Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
It means the willing mind that loves what is good and hates evil is overpowered by a separate indwelling power of evil in the flesh that does what the person would not do. It describes the awakened but unconverted sinner, carnal and sold under sin and learning helplessness under the law in order to be driven to Christ, while those who held the other taught it is the ongoing warfare of the Christian in whom the inward man still delights in God's law. The holy, just, good and spiritual law is not at fault, but gives knowledge of sin and exposes it as hidden bondage and condemnation, especially through Thou shalt not covet. Saying sin does it gives no excuse and removes no accountability, for the natural person remains enslaved and unable by self to keep the law or remove guilt. Full deliverance from its power and condemnation comes only through Jesus Christ by faith, freeing into the liberty of Romans 8 where the Spirit fulfills the law's righteousness in those who walk after the Spirit.
Sense of Indwelling Sin
The declaration that it is no more the self doing it but sin dwelling within distinguishes the person's own will, mind and inward desire for good from an indwelling evil that does what is hated and not willed. When the good willed is left undone and the evil hated is practiced, it is sin holding the person in bondage and producing the act from within, even while the mind hates sin and delights in God's good law. The natural person is thus carnal and sold under sin, bound by evil habits with no power in self to break free and do right, while the spiritual law remains good and holy and exposes that indwelling sin as a secret hidden disease already rooted in the heart and working death. This is the helplessness of a sinner awakened by the law, learning inability and being led away from self-reliance to deliverance through Jesus Christ, belonging to the steps from conviction to a new creature rather than to the Christian experience of chapter 8.
Indwelling sin dwells as a person-like power producing all manner of evil in the heart, and without the law it would remain dead to knowledge until the law points it out. It is another law in the members and flesh, altogether distinct from and contrary to the law of God, the movings of the flesh and the fleshly or carnal mind that has opposed God's law since the fall of Adam and is not subject to it. The inward man delights in God's law and serves it with the mind, but evil is present when good is willed, and this other law wars against the law of the mind and brings captivity to the law of sin in the members. In the flesh dwells no good thing, so the mind serves God's law while the flesh serves sin, frustrating efforts to keep the law until the law of the Spirit of life in Christ frees from the law of sin and death and fulfills righteousness. Sin in this sense perverts God's good spiritual ways to selfish ends, working within the one who acts against the spiritual law that includes Thou shalt not covet.
To say that sin does it does not make the law responsible for the evil, does not excuse the evil, and does not remove accountability. The willing self that agrees the law is good is not the source of the evil act, yet the person remains carnal and enslaved, and consent to the good law both shows its goodness and exposes enslavement and captivity. Evil is therefore condemned as transgression of God's law, and the account belongs to putting off the old man and the body of death unto pardon and strength through belief in Christ after thorough repentance. The first-person present tense vividly portrays this struggle as actual and momentary, and on one understanding it recounts the moment of first responsible sin when the commandment came to understanding, sin sprang to life and the person died, not a constant Christian habit of doing what is unwanted. In that momentary experience under Judaism the law made the passions bring forth sin punishable by death while remaining holy, just and good, and the awakened sinner honestly wanting to obey still fails because sin holds dominion over natural habits until peace with God is found.
The setting of the chapter is that sin is transgression of God's law, and while a person lives in sin the law holds that person accountable and in bondage, whereas being dead to sin frees from that bondage while the law itself does not die. It is sin and the old carnal self that must die, slain by the law as instrument, so that through faith in Christ relation to the law is changed, condemnation is removed, and new life follows with the law unchanged, spiritual, holy, just and good. His humanity bore this indwelling sin and tendencies to evil in human flesh, yet His divine mind harbored no evil thoughts and remained free from sin. By faith He kept His mind spiritual and serving God's law and overcame indwelling sin, as a pattern that people can overcome through union with divinity.
Law Exposing Sin
The law spoken of around this verse is holy, just, good, spiritual and ordained to life, and it is not sin, not defective, not dead, and not at fault when it is broken. It is the standard by which human acts are shown to be sinful, distinct from sin dwelling within as another law in the members and flesh, which is only the movings of the flesh and the carnal mind opposed to God since the fall. That indwelling sin is exposed by the law pointing it out, for without the law it would remain dead to knowledge, and thankfulness through Jesus Christ belongs with serving the good law with the mind. The law is established through faith under the gospel, kept in the Spirit and not the letter, and is not abolished.
The law gives knowledge of sin by revealing guilt and just condemnation and by showing inability to render present obedience. It exposes indwelling sin as a secret hidden disease already rooted in the sinful heart and working death, producing all manner of evil within. This exposing work comes especially through Thou shalt not covet, the same ten-commandment law written on tables of stone, by which the commandment came and sin revived and the sinner died and found anguish before God. The living law still kills sinners in the present gospel age while the gospel still makes alive, and no deliverance from the body of death is found until it is found in Christ with the Spirit of life making alive and free from condemnation.
As schoolmaster, tutor, jailer and tormenting lord the law shuts the sinner up in the prison-house of sin, holds him in bondage and stands over him to present Christ Jesus as the one avenue of escape. It strips away confidence in the flesh and shows the sinner to be spiritually dead and unable to justify himself, thereby schooling lost sinners to recognize their need and to flee to Jesus for refuge, pardon, justification and life. What it did for Paul it does for everyone, driving Moses and Joshua and Samuel and David and Elijah and Isaiah and Jeremiah and the good of all ages to Christ as Redeemer, Justifier and Saviour from sin in their own time and place. This convicting work is necessary for lasting conversion, and it was still acting as schoolmaster to bring sinners to faith for justification years after the cross and had not been abolished; nor does it end when a person comes to Christ, for it continues to keep believers close to Christ and prepare them for a fuller experience of God's life, so that law and gospel work in harmony and the law remains in force. If allowed its legitimate course through weak flesh, conviction of indwelling sin leads to freedom in Christ Jesus with no condemnation and with the righteousness of the law appearing in life and character, which flesh alone cannot produce because of its weakness.
The chapter presents the law as declaring human bondage and tribulation while the gospel in contrast reveals redemption and peace. The law-work of conviction and conversion requires recognizing sin and experiencing penitence before receiving new life and love for the Saviour. This experience is born at the cross, where the law is displayed in its fullest force through execution of its sentence on Christ, revealing both the law's severity and God's mercy.
Whose Experience Described
The verse does not describe Christian experience but the convicted, unconverted sinner awakened by God's law. That sinner is carnal and sold under sin, bound by evil habits and long-standing bondage he has no power in himself to break, sincerely willing and wanting to obey the good, holy, spiritual law yet continuing to sin against his will from force of habit and weakness rather than desire to violate it. When he practices the evil he hates instead of the good he wills, it is sin dwelling in him as a person that does it, producing all manner of evil in the heart as a secret hidden disease already rooted within and working death. The law exposes that indwelling sin by pointing it out, so without the law it would remain dead to his knowledge, and his hatred of his wrong actions does not free him from repeated failure. This helplessness is meant to lead him away from self-reliance and human effort to Christ for pardon, thorough repentance, deliverance, new creature life and strength to fulfill the righteousness of the law, and it does not excuse a Christian's sin or remove accountability. Romans 8, by contrast, describes the converted person made free from sin through Christ, while Romans 7 gives the graphic steps from sin through conviction to freedom and Paul's putting off the old man and the body of death.
The verse is also taught as Christian warfare in which the soul aided by Christ, the Holy Spirit and good angels fights lust aided by the world, the flesh and the devil. In that war the inward man, the mind and true self, delights in and serves God's law while in the flesh dwells no good thing, evil is present when he would do good, and another law in the members wars against the law of the mind and brings captivity to the law of sin in the members. The indwelling sin is the obstacle and struggle against self or flesh, crying out for deliverance from the body of death through Jesus Christ, and it need not be a permanent state because the Spirit of life in Christ frees from sin and death into Romans 8 freedom with no condemnation to those who walk after the Spirit. Thousands remain in this hard-battling Romans 7 condition for want of experience and consecration and need to enter Romans 8 fullness of joy, while holiness and sin contending within distinguishes this from the natural person who has no holiness to oppose sin. Sin may dwell in the believer without ruling his life and may lose dominion without leaving its dwelling, so believers may be condemned by the world without being condemned with it, yet sin can still rise as an uprising of the old Adam needing conviction and repentance, and where faith has not advanced beyond defeat the warfare of victory by faith remains incomprehensible until the life hid with Christ is entered.
Both the unconverted and those who have accepted Christ encounter this inward struggle, especially those seeking freedom from sinful desires, and conversion does not end the need and contest of war against the flesh. Grace works upon the natural, sinful person to produce a supernatural new life through the Spirit, distinct from the old nature to which sin belongs, and the delivered man is put under the dominion of the Spirit and made ruler over the flesh rather than delivered from fight. The flesh serves the law of sin and is no different after conversion, remaining of the nature of sin and contrary to the Spirit until bodies are changed, with continual evidence of its perversity, but if the Spirit of Christ dwells within it has no power because the man yields to the Spirit who controls the flesh. Through the Spirit he puts to death the deeds of the body, keeps the body under and brings it into subjection, crucifying the flesh with its affections and lusts in the good fight of faith, as Christ in the same sinful flesh showed by always being led by the Spirit without sin. This conflict between spiritual striving and the soul's baser possibilities continues through earthly life so that even the holiest remain aware of danger, yet it is no cause for despair since God provides an advocate when a person sins while calling believers not to sin.
After conversion the new covenant is fulfilled with God's law put in the heart and written in the mind, so it becomes the law of the mind and delight securing future obedience. The chapter in this light concerns those dead to sin, baptized into Christ's death, delivered from the law and redeemed from its curse to be united to Christ, opposite the carnally minded enmity against God that is not subject to the law.
The experience is universal and preparatory, one every adult passes through to greater or lesser extent on the way from bondage of sin to service of Christ. The flesh ruling and hating the law pictures every sinner, with the law standing over him as jailer, warder, keeper, pedagogue and hard master, and the wretched helplessness of doing not the good he would but the evil he hates because sin dwells in him and holds him captive is the experience of countless millions crying out for a deliverer who is Jesus Christ alone. Mankind is in slavery to indwelling evil, discontented and longing for freedom, yearning toward purity he approves but is impotent to attain, which creates the practical need for a religion with power to free. Trying to live as Christ lived by temporary pledge without regeneration and the life of Christ always fails, because sin still dwells within and controls the unconverted person until true conversion enables a consistent life judged by God's sanctuary standard.
That bondage pictures life under the old covenant of human promise, works and human strength, as Israel promised at Sinai to obey by its own power. Efforts to save oneself or help God through human schemes arise from the flesh, cannot cleanse or produce God's righteousness, and vanish only when self is yielded and Christ accepted in whose power the law is kept. It is likewise the condition of professing Christians who do not truly love Christ, resolve to obey but continually break resolutions because sin still dwells and rules within, finding the commandments grievous and religion a thorny joyless bondage without peace, righteousness and joy. This happens because they have taken the yoke of the law upon stiff necks instead of Christ's yoke of willing love-service, remaining outside His accepted service while endeavoring to do right without wholly yielding to Him.
Bondage Without Strength
The natural person is carnal, sold under sin, bound by evil habits he has no power in himself to break, while God's spiritual law is good and holy and reveals indwelling sin as a secret hidden disease already rooted in the sinful heart and working death. When he practices the evil he hates instead of the good he wills, it is sin dwelling in him that does it, distinguishing his desire for good from the indwelling power that produces the evil and holds him under its rule. This does not make the law responsible for the evil, for the conflict between agreement with the good law and contrary action exposes enslavement and the need for deliverance through Jesus Christ. Convicted sincerely to obey, he still sins against his will from the force of long-standing bondage and habit, not from desire to violate the law, and cannot free himself. He is without strength, doing not the good he would but the evil he hates, in a wretched helplessness belonging to countless millions that cries out for a deliverer, who is Jesus Christ alone.
The mind serves God's law while the flesh serves sin, for the repeated wrongdoing comes from sin dwelling within and holding in bondage even though the mind hates sin and delights in God's good law. The inward man delights in and serves the law of God with the mind, yet evil is present when he would do good, and another law in the members wars against the law of the mind and brings into captivity to the law of sin in the members. This indwelling working is the body of death using the person as its instrument, the obstacle in trying to obey, crying out for deliverance which comes through Jesus Christ and the Spirit of life that makes free from sin and death. Sin dwelling within is another law in the members and flesh, altogether distinct from and contrary to the law of God, in which flesh dwells no good thing. The law of God is holy, just, good and spiritual, but the law in the flesh is only the movings of the flesh, the fleshly or carnal mind that has opposed the law of God since the fall of Adam and is not subject to it, until faith in Christ, the law of the Spirit of life, sets free and brings the heart to delight in God's law with its righteousness fulfilled.
Sin has enslaved every soul on earth and has power to reign over man even against his wish, impelling him to wrong, so that enslaved man cannot truly govern himself. Every attempt at self-government without God fails because of sin, which first originated such an attempt and ever frustrates it, and no civil government and no outward liberty can remove this bondage under Satan, the worst tyrant, which holds the whole human race. Mankind in itself is governed by sin, a lawless power acting against the person's better wishes and the law of God, making him do what he hates and would not, held captive to the law of sin in his members. The power of sin must be broken and the captive freed before true self-government is possible, and Jesus Christ met sin and its author on their own territory and conquered them, making freedom and self-government with God possible. Sin is not itself a person but comes from Satan its originator, and human beings cannot free themselves from this power but must look beyond themselves to God in Jesus Christ, the source of righteousness, for power to live under righteous rule.
Indwelling sin is an active force that begets further sin, opposes God's loving purposes, and tends toward the degeneration and ultimate ruin of every intelligent creature. Seeing God's law clearly exposes this inner sin and leads to recognition of wretchedness, for sin is not merely error, defect or disease but rebellion against God and His will. Sin is the perversion of God's righteousness, turning His good unselfish ways to selfish ends, so that when His holy spiritual law is used carnally it becomes a law of sin.
Sin has one definition, transgression of God's law, so the existence of sin within people proves that the law existed before it was given at Sinai. Adam's transgression brought a fallen nature and death which are inherited apart from personal choice, and personal transgression is also sin. Christ's sacrifice covers both the death resulting from Adam's sin and personal sins, and each responsible person may choose to break from fallen nature.
Deliverance Through Christ
The repeated wrongdoing comes from sin dwelling within and holding the person in bondage, even while the mind hates sin and delights in God's good law. The awakened person recognizes indwelling sin and has no power in himself to do what is right, for hatred of wrong actions does not free him from repeated failure. He is carnal and sold under sin, wishing to do right but finding no strength in himself, sincerely willing good yet sinning and learning helplessness. This helplessness leads away from self-reliance to Christ, for deliverance from that indwelling power and from condemnation comes completely and only through Jesus Christ by faith. Through belief in Christ for pardon after thorough repentance the person is delivered and receives strength to fulfill the righteousness of the law, receiving pardon, justification, refuge and cleansing when he sees himself in the light of Christ.
The mind serves God's law while the flesh serves sin, and indwelling sin is the obstacle in trying to obey, a struggle against self or the flesh in which the person need not remain. Faith in Christ, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ, sets free from the law of sin in the members and flesh and from the carnal mind that has opposed God's law since the fall, and when it is removed the heart delights in God's law and its righteousness is fulfilled. That Spirit makes alive and free from condemnation, so that in Christ there is now no condemnation to those who walk after the Spirit. The Spirit convicts, converts and controls, making free from the law of sin and death into Romans 8 liberty and fullness of joy, where believers press on to assurance as God's children and heirs even while the struggle with a nature only partly forsaken continues. The living, holy, just, good, spiritual law still kills sinners in the gospel age while the gospel makes alive, and finding no deliverance from the body of death until it is found in Christ, the person passes from death under Thou shalt not covet to life.
Sin is so identified with the person as his very life that deliverance requires death, for the law makes sin known and brings conviction but is not itself the sinful agent that must die. The old, carnal self dies so the person can belong to Christ while remaining subject to God's law, changing relation to the law and being freed from its condemnation while the law itself remains unchanged. Joined to the old self the person is enslaved to sin and cannot keep the law, but through faith the old self is crucified with Christ in baptism and the believer is joined to the risen Christ to bear fruit for God. In this dying the body of sin is destroyed, the old man is put off, the members are yielded as instruments of righteousness, and resurrection leaves sin dead so the person no longer transgresses. Being slain by the law, dying to sin and putting off the old man comes first and putting on Christ comes after, so repentance toward God is the first step toward justification from past wrongs before faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ.
The flesh is no different after conversion from what it was before, remaining of the nature of sin until bodies are changed at the coming of the Lord, and the converted person has continual evidence of its perversity. The flesh and the Spirit are always contrary, the Spirit never yielding to the flesh and the flesh never being converted. Yet the delivered person is not delivered from contest, for a real fight with the flesh remains and the order is reversed by the new power of the Spirit of God. Yielding to the Spirit, the person is no longer in the power of the flesh but is put in possession of God's power under the dominion of the Spirit, made ruler over the flesh with its affections and lusts. Through the Spirit he puts to death the deeds of the body, keeps the body under and brings it into subjection, crucifying the flesh in the good fight of faith, and for that reason is said to be not in the flesh but in the Spirit.
Sin has enslaved every soul and has power to reign even against the wish, impelling to wrong, so that without God every attempt at self-government fails and true freedom requires the power of sin to be broken. Jesus Christ met sin and its author on their own territory and conquered them, coming in the same sinful flesh and in the likeness of sinful flesh to show the power of the Spirit over the flesh. Because He was always led by the Spirit He was without sin, keeping the law and personifying it, working out the design of the law for humanity with humanity and divinity combined accomplishing what humanity alone could not. In Him the enmity of the carnal mind, which is not subject to God's law and cannot be, was slain and abolished, and those in Christ have that enmity abolished in them and are reconciled so they can now do the law even as Christ did. Setting the sinner free, He cleanses from sin, imputes past perfect obedience and imparts mighty life, so the Spirit of God in the flesh proves stronger than the flesh and the person can keep God's law by faith, which proves the native mercy of the law.
Law Still Binding
The law delighted in and called holy and just and good and spiritual is the living Ten Commandments, including Thou shalt not covet and the fourth commandment of the Sabbath, still binding twenty-nine years after the cross and established by faith rather than made void. It is not the dead Mosaic ordinances or middle wall abolished at the cross, but the moral precepts, spiritual and ordained to life, kept in the Spirit and not in the letter alone. The distinction between the self serving God's law with the mind and sin dwelling within proves continued delight in the commandments and preaching of them to Gentiles long after the crucifixion, with thankfulness to God through Jesus Christ belonging to that service. The chapter is no digression and no pretense of living under a ceased law, but treats the law as real; the law died to is the same law delighted in, died to because the transgressor stood condemned by it, not because the law was defective. Its work of bringing to Christ shows it still operative, with justification through Christ alone and the Levitical ceremonies distinct from it.
Those who held the opposing position taught that believers are dead to the law and the law itself is dead, and therefore the Sabbath is dead. They taught that the whole ten-commandment code together at once had filled its time, served its purpose and ceased obligation, giving place to the law of faith, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, the perfect law of liberty.
Freedom in Christ is freedom from the law's curse and condemnation and from sin through crucifixion of the old self with Christ and union with the risen Christ to bear fruit unto God, not permission to break God's law or release from its obligation. The enslaved person joined to the old self cannot keep the law, but pardoned and strengthened by faith in Christ receives power to keep what could not before be obeyed; through the Spirit the law's requirements are fulfilled so the law becomes a witness to liberty rather than a yoke of bondage. The law itself remains alive, binding, spiritual, holy and just and good and to be delighted in after the inward man, and does not teach release, death of the commandments, or replacement by another law. What makes the law seem bondage is the carnal mind that hates it and will not yield, not any fault of the law as a yoke.
The law reveals sin and condemns but cannot justify, cure, or give power to overcome, so victory comes by trusting Christ to enable obedience. Fallen humanity in sinful flesh is carnal, sold under sin and ruled by the mind of the flesh, willing good yet finding no good thing in the flesh to perform it, with indwelling sin doing what is hated. The law is strong but weak through the flesh, strong in itself yet unable to obtain what it requires because weak flesh will not yield to its claims, as when a sinful heart will not love an enemy; the fault lies in weak flesh and the carnal mind not subject to God, not in the law. If allowed its legitimate course, conviction exposes indwelling sin and leads to freedom in Christ with no condemnation and the righteousness of the law appearing in life and character, since God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to work out the law's design by humanity and divinity combined, proving its native mercy. Christ kept the law and personifies it, setting free, cleansing, imputing past perfect obedience and imparting mighty life, so the Spirit in the flesh proves stronger than the flesh and keeping by faith becomes possible.
Living the Victory
The inward cry that it is no more the self doing the hated evil but sin dwelling within does not describe a condition in which to remain, for the mind serving God's law while the flesh serves sin is a struggle against self and the flesh that the Spirit of life in Christ frees from sin and death. When the believer does what he hates and fails to do the good he wills, it is not the true self, the inward man delighting in and serving God's law, but sin dwelling in the flesh in which dwells no good thing, with evil present when he would do good and another law in the members warring against the law of the mind and bringing captivity to the law of sin and crying for deliverance from the body of death through Jesus Christ. That warfare sets the soul aided by Christ, the Holy Spirit and good angels against lust aided by the world, the flesh and the devil, unlike the natural person who has no holiness in the heart to oppose sin, and in it holiness and sin contend while sin pollutes and ruins what is good yet itself gains or loses nothing. Thousands remain where the battle goes hard for want of experience and consecration, keeping on doing what they disapprove under sin's power, yet with God's help they can gain victory even while trials and conflicts continue and press on to the liberty of Romans 8 where there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus who walk after the Spirit and where Christ sets free and the Spirit gives assurance of being God's children and heirs in fullness of joy. Escape comes through faith in Christ's sacrifice and death to sin under the law, and the one who knows this holy war within can fight through it, finish the course and keep the faith to secure the victor's crown.
The conflict calls for constant war against the flesh, for conversion does not end the need to strive against indwelling tendencies working through human weakness in both the unconverted and those who have accepted Christ. Failure may arise from weakness, ignorance, carelessness or prayerlessness under the Spirit's conviction, and the verse by itself does not settle standing, since the person must let Christ take possession and rely on the Saviour, with God providing an advocate when there is sin while calling believers not to sin. Sin is an inward power distinct from the willing self, setting holier against baser natures in a fierce life-battle in which the baser self and its lusts must be beaten down, hated and mortified with fleshly appetites controlled in progressive sanctification toward supreme love to God, obedience to His commands and conformity to Christ. Even genuine Christians may feel an uprising of the old Adam needing conviction and repentance, for sin may dwell without ruling and lose dominion without leaving its dwelling, yet even the holiest remain aware of danger.
Trying to live as Christ lived without the life of Christ that comes only through regeneration and conversion always fails, for sin still dwells within and controls the unconverted person so that even a conscientious pledge to copy Christ for two weeks is overcome by surrounding deceit and wickedness, as when business pressure forces lying for an employer. Only true conversion enables a consistent Christian life lived all the time as the Master lived, excuses claiming business is not religion will not stand, and character will be judged by God's sanctuary standard. It is a matter of power, not of right, for only God can make anything holy and only a holy person in whom God's presence dwells can by grace keep holy what God has made holy, while a non-religious person can rest for physical and mental benefit but cannot keep a holy day holy, no one can make holy a day not made holy by the Holy One, and God requires obedience in Christ Jesus rather than sacrifice, so that whatever is not of faith misses the mark.
When fruit is attempted by obeying the law without knowing the full grace of God, the flesh still turns to sin and repeatedly does what is hated, teaching that there is no good to expect from the flesh and no power in human effort to make the self act righteously, a lesson learned through communion with God or through failure and sin. Forgiven sins may still leave the underlying evil carnal nature remaining as the old self and natural disposition, the source from which sins keep arising distinct from the desire to do right, having no good in it and unable to be purified or improved, and prompting the cry for deliverance from the body of death. The flesh is powerless to obey God and attempts at self-salvation lead to bondage under the inward rule of dwelling sin, and professing Christians without true love who resolve to obey but continually break their resolutions find God's commandments grievous and religion a thorny joyless bondage without peace, righteousness and joy, because they have not taken Christ's yoke of willing love-service but have taken the yoke of the law upon stiff necks and remain outside accepted service. That bondage repeats Israel's promise to obey in human strength as life under the old covenant of human works and promise where the law is not at fault but the person is weak and fails, and it ends only when self is yielded and Christ is accepted so that the old covenant of works vanishes in the glory of Christ's power which enables keeping the law.
Delay is dangerous, for sin working within makes postponement increase unwillingness and guilt, and apart from God people have no power to follow conscience and reason and live by the best light they have because indwelling sin opposes that moral course and can feel stronger than the will, dragging toward ruin while wanting to do right. The secret conflict brings continual feebleness, weariness, irritation, suffering and sickening fear of never winning the prize while doing what is deplored, concealed from human eyes yet fully known to God as Father, with every drop of the aching cup ordered, chosen and planned by His hand. He prescribes for ills none else can understand to work the awaited cure, giving effectual means to hate what is deplored, to dethrone self so it never governs more, and to restore His longed-for likeness within, while by His Spirit He makes the little drop of suffering endured for His sake precious, so the cup drunk and the path taken are left to Him in submissive trust morning and night.
The verse stands within Paul's argument for justification and life through Jesus Christ running from Romans 4 through Romans 9, continuing the proof begun in Romans 3 that all are under sin irrespective of nationality and the showing that Abraham was justified before circumcision, and gathering force toward the climax that there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. It belongs to the doctrinal teaching of the first eight chapters of Romans, which closes with a triumphant shout of victory.
It means the willing mind that loves what is good and hates evil is overpowered by a separate indwelling power of evil in the flesh that does what the person would not do. It describes the awakened but unconverted sinner, carnal and sold under sin and learning helplessness under the law in order to be driven to Christ, while those who held the other taught it is the ongoing warfare of the Christian in whom the inward man still delights in God's law. The holy, just, good and spiritual law is not at fault, but gives knowledge of sin and exposes it as hidden bondage and condemnation, especially through Thou shalt not covet. Saying sin does it gives no excuse and removes no accountability, for the natural person remains enslaved and unable by self to keep the law or remove guilt. Full deliverance from its power and condemnation comes only through Jesus Christ by faith, freeing into the liberty of Romans 8 where the Spirit fulfills the law's righteousness in those who walk after the Spirit.
Sense of Indwelling Sin
The declaration that it is no more the self doing it but sin dwelling within distinguishes the person's own will, mind and inward desire for good from an indwelling evil that does what is hated and not willed. When the good willed is left undone and the evil hated is practiced, it is sin holding the person in bondage and producing the act from within, even while the mind hates sin and delights in God's good law. The natural person is thus carnal and sold under sin, bound by evil habits with no power in self to break free and do right, while the spiritual law remains good and holy and exposes that indwelling sin as a secret hidden disease already rooted in the heart and working death. This is the helplessness of a sinner awakened by the law, learning inability and being led away from self-reliance to deliverance through Jesus Christ, belonging to the steps from conviction to a new creature rather than to the Christian experience of chapter 8.
Indwelling sin dwells as a person-like power producing all manner of evil in the heart, and without the law it would remain dead to knowledge until the law points it out. It is another law in the members and flesh, altogether distinct from and contrary to the law of God, the movings of the flesh and the fleshly or carnal mind that has opposed God's law since the fall of Adam and is not subject to it. The inward man delights in God's law and serves it with the mind, but evil is present when good is willed, and this other law wars against the law of the mind and brings captivity to the law of sin in the members. In the flesh dwells no good thing, so the mind serves God's law while the flesh serves sin, frustrating efforts to keep the law until the law of the Spirit of life in Christ frees from the law of sin and death and fulfills righteousness. Sin in this sense perverts God's good spiritual ways to selfish ends, working within the one who acts against the spiritual law that includes Thou shalt not covet.
To say that sin does it does not make the law responsible for the evil, does not excuse the evil, and does not remove accountability. The willing self that agrees the law is good is not the source of the evil act, yet the person remains carnal and enslaved, and consent to the good law both shows its goodness and exposes enslavement and captivity. Evil is therefore condemned as transgression of God's law, and the account belongs to putting off the old man and the body of death unto pardon and strength through belief in Christ after thorough repentance. The first-person present tense vividly portrays this struggle as actual and momentary, and on one understanding it recounts the moment of first responsible sin when the commandment came to understanding, sin sprang to life and the person died, not a constant Christian habit of doing what is unwanted. In that momentary experience under Judaism the law made the passions bring forth sin punishable by death while remaining holy, just and good, and the awakened sinner honestly wanting to obey still fails because sin holds dominion over natural habits until peace with God is found.
The setting of the chapter is that sin is transgression of God's law, and while a person lives in sin the law holds that person accountable and in bondage, whereas being dead to sin frees from that bondage while the law itself does not die. It is sin and the old carnal self that must die, slain by the law as instrument, so that through faith in Christ relation to the law is changed, condemnation is removed, and new life follows with the law unchanged, spiritual, holy, just and good. His humanity bore this indwelling sin and tendencies to evil in human flesh, yet His divine mind harbored no evil thoughts and remained free from sin. By faith He kept His mind spiritual and serving God's law and overcame indwelling sin, as a pattern that people can overcome through union with divinity.
Law Exposing Sin
The law spoken of around this verse is holy, just, good, spiritual and ordained to life, and it is not sin, not defective, not dead, and not at fault when it is broken. It is the standard by which human acts are shown to be sinful, distinct from sin dwelling within as another law in the members and flesh, which is only the movings of the flesh and the carnal mind opposed to God since the fall. That indwelling sin is exposed by the law pointing it out, for without the law it would remain dead to knowledge, and thankfulness through Jesus Christ belongs with serving the good law with the mind. The law is established through faith under the gospel, kept in the Spirit and not the letter, and is not abolished.
The law gives knowledge of sin by revealing guilt and just condemnation and by showing inability to render present obedience. It exposes indwelling sin as a secret hidden disease already rooted in the sinful heart and working death, producing all manner of evil within. This exposing work comes especially through Thou shalt not covet, the same ten-commandment law written on tables of stone, by which the commandment came and sin revived and the sinner died and found anguish before God. The living law still kills sinners in the present gospel age while the gospel still makes alive, and no deliverance from the body of death is found until it is found in Christ with the Spirit of life making alive and free from condemnation.
As schoolmaster, tutor, jailer and tormenting lord the law shuts the sinner up in the prison-house of sin, holds him in bondage and stands over him to present Christ Jesus as the one avenue of escape. It strips away confidence in the flesh and shows the sinner to be spiritually dead and unable to justify himself, thereby schooling lost sinners to recognize their need and to flee to Jesus for refuge, pardon, justification and life. What it did for Paul it does for everyone, driving Moses and Joshua and Samuel and David and Elijah and Isaiah and Jeremiah and the good of all ages to Christ as Redeemer, Justifier and Saviour from sin in their own time and place. This convicting work is necessary for lasting conversion, and it was still acting as schoolmaster to bring sinners to faith for justification years after the cross and had not been abolished; nor does it end when a person comes to Christ, for it continues to keep believers close to Christ and prepare them for a fuller experience of God's life, so that law and gospel work in harmony and the law remains in force. If allowed its legitimate course through weak flesh, conviction of indwelling sin leads to freedom in Christ Jesus with no condemnation and with the righteousness of the law appearing in life and character, which flesh alone cannot produce because of its weakness.
The chapter presents the law as declaring human bondage and tribulation while the gospel in contrast reveals redemption and peace. The law-work of conviction and conversion requires recognizing sin and experiencing penitence before receiving new life and love for the Saviour. This experience is born at the cross, where the law is displayed in its fullest force through execution of its sentence on Christ, revealing both the law's severity and God's mercy.
Whose Experience Described
The verse does not describe Christian experience but the convicted, unconverted sinner awakened by God's law. That sinner is carnal and sold under sin, bound by evil habits and long-standing bondage he has no power in himself to break, sincerely willing and wanting to obey the good, holy, spiritual law yet continuing to sin against his will from force of habit and weakness rather than desire to violate it. When he practices the evil he hates instead of the good he wills, it is sin dwelling in him as a person that does it, producing all manner of evil in the heart as a secret hidden disease already rooted within and working death. The law exposes that indwelling sin by pointing it out, so without the law it would remain dead to his knowledge, and his hatred of his wrong actions does not free him from repeated failure. This helplessness is meant to lead him away from self-reliance and human effort to Christ for pardon, thorough repentance, deliverance, new creature life and strength to fulfill the righteousness of the law, and it does not excuse a Christian's sin or remove accountability. Romans 8, by contrast, describes the converted person made free from sin through Christ, while Romans 7 gives the graphic steps from sin through conviction to freedom and Paul's putting off the old man and the body of death.
The verse is also taught as Christian warfare in which the soul aided by Christ, the Holy Spirit and good angels fights lust aided by the world, the flesh and the devil. In that war the inward man, the mind and true self, delights in and serves God's law while in the flesh dwells no good thing, evil is present when he would do good, and another law in the members wars against the law of the mind and brings captivity to the law of sin in the members. The indwelling sin is the obstacle and struggle against self or flesh, crying out for deliverance from the body of death through Jesus Christ, and it need not be a permanent state because the Spirit of life in Christ frees from sin and death into Romans 8 freedom with no condemnation to those who walk after the Spirit. Thousands remain in this hard-battling Romans 7 condition for want of experience and consecration and need to enter Romans 8 fullness of joy, while holiness and sin contending within distinguishes this from the natural person who has no holiness to oppose sin. Sin may dwell in the believer without ruling his life and may lose dominion without leaving its dwelling, so believers may be condemned by the world without being condemned with it, yet sin can still rise as an uprising of the old Adam needing conviction and repentance, and where faith has not advanced beyond defeat the warfare of victory by faith remains incomprehensible until the life hid with Christ is entered.
Both the unconverted and those who have accepted Christ encounter this inward struggle, especially those seeking freedom from sinful desires, and conversion does not end the need and contest of war against the flesh. Grace works upon the natural, sinful person to produce a supernatural new life through the Spirit, distinct from the old nature to which sin belongs, and the delivered man is put under the dominion of the Spirit and made ruler over the flesh rather than delivered from fight. The flesh serves the law of sin and is no different after conversion, remaining of the nature of sin and contrary to the Spirit until bodies are changed, with continual evidence of its perversity, but if the Spirit of Christ dwells within it has no power because the man yields to the Spirit who controls the flesh. Through the Spirit he puts to death the deeds of the body, keeps the body under and brings it into subjection, crucifying the flesh with its affections and lusts in the good fight of faith, as Christ in the same sinful flesh showed by always being led by the Spirit without sin. This conflict between spiritual striving and the soul's baser possibilities continues through earthly life so that even the holiest remain aware of danger, yet it is no cause for despair since God provides an advocate when a person sins while calling believers not to sin.
After conversion the new covenant is fulfilled with God's law put in the heart and written in the mind, so it becomes the law of the mind and delight securing future obedience. The chapter in this light concerns those dead to sin, baptized into Christ's death, delivered from the law and redeemed from its curse to be united to Christ, opposite the carnally minded enmity against God that is not subject to the law.
The experience is universal and preparatory, one every adult passes through to greater or lesser extent on the way from bondage of sin to service of Christ. The flesh ruling and hating the law pictures every sinner, with the law standing over him as jailer, warder, keeper, pedagogue and hard master, and the wretched helplessness of doing not the good he would but the evil he hates because sin dwells in him and holds him captive is the experience of countless millions crying out for a deliverer who is Jesus Christ alone. Mankind is in slavery to indwelling evil, discontented and longing for freedom, yearning toward purity he approves but is impotent to attain, which creates the practical need for a religion with power to free. Trying to live as Christ lived by temporary pledge without regeneration and the life of Christ always fails, because sin still dwells within and controls the unconverted person until true conversion enables a consistent life judged by God's sanctuary standard.
That bondage pictures life under the old covenant of human promise, works and human strength, as Israel promised at Sinai to obey by its own power. Efforts to save oneself or help God through human schemes arise from the flesh, cannot cleanse or produce God's righteousness, and vanish only when self is yielded and Christ accepted in whose power the law is kept. It is likewise the condition of professing Christians who do not truly love Christ, resolve to obey but continually break resolutions because sin still dwells and rules within, finding the commandments grievous and religion a thorny joyless bondage without peace, righteousness and joy. This happens because they have taken the yoke of the law upon stiff necks instead of Christ's yoke of willing love-service, remaining outside His accepted service while endeavoring to do right without wholly yielding to Him.
Bondage Without Strength
The natural person is carnal, sold under sin, bound by evil habits he has no power in himself to break, while God's spiritual law is good and holy and reveals indwelling sin as a secret hidden disease already rooted in the sinful heart and working death. When he practices the evil he hates instead of the good he wills, it is sin dwelling in him that does it, distinguishing his desire for good from the indwelling power that produces the evil and holds him under its rule. This does not make the law responsible for the evil, for the conflict between agreement with the good law and contrary action exposes enslavement and the need for deliverance through Jesus Christ. Convicted sincerely to obey, he still sins against his will from the force of long-standing bondage and habit, not from desire to violate the law, and cannot free himself. He is without strength, doing not the good he would but the evil he hates, in a wretched helplessness belonging to countless millions that cries out for a deliverer, who is Jesus Christ alone.
The mind serves God's law while the flesh serves sin, for the repeated wrongdoing comes from sin dwelling within and holding in bondage even though the mind hates sin and delights in God's good law. The inward man delights in and serves the law of God with the mind, yet evil is present when he would do good, and another law in the members wars against the law of the mind and brings into captivity to the law of sin in the members. This indwelling working is the body of death using the person as its instrument, the obstacle in trying to obey, crying out for deliverance which comes through Jesus Christ and the Spirit of life that makes free from sin and death. Sin dwelling within is another law in the members and flesh, altogether distinct from and contrary to the law of God, in which flesh dwells no good thing. The law of God is holy, just, good and spiritual, but the law in the flesh is only the movings of the flesh, the fleshly or carnal mind that has opposed the law of God since the fall of Adam and is not subject to it, until faith in Christ, the law of the Spirit of life, sets free and brings the heart to delight in God's law with its righteousness fulfilled.
Sin has enslaved every soul on earth and has power to reign over man even against his wish, impelling him to wrong, so that enslaved man cannot truly govern himself. Every attempt at self-government without God fails because of sin, which first originated such an attempt and ever frustrates it, and no civil government and no outward liberty can remove this bondage under Satan, the worst tyrant, which holds the whole human race. Mankind in itself is governed by sin, a lawless power acting against the person's better wishes and the law of God, making him do what he hates and would not, held captive to the law of sin in his members. The power of sin must be broken and the captive freed before true self-government is possible, and Jesus Christ met sin and its author on their own territory and conquered them, making freedom and self-government with God possible. Sin is not itself a person but comes from Satan its originator, and human beings cannot free themselves from this power but must look beyond themselves to God in Jesus Christ, the source of righteousness, for power to live under righteous rule.
Indwelling sin is an active force that begets further sin, opposes God's loving purposes, and tends toward the degeneration and ultimate ruin of every intelligent creature. Seeing God's law clearly exposes this inner sin and leads to recognition of wretchedness, for sin is not merely error, defect or disease but rebellion against God and His will. Sin is the perversion of God's righteousness, turning His good unselfish ways to selfish ends, so that when His holy spiritual law is used carnally it becomes a law of sin.
Sin has one definition, transgression of God's law, so the existence of sin within people proves that the law existed before it was given at Sinai. Adam's transgression brought a fallen nature and death which are inherited apart from personal choice, and personal transgression is also sin. Christ's sacrifice covers both the death resulting from Adam's sin and personal sins, and each responsible person may choose to break from fallen nature.
Deliverance Through Christ
The repeated wrongdoing comes from sin dwelling within and holding the person in bondage, even while the mind hates sin and delights in God's good law. The awakened person recognizes indwelling sin and has no power in himself to do what is right, for hatred of wrong actions does not free him from repeated failure. He is carnal and sold under sin, wishing to do right but finding no strength in himself, sincerely willing good yet sinning and learning helplessness. This helplessness leads away from self-reliance to Christ, for deliverance from that indwelling power and from condemnation comes completely and only through Jesus Christ by faith. Through belief in Christ for pardon after thorough repentance the person is delivered and receives strength to fulfill the righteousness of the law, receiving pardon, justification, refuge and cleansing when he sees himself in the light of Christ.
The mind serves God's law while the flesh serves sin, and indwelling sin is the obstacle in trying to obey, a struggle against self or the flesh in which the person need not remain. Faith in Christ, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ, sets free from the law of sin in the members and flesh and from the carnal mind that has opposed God's law since the fall, and when it is removed the heart delights in God's law and its righteousness is fulfilled. That Spirit makes alive and free from condemnation, so that in Christ there is now no condemnation to those who walk after the Spirit. The Spirit convicts, converts and controls, making free from the law of sin and death into Romans 8 liberty and fullness of joy, where believers press on to assurance as God's children and heirs even while the struggle with a nature only partly forsaken continues. The living, holy, just, good, spiritual law still kills sinners in the gospel age while the gospel makes alive, and finding no deliverance from the body of death until it is found in Christ, the person passes from death under Thou shalt not covet to life.
Sin is so identified with the person as his very life that deliverance requires death, for the law makes sin known and brings conviction but is not itself the sinful agent that must die. The old, carnal self dies so the person can belong to Christ while remaining subject to God's law, changing relation to the law and being freed from its condemnation while the law itself remains unchanged. Joined to the old self the person is enslaved to sin and cannot keep the law, but through faith the old self is crucified with Christ in baptism and the believer is joined to the risen Christ to bear fruit for God. In this dying the body of sin is destroyed, the old man is put off, the members are yielded as instruments of righteousness, and resurrection leaves sin dead so the person no longer transgresses. Being slain by the law, dying to sin and putting off the old man comes first and putting on Christ comes after, so repentance toward God is the first step toward justification from past wrongs before faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ.
The flesh is no different after conversion from what it was before, remaining of the nature of sin until bodies are changed at the coming of the Lord, and the converted person has continual evidence of its perversity. The flesh and the Spirit are always contrary, the Spirit never yielding to the flesh and the flesh never being converted. Yet the delivered person is not delivered from contest, for a real fight with the flesh remains and the order is reversed by the new power of the Spirit of God. Yielding to the Spirit, the person is no longer in the power of the flesh but is put in possession of God's power under the dominion of the Spirit, made ruler over the flesh with its affections and lusts. Through the Spirit he puts to death the deeds of the body, keeps the body under and brings it into subjection, crucifying the flesh in the good fight of faith, and for that reason is said to be not in the flesh but in the Spirit.
Sin has enslaved every soul and has power to reign even against the wish, impelling to wrong, so that without God every attempt at self-government fails and true freedom requires the power of sin to be broken. Jesus Christ met sin and its author on their own territory and conquered them, coming in the same sinful flesh and in the likeness of sinful flesh to show the power of the Spirit over the flesh. Because He was always led by the Spirit He was without sin, keeping the law and personifying it, working out the design of the law for humanity with humanity and divinity combined accomplishing what humanity alone could not. In Him the enmity of the carnal mind, which is not subject to God's law and cannot be, was slain and abolished, and those in Christ have that enmity abolished in them and are reconciled so they can now do the law even as Christ did. Setting the sinner free, He cleanses from sin, imputes past perfect obedience and imparts mighty life, so the Spirit of God in the flesh proves stronger than the flesh and the person can keep God's law by faith, which proves the native mercy of the law.
Law Still Binding
The law delighted in and called holy and just and good and spiritual is the living Ten Commandments, including Thou shalt not covet and the fourth commandment of the Sabbath, still binding twenty-nine years after the cross and established by faith rather than made void. It is not the dead Mosaic ordinances or middle wall abolished at the cross, but the moral precepts, spiritual and ordained to life, kept in the Spirit and not in the letter alone. The distinction between the self serving God's law with the mind and sin dwelling within proves continued delight in the commandments and preaching of them to Gentiles long after the crucifixion, with thankfulness to God through Jesus Christ belonging to that service. The chapter is no digression and no pretense of living under a ceased law, but treats the law as real; the law died to is the same law delighted in, died to because the transgressor stood condemned by it, not because the law was defective. Its work of bringing to Christ shows it still operative, with justification through Christ alone and the Levitical ceremonies distinct from it.
Those who held the opposing position taught that believers are dead to the law and the law itself is dead, and therefore the Sabbath is dead. They taught that the whole ten-commandment code together at once had filled its time, served its purpose and ceased obligation, giving place to the law of faith, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, the perfect law of liberty.
Freedom in Christ is freedom from the law's curse and condemnation and from sin through crucifixion of the old self with Christ and union with the risen Christ to bear fruit unto God, not permission to break God's law or release from its obligation. The enslaved person joined to the old self cannot keep the law, but pardoned and strengthened by faith in Christ receives power to keep what could not before be obeyed; through the Spirit the law's requirements are fulfilled so the law becomes a witness to liberty rather than a yoke of bondage. The law itself remains alive, binding, spiritual, holy and just and good and to be delighted in after the inward man, and does not teach release, death of the commandments, or replacement by another law. What makes the law seem bondage is the carnal mind that hates it and will not yield, not any fault of the law as a yoke.
The law reveals sin and condemns but cannot justify, cure, or give power to overcome, so victory comes by trusting Christ to enable obedience. Fallen humanity in sinful flesh is carnal, sold under sin and ruled by the mind of the flesh, willing good yet finding no good thing in the flesh to perform it, with indwelling sin doing what is hated. The law is strong but weak through the flesh, strong in itself yet unable to obtain what it requires because weak flesh will not yield to its claims, as when a sinful heart will not love an enemy; the fault lies in weak flesh and the carnal mind not subject to God, not in the law. If allowed its legitimate course, conviction exposes indwelling sin and leads to freedom in Christ with no condemnation and the righteousness of the law appearing in life and character, since God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to work out the law's design by humanity and divinity combined, proving its native mercy. Christ kept the law and personifies it, setting free, cleansing, imputing past perfect obedience and imparting mighty life, so the Spirit in the flesh proves stronger than the flesh and keeping by faith becomes possible.
Living the Victory
The inward cry that it is no more the self doing the hated evil but sin dwelling within does not describe a condition in which to remain, for the mind serving God's law while the flesh serves sin is a struggle against self and the flesh that the Spirit of life in Christ frees from sin and death. When the believer does what he hates and fails to do the good he wills, it is not the true self, the inward man delighting in and serving God's law, but sin dwelling in the flesh in which dwells no good thing, with evil present when he would do good and another law in the members warring against the law of the mind and bringing captivity to the law of sin and crying for deliverance from the body of death through Jesus Christ. That warfare sets the soul aided by Christ, the Holy Spirit and good angels against lust aided by the world, the flesh and the devil, unlike the natural person who has no holiness in the heart to oppose sin, and in it holiness and sin contend while sin pollutes and ruins what is good yet itself gains or loses nothing. Thousands remain where the battle goes hard for want of experience and consecration, keeping on doing what they disapprove under sin's power, yet with God's help they can gain victory even while trials and conflicts continue and press on to the liberty of Romans 8 where there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus who walk after the Spirit and where Christ sets free and the Spirit gives assurance of being God's children and heirs in fullness of joy. Escape comes through faith in Christ's sacrifice and death to sin under the law, and the one who knows this holy war within can fight through it, finish the course and keep the faith to secure the victor's crown.
The conflict calls for constant war against the flesh, for conversion does not end the need to strive against indwelling tendencies working through human weakness in both the unconverted and those who have accepted Christ. Failure may arise from weakness, ignorance, carelessness or prayerlessness under the Spirit's conviction, and the verse by itself does not settle standing, since the person must let Christ take possession and rely on the Saviour, with God providing an advocate when there is sin while calling believers not to sin. Sin is an inward power distinct from the willing self, setting holier against baser natures in a fierce life-battle in which the baser self and its lusts must be beaten down, hated and mortified with fleshly appetites controlled in progressive sanctification toward supreme love to God, obedience to His commands and conformity to Christ. Even genuine Christians may feel an uprising of the old Adam needing conviction and repentance, for sin may dwell without ruling and lose dominion without leaving its dwelling, yet even the holiest remain aware of danger.
Trying to live as Christ lived without the life of Christ that comes only through regeneration and conversion always fails, for sin still dwells within and controls the unconverted person so that even a conscientious pledge to copy Christ for two weeks is overcome by surrounding deceit and wickedness, as when business pressure forces lying for an employer. Only true conversion enables a consistent Christian life lived all the time as the Master lived, excuses claiming business is not religion will not stand, and character will be judged by God's sanctuary standard. It is a matter of power, not of right, for only God can make anything holy and only a holy person in whom God's presence dwells can by grace keep holy what God has made holy, while a non-religious person can rest for physical and mental benefit but cannot keep a holy day holy, no one can make holy a day not made holy by the Holy One, and God requires obedience in Christ Jesus rather than sacrifice, so that whatever is not of faith misses the mark.
When fruit is attempted by obeying the law without knowing the full grace of God, the flesh still turns to sin and repeatedly does what is hated, teaching that there is no good to expect from the flesh and no power in human effort to make the self act righteously, a lesson learned through communion with God or through failure and sin. Forgiven sins may still leave the underlying evil carnal nature remaining as the old self and natural disposition, the source from which sins keep arising distinct from the desire to do right, having no good in it and unable to be purified or improved, and prompting the cry for deliverance from the body of death. The flesh is powerless to obey God and attempts at self-salvation lead to bondage under the inward rule of dwelling sin, and professing Christians without true love who resolve to obey but continually break their resolutions find God's commandments grievous and religion a thorny joyless bondage without peace, righteousness and joy, because they have not taken Christ's yoke of willing love-service but have taken the yoke of the law upon stiff necks and remain outside accepted service. That bondage repeats Israel's promise to obey in human strength as life under the old covenant of human works and promise where the law is not at fault but the person is weak and fails, and it ends only when self is yielded and Christ is accepted so that the old covenant of works vanishes in the glory of Christ's power which enables keeping the law.
Delay is dangerous, for sin working within makes postponement increase unwillingness and guilt, and apart from God people have no power to follow conscience and reason and live by the best light they have because indwelling sin opposes that moral course and can feel stronger than the will, dragging toward ruin while wanting to do right. The secret conflict brings continual feebleness, weariness, irritation, suffering and sickening fear of never winning the prize while doing what is deplored, concealed from human eyes yet fully known to God as Father, with every drop of the aching cup ordered, chosen and planned by His hand. He prescribes for ills none else can understand to work the awaited cure, giving effectual means to hate what is deplored, to dethrone self so it never governs more, and to restore His longed-for likeness within, while by His Spirit He makes the little drop of suffering endured for His sake precious, so the cup drunk and the path taken are left to Him in submissive trust morning and night.
The verse stands within Paul's argument for justification and life through Jesus Christ running from Romans 4 through Romans 9, continuing the proof begun in Romans 3 that all are under sin irrespective of nationality and the showing that Abraham was justified before circumcision, and gathering force toward the climax that there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. It belongs to the doctrinal teaching of the first eight chapters of Romans, which closes with a triumphant shout of victory.