Read Romans 7.
Woven throughout this letter to the Romans have been some significant teaching passages about the law. In the past couple of days, we’ve read that the law increases sin (5:20) but that, in Christ, we’re no longer under the law (6:14, 15). Today’s reading in chapter 7 was written to clarify our new relationship to the Law in Christ.
The chapter opened by explaining why we are no longer under the law (vv. 1-6). A widow is no longer under her marriage covenant because her husband died. In a similar way, Christ’s death freed us from the covenant of the Old Testament law (vv. 4-6). Because of the things that were said about the law in previous chapters, someone might wonder whether the law was a bad thing–sinful, even (v. 7a). Verse 7b answers that with, “Certainly not!” Verses 7c-14 explain that the law teaches us what sin is (v. 7c) but that our sinful natures within are aroused by the law and use its commands to lead us into sin (vv. 8-11). The problem isn’t that the law is sin; the problem is that I am a sinner (vv. 12-14) so my sin nature reacts sinfully to the holy commands of the law.
In verses 14-25, we have a well-known passage where Paul described the struggle that he had with the law. Bible interpreters disagree about whether this section was describing Paul’s experience BEFORE he became a believer or AFTER his salvation. Although this devotional is not the place to explain why, I interpret this passage as describing Paul’s ongoing experience AFTER becoming a Christian. One reason is the phrase, “… in my inner being I delight in God’s law.” Unbelievers do not delight in God’s law; they hate his righteous standards. So it seems that Paul was describing what life as a believer was like, the tug-of-war between his new nature in Christ and his sinful nature which remained.
This section was autobiographical for Paul, but it wasn’t just about him. Every believer knows the struggle between desiring to live and please God in obedience to his word and the cravings of the sin nature within each of us.
As we saw yesterday, sin is destructive; its “wage” is death (6:23). In verse 24 here in chapter 7, Paul cried out, “Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” Verse 25 has the answer, “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” It is discouraging to fight sin because we feel the pull of temptation so deeply and too frequently give in to its destructive lies.
Our hope, however, is not in learning better self-discipline. It is in Jesus who will deliver us in eternity from those sin struggles. Be encouraged, then, even if you’ve sinned already today. Keep striving against sin–Romans 8 will help us with that when we read it on Monday–but look to Christ, not to yourself for deliverance from sin.
