Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
Romans 7:7-25 (NIV)
The Law and Sin
7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. 14 We know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
When Paul talks about this struggle in verse 18, is referring to the struggle before or after he became a Christian?
In these verses, Paul was describing that when he worked hard to follow the law, he couldn’t achieve it. Paul says that as a Christian, redeemed by the grace of God, there is now something within him that wants to do good, that agrees with the Law, that says that the Law is right. As a Christian, I can relate. Sin didn’t bother me as much until I accepted Your gift of grace and forgiveness. After becoming a Christian, I desired to please You and was disturbed by sinful words, behavior, and actions. I attempted to handle this problem of sin by trying my best through determined willpower to do what You want. But, as determined as I was to be good, I found that my hard work created a legalistic attitude and I sinned in new ways. The more I tried to do good, I continued to be tripped up by my own sin. As Your follower, I realize that I am not free to sin. As a Christian in the world, I am not free from sin either. But I am now empowered by the Spirit, I am free to overcome sin. Fill me with Your Spirit. Make me alive in You! Help me to recognize those things that can corrupt me so I can follow Your lead and not fall into sin. Thank You, Christ, Jesus, that You will rescue me from my sin. Amen