Comments on Romans 7
- Romans 7:1 (MSG)
- Romans 7:2 (MSG)
- Romans 7:3 (MSG)
- Romans 7:4 (MSG)
- Romans 7:5 (MSG)
- Romans 7:6 (MSG)
- Romans 7:7 (MSG)
- Romans 7:8 (MSG)
- Romans 7:9 (MSG)
- Romans 7:10 (MSG)
- Romans 7:11 (MSG)
- Romans 7:12 (MSG)
- Romans 7:13 (MSG)
- Romans 7:14 (MSG)
- Romans 7:15 (MSG)
- Romans 7:16 (MSG)
- Romans 7:17 (MSG)
- Romans 7:18 (MSG)
- Romans 7:19 (MSG)
- Romans 7:20 (MSG)
- Romans 7:21 (MSG)
- Romans 7:22 (MSG)
- Romans 7:23 (MSG)
- Romans 7:24 (MSG)
- Romans 7:25 (MSG)
This chapter has caused consternation for many people over the years; because it sounds like Paul is speaking of his personal Christian experience (verse 14 is key here). That is not what he is saying, unless you want to believe that Paul was dead when he wrote it. Note that in verse 11 he says that sin killed him, if you take 14-24 as him speaking about himself, you must also take verse 11 the same way.
So what is Paul saying? The same thing he has been saying all along in Romans—that the law is insufficient to save people. It shows them right from wrong, but doesn’t help change them “internally”; instead they are left with that same human nature that has a bent for sin. In verses 14-24, he emphasizes (in a first person allegory) the woeful condition of a man trying to obey God by following the law (without Christ). He wants to do what is good, but his “Natural” desires are not allowing him. “So with my mind I serve the Law of God, although my selfish desires make me serve the law of sin.”
In Chapter 8 (a bad place for a chapter break) Paul clarifies the example he just gave. Specifically in verse 2 he says, “The Holy Spirit will give you life that comes from Christ Jesus and will set you free from sin and death.” Then in verses 3-9 he explains that if we are controlled by the Holy Spirit we won’t follow our “Natural” (read as non Holy Spirit controlled) desires.
Perhaps this is where you were going anyway; I don’t know where your studies were leading. However, I have found that many people pull this chapter out by itself and forget to look at it in the context of the whole book of Romans. Paul’s theme in Romans has been the supremacy of Christ over the Law, that what the Law couldn’t do Christ has done (with the Holy Spirit), by changing our inner self from Natural to Spiritual.
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