Romans 7:21-25

Sin and Law Part III

²¹ So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. ²² For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being [our new nature in Christ which is daily being renewed in our Creator’s image], ²³ but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. [All sin begins in the mind, which is why we need the mind of Christ: see1 Corinthians 2:10-16.] ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! [The statement of a personal experience of a soul in anguish because of sin. Believers are perfect in justification but are in the process of sanctification, of being made perfect in Christ, meaning we can see and experience what is completely wrong and what is completely right at the same time! It is deeply frustrating.] Who will deliver me from this body of death? [Here is the questions the true believer asks of God. Then that person can turn to Jesus as Lord and Savior.] ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. [The mind with which the law of God is served is the mind responsive to the voice of conscience but far from the mind renewed by the power of the Spirit (next chapter). The flesh, which does the bidding of the law of sin, is the fallen nature which death alone will annihilate. But, we are not left to ourselves, for we are Christ’s and have the indwelling Spirit as Romans 8 will demonstrate.]