Romans 7:14 - Meaning and Application

Here Paul describes the conflict between God’s grace and human corruption, between God’s law and the law of sin. The words can be understood in two ways. Some think he is speaking about the struggles of a convicted soul that is still unconverted. Others think he means a renewed, holy soul that is still imperfect. There has long been debate about which view is right.

The case for the first view is this: Paul speaks of one who is “sold under sin,” who keeps doing evil and does not carry out what is good. That sounds hard to apply to a believer, since believers are described as walking not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Yet the case for the second view is also strong. Paul says this person hates sin, agrees with the law, delights in it, and serves God with the mind. That is harder to apply to one who is still spiritually dead in sin.

If we take this as the struggle of a convicted but unrenewed person, the meaning is clear. Such a person knows the Lord’s will but does not do it. He approves what is right, learns the law, and yet keeps breaking it, as in Romans 2:17-23. His conscience warns him before sin, and afterwards it accuses him. Still, he remains a slave to ruling desires. This is not true of every unconverted person, only of those who have been awakened by the law but not changed by the gospel.

This fits Paul’s earlier point in Romans 6:14, where he said sin will not rule over believers because they are under grace, not under the law. Here he shows the opposite side: a person under the law, and not under grace, can be ruled by sin. The law can expose sin and convince a person of it, but it cannot conquer sin. It can show the stain, but it cannot wash it away. It can make a person tired and burdened, as Jesus speaks of in Matthew 11:28, but if a person rests in the law alone, he gets no power to lay the burden down. That help is found only in Christ.

The law may also make a person cry out, “What a miserable person I am! Who will deliver me?” Yet it still leaves him bound and unable to free himself, because the law is too weak for that, as Romans 8:3 says. It can give a spirit of bondage that leads to fear, as in Romans 8:15. When a soul is brought this far by the law, it is on the way toward freedom in Christ, though many stop there. Felix trembled, but he never came to Christ.

It is possible for a person to go to hell with open eyes, warned by clear convictions and carrying an accusing conscience even while serving the devil. Such a person may agree that God’s law is good and may even delight to know God’s ways, as in Isaiah 58:2. He may have thoughts and feelings that speak against sin and for holiness. Yet all of this can be overruled by a stronger love for sin. Drunkards and sexually immoral people often have faint wishes to leave their sins behind, but they still continue in them. Their convictions are real, but they are too weak to change them.

Many insist that this is the meaning here. But it is hard to see why Paul would speak throughout in his own person if he were only describing someone else. He also uses the present tense here. Earlier, when he spoke of his life under conviction, he used the past tense, saying things like, “I died,” and “the commandment proved to be death to me” (Romans 7:7 and following). If he now meant the same former condition, it is strange that he would speak as if it were his present state.

So it seems better to understand this passage as describing the struggle between grace and remaining sin in sanctified souls. It is beyond dispute that even where there is living grace, some corruption still remains. It is also certain that this corruption keeps breaking out in sins of weakness, sins that are still consistent with a state of grace. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves” (1 John 1:8, 1 John 1:10). It is just as certain that true grace fights against these sins, does not excuse them, hates them, grieves over them, and feels them as a burden. “The flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit what is against the flesh” (Galatians 5:17). These are the truths I think Paul is teaching here.

His purpose is also to explain the nature of sanctification, that is, the work of being made holy. Sanctification does not reach sinless perfection in this life. That should stir us up in our struggles against remaining sin, and it should also encourage us. Our fight is not unusual. What we sincerely fight against will not be charged to us, and by grace the victory will come in the end. The struggle is like Jacob and Esau in the womb, the Canaanites and Israelites in the land, or the house of Saul and the house of David. The conflict is real, but truth is greater and will win.

Seen this way, we may notice what Paul complains about: the remaining corruption inside him. He speaks of this to show that the law cannot justify even a regenerate man. The best person in the world still has enough in him to condemn him if God dealt with him by law alone. That is not the fault of the law, but of our sinful nature, which cannot keep the law. Paul repeats himself because he is deeply moved by what he is writing.

He says, “I am carnal, sold under sin” (Romans 7:14). He had earlier called the Corinthians carnal, that is, still influenced by worldly and fleshly desires, though some life from God was in them (1 Corinthians 3:1). Even where spiritual life exists, there are still carnal feelings left. In that sense a person may be sold under sin. He does not freely choose evil the way Ahab did (1 Kings 21:25). Rather, he was sold by Adam when Adam fell. He is like a slave who must do his master’s will, even against his own wishes. He was conceived in sin and born in sin.

Paul also says, “What I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do” (Romans 7:15). He repeats the same thought in Romans 7:19 and Romans 7:21: “When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.” His corruptions were so strong that he could not reach the full holiness he longed for. So, even while pressing on toward perfection, he admits that he had not yet obtained it, and was not yet fully mature (Philippians 3:12).

He would gladly be free from all sin and perfectly do God’s will. That was his settled judgment. Yet his corrupt nature pulled him the other way. It was like a weight that held him down when he wanted to rise, or like a hidden tilt in a bowl that turns it aside even when it is set straight.

“In me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good” (Romans 7:18). Here he explains the corrupt nature he calls flesh. As far as that goes, no good can be expected from it. You would not expect good grain to grow on a rock or on sand by the sea. Just as the new nature cannot keep on sinning in the same way (1 John 3:9), so the old nature cannot, by itself, perform a truly good duty.

How could it, when the flesh serves the law of sin (Romans 7:25)? It is under sin’s rule and direction, and while it is there, it will not produce good. Scripture elsewhere calls this corrupt nature flesh (Genesis 6:3; John 3:6). Even when people who have this flesh still have good things in them, the flesh itself is not capable of good.

“I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind” (Romans 7:23). He compares this sinful tendency to a law because it controlled him and checked his good desires. He says it is in his members because Christ had set up his throne in his heart, and only the rebellious members of the body were used as tools of sin, especially the lower appetites. Or, more broadly, it stands for the whole corrupt nature, the place where both sensual and more refined sins arise.

This fights against the law of the mind, the new nature. It pulls the opposite way and serves a different interest. Such corrupt inclinations are a heavy burden and a deep grief to the soul, as painful as the hardest slavery. The same point appears in Romans 7:25, “With the flesh I serve the law of sin,” meaning the unrenewed part of him was always moving toward sin.

His general cry is in Romans 7:24: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” By “body of death,” he may mean the body of flesh, a mortal body that still carries corruption with it. While we live in this body, we will still struggle with sin. We will be freed from sin when we die, and not before. Or he may mean the body of sin, the old self, which tends toward the ruin of the soul.

Another way to think of it is as a dead body, which the ceremonial law counted as defiling. If actual sins are “dead works” (Hebrews 9:14), then original corruption is like a dead body. It was as if Paul had a corpse tied to him and had to carry it everywhere. So he cried out, “O wretched man that I am!” He had learned to be content in every condition, yet he still complained this way about his corrupt nature.

If I had been asked to describe Paul, I would have said, “O blessed man that you are, Christ’s messenger, favored by heaven, a spiritual father to thousands!” But Paul spoke of himself differently. In his own eyes, he was wretched because of the corruption of nature. He was not as good as he longed to be, and he had not yet reached perfection. In that misery, he asked, “Who will deliver me?” He sounded like a man worn out by his burden, looking everywhere for someone to come between him and his corruptions. The remaining sin that lives in believers is a very heavy load for a gracious soul.

Yet he also had comfort. The case was sad, but there were some reliefs. First, his conscience told him that a good principle ruled in him, even if imperfectly. It is a good sign when everything in the soul is not pulling the same way. The rule of this good principle was the law of God, and he shows three ways he respected it. These are found in all who are truly sanctified, and in no others.

“I consent unto the law that it is good” (Romans 7:16). The Greek word means, “I give my vote to the law.” This is the judgment approving it. Where grace is present, there is not only fear of the law’s severity, but also agreement with its goodness. It is good in itself, and it is good for me. This shows the law is written on the heart, and the soul has been shaped by it. To consent to the law is to approve it so fully that you do not wish it had been made different. The sanctified mind not only agrees that the law is fair, but also sees its beauty, knowing that obedience to it is the highest human good, and the greatest honor and joy we can know.

“I delight in the law of God after the inward man” (Romans 7:22). His conscience also witnessed that he had pleasure in the law. He delighted not only in God’s promises, but also in his commands and warnings. This shows a fitting and real delight. In this, he joined all the saints in heart. All who are truly born again delight in God’s law. They delight to know it and to do it. They submit to it willingly, and they are glad when heart and life match God’s will. “After the inward man” means, first, the mind and reason, as opposed to the body’s desires and the flesh’s will. The soul is the inward man, and it is the place where holy delight lives. These delights are true and serious, though often hidden. This is the renewing of the inward man (2 Corinthians 4:16). Second, it means the new nature. The new man is called the inner man (Ephesians 3:16) and the hidden person of the heart (1 Peter 3:4). So, as far as Paul was sanctified, he delighted in God’s law.

“With the mind I myself serve the law of God” (Romans 7:25). It is not enough to agree with the law and delight in it. We must also serve it. Our souls must be fully given to obeying it. This was true of Paul’s mind, and it is true of every renewed mind. This is the usual direction and habit of the soul. “I myself” plainly shows that he is speaking of himself, not pretending to speak for someone else.

Second, the fault lay in the corruption of his nature, which he truly hated and fought against: “It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.” He says this twice, in Romans 7:17 and Romans 7:20, not to excuse his sin. If we were under the law, the fact that the sin doing the evil lives in us would be enough to condemn us. He says it to support his hope, so he would not fall into despair. He finds comfort in the covenant of grace, which accepts the willing spirit and provides pardon for the weakness of the flesh. In this, he also protests against all that this indwelling sin produces.

After saying that he agrees with God’s law, Paul now says he rejects the law of sin. In effect, he says, “It is not really me. I do not approve of it, and I am against what is happening.” It is like a senate where most members vote the wrong way. The honest members still oppose the decision, grieve over it, and formally protest it, so the blame is not theirs in the same way.

Sin dwells in me, like the Canaanites lived among Israel, even when Israel had put them under tribute. It remains in the believer, and it is likely to stay there while we live. Yet Paul’s great comfort is found in Jesus Christ (Romans 7:25). “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord,” he says. In the middle of complaint, he breaks out in praise.

Praising God is a special help against fear and sorrow, and many discouraged believers have found it so. In all our praise, this should be the main song, “Blessed be God for Jesus Christ.” Paul cries, “Who will deliver me?” (Romans 7:24), as someone who cannot find help on his own. Then he finds a fully sufficient Friend, Jesus Christ.

When we feel the remaining power of sin and corruption, we have good reason to bless God through Christ. As Christ is the mediator, the one who stands between God and us, in all our prayers, so he is in all our praise. We bless God for Christ because Christ stands between us and the wrath we deserve for sin. Without Christ, this sin living in us would surely destroy us.

Christ is our advocate with the Father, the one who pleads our case. Through him, God shows pity, withholds judgment, and forgives. He does not count our sins against us. Christ has also bought our final rescue in due time. Through Christ, death will end all these complaints and carry us into eternity, where there will be no sin and no sighing. Blessed be God, who gives us this victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.