Romans 7

It’s a tough chapter.  In there, Paul speaks in an autobiographical way about a distinctly unspiritual and miserable state of mind. 

Here’s a passage from it: “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.  I know that nothing good lives 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 what I do is not the good I want to do; no, 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).

How is that to fit into the Christian life?  Like I said, a tough chapter.  Here are my thoughts on it. 

1. Paul is not speaking of his present-day Christian life.  He is describing a place of misery, even spiritual torture.  This does not fit with Jesus’ words in John 10:10: “I came that they [His sheep] may have life and have it to the full.”  Or His words to the woman at the well when He said that the water He gives will be “a spring of water welling up to eternal life,” (John 4:14).  And just a few verse after the ‘misery passage’ of Romans 7, Paul himself says: “…there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death,” (Romans 8:1-2).  When Paul says, “…I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin…” is speaking of his present-day experience?  No! 

2.  He is describing a state of frustration and failure in trying to please God with legalism.  If Romans 7 does not represent a present-day normal Christian life, what is it speaking of?  Could it be an enlightened non-believer who is not quite saved yet?  Is it a Christian still mired in sin?  One of my seminary professors, Morris Weigelt, said what I believe is a wise statement about the matter.  He said that Romans 7 describes someone who is trying to be a Christian by keeping the law.  This will always fall short.  It will always result in frustration, misery and failure.  Trying to please God by law rather than grace is a loser’s game.  Don’t do it.  It’s bad on several levels. 

3.  Paul is describing (admittedly, this part is my opinion) a painful past episode from his own life.  A theory.  I believe that Paul is describing a memory from his past that is so vivid, painful and terrible that he is framing it in a dramatic present tense to communicate the horror of it.  We know that Paul, in his pre-Christian life, was a zealously legalistic Pharisee.  When he was dramatically saved, the joy and power of the new life in Christ carried him for a while.  But, as with all new Christians, the initial joy settles down and we do sorting and thinking.  Galatians tells us that soon after he was saved, after his early Christian days in Damascus, he spent three years in Arabia (Galatians 1:17-18).  What did he do during those three years?  We aren’t told, but it is impossible that he did not do a lot of thinking and growing in his newfound faith.  I believe that during that time he may have struggled and wrestled with his past tendencies toward legalism.  When it popped up, now within his new life as a Christian, he felt the incompatibility of that legalism with grace and it produced a spiritual agony.  This could explain the words of Romans 7–a kind of flashback to a painful memory of his own spiritual journey.  He’s bringing it up as a way of saying: don’t go this way. 

4. Paul gives this account in the middle of the ‘grace’ section of Romans where he has been making a long and detailed case for salvation by grace instead of attempted salvation by law.  The grace section of Romans begins in in chapter 3, verse 24 and continues through the end of chapter 11, which puts chapter 7 right in the middle.  In these chapters Paul has been making the case for grace as a solution for the problem of sin, which he had been describing in the first three chapters.  We could call grace the cure for the disease of sin.  More accurately, grace is the way to be saved, the only way.  It is not to be mixed with law.  Salvation is based not on our efforts, but on repenting of our sins and receiving the gift of what Christ has done–he death on the cross for us.  Seeing the difficult verses of chapter 7 in this context shows us that it is part of Paul’s broader argument of grace over law.

5.  Admittedly, it is possible–though not desirable or normal–for a Christian to fall into a Romans 7 type of experience.  As Christians, we have hope and joy, but it the Chrisitan life is not all sweetness and ease.  Sometimes we struggle or are tempted with tendencies.  Now God may deliver us instantly from them.  Praise the Lord for that!  But sometimes, the old tendencies may linger and we must deal with them as a Christian.  We need to be diligent to guard against them.  Some may struggle with legalism.  There are many Christians with ‘older brother’

[meaning the older brother from the parable of The Prodigal Son]

tendencies.  They resent seeing grace given to others when they’ve worked for God over the years.  But how have they worked?  Has it really been God’s work done God’s way?  In any case, wrestling against legalism may be their cross to bear.  If so, it is their responsibility to pray about it, keep it down, always keeping grace in mind, and seeing it as having no place in their faith.  They should refute the tendency whenever it comes up.  It would be wise to keep Romans 7 in mind–the sting of misery and failure that trying to live a Christian life by law will bring.  Message: avoid legalism like the plague!

6.  Advice for the legalist.  The best cure for legalism is to visualize what you are going to say to Christ in heaven when you die.  What will you say to Him then when He asks why you should enter heaven?  Are you going to plead your good works?  No way!  The only thing you can say is, “I can only enter by your blood, which you shed for me.”  Thinking of this future encounter should make us run away from spiritual pride and legalism.  And after some time of disciplining ourselves to do this, and receiving God’s help, we can be free of it. 

In summary, Paul in Romans 7 describes an awful state that is certainly is not to be considered the normal Christian life.  We can live in victory and hope.  But if we do slip down into the dungeon of legalism, we can and should get out of it as quickly as possible.  I believe that is the message of this difficult passage.