The War Inside
Few passages in the Bible speak as honestly to the believer’s daily experience as Romans 7:14-25. Here, the apostle Paul lays bare a tension that every Christian comes to know. We have been made a new creature in Christ (2Co 5:17), sealed by the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:12-14), accepted in the Beloved (Eph 1:6), and yet we still find ourselves wrestling with something inside that does not love what God loves.
“For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I….For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” - Romans 7:15, 19
That is a stunningly transparent admission from the Apostle of the Gentiles (Rom 11:3). And it is only by God’s grace that he speaks this way, because the reality of the gospel is that Christ died and rose again for sinners. Our flesh doesn’t like to be found out and exposed for how utterly bad it is. In Christ, we need not be afraid of being “found out” because we already are: the gospel declares that we are utterly wicked in our flesh and that only in Christ are we righteous (Rom 3:21-26).
The Carnal Reality
“For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” – Romans 7:14
The law is good (Rom 7:12). It comes from God. But it cannot change us. It can only expose what is already true about us. And what it exposes is that even after salvation, the flesh remains what it has always been: weak, lustful, and incapable of producing the righteousness of God (Gal 4:9-11, 5:1-6).
This is not Paul describing his life before Christ. He is speaking in the present tense, as a saved man, about the war he faces in his members. That ought to be a tremendous comfort, because even he wrestled with these things like we do today.
Saved people can be carnal. Paul told the Corinthians as much (1Co 3:1-4). It is not what God desires for us, and it is not where we should remain, but the presence of a struggle with sin is not the absence of salvation.
Wake Up to the Battle
“But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members” - Romans 7:23
There is a battle for the souls and minds of humanity. There has always been a battle. And one of the most dangerous places a believer can be is unaware that they are constantly in one.
Satan is the god of this present evil world, and his strategy revolves around twisting God’s word so that people would believe a lie. Lies that add works to the gospel, lies that rob you of your complete position in Christ, lies that make you doubt the Bible, etc. (2Co 4:3-6, 11:13-15). He hides the gospel from the lost and works to hide the spiritual warfare from the saved. If he can convince a believer that the Christian life is mostly about behavior management, self-improvement, or moral effort, then he has already won that day’s battle. The believer who does not know there is a war is already taken captive by it. The fruit of that darkness leads to legalism or hedonism.
This is why we are instructed to put on the whole armor of God, to take up the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Eph 6:10-17). Armor is for soldiers. Soldiers are in conflict. The Christian life is not a peaceful country walk, even though we can have love, joy, and peace amidst it by the Spirit. It is a fight, and the believer must know that, or else they will be ill-equipped and will fall (Eph 6:11, 1Co 10:12).
The Weakness of Our Flesh
“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not” – Romans 7:18
Read that verse slowly. It does not say that our flesh is mostly bad, or somewhat bad, or bad in certain areas. He says there dwells in it no good thing. None.
This destroys at the root every form of religious self-help. The flesh cannot be improved, reformed, or trained into producing true righteousness. It cannot be coaxed by good intentions or whipped into shape by discipline. You can want to do good with everything in you, and still find that the strength to perform it is not in you. Paul felt this. We feel it. The will is there, but the power is not.
That is why “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” is not a Christian doctrine. It is a worldly one, and it leaves the believer exhausted and condemned. The same flesh that could not produce salvation cannot produce sanctification either. That’s why God had to crucify you with Christ by faith in the gospel (Rom 6:1-6). The same grace that saved you is the grace you need every single day to walk.
The Trap of Self-Effort
Many sincere believers know how they ought to live. And then they try, in their own strength, to live up to what they know. The result is predictable. They fail. And when they fail, they are met with accusation, condemnation, and the slow drip of guilt that hardens into despair from inside themselves or from the world around them.
This is the inevitable end that Paul gives voice to himself:
“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” - Romans 7:24
That is the cry of every believer who has tried to fight a spiritual battle with carnal weapons. It cannot be done. The body of this death and sin is too strong. The law of sin in our members is too persistent. And often, the harder we try in our own strength, the heavier the chains can feel.
This is where so much paralyzing guilt, anxiety, and depression find their root in the Christian life. Not because the believer has lost their salvation. They cannot. They are sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption (Eph 4:30). But because they have forgotten that the gospel that saved them is the same gospel they must rest in every single day for the strength to walk. The same blood that cleansed us is the same blood that protects and empowers us by faith (Rom 3:25). Trying harder is not the answer. Trusting Christ is.
Deliverance in Christ Alone
After Paul cries out about the wretchedness of his condition, he does not give us a ten-step program to conquer our sin. He presents a Person.
“I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” - Romans 7:25
That is the answer. Not ten steps. Not a program. Not a discipline. A Savior. The same Lord Jesus Christ who bore our sins on the cross and rose for our justification is the same Lord Jesus Christ who lives in us by His Spirit and supplies the strength to walk worthy of our calling.
The believer doesn’t say, “Lord, thank you for saving me, I’ll take it from here.” That's what Romans 7 exposes as impossible. Paul did not say, “I thank God for getting me started, now I’ll do the rest.” He said, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” as the answer to his deliverance. Christ is the answer at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end.
The grace that saved you is the grace that sustains you. The faith that received the gospel is the faith that receives strength for today. “For as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him” (Col 2:6). Our salvation and walk are by the same means: by grace through faith in Him.
Strength by His Spirit, Through His Word
How does Christ supply this strength? Through His Spirit, by means of His word.
“[16] That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; [17] That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, [18] May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; [19] And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. [20] Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, [21] Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen” Ephesians 3:16-21.
The Spirit of God uses the living Scriptures that God has given us to renew our minds, to change how we think, and to produce in us a walk that no amount of fleshly effort could ever produce (Rom 12:1-2). The word of God works effectually in those who believe it, and it shows us the love of Christ that ultimately fills us and constrains us (1Th 2:13, 2Co 5:14, Gal 5:6, Rom 5:8).
This is why Bible study and prayer are not optional for the believer who wants to walk in victory. It is not extra credit. It is the very means by which God strengthens the inner man. It is a spiritual necessity. The believer who neglects the word of God and prayer is the believer who has unplugged from the only source of power that can win the daily battle (Php 4:6-9). You cannot fight a spiritual war with a closed Bible and an idle mind that’s constantly getting bombarded by the doctrinal refuse the world is constantly spewing. The Spirit works through faith in the truth He has revealed, and where the truth is not known or grounded, His work in the inner man is hindered (1Co 2:11-14, Rom 8:1-13).
Knowing what is right is the beginning. Performing it requires God’s strength. The believer must know the doctrine, and then must lean upon Christ to continue and walk in it. The flesh will fail. Every time. The Spirit will not.
“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” – Galatians 5:16-17
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” - 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
Until that Day We Fight
There is no defeat in the cry of Romans 7:24, so long as it leads to the answer of Romans 7:25-8:4. The believer who knows the war, who knows their own weakness, and who knows that all their strength is in Christ, is the believer who will walk in victory by grace.
The war does not end in this life. The flesh will not be improved into something useful to God. It will be put off altogether when we are received up into glory (1Co 15:53). The flesh will be left behind. Until then, we thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, who gives us victory, and we keep walking by faith in Christ.
