Posted on 10/29/2015 4:30:34 AM PDT by metmom
"For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which indwells me" (Romans 7:14-17).
Believers have been freed from sin's power, but not from its presence.
Romans 7:14-25 is perhaps the most autobiographical passage in all of Scripture. In this poignant account Paul describes in vivid, striking language his battle with indwelling sin. So powerful is that language that some believe it refers to Paul's life before his conversion. But the apostle describes himself as one who seeks to obey God's law and who hates evil (vv. 15, 19, 21), who is humble and broken over his sin (v. 18), and who acknowledges Jesus Christ as Lord and serves Him with his mind (v. 25). None of those things characterize an unbeliever.
The word "for" indicates that Paul is not beginning a new subject but is continuing with the thought from the first part of Romans 7, that the law reveals our sin. The law is not the problem but reveals the problem-sin. The apostle then makes the startling statement that he is "of flesh, sold into bondage to sin." "Flesh" is our unredeemed humanness-that part of us that is still sinful and fights against our new natures. Paul's words do not mean that God had only partially saved him; rather, they emphasize that sin is still a powerful force in believers' lives and is not to be trifled with.
Christians are under attack from the outside, from Satan and the evil world system. But we also have a "fifth column"-the flesh inside us, aiding and abetting those attacks. Fight the flesh today by making "no provision for [it] in regard to its lusts" (Rom. 13:14).
Suggestions for Prayer
"Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matt. 26:41).
For Further Study
What do the following passages teach about the possibility of a believer's being "sold into bondage to sin"—Psalm 51:1-5; Isaiah 6:5; 1 John 1:8-10?
Studying God’s Word ping.
>> Believers have been freed from sin’s power, but not from its presence.
That statement of the truth is profound, and helpful.
"So powerful is that language that some believe it refers to Paul's life before his conversion. But the apostle describes himself as one who seeks to obey God's law and who hates evil (vv. 15, 19, 21), who is humble and broken over his sin (v. 18), and who acknowledges Jesus Christ as Lord and serves Him with his mind (v. 25). None of those things characterize an unbeliever."
My FRiends, this is not only an incorrect assumption, it is an arrogant one, with not one shred of Scriptural support. The argument that an unregenerate person cannot long for righteousness is the downfall of his own concept. Actually. the whole text of the Old Testament argues against the concept that Romans 7 describes a Christian.
Both ancient unregenerate Jews and Gentile show a longing for the moral law to be put into practice, but knew that. under human power only, it could not supersede Satan's authority on the earth.
Even David, who was accompanied by the Holy Spirit, but was not indwelt by Him, longed for the min of the Messiah:
Psa 119:97 MEM. O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.
Psa 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
But this love did not prevent his behavior when he erred from the faith, as seen in 1 Samuel 27.
In another passage, Paul describes the old Saul before his conversion:
Php 3:4 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath
whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
Php 3:5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew
of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
Php 3:6 Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
And the Gentile poet Ovid, also yearning for rightness and bemoaning lack of power over wrong, wrote:
"My reason this, my passion that persuades;
I see the right, and I approve it too;
Condemn the wrong, and yet the wrong pursue.
Likewise, the enlightened Euripides:
- But I am overcome by sin,
And I well understand the evil which I presume to commit.
Passion, however, is more powerful than my reason;
Which is the cause of the greatest evils to mortal men.
So these all dreamed of the victory of righteousness over sin, but only Paul experienced it.
Rather, the chapter describes the condition of the old, unregenerate, powerless human as seen from the viewpoint of the new Spirit-empoered human, now able to write of it looking backward from the new spirit from the experience of living in Christ, in whom sanctification was progressing and sinful behavior successfully being abandoned forever.
And that is the viewpoint the human professing yieldedness to Christ ought to be experiencing such that, as Peter wrote:
2Pe 1:10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure:
for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
2Pe 1:11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Thus, the maturing Christian can certainly assure him/herself that ones profession has become ones confession, and that one is not merely converted, but regenerated into life eternal.
This is a matter in which John MacArthur misses the mark, and is contrary to great commentators such as Adam Clarke, John N. Darby, and also contrary to Blessed John in his letter to the disciples he made:
1Jn 2:4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
1Jn 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
=======
Adam Clarke:
Regarding verse 14: It is difficult to conceive how the opinion could have crept into the Church, or prevailed there, that "the apostle speaks here of his regenerate state; and that what was, in such a state, true of himself, must be true of all others in the same state." This opinion has, most pitifully and most shamefully, not only lowered the standard of Christianity, but destroyed its influence and disgraced its character. It requires but little knowledge of the spirit of the Gospel, and of the scope of this epistle, to see that the apostle is, here, either personating a Jew under the law and without the Gospel, or showing what his own state was when he was deeply convinced that by the deeds of the law no man could be justified, and had not as yet heard those blessed words: Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way, hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost (Acts 9:17).
. . . longed for the mind of the Messiah:
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.