Romans 7 explained: is Paul describing the normal Christian life?

Starting in verse 14 is where many get lost in Paul’s rhetoric:

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. (Romans 7:14-15)

On the surface, it appears that Paul is talking about his current spiritual state, doesn’t it? But if the reader knows Paul at all, they almost inevitably feel some internal conflict. Could the same apostle who said, “I am not aware of anything against myself” (1 Corinthians 4:4) and “we cannot do anything against the truth” (2 Corinthians 13:8) also have said years later that he was still such a struggling wretch? And how could the man who so confidently urged his disciples to “[b]e imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1) here be so pitifully defeated in sin? It is, admittedly, a little confusing, and it paints a picture of the spiritual life that is not all too wonderful. Fortunately, we can do far better than merely speculate about Paul’s spiritual life. We need only to look at the context of the surrounding passages.

In verse 14, Paul says, “I am of the flesh, sold under sin.” With regard to being “of the flesh,” he implies earlier in the chapter that Christians no longer live in the flesh (7:4-5). And later, he tells them explicitly that they “are not in the flesh but in the Spirit” (8:9). Tell me, then, were all the Christians in the Spirit, but Paul still in the flesh?

And what about his being “sold under sin”? Has he not just spent the entirety of chapter 6 explaining to them that they are dead to sin (6:11), set free from sin (6:7, 18, 22), and no longer under the power of sin (6:14)? There is no reason to doubt what he means here. In Christ, they have been set “free . . . from the law of sin” (8:2) and are no longer debtors to the flesh (8:12)—i.e., no longer “sold under sin.” So again, please tell me, were all the disciples free from sin, but the apostle still enslaved? I can hardly imagine an argument so ridiculous and unsound as this, and we have only touched on one verse in this passage. Must we go any further?

Isn’t Paul’s rhetoric in this passage completely contradictory to the rhetoric of triumph and victory that describes the church in the rest of chapters 6-8, let alone the rest of his epistles? Unequivocally, it is. Therefore, we must conclude (as many rightfully have) that Paul is not describing his own spiritual state.

If we miss this point, the best we will get out of this passage is solace. Indeed, we will read it like one slave saying to another: “I get it, man. Hang in there. It’ll all be over soon enough.” But the other, far more dangerous possibility is that it will become one of the passages we champion to validate our own pitiful experience. We will go on pridefully about the hard, grueling nature of the Christian life, “humbly” insisting that no one can expect to have any greater freedom than Paul appears to have in this chapter. Anyone who suggests otherwise, we will say, is either prideful, naive, or walking a dangerous line. “How dare you put yourself above the Apostle Paul!” we will say. And subtly but surely, having given greater power to sin than to the Spirit of God within us, our gospel will become practically impotent.

However, once we realize what Paul is doing, it becomes an amazingly insightful passage. He is not describing his own spiritual life; rather, he is characterizing someone who desires to obey God but cannot because they are still operating under the law. Thus, if we relate to this passage, it is because we are still operating under the law.

This is increasingly evident in light of the following verse:

But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit [or newness of spirit ] and not in the old way of the written code [i.e., the law]. (Romans 7:6)

Notice that there are two ways a person can try to serve God and obey his commands: (1) the old way under the law or (2) the new way under grace. Since some of the people he is writing to still subscribe to the old way of the law, Paul needs to show them why the law is unable to bring about obedience. He accomplishes this in the latter half of Romans 7 by acting like someone who is operating under the law and, as a result, continuing to struggle. He wraps it up nicely with this concluding statement:

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)

When he says, “I . . . serve the law of God,” he is making an allusion back to verse 6, where he said that Christians don’t serve in that way anymore. This is just further evidence that Paul cannot be talking about himself. And more, it is his summary to the argument that someone who merely tries to obey God in their mind will inevitably continue serving sin with their flesh, not in spite of their service to God but because of it.

Have you ever considered that your efforts to obey God are actually the very thing keeping you from being able to obey him? This is not to suggest that we should exert no effort but that it matters a whole lot what we are putting our effort into. No matter how hard we try to obey God, if we try to do so with the wrong template (i.e., the law instead of grace), then it will be counterproductive.