I wrote this back in November of 2012. I suspect it’ll find it’s way into a Divergence in Year A (Proper 9, I think) But I’m going to publish it now, separately, with a few minor edits.
Maybe this isn’t new, but it’s new to me.
I’ve read an awful lot of commentaries on Paul and several on Romans (I used to teach New Testament) and I’ve never come across the way of reading Romans 7 that was shown to me this morning during my devotional time.
More particularly, Romans 7:13-25 where Paul appears to bemoan his inability to keep the law no matter how he tries.
Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (Romans 7:13-25 ESV)
Paul appears at first glance to be saying that he keeps sinning even though he wants to do right, to keep the law, but that is in fact exactly the opposite of what I realized that he means, and that in fact, his keeping of the law is in fact the result of sin and produces sin!
First of all it is important to know who the “I” of the passage refers to. Clearly Paul speaks of his unredeemed self. “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.” Throughout this passage we have to keep that “I” in mind.
Now this unredeemed “I” is at war with the Spirit. It cannot want to do good, so when Paul says, “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate,” what he wants is to sin and what he hates is to keep the law.
This sounds peculiar until we read verse 16. “Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.” So much revolves around the referent of the pronoun “it” here. The “it” refers to what he has done, not to itself. That is, he agrees with the law that by not doing what he wants, and behaving righteously (what he hates) his behavior (it) is good. Paul, in his unredeemed state, sold under sin, is incapable of agreeing with the law about it being good, but he agrees with the law that it (not sinning) is good by his choosing not to do what he wants but rather what he hates.
Here’s it’s helpful to know that apart from “agree with” the verb symphemi also carries the meaning of “concede to” (but you have to go to Liddel and Scott to find that because all the other lexicons merely reiterate the standard translation from this verse, which is the only occurrence of the word) and such a reading is at least as likely a translation here. So then, it is sin that dwells in Paul that actually does the good thing by conceding to the demands of the law, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.”
“For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being…” Here Paul refers back to Romans 1:19-20
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
His “inner man” (inner being) knows and delights in the law, but sin, encamped in his members, succeeds even in poisoning his best intentions by doing what the law demands but out of the law of sin, not the law of of the Spirit of Life.
but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
(Romans 7:23 ESV)
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
(Romans 7:25 ESV)
This isn’t about some terrible struggle Paul had with his habitual sin or something. This is simply Paul’s way of saying that nothing done apart from the Spirit of Jesus has any merit. Sin can even keep the law for sinful reasons, and so, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:8 ESV)
To boil all that down, what Paul is saying is that when we do what the law requires because the law requires it, we continue to act from the flesh. Our sinful flesh does it (what the law requires) in agreement with the law. This is why he finally bursts out with “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Because only in Him does Paul find himself doing “good” for reasons that aren’t bound up in sin. Instead they are inspired by love.
