The Struggle in ROMANS 7

By Michael Griego on May 17, 2024 • ( 0 )

Do you still struggle with sin as a Christian? Apart from the gift of God, we are beholden to our sinful nature. How do you reconcile this? ◊

As discussed in previous chapter studies of the BOOK of ROMANS, the Apostle Paul is making a logical explanation and case for Christianity. His brilliant letter was targeted toward the growing Christian church in Rome, around AD 57.

He first highlights man’s need for God (Chapter 1), then man’s guilt before a Holy God, both Gentiles and Jews (Chapter 2). Paul then makes the revolutionary claim that mankind’s way out of our sinful plight is via faith and trust in the One sacrificed for us, Christ Jesus (Chapter 3).

He presents a proof case with Abraham being saved by mere belief/faith rather than any acts of righteousness (Chapter 4). The outcome or results of that saving faith is peace and even joy with God (Chapter 5). Then Paul focused on the new life the Christian has now as one united in death with Christ, even a slave to righteousness (Chapter 6).

Dead to Sin/Law – Married to Christ
So while the case can be made as to why and how we get to a reborn life as a Christian, in ROMANS Chapter 7, Paul acknowledges the realities of the struggle of the Christian life.

But Paul first has to help us understand our newfound ties and relationship to Christ. He curiously uses the example of the Hebrew law about divorce, death, and marriage:

Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man. (Romans 7:1-3)

Just as a woman is released from the marriage bond to marry another only upon the death of her husband, Paul notes that we are dead to the law through our identity in Christ (by the way, symbolized in baptism as a spiritual resurrection from death to life, old to new). We are now essentially married to Christ:

So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:4-6)

As we are reborn and moved from death to life – therefore released from the shackles of the law – do we see a problem with the law that was established? Was the law bad or sinful? No, not at all. We certainly would not have been able to distinguish right from wrong. While the law is actually holy, we were nonetheless dead in our sin which was revealed to us by the law:

What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.

Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it [the law] used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. (Romans 7:7-13)

The Reality of the Christian Struggle
Then Paul makes it very practical:

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. (Romans 7:14-20)

Many people argue over whether Paul is talking in this passage above about his past sinful life or his current Christian life. Some will say that a Christian doesn’t or shouldn’t sin. Actually, the truth is while Christian’s shouldn’t sin, we all do sin, just like Paul.

Hence, the struggle.

Paul is just being brutally honest about the conflicting war that rages inside all of us, captured in his desperate cry out (“What a wretched man I am!”) due to our human nature. But thanks be to God, there is a solution:

So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. (Romans 7: 20-25)

New Eyes to See Reality
As a Christian, we are achingly aware of our violation of God’s law and holy ways. We want to be perfect, but we are not Jesus Christ. Yes we are, spiritually speaking, “married” to Christ and dead to our old self; yet we are, in this earthly realm, still in human vessels with a sinful nature.

While we rescued, redeemed and identified with Christ, we are enabled and equipped to be delivered and find victory over our sinful ways. While the human sinful nature may be managed over time, the struggle is never removed on this side of eternity.

The hope and certainty of our new spiritual life is laid out for us in ROMANS Chapter 8.

Are you struggling with your human sinful nature?
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What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! – Romans 7:24-25a