Page 50 - Romans Student Textbook.doc

live. What he is saying in this passage is that the law removed his ignorance about sin, both his personal
sin and that of the world. It showed him what sin is and how sin had impacted and enslaved him. That
reality produced a helplessness and hopelessness in the face of sin that was best described as death. It is
in his conclusion at the end of the paragraph that Paul’s understanding of the goodness of God’s holy law
is declared and the law’s ability to show sin for what it is, was celebrated and affirmed. The law shows sin
for what it is without being sin itself. It is a mirror of the reality of the bondage of this world to sin.

The law shows the sinfulness of the flesh and reveals our incapacity to resist sin apart from the redeeming
work of Christ and the empowerment of God’s Spirit. (7:13-25)

The deceptive nature of sin and the incapacity of people to be able to do anything to live free of sin’s
domination was brought to the discussion again as he asked, “Did that which us good, then, bring death to
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me?” In other words, “Is God’s good law the reason for my death?” Again, Paul shouts, “NO!” and then
shows where the responsibility for death lies, “It was sin, producing death in me through what was
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good.” Sin is responsible for death. It is connected to death from its first mention in the Scriptures.
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Why does it have that effect? The answer to that question was given by Paul in the last part of this
sentence, “in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become
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sinful beyond measure.” Death is connected to sin so that the hideous nature of sin might be fully seen
for the despicable, evil entity that it is.

Even as Paul laid this out so clearly, he also acknowledged that sin is powerful. Its influence is an influence
that is greater than the ability of any person to handle if they depend only on their own fleshly abilities.
When the battle is left to people by themselves without the help of God’s Holy Spirit applying the truth of
God’s Word to their thinking and choosing there is no hope of doing that which is correct before God.
Even when people desire to do good with all their being, they are not able to do so without the gracious
help of God. What they find is what Paul describes so well, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I
do not want is what I keep doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that
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dwells within me.”

Out of this honest expression of how sin so often works, Paul stated what he calls a “law” that describes
the interplay between the desire to do good and the influence of sin on the enactment of that desire. “For
I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging was against
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the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” His
thoughts then, brought him to an exclamation of hopelessness, and then to a question of desperation.
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The exclamation of hopelessness is “Wretched man that I am!” This exclamation is a confession of the
position of every person who would stand before God on the basis of their own ability to do good. In
attempting honestly to do what is right what people learn is their profound inability to do so without
God’s help and the depth to which their sin is buried in their hearts. This properly produces a
wretchedness and sorrow that helps them see that they need help.’

The question is then, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” “Where can one find help?” “Who
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is able to save me from my horrible predicament?” It is amazing that when sin is seen clearly for what it is
in people, it drives them to look for help. Paul asked the question that all who grapple honestly with their
personal sin ask and then he gave an answer in both a short form in the next line and then in a longer

41 Romans 7:13a, ESV.
42 Romans 7:13b, ESV.
43 Genesis 2:15-17.
44 Romans 7:13b, ESV.
45 Romans 7:20, ESV.
46 Romans 7: 22-23, ESV.
47 Romans 7:24a, ESV.
48 Romans 7:24b, ESV.
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