad they can possibly be. It means that everything ‘good’ in us is still tainted in some way.
So those who are under the law, although inwardly wanting to follow it, because they are fallen (fleshly), are enslaved and so incapable of turning right desires into consistently right actions.
(2) each of the two sections of this paragraph describe a resulting conflict (7:15 and 7:18b,19)
After confessing he doesn’t understand his own actions (7:15a) and that he has desires for good he can’t carry out (7:18b) the writer describes his inward struggle ‘For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do’ (7:15b). ‘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’ (7:19). He wants to do good but finds himself doing what he hates and hates what he’s doing. The will to do right is there but the ability to do right isn’t.
(3) each section of this paragraph ends by saying that indwelling sin is responsible for the failures and defeats of the person under the law (7:16f and 7:20)
Both verses have a premise and a conclusion. The premise is ‘And if I do what I do not want to do’ (7:16 and 20) and the conclusion ‘I agree that the law is good’ (7:16b) and ‘it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me’ (7:17,20). So, who is to blame for the good I don’t do and the evil I do? It isn’t the law which is holy and good (7:12,14,16). Our person has embraced the law because they want to do good and avoid evil. You would only embrace something good if you genuinely wanted to do good. The problem is ‘sin living in me’ (7:17,20), ‘my sinful nature’ (7:20 literally: flesh). The law is neither responsible for our sinning, nor capable of saving us. It has been fatally weakened by our sinful nature.