For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
It speaks of doing what is not approved, failing to do the good that is willed, and doing the evil that is hated, in Paul's argument about the holy, just, good and spiritual moral law including the command against coveting. It depicts one carnal and sold under sin, in whom sin dwells and governs so that no good thing dwells in the flesh, while the mind delights in, consents to and serves God's law yet is warred against and brought into captivity by another law in the members. It is the vivid struggle of a sinner awakened and under conviction, the first hard-fought battle toward conversion, and not the settled or habitual state of one made free by Christ in Romans 8, though those who held it teach it also belongs to weak and even eminent Christians feeling the uprising of the old nature. The law so loved is perfect and does not cause sin, but as mirror and schoolmaster it exposes guilt, wretchedness and helpless inability, strips self-confidence, and drives to Christ, since it can confine and condemn but cannot pardon, justify or give strength. The cry for deliverance from the body of death is answered only through Jesus Christ, whose pardon and Spirit of life make free from the law of sin and death and fulfill the law's righteousness in those who walk after the Spirit, so the failing condition must not be rested in but pressed through to the liberty of no condemnation.
Words and Context
The speaker does what he does not approve or allow, fails to do the good he wills, and does the evil he hates. His actions oppose what he approves, for sin's power makes him do what he hates and fail to do what he wants, so good resolutions are made but not kept. With the mind there is consent that the law is good and just and ought to be obeyed, even resolving to obey it and admiring its justice, holiness and purity, yet sinful propensities overcome good intentions so that what is willed is not done and what is hated is done. This conflict reveals consent to the law's goodness while sin dwelling within produces the evil, and the failure comes from sin's hold and not from any defect in God's law. It is captivity to sin from which a person cannot free himself, a common human experience on the way from bondage toward freedom in Christ and not a description of settled Christian experience. The same conflict may mark a weak believer failing through weakness, ignorance, carelessness or lack of prayer, or a person under deep conviction, and the verse alone does not settle his standing, so the needed response is to give himself to Christ and rely on the Saviour's power.
The first-person present tense vividly portrays a struggle people pass through in differing ways before finding peace with God. To be sold under sin is to be enslaved and helpless under sin's dominion, agreeing that God's law is good and wanting to obey, yet sin in the form of natural sinful habits makes him do what he hates instead of what he resolves, because the flesh is depraved and gives no power to carry out good intentions while sin still dwells within unkilled. It describes an actual experience but not a constant or habitual Christian experience, for no Christian as a habit does what he would not and does the evil he would not. The scene is laid in Judaism when the law was in full force and describes the conflict of the moment when the commandment came to understanding, sin revived and he died, even as when alive without the law before the years of responsibility at the committing of first sin. The present tense does not prove a continuing Christian struggle because the conflict is told in the historical present for vividness, so no comfort for ongoing sin can be drawn from it.
The verse belongs to Paul's discussion of God's holy, just, good and spiritual law, not the law of carnal ordinances, where the law holds a person in bondage while he lives in sin and being dead to sin brings freedom from that bondage. It is part of the argument in Romans 7:7-25 about the Decalogue, including the command against coveting quoted in verse 7, which had been instrumental in bringing conviction as the first step toward conversion. That law is the moral law of God, including the Sabbath, taught to Gentile Romans at least twenty-six years after Paul received his message and about twenty-nine years after the crucifixion, proving the commandments were not abolished but remain binding. It solemnly teaches the perpetuity and immutability of that law as the only standard by which acts as moral beings are shown righteous or wicked, by which sin is made manifest, as the embodiment of God's own principles of holiness, perfect and unimprovable even by Omnipotence, so that redemption from its fearful condemnation by the death of God's only Son lays men under infinitely stronger obligation to keep it. Paul describes its killing work in the present Christian dispensation after his conversion and call to preach forgiveness, for the letter that kills is the living ten-commandment law on tables of stone, especially the command against coveting, which slew Saul by reviving sin and bringing death, showing a convicted sinner finding no deliverance from the body of death by the law and finding life and freedom from condemnation only in Christ where the Spirit of life makes alive, so that if the law no longer condemned there would be no sin, no death and no need for the gospel ministration to call men to righteousness. His delight in the law of God means the law still exists and binds, and his testimony that it is holy and just and good and spiritual states what it is, not what it would have been if the whole code from Sinai had gone by the board, and not by a figure throwing himself back under the law to illustrate how it worked when yet in force.
The verse gives Paul's own lived experience as a stout soldier of the cross with uplifted arm, beating down his baser self, giving no quarter to lusts, strangling appetites and vanquishing inner foes so God may make him stronger to vanquish foes without, lest having saved others he himself should prove a castaway. It expresses the terrible anguish of a sinner feeling God's law condemning him for his sins, knowing God is offended and sensing impending doom, together with the wondrous peace that comes from believing in Jesus. By that lived experience he meets convicted sinners on their own ground and labors for them, so the verse stands as encouragement to every convicted sinner feeling the same condemnation. He recognized himself as a sinner when he saw himself in the light of the glorified Christ, and the same Christ who revealed his sin cleansed him from it, so that seeing unworthiness in God's light brings healing, cleansing and help rather than discouragement. The same conflict of wanting to do right but feeling unable to resist the wrong that is hated appears where one would do right if she could yet feels dragged down by a power she cannot control.
The verse belongs to Romans' explanation of the gospel's power over sinful people and of justification by faith. It belongs to the discussion of the law in Romans 6 and 7, where those slain by the law are truly dead and are therefore to be buried in baptism, giving the biblical context for the relation between law and baptism. Together with Romans 6 it teaches true Bible conversion. It stands in the wonderful inspired argument for justification and life through Jesus Christ running from Romans 4 to Romans 9:15, building on the proof that all are under sin irrespective of nationality and that Abraham received justification before circumcision apart from ritualism or mere human organization, gathering force toward the climax that there is now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. It is fully contained in Romans 6, so understanding Romans 6 removes all difficulty with it, for many are made righteous by Christ's obedience because His life is given to the believer and He lives in the believer, and saving obedience is His present obedience in keeping the law. That union comes by being crucified with Christ, in which death the body of sin is destroyed so sin is no longer served and the law is no longer transgressed, since sin was so identified with the person as to be his very life and could be destroyed only by his dying, but with no sin in Christ resurrection with Him leaves sin dead and makes living with Him possible, which sin had formerly made impossible because sin cannot dwell with Him.
Helpless Bondage Depicted
The verse depicts a person carnal and sold under sin, enslaved and helpless under sin's dominion, with sin still dwelling within and not killed, governing against the sense of right so that in the flesh dwells no good thing and human effort cannot free him. It is the awakened sinner under conviction, vividly portrayed in the first-person present, who agrees the law is good and wants to obey yet does what he hates instead of what he resolves, because natural sinful habits and the law of sin in the members hold him captive. The law makes him aware of his slavery, but long bondage has weakened him so his struggle to free himself is fruitless, sinning not from desire but from force of habit and sin's power, longing to be delivered from the flesh's rule through Jesus Christ. The conflict is between the holy, just, good and spiritual law of God, in which Paul delights after the inward man and which he serves with the mind, and another law in the members and flesh, nothing but the movings of the fleshly carnal mind contrary to God's law and not subject to it since Adam's fall. That other law is the law of sin, which wars against the law of the mind and brings into captivity to itself, leaving the willing spirit with weak flesh, to will present but power to perform good not found because evil is present.
The mind delights in, reverences and consents that God's law is good, hating sin and wanting to obey, yet the flesh is dominated by sin holding in bondage so the person does what is not allowed and fails to do the good willed. It is the first hard-fought battle to overcome self or the flesh, the opposition of flesh and spirit where earthly gravitation overpowers heavenly attraction, proving the carnal enmity hinders keeping God's law since it is not subject to it. This unwilling doing of what is hated, held captive through the flesh, is distinct from willful sin after knowingly rejecting truth, for when the mind still desires God's will provision is made for forgiveness upon repentance and strength to resist. Good resolutions, willpower and best efforts fall short and are repeatedly broken, because sin not only defiles but weakens resistance until habit becomes master and fleshly lusts, appetite and passion override good desires. The convicted sinner sees sin's evil and holiness's beauty but feels unable to turn and embrace it, with repeated failures weakening confidence and will against long-established habits, so even the strongest resolutions cannot restrain unregenerate impulses and good works are possible only through God's power working within. As seen in the drunkard lacking self-control and in one listed under helplessness, the person wants to do good and hates evil yet does the evil and fails to do the good while controlled by unregenerate nature.
This helpless captivity to sin, from which a person cannot free himself, is common human experience, especially for those seeking freedom from sinful desires. It is the anguished conflict ending in the cry for deliverance from the body of death, the experience of countless millions across ages, holding the whole human race under Satan as tyrant where even a free-born citizen remains a slave without strength to redeem himself. It is the condition of every person until finding the better way, every man out of Christ in vassalage to sin and shut up in the prison-house of sin. Sin is pictured throughout the chapter as a person and as the first husband to whom we are bound, and after seeing Christ and being drawn by His love this union is recognized as a monstrous, death-dealing bond like a galling yoke from which the person longs to escape. The opposing power persists, distracts from good thoughts and pulls away from a better course, and can weaken faith by urging doubt about life beyond the grave and reliance on something other than Christ's saving promises, with the will to choose good not by itself removing the conflict. It describes sin as distasteful yet still holding the person who has come to hate it, doing wrong instead of what is wanted.
The verse shows that individual self-government without God is impossible, since the enslaved captive cannot truly govern himself while sin dwells within and reigns over him even against his wish, impelling to wrong. The fall lost self-control, leaving every man out of Christ doing what conscience instructed by the law and Spirit of God does not allow, failing to do what he would and doing what he hates, opposite the life in Christ where by grace a man is restored to do only what conscience tells him is right. This inward power is sin from Satan, holding in captivity and making one act against true wishes, so freedom to live righteously requires power beyond oneself found in God in Jesus Christ, whose meeting and conquering of sin and its author broke their power.
Who Experiences Conflict
The verse describes the awakened sinner under conviction, to whom the law of God has come and touched the heart and reproved sin. He sees what ought to be done and hates the wrong he does and wants to do right, yet finds no power in himself to perform the good and repeatedly fails to do what he wills and does what he hates. The law is holy and does not cause the sin but reveals how sinful and helpless he is, since sin still dwells in him in the form of natural sinful habits and has not been killed and the depraved flesh gives no power to carry out good intentions. This inner conflict is the first hard-fought battle and first step toward conversion while putting off the old man, part of the passage from bondage to sin toward freedom in Christ through pardon and strength to fulfill the righteousness of the law after repentance.
It portrays Paul before conversion, as Saul before receiving the Holy Spirit, or as a Jew convinced that works cannot make him right with God. The scene is laid in Judaism when the law was in full force, at the moment the commandment came to his understanding and sin revived and he died. It is even the conflict of the moment when he committed his first sin, when he was alive without the law before the years of responsibility. The present tense does not prove a continuing Christian state, because the conflict is told in the historical present for vividness. The law of God remains holy and just and good and spiritual, and the inward man consents to it as right and resolves to obey it, yet the carnal mind and old man and body of sin finds itself unable to obey and continually transgresses, proving the need for conversion in which the old man dies and the sinner is married to Christ to receive strength to keep the law.
It is not the settled, constant or habitual experience of one made free by Christ and is not the standard for Christian life, nor the experience God intends His children to remain in. No Christian as a habit does what he would not and does the evil he would not. The mind may be enlightened and conscience and will side with God's law, yet without receiving Christ by faith the person remains in bondage until the cry for deliverance is answered through Jesus Christ. Every adult passes through such an experience to a greater or less extent on the way from the bondage of sin to the service of Christ, while the converted man is described in Romans 8 where the flesh no longer rules and the man is under the Spirit's dominion.
By contrast, the same conflict is also said to belong to converted as well as unconverted people, as ordinary human experience especially for those seeking freedom from sinful desires, since accepting Christ does not end the struggle against the flesh. It may mark the struggle of a weak Christian who fails through weakness, ignorance, carelessness or lack of prayer, and it may also belong to a person under the Spirit's deep conviction, so that the verse alone does not settle whether such a person is a Christian. It belongs to one forgiven yet with carnal nature remaining and crying to be freed from the old self, and to genuine Christians feeling the uprising of the old Adam, and even to eminent apostles and the holiest people whose awareness of lifelong warfare continues. This hard battle belongs to lack of experience and consecration in the warfare between the soul aided by Christ, the Holy Spirit and good angels and lust aided by the world, the flesh and the devil, where to will is present but power to perform good is not found because another law in the members wars against the law of the mind. Each battle can be met with God's help and victory into the Romans 8 experience of no condemnation and freedom from the law of sin and death, with provision for the believer who sins and with the call to give oneself to Christ and rely on the Saviour's power and press on to liberty rather than remain in a continual condition.
It depicts one trying to live righteously by obeying the law in his own strength, seeking justification by the law, and attempting to live as Christ lived without conversion and regeneration. Repeated failure teaches that the self or flesh cannot produce righteousness on its own, since the law exposes sin but cannot justify or give strength to overcome it, and a mere resolve or pledge to live the ideal for a time ends in failure to do the good intended and doing the evil hated. This includes the experience after conviction and embracing the Sabbath and the truths of the third angel's message, when one's own sins feel more obstinate than ever before. The chapter concerns people delivered from the law's curse through death with Christ and baptism into His death and joined to Christ, and also describes the experience of one convicted of sin and looking to Christ for salvation to enable obedience.
Law Holy and Convicting
The law spoken of is holy, just, good, spiritual, perfect and unimprovable even by Omnipotence, eternal and strong with God's own strength. It does not cause sin; sin is the chosen perversion of its righteous way, and the failure described is that of a sinner awakened by that law who hates the wrong he does and wills the right yet finds no power in himself and repeatedly fails. Mind delights in, reverences and serves that law while flesh is dominated by another law in the members, the movings of the fleshly carnal mind in which dwells no good thing, warring against the law loved and contrary to it and not subject to it as since Adam's fall. That bondage while living in sin is ended not by the law expiring but by becoming dead to sin and to transgression, so that deliverance through Jesus Christ frees from domination to serve the delighted-in law.
The law thus delighted in and served with the mind is the commandments of God, spiritual and ordained to life, established through faith under the gospel in the Spirit and not the letter. It was still taught to Gentile Romans at least twenty-six years after Paul received his message and about twenty-nine years after the crucifixion and after the law of Moses with its carnal ordinances was abolished, proving it is not that dead law but the enduring moral law including the fourth commandment and the Sabbath. Those who keep it do not seek justification by it but seek justification alone through Jesus Christ, for faith does not make the law void but establishes it. It remains binding in the Christian dispensation and holds its place in converting men by showing covetousness under "thou shalt not covet" and making sin appear exceeding sinful, with strength to keep it obtained through faith in Christ.
Against that it has been taught by some that the passage means we are dead to the law and the law is dead so the Sabbath is dead also and abolished and no longer binding. In that teaching the whole ten-commandment code, having filled its time and served its purpose, ceased in obligation all together and not by fragments or by the fourth commandment alone, giving place to the law of faith, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, the perfect law of liberty. Others have put the same abolishing in milder form, that the law written on stone was done away while only its moral principles remained.
The law acts as mirror and schoolmaster to give knowledge of sin, the gospel following to forgive the repentant sinner. Understood in letter and spirit by the Holy Spirit and pressed home upon the heart, it teaches what duty requires while exposing inability to do it, revealing both past offenses and present failure to render obedience, with guilt and just condemnation and wretchedness as rebellion against God and not mere error. It strips self-confidence, shuts up in the prison-house of sin, holds as jailer and hard master and tormenting lord with but one avenue of escape, and as the living ten-commandment law on tables of stone, especially the command against coveting, it was alive and slew by reviving sin and bringing death. So it drives every sinner there and then when and where they live to refuge in Jesus' blood for pardon, justification, forgiveness and life, where the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes alive and frees from condemnation so that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled from the heart under grace; if the law no longer condemned there would be no sin, no death, and no need for the gospel ministration to call men to righteousness.
The law exposes and confines the transgressor but cannot pardon, justify, give strength, or free from guilt and condemnation; faith in Jesus Christ is the only escape from present guilt and coming wrath. It is weak through the flesh, not in itself, since the carnal mind is enmity and not subject to it and thwarts its just demand, making men unable to fulfill what it requires. The sinner, not the law, dies, the old self crucified and the body of sin destroyed so as no longer to serve sin, and becoming dead to the law is freedom from its condemnation through faith in Christ while the law itself remains unchanged. Deliverance from its curse or condemnation therefore does not release from its obligation, make it safe to follow carnal desires, or leave Christians free to violate it.
In conversion God does more than pardon; under the new covenant He puts the law in the heart and writes it in the mind so that obedience becomes nature. The delight in the law and calling it the law of the mind belongs to the converted state in which that promise is fulfilled, in contrast to the carnally minded in enmity against God and not subject to the law. The conflict of willing without carrying out and doing what is hated reveals the inability of the sinful heart and why this inward writing is needed, with pardon through Christ joined to enablement for future obedience while the perfect, holy, just and good law remains in force to identify sin.
Deliverance Through Christ
Romans 7:15 declares bondage and tribulation, the very opposite of the gospel of redemption and peace. It portrays a sinner awakened by the holy law who hates the wrong he does and wills the right, yet finds no power in himself to perform it and repeatedly fails. Sin not only defiles but weakens the power to resist it, so that long bondage, force of habit, and weakened will leave good intentions, resolutions, and best efforts fruitless. By personal effort no one can produce good works, keep the law, cleanse himself, or save himself, for human inability makes good works possible only through God's power working within. Attempted self-salvation only deepens the bondage, since the law reveals helplessness and exceeding sinfulness without causing the sin, in order to drive the sinner to seek deliverance through Christ rather than remain in that state.
The anguished cry for deliverance from the body of death is answered only through Jesus Christ. His blood gives pardon and justification, and His Spirit of life makes free from the law of sin and death, freeing the captive from sin's domination so he can serve the law his mind delights in, reverences, and consents is good. The wretched condition of willing spirit but weak flesh, with the mind serving God's law while the flesh is compelled by another law in the members warring against the law of the mind, must not be rested in as final but is to pass into the Romans 8 experience of no condemnation to those in Christ who walk after the Spirit, in freedom and fullness of joy with sure victory to the true and faithful. There Christ keeps the law through the believer and its righteousness is fulfilled in those who walk after the Spirit, after repentance giving both pardon and strength; the natural man who sees Christ and gives himself to Him obtains this freedom, and individual self-government without God, impossible while sin reigns even against the wish, becomes possible with God when sin's power is broken. This hard battle belongs to lack of experience and consecration and to putting off the old man, not to permission to sin or freedom from responsibility.
That union comes by being crucified with Christ and buried in baptism, in which death the body of sin is destroyed and the old self dies to transgression so that sin is no longer served and the law is no longer transgressed. The sinner, not the law, dies: through faith in Christ a person dies to transgression and is freed from the law's condemnation while the law itself remains unchanged, redeemed from its curse and joined to the risen Christ to bear fruit to God. The verse is fully contained in Romans 6, belonging to the context of being slain by the law, dead and buried, and addressed to those who have died to sin and been baptized into Christ's death. Many are made righteous by Christ's present obedience in the believer, His life given to dwell within, and as that dying of the carnal nature continues the law can produce a righteous life, since sin so identified with the person as to be his very life could be destroyed only by his dying, and resurrection with the sinless Christ leaves sin dead and makes living with Him possible.
Christ overcame this conflict by faith with a spiritual mind, coming in the same sinful flesh yet without sin because always led by the Spirit, showing the power of the Spirit over the flesh. He who kept the law and personifies it sets the weak sinner free, cleanses from sin, imputes His past perfect obedience and imparts His mighty life through faith, so that the Spirit of God in the flesh proves stronger than the flesh and only then is the law kept. Deliverance does not come by changing the flesh, which remains the same and perverse even after conversion and is never converted but keeps its sinful nature until bodies are changed. One in whom Christ's Spirit dwells is no longer in the flesh's power because the Spirit controls it, being counted as not in the flesh but in the Spirit through putting to death the deeds of the body; yet when yielding to the flesh he serves sin and is not led by the Spirit, although the Spirit still strives with him and has not forsaken him.
Even after this reversal the believer is not delivered from contest but must carry on a real fight, keeping the body under, bringing it into subjection and crucifying its affections and lusts through the Spirit. In conversion the dominion is reversed by the power of the Spirit of God, putting the man in possession of divine power so he rules over the flesh instead of the flesh ruling over him. That inward warfare between upward strivings and downward pulls continues throughout earthly life, and awareness of it marks the holiest people.
Victorious Christian Living
The wretched failing state of doing what is disapproved and hated while failing to do the good willed is not to be rested in as final, for those in it need not remain there but may press on to liberty with no condemnation. That liberty is the Romans 8 experience, where the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes free from the law of sin and death for those who walk after the Spirit, giving present deliverance, triumph and fullness of joy through Jesus Christ. The law itself is holy and does not cause the failure, but reveals helplessness and leads to seeking deliverance, which comes only through Christ whose sending in human flesh fulfills the law's righteousness in those walking by the Spirit, with the Spirit's witness that they belong to Christ as heirs.
This hard battle belongs to lack of experience and consecration, and is met as Christian warfare between the soul aided by Christ, the Holy Spirit and good angels on one side and lust aided by the world, the flesh and the devil on the other. Sure victory belongs to the true and faithful in heavenly armor, as Paul fought through, finished his course, kept the faith and secured the victor's crown. That overcoming requires deliberate daily choice to serve God with the mind fixed on Him, with which God cooperates to make the choice real, with watchfulness, and with reason and conscience prevailing over sin by God's help against sinful impulses resisting the will to obey. It is a real inward adversary between sin and holiness, unknown to the natural man who has much sin and no holiness, but known and to be overcome in the holy war within the heart.
Provision is made for the believer who sins, for ordinary striving does not end with accepting Christ and each battle can be met with God's help unto victory. When the mind still desires to do God's will, unwilling transgressions held by captivity through the flesh are distinct from willful sin after knowingly rejecting truth, and upon repentance God grants forgiveness and strength to resist. Without Christ, however, religion remains painful bondage under resolutions repeatedly broken, showing His yoke has not been taken. A mere resolve or pledge to live the ideal for a time, trying to live as Christ lived without conversion and regeneration, ends in failure to do the good intended and doing the evil hated. So also seeking goodness and direction by looking within fails and returns broken and weary, for in the flesh dwells no good thing, the way is not in man to direct his steps, and the inner light cannot be trusted apart from looking to Christ. The same helplessness appears in a will ruled by appetite or passion, as in the drunkard lacking self-control, in delay that lets guilt harden resistance and make turning less willing, and in attempting to keep the holy day holy without God's presence dwelling within, since only a holy man by grace in Christ can keep holy what God made holy.
The verse also marks a change of heart in which what was loved comes to be hated and what was hated to be loved, wrought by the Word through the divine Spirit. Overcoming all sin is the highest attainment for mortals in this life, bringing Heaven's approbation and blessing to rest upon and attend all efforts when thoroughly converted, led by the Spirit, with self crucified with its affections and lusts. That requires the carnal I to be put to death, for while unslain it acts against its own wishes and stands in the way of spiritual victory until the Spirit destroys self and exalts Christ. Otherwise even sincere resolutions give way to careless, impatient or complaining words that leave the heart condemned and confidence weakened, and even genuine Christians need conviction leading to repentance that brings forth the graces of the soul amid uprisings of the old Adam. Seeing the perfect ideal yet achieving only imperfect reality, rising toward holiness then falling back into abasement to struggle onward again, proves the practical need for a religion with power to free from inward thraldom to evil and habit. That long dark and dreary way, where weakness meets the tempter's strong power in doing the unwanted wrong, drives prayer for Christ to abide and bear the weak one safe along, with yearning and groaning for purity answered by the cry for a deliverer.
It speaks of doing what is not approved, failing to do the good that is willed, and doing the evil that is hated, in Paul's argument about the holy, just, good and spiritual moral law including the command against coveting.
It depicts one carnal and sold under sin, in whom sin dwells and governs so that no good thing dwells in the flesh, while the mind delights in, consents to and serves God's law yet is warred against and brought into captivity by another law in the members.
It is the vivid struggle of a sinner awakened and under conviction, the first hard-fought battle toward conversion, and not the settled or habitual state of one made free by Christ in Romans 8, though those who held it teach it also belongs to weak and even eminent Christians feeling the uprising of the old nature.
The law so loved is perfect and does not cause sin, but as mirror and schoolmaster it exposes guilt, wretchedness and helpless inability, strips self-confidence, and drives to Christ, since it can confine and condemn but cannot pardon, justify or give strength.
The cry for deliverance from the body of death is answered only through Jesus Christ, whose pardon and Spirit of life make free from the law of sin and death and fulfill the law's righteousness in those who walk after the Spirit, so the failing condition must not be rested in but pressed through to the liberty of no condemnation.
Words and Context
The speaker does what he does not approve or allow, fails to do the good he wills, and does the evil he hates. His actions oppose what he approves, for sin's power makes him do what he hates and fail to do what he wants, so good resolutions are made but not kept. With the mind there is consent that the law is good and just and ought to be obeyed, even resolving to obey it and admiring its justice, holiness and purity, yet sinful propensities overcome good intentions so that what is willed is not done and what is hated is done. This conflict reveals consent to the law's goodness while sin dwelling within produces the evil, and the failure comes from sin's hold and not from any defect in God's law. It is captivity to sin from which a person cannot free himself, a common human experience on the way from bondage toward freedom in Christ and not a description of settled Christian experience. The same conflict may mark a weak believer failing through weakness, ignorance, carelessness or lack of prayer, or a person under deep conviction, and the verse alone does not settle his standing, so the needed response is to give himself to Christ and rely on the Saviour's power.
The first-person present tense vividly portrays a struggle people pass through in differing ways before finding peace with God. To be sold under sin is to be enslaved and helpless under sin's dominion, agreeing that God's law is good and wanting to obey, yet sin in the form of natural sinful habits makes him do what he hates instead of what he resolves, because the flesh is depraved and gives no power to carry out good intentions while sin still dwells within unkilled. It describes an actual experience but not a constant or habitual Christian experience, for no Christian as a habit does what he would not and does the evil he would not. The scene is laid in Judaism when the law was in full force and describes the conflict of the moment when the commandment came to understanding, sin revived and he died, even as when alive without the law before the years of responsibility at the committing of first sin. The present tense does not prove a continuing Christian struggle because the conflict is told in the historical present for vividness, so no comfort for ongoing sin can be drawn from it.
The verse belongs to Paul's discussion of God's holy, just, good and spiritual law, not the law of carnal ordinances, where the law holds a person in bondage while he lives in sin and being dead to sin brings freedom from that bondage. It is part of the argument in Romans 7:7-25 about the Decalogue, including the command against coveting quoted in verse 7, which had been instrumental in bringing conviction as the first step toward conversion. That law is the moral law of God, including the Sabbath, taught to Gentile Romans at least twenty-six years after Paul received his message and about twenty-nine years after the crucifixion, proving the commandments were not abolished but remain binding. It solemnly teaches the perpetuity and immutability of that law as the only standard by which acts as moral beings are shown righteous or wicked, by which sin is made manifest, as the embodiment of God's own principles of holiness, perfect and unimprovable even by Omnipotence, so that redemption from its fearful condemnation by the death of God's only Son lays men under infinitely stronger obligation to keep it. Paul describes its killing work in the present Christian dispensation after his conversion and call to preach forgiveness, for the letter that kills is the living ten-commandment law on tables of stone, especially the command against coveting, which slew Saul by reviving sin and bringing death, showing a convicted sinner finding no deliverance from the body of death by the law and finding life and freedom from condemnation only in Christ where the Spirit of life makes alive, so that if the law no longer condemned there would be no sin, no death and no need for the gospel ministration to call men to righteousness. His delight in the law of God means the law still exists and binds, and his testimony that it is holy and just and good and spiritual states what it is, not what it would have been if the whole code from Sinai had gone by the board, and not by a figure throwing himself back under the law to illustrate how it worked when yet in force.
The verse gives Paul's own lived experience as a stout soldier of the cross with uplifted arm, beating down his baser self, giving no quarter to lusts, strangling appetites and vanquishing inner foes so God may make him stronger to vanquish foes without, lest having saved others he himself should prove a castaway. It expresses the terrible anguish of a sinner feeling God's law condemning him for his sins, knowing God is offended and sensing impending doom, together with the wondrous peace that comes from believing in Jesus. By that lived experience he meets convicted sinners on their own ground and labors for them, so the verse stands as encouragement to every convicted sinner feeling the same condemnation. He recognized himself as a sinner when he saw himself in the light of the glorified Christ, and the same Christ who revealed his sin cleansed him from it, so that seeing unworthiness in God's light brings healing, cleansing and help rather than discouragement. The same conflict of wanting to do right but feeling unable to resist the wrong that is hated appears where one would do right if she could yet feels dragged down by a power she cannot control.
The verse belongs to Romans' explanation of the gospel's power over sinful people and of justification by faith. It belongs to the discussion of the law in Romans 6 and 7, where those slain by the law are truly dead and are therefore to be buried in baptism, giving the biblical context for the relation between law and baptism. Together with Romans 6 it teaches true Bible conversion. It stands in the wonderful inspired argument for justification and life through Jesus Christ running from Romans 4 to Romans 9:15, building on the proof that all are under sin irrespective of nationality and that Abraham received justification before circumcision apart from ritualism or mere human organization, gathering force toward the climax that there is now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. It is fully contained in Romans 6, so understanding Romans 6 removes all difficulty with it, for many are made righteous by Christ's obedience because His life is given to the believer and He lives in the believer, and saving obedience is His present obedience in keeping the law. That union comes by being crucified with Christ, in which death the body of sin is destroyed so sin is no longer served and the law is no longer transgressed, since sin was so identified with the person as to be his very life and could be destroyed only by his dying, but with no sin in Christ resurrection with Him leaves sin dead and makes living with Him possible, which sin had formerly made impossible because sin cannot dwell with Him.
Helpless Bondage Depicted
The verse depicts a person carnal and sold under sin, enslaved and helpless under sin's dominion, with sin still dwelling within and not killed, governing against the sense of right so that in the flesh dwells no good thing and human effort cannot free him. It is the awakened sinner under conviction, vividly portrayed in the first-person present, who agrees the law is good and wants to obey yet does what he hates instead of what he resolves, because natural sinful habits and the law of sin in the members hold him captive. The law makes him aware of his slavery, but long bondage has weakened him so his struggle to free himself is fruitless, sinning not from desire but from force of habit and sin's power, longing to be delivered from the flesh's rule through Jesus Christ. The conflict is between the holy, just, good and spiritual law of God, in which Paul delights after the inward man and which he serves with the mind, and another law in the members and flesh, nothing but the movings of the fleshly carnal mind contrary to God's law and not subject to it since Adam's fall. That other law is the law of sin, which wars against the law of the mind and brings into captivity to itself, leaving the willing spirit with weak flesh, to will present but power to perform good not found because evil is present.
The mind delights in, reverences and consents that God's law is good, hating sin and wanting to obey, yet the flesh is dominated by sin holding in bondage so the person does what is not allowed and fails to do the good willed. It is the first hard-fought battle to overcome self or the flesh, the opposition of flesh and spirit where earthly gravitation overpowers heavenly attraction, proving the carnal enmity hinders keeping God's law since it is not subject to it. This unwilling doing of what is hated, held captive through the flesh, is distinct from willful sin after knowingly rejecting truth, for when the mind still desires God's will provision is made for forgiveness upon repentance and strength to resist. Good resolutions, willpower and best efforts fall short and are repeatedly broken, because sin not only defiles but weakens resistance until habit becomes master and fleshly lusts, appetite and passion override good desires. The convicted sinner sees sin's evil and holiness's beauty but feels unable to turn and embrace it, with repeated failures weakening confidence and will against long-established habits, so even the strongest resolutions cannot restrain unregenerate impulses and good works are possible only through God's power working within. As seen in the drunkard lacking self-control and in one listed under helplessness, the person wants to do good and hates evil yet does the evil and fails to do the good while controlled by unregenerate nature.
This helpless captivity to sin, from which a person cannot free himself, is common human experience, especially for those seeking freedom from sinful desires. It is the anguished conflict ending in the cry for deliverance from the body of death, the experience of countless millions across ages, holding the whole human race under Satan as tyrant where even a free-born citizen remains a slave without strength to redeem himself. It is the condition of every person until finding the better way, every man out of Christ in vassalage to sin and shut up in the prison-house of sin. Sin is pictured throughout the chapter as a person and as the first husband to whom we are bound, and after seeing Christ and being drawn by His love this union is recognized as a monstrous, death-dealing bond like a galling yoke from which the person longs to escape. The opposing power persists, distracts from good thoughts and pulls away from a better course, and can weaken faith by urging doubt about life beyond the grave and reliance on something other than Christ's saving promises, with the will to choose good not by itself removing the conflict. It describes sin as distasteful yet still holding the person who has come to hate it, doing wrong instead of what is wanted.
The verse shows that individual self-government without God is impossible, since the enslaved captive cannot truly govern himself while sin dwells within and reigns over him even against his wish, impelling to wrong. The fall lost self-control, leaving every man out of Christ doing what conscience instructed by the law and Spirit of God does not allow, failing to do what he would and doing what he hates, opposite the life in Christ where by grace a man is restored to do only what conscience tells him is right. This inward power is sin from Satan, holding in captivity and making one act against true wishes, so freedom to live righteously requires power beyond oneself found in God in Jesus Christ, whose meeting and conquering of sin and its author broke their power.
Who Experiences Conflict
The verse describes the awakened sinner under conviction, to whom the law of God has come and touched the heart and reproved sin. He sees what ought to be done and hates the wrong he does and wants to do right, yet finds no power in himself to perform the good and repeatedly fails to do what he wills and does what he hates. The law is holy and does not cause the sin but reveals how sinful and helpless he is, since sin still dwells in him in the form of natural sinful habits and has not been killed and the depraved flesh gives no power to carry out good intentions. This inner conflict is the first hard-fought battle and first step toward conversion while putting off the old man, part of the passage from bondage to sin toward freedom in Christ through pardon and strength to fulfill the righteousness of the law after repentance.
It portrays Paul before conversion, as Saul before receiving the Holy Spirit, or as a Jew convinced that works cannot make him right with God. The scene is laid in Judaism when the law was in full force, at the moment the commandment came to his understanding and sin revived and he died. It is even the conflict of the moment when he committed his first sin, when he was alive without the law before the years of responsibility. The present tense does not prove a continuing Christian state, because the conflict is told in the historical present for vividness. The law of God remains holy and just and good and spiritual, and the inward man consents to it as right and resolves to obey it, yet the carnal mind and old man and body of sin finds itself unable to obey and continually transgresses, proving the need for conversion in which the old man dies and the sinner is married to Christ to receive strength to keep the law.
It is not the settled, constant or habitual experience of one made free by Christ and is not the standard for Christian life, nor the experience God intends His children to remain in. No Christian as a habit does what he would not and does the evil he would not. The mind may be enlightened and conscience and will side with God's law, yet without receiving Christ by faith the person remains in bondage until the cry for deliverance is answered through Jesus Christ. Every adult passes through such an experience to a greater or less extent on the way from the bondage of sin to the service of Christ, while the converted man is described in Romans 8 where the flesh no longer rules and the man is under the Spirit's dominion.
By contrast, the same conflict is also said to belong to converted as well as unconverted people, as ordinary human experience especially for those seeking freedom from sinful desires, since accepting Christ does not end the struggle against the flesh. It may mark the struggle of a weak Christian who fails through weakness, ignorance, carelessness or lack of prayer, and it may also belong to a person under the Spirit's deep conviction, so that the verse alone does not settle whether such a person is a Christian. It belongs to one forgiven yet with carnal nature remaining and crying to be freed from the old self, and to genuine Christians feeling the uprising of the old Adam, and even to eminent apostles and the holiest people whose awareness of lifelong warfare continues. This hard battle belongs to lack of experience and consecration in the warfare between the soul aided by Christ, the Holy Spirit and good angels and lust aided by the world, the flesh and the devil, where to will is present but power to perform good is not found because another law in the members wars against the law of the mind. Each battle can be met with God's help and victory into the Romans 8 experience of no condemnation and freedom from the law of sin and death, with provision for the believer who sins and with the call to give oneself to Christ and rely on the Saviour's power and press on to liberty rather than remain in a continual condition.
It depicts one trying to live righteously by obeying the law in his own strength, seeking justification by the law, and attempting to live as Christ lived without conversion and regeneration. Repeated failure teaches that the self or flesh cannot produce righteousness on its own, since the law exposes sin but cannot justify or give strength to overcome it, and a mere resolve or pledge to live the ideal for a time ends in failure to do the good intended and doing the evil hated. This includes the experience after conviction and embracing the Sabbath and the truths of the third angel's message, when one's own sins feel more obstinate than ever before. The chapter concerns people delivered from the law's curse through death with Christ and baptism into His death and joined to Christ, and also describes the experience of one convicted of sin and looking to Christ for salvation to enable obedience.
Law Holy and Convicting
The law spoken of is holy, just, good, spiritual, perfect and unimprovable even by Omnipotence, eternal and strong with God's own strength. It does not cause sin; sin is the chosen perversion of its righteous way, and the failure described is that of a sinner awakened by that law who hates the wrong he does and wills the right yet finds no power in himself and repeatedly fails. Mind delights in, reverences and serves that law while flesh is dominated by another law in the members, the movings of the fleshly carnal mind in which dwells no good thing, warring against the law loved and contrary to it and not subject to it as since Adam's fall. That bondage while living in sin is ended not by the law expiring but by becoming dead to sin and to transgression, so that deliverance through Jesus Christ frees from domination to serve the delighted-in law.
The law thus delighted in and served with the mind is the commandments of God, spiritual and ordained to life, established through faith under the gospel in the Spirit and not the letter. It was still taught to Gentile Romans at least twenty-six years after Paul received his message and about twenty-nine years after the crucifixion and after the law of Moses with its carnal ordinances was abolished, proving it is not that dead law but the enduring moral law including the fourth commandment and the Sabbath. Those who keep it do not seek justification by it but seek justification alone through Jesus Christ, for faith does not make the law void but establishes it. It remains binding in the Christian dispensation and holds its place in converting men by showing covetousness under "thou shalt not covet" and making sin appear exceeding sinful, with strength to keep it obtained through faith in Christ.
Against that it has been taught by some that the passage means we are dead to the law and the law is dead so the Sabbath is dead also and abolished and no longer binding. In that teaching the whole ten-commandment code, having filled its time and served its purpose, ceased in obligation all together and not by fragments or by the fourth commandment alone, giving place to the law of faith, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, the perfect law of liberty. Others have put the same abolishing in milder form, that the law written on stone was done away while only its moral principles remained.
The law acts as mirror and schoolmaster to give knowledge of sin, the gospel following to forgive the repentant sinner. Understood in letter and spirit by the Holy Spirit and pressed home upon the heart, it teaches what duty requires while exposing inability to do it, revealing both past offenses and present failure to render obedience, with guilt and just condemnation and wretchedness as rebellion against God and not mere error. It strips self-confidence, shuts up in the prison-house of sin, holds as jailer and hard master and tormenting lord with but one avenue of escape, and as the living ten-commandment law on tables of stone, especially the command against coveting, it was alive and slew by reviving sin and bringing death. So it drives every sinner there and then when and where they live to refuge in Jesus' blood for pardon, justification, forgiveness and life, where the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes alive and frees from condemnation so that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled from the heart under grace; if the law no longer condemned there would be no sin, no death, and no need for the gospel ministration to call men to righteousness.
The law exposes and confines the transgressor but cannot pardon, justify, give strength, or free from guilt and condemnation; faith in Jesus Christ is the only escape from present guilt and coming wrath. It is weak through the flesh, not in itself, since the carnal mind is enmity and not subject to it and thwarts its just demand, making men unable to fulfill what it requires. The sinner, not the law, dies, the old self crucified and the body of sin destroyed so as no longer to serve sin, and becoming dead to the law is freedom from its condemnation through faith in Christ while the law itself remains unchanged. Deliverance from its curse or condemnation therefore does not release from its obligation, make it safe to follow carnal desires, or leave Christians free to violate it.
In conversion God does more than pardon; under the new covenant He puts the law in the heart and writes it in the mind so that obedience becomes nature. The delight in the law and calling it the law of the mind belongs to the converted state in which that promise is fulfilled, in contrast to the carnally minded in enmity against God and not subject to the law. The conflict of willing without carrying out and doing what is hated reveals the inability of the sinful heart and why this inward writing is needed, with pardon through Christ joined to enablement for future obedience while the perfect, holy, just and good law remains in force to identify sin.
Deliverance Through Christ
Romans 7:15 declares bondage and tribulation, the very opposite of the gospel of redemption and peace. It portrays a sinner awakened by the holy law who hates the wrong he does and wills the right, yet finds no power in himself to perform it and repeatedly fails. Sin not only defiles but weakens the power to resist it, so that long bondage, force of habit, and weakened will leave good intentions, resolutions, and best efforts fruitless. By personal effort no one can produce good works, keep the law, cleanse himself, or save himself, for human inability makes good works possible only through God's power working within. Attempted self-salvation only deepens the bondage, since the law reveals helplessness and exceeding sinfulness without causing the sin, in order to drive the sinner to seek deliverance through Christ rather than remain in that state.
The anguished cry for deliverance from the body of death is answered only through Jesus Christ. His blood gives pardon and justification, and His Spirit of life makes free from the law of sin and death, freeing the captive from sin's domination so he can serve the law his mind delights in, reverences, and consents is good. The wretched condition of willing spirit but weak flesh, with the mind serving God's law while the flesh is compelled by another law in the members warring against the law of the mind, must not be rested in as final but is to pass into the Romans 8 experience of no condemnation to those in Christ who walk after the Spirit, in freedom and fullness of joy with sure victory to the true and faithful. There Christ keeps the law through the believer and its righteousness is fulfilled in those who walk after the Spirit, after repentance giving both pardon and strength; the natural man who sees Christ and gives himself to Him obtains this freedom, and individual self-government without God, impossible while sin reigns even against the wish, becomes possible with God when sin's power is broken. This hard battle belongs to lack of experience and consecration and to putting off the old man, not to permission to sin or freedom from responsibility.
That union comes by being crucified with Christ and buried in baptism, in which death the body of sin is destroyed and the old self dies to transgression so that sin is no longer served and the law is no longer transgressed. The sinner, not the law, dies: through faith in Christ a person dies to transgression and is freed from the law's condemnation while the law itself remains unchanged, redeemed from its curse and joined to the risen Christ to bear fruit to God. The verse is fully contained in Romans 6, belonging to the context of being slain by the law, dead and buried, and addressed to those who have died to sin and been baptized into Christ's death. Many are made righteous by Christ's present obedience in the believer, His life given to dwell within, and as that dying of the carnal nature continues the law can produce a righteous life, since sin so identified with the person as to be his very life could be destroyed only by his dying, and resurrection with the sinless Christ leaves sin dead and makes living with Him possible.
Christ overcame this conflict by faith with a spiritual mind, coming in the same sinful flesh yet without sin because always led by the Spirit, showing the power of the Spirit over the flesh. He who kept the law and personifies it sets the weak sinner free, cleanses from sin, imputes His past perfect obedience and imparts His mighty life through faith, so that the Spirit of God in the flesh proves stronger than the flesh and only then is the law kept. Deliverance does not come by changing the flesh, which remains the same and perverse even after conversion and is never converted but keeps its sinful nature until bodies are changed. One in whom Christ's Spirit dwells is no longer in the flesh's power because the Spirit controls it, being counted as not in the flesh but in the Spirit through putting to death the deeds of the body; yet when yielding to the flesh he serves sin and is not led by the Spirit, although the Spirit still strives with him and has not forsaken him.
Even after this reversal the believer is not delivered from contest but must carry on a real fight, keeping the body under, bringing it into subjection and crucifying its affections and lusts through the Spirit. In conversion the dominion is reversed by the power of the Spirit of God, putting the man in possession of divine power so he rules over the flesh instead of the flesh ruling over him. That inward warfare between upward strivings and downward pulls continues throughout earthly life, and awareness of it marks the holiest people.
Victorious Christian Living
The wretched failing state of doing what is disapproved and hated while failing to do the good willed is not to be rested in as final, for those in it need not remain there but may press on to liberty with no condemnation. That liberty is the Romans 8 experience, where the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes free from the law of sin and death for those who walk after the Spirit, giving present deliverance, triumph and fullness of joy through Jesus Christ. The law itself is holy and does not cause the failure, but reveals helplessness and leads to seeking deliverance, which comes only through Christ whose sending in human flesh fulfills the law's righteousness in those walking by the Spirit, with the Spirit's witness that they belong to Christ as heirs.
This hard battle belongs to lack of experience and consecration, and is met as Christian warfare between the soul aided by Christ, the Holy Spirit and good angels on one side and lust aided by the world, the flesh and the devil on the other. Sure victory belongs to the true and faithful in heavenly armor, as Paul fought through, finished his course, kept the faith and secured the victor's crown. That overcoming requires deliberate daily choice to serve God with the mind fixed on Him, with which God cooperates to make the choice real, with watchfulness, and with reason and conscience prevailing over sin by God's help against sinful impulses resisting the will to obey. It is a real inward adversary between sin and holiness, unknown to the natural man who has much sin and no holiness, but known and to be overcome in the holy war within the heart.
Provision is made for the believer who sins, for ordinary striving does not end with accepting Christ and each battle can be met with God's help unto victory. When the mind still desires to do God's will, unwilling transgressions held by captivity through the flesh are distinct from willful sin after knowingly rejecting truth, and upon repentance God grants forgiveness and strength to resist. Without Christ, however, religion remains painful bondage under resolutions repeatedly broken, showing His yoke has not been taken. A mere resolve or pledge to live the ideal for a time, trying to live as Christ lived without conversion and regeneration, ends in failure to do the good intended and doing the evil hated. So also seeking goodness and direction by looking within fails and returns broken and weary, for in the flesh dwells no good thing, the way is not in man to direct his steps, and the inner light cannot be trusted apart from looking to Christ. The same helplessness appears in a will ruled by appetite or passion, as in the drunkard lacking self-control, in delay that lets guilt harden resistance and make turning less willing, and in attempting to keep the holy day holy without God's presence dwelling within, since only a holy man by grace in Christ can keep holy what God made holy.
The verse also marks a change of heart in which what was loved comes to be hated and what was hated to be loved, wrought by the Word through the divine Spirit. Overcoming all sin is the highest attainment for mortals in this life, bringing Heaven's approbation and blessing to rest upon and attend all efforts when thoroughly converted, led by the Spirit, with self crucified with its affections and lusts. That requires the carnal I to be put to death, for while unslain it acts against its own wishes and stands in the way of spiritual victory until the Spirit destroys self and exalts Christ. Otherwise even sincere resolutions give way to careless, impatient or complaining words that leave the heart condemned and confidence weakened, and even genuine Christians need conviction leading to repentance that brings forth the graces of the soul amid uprisings of the old Adam. Seeing the perfect ideal yet achieving only imperfect reality, rising toward holiness then falling back into abasement to struggle onward again, proves the practical need for a religion with power to free from inward thraldom to evil and habit. That long dark and dreary way, where weakness meets the tempter's strong power in doing the unwanted wrong, drives prayer for Christ to abide and bear the weak one safe along, with yearning and groaning for purity answered by the cry for a deliverer.