Romans 7

Romans is a wondrous book of the Bible, full of God-glorifying, profound exposition of the Gospel. It is, along with the rest of the Bible, also a book that the typical Christian can understand with the help of the Holy Spirit. You don't need to go to seminary or have a degree, you simply need God's help! At the same time, there are passages in Romans which can be confusing and are much debated—perhaps none so much as Romans 7:7-25, in which Paul describes the interaction between the law, sin, and himself.

Ever since I was a toddler Christian, the most natural reading of this passage to me has been Paul describing his unconverted self abounding in sin in verses 7-12 and his converted self still struggling with sin in 13-25. Other interpreters, however, have read it differently. Some have claimed that this man that Paul describes has too much sin and therefore must be unregenerate. These interpreters must sin much less than I do. With Paul's shift to present tense and his apparently renewed mind (vv. 22,25), I find this reading unreasonable and I will not address it further. Others, such as F. J. Huegel in Reigning with Christ, see Paul as a Christian but in an unhealthy state. For my own confidence in interpretation and application, I have meditated on this passage and now seek to distill my thoughts into one short article. So help me God!

After a heartfelt description of his flesh's inability to submit to God's law, Paul concludes that his true self delights in the law of God, but his own flesh wars against him, forcing him to sin—even to the point of calling himself captive to the law of sin—in his own weakness. Even as a saved person, he still sins regularly, and I can sympathize! "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" But he, as I, turn this near-despair around into praise to God: "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Without Jesus, we would have every reason to despair, but with Him we are carried along into victory and glory. Praise God!

F. J. Huegel, though, would say that Paul's thoughts are unhealthy. Specifically, Paul is describing himself or any other Christian "listen[ing] to the voice of the enemy" (Huegel, 18) and trying to obey God's law in the flesh instead of resting in his position in Christ. It is a fine distinction between my interpretation's and Huegel's, so let me clarify. I see this passage in Romans 7 as a regular realization that all Christians have which humbles them and draws them to Jesus. We must daily remind ourselves of our continual wretchedness apart from Him. Huegel, on the other hand, sees the passage as Paul erring in turning from the grace back to law:

There is an overflowing tendency for the Christian to turn from grace to law. To do so is to do violence to the glorious position which is his in Christ. We see it in Paul, great as he was. [...] We have the proof in Romans 7 where we have Paul under law, and what a time of it he had. The more he struggled the worse off he seemed to be. The divine injunction had lashed him into a frenzy until at last he comes to the end of himself with the cry of despair: Oh, wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death? Then he comes back into a position of rest. (Huegel, 29)

The contrast in interpretation is between a healthy realization and an unhealthy state brought by whispers of the flesh and the Accuser.

I can see Huegel's point, but since Paul makes no explicit statement of unhealthiness and there is no transition before or after this section (simply a transition from past to present before), I think it should be taken at face value if possible. Indeed, I think Huegel mis-interprets due to his overemphasis on the believer taking hold of his position in Christ as if it were the one key to the Christian life, as if all obedience and joy follows from, and only from, that faith position. But that is a topic for another day.

Looking again at the passage, the frustration that Paul expresses admittedly seems odd in contrast to the victory that he expresses elsewhere. But it is appropriate here because he is describing the interaction between himself, the law, and sin—particularly demonstrating what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do (8:3). Not only was the law unable to save a sinner from death, but even now, after salvation, though the Christian delights in the law of God, the law cannot produce sanctification.

In the end, I do not think Huegel that far from the mark. A Christian need not live a frustrated life: he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you (8:11). But understanding the danger of the flesh and the law is important—not only for the sake of sanctification, which must be by the Spirit (see Romans 8, Galatians 5, and a previous post of mine), but to give God all the glory for His wonderful provision for us!