Dodo_David said:
In Romans 7, the Apostle Paul is describing himself as he was as an Apostle.
In Romans 7:25 (ESV) Paul writes, "So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin."
In that verse, Paul is speaking in the present tense.
In Romans 7 Paul is using a grammatical device known as "historical present." He is doing this put emphasis on the point that the law cannot save, rather salvation is through the Spirit.
To teach that Paul is speaking of himself in the present as being a carnal wretch whom is still sold under sin and therefore cannot stop sinning is to put Paul at odds with his own words throughout his writings. Romans chapter 6 specifically speaks of being set free from the service of sin and Romans 8 specifically speaks of overcoming sin.
Romans 7 opens with...
Rom 7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for
I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
Paul is speaking in the context of the law. He goes on...
Rom 7:6 But now
we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
The change from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant is one of the Spirit. We serve God in the Spirit as opposed to serving mere rules and regulations.
It was the rules and regulations which brought the knowledge of right conduct and it was through this knowledge that a human being can "choose" evil and hence "die to God." This is how sin kills through the law.
Rom 7:8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
Rom 7:9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
Rom 7:10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
Rom 7:11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
Now while the law was ordained to life instead brings death. Paul is defending the law from being perceived as evil because it brought death. The law didn't bring death, it was rebellion which brought death but rebellion can only exist through knowledge and the law brings knowledge.
Now Paul goes on from this defence of the law into to discuss the wretched men. It is the same man that died in verse 9...
Rom 7:12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
Rom 7:13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin,
working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
Rom 7:14 For we know that
the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
Paul is speaking of the sinner who has rebelled against God and has therefore sold themselves into slavery to sin. The sinner is in total bondage.
Rom 7:15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
Rom 7:16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
The above description is not that of a Christian who has been delivered from sin. It is a description of a sinner who is addicted to the lust of the flesh and lacks the spiritual life to do the right thing. The wretched man is a dead man.
The wretched man is plagued by the guilt of conscience for he has the law of God written on his heart and thus his conscience accuses him of his wrongdoing (see Rom 2:15). This wretched man is crying out for deliverance. This wretched man is crying out to be set free from this state of bondage. To claim that this wretched man is "saved" is to make a mockery of the salvation of God.
Paul goes on...
Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then
with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Paul then thanks God through Jesus Christ and states that with the mind he serves the law of God but with the flesh he serves the law of sin. Yet it does not stop there for Paul then speaks of the solution to the dilemma of the wretched man whom the law cannot save...
Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
Rom 8:4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
There is no condemnation to those who are IN Christ Jesus who no longer walk after the flesh but instead walk after the Spirit.
Those who abide in Christ have CRUCIFIED THE FLESH and thus the "flesh that serves sin" is DEAD.
Rom 6:6 Knowing this, that
our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Rom 6:7 For
he that is dead is freed from sin.
The body of sin (the body that serves sin) has to be destroyed once and for all and this occurs through dying with Christ. This is how the wretched man is set free. Thus we are set free by the SPIRIT OF LIFE IN JESUS CHRIST. What are we set free from? We are set free from the law of sin and death which is simply that "you sin you die." By no longer serving sin we no longer die and thus we are ALIVE TO GOD.
This is not something the law could do because the law can only regulate the outer conduct of a man and not the heart. The Spirit of life in Jesus Christ on the other hand regulates the inner man whereby the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us. Jesus condemned sin in his flesh by overcoming it through the Spirit and He did this as an example for us to follow that we too can condemn sin in the flesh by overcoming it through the Spirit and therefore have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us.
Read Romans 8:1-4 again as I am not making this up, this is what Paul is teaching here, clear as day...
Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
Rom 8:4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Satan does not want people to experience this which is why the "crucifixion of the flesh" has been completely omitted from the Gospel in the modern church system and it doesn't really matter what denomination you pick. The apostasy and deception is massive.
Look at what Peter wrote...
1Pe 4:1 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;
1Pe 4:2 That
he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
Does verse 2 apply to a man who is still a wretch? A man who is carnal and sold under sin?
Look at this passage from Romans 6...
om 6:8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
Rom 6:9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
Rom 6:10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Rom 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom 6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Rom 6:13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Let not sin reign in your mortal body? How does that fit in with the wretched man who cannot do anything but let sin reign in his mortal body.
See how perverted the modern Gospel has become? These wolves in the pulpits brainwash their congregations with their lies about the context of Romans 7, Isa 64:6 Psalm 51:5, 1Joh 1:8 and many other passages.
Strip all the fluff from their rhetoric and they are teaching "you can sin and not surely die" and they utterly deny "heart purity in salvation." They preach this total perversion of salvation which leaves people carnal wretches.
I wish people would wake up because this dark doctrine has enveloped the planet and there are very few people contending against it.
