For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. (Romans 7:19)

The aim of this arti­cle

There is a wide­spread opin­ion that Paul, in the sev­enth chap­ter of the book of Romans, is either speak­ing specif­i­cal­ly about his own life, or gen­er­al­ly about the life of a Chris­t­ian. If this were true, Paul would be say­ing that a Chris­t­ian is not able to do what is good, being sold under sin. In the fol­low­ing essay we would like to show that this con­clu­sion can only be reached by ignor­ing Paul’s state­ments about him­self, the con­text of the let­ter, and ulti­mate­ly the fun­da­men­tal mes­sage of the whole New Tes­ta­ment.

What Does the New Testament Say About the Life of a Christian?

For sin will have no domin­ion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:14)

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obe­di­ent from the heart.… (Romans 6:17a)

When a per­son becomes a Chris­t­ian, he changes his whole atti­tude, way of think­ing, will and actions.

I appeal to you there­fore, broth­ers, by the mer­cies of God, to present your bod­ies as a liv­ing sac­ri­fice, holy and accept­able to God, which is your spir­i­tu­al wor­ship. Do not be con­formed to this world, but be trans­formed by the renew­al of your mind, that by test­ing you may dis­cern what is the will of God, what is good and accept­able and per­fect. (Romans 12:1–2)

The Bible speaks of a new creation—whoever becomes a Chris­t­ian becomes a new per­son.

There­fore, if any­one is in Christ, he is a new cre­ation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthi­ans 5:17)

A Chris­t­ian no longer finds delight in world­ly and sin­ful things and is instead led by the desire to hon­our God with his entire life and to be obe­di­ent from his heart. As long as we lived accord­ing to world­ly stan­dards, we were slaves of sin, but Jesus set us free from the pow­er of sin and by this enabled us to do God’s will.

…hav­ing been set free from sin, [you] have become slaves of right­eous­ness. (Romans 6:18)

So then, broth­ers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live accord­ing to the flesh. For if you live accord­ing to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spir­it you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spir­it of God are sons of God. (Romans 8:12–14)

The pas­sages men­tioned above make it clear that the des­per­ate strug­gle described in Romans 7 can­not refer to the life of a Chris­t­ian. The fol­low­ing com­par­i­son is intend­ed to fur­ther illus­trate this.

This point also becomes clear if Romans 7 is con­sid­ered with­in the larg­er con­text of chap­ters 6 and 8.

What Did Paul Himself Say About His Own Life?

Romans 7 says:

For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the abil­i­ty to car­ry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. (Romans 7:18b–19)

If Paul had been writ­ing about him­self (as a Chris­t­ian) here, he would be imply­ing that he was inca­pable of doing what is good, which is impos­si­ble to rec­on­cile with Paul’s state­ments about him­self in oth­er Bible pas­sages. With­out want­i­ng to say that Paul was sin­less, we know that he had vic­to­ry over sin and led a holy life.

He tes­ti­fies of this in 1 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans:

You are wit­ness­es, and God also, how HOLY and RIGHTEOUS and BLAMELESS was our con­duct towards you believ­ers. (1 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 2:10)

In anoth­er pas­sage he writes:

Final­ly, broth­ers, what­ev­er is true, what­ev­er is hon­ourable, what­ev­er is just, what­ev­er is pure, what­ev­er is love­ly, what­ev­er is com­mend­able, if there is any excel­lence, if there is any­thing wor­thy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and SEEN IN ME—PRACTISE THESE THINGS, and the God of peace will be with you. (Philip­pi­ans 4:8–9)

Paul encour­ages the Chris­tians to put all these virtues into prac­tice which they saw in his own life. If they fol­low his exam­ple, the God of peace will be with them. He also says:

Be imi­ta­tors of me, as I am of Christ. (1 Corinthi­ans 11:1)

Romans 7 verse 9 also reveals that he is not speak­ing about his per­son­al expe­ri­ence when he writes, “I was once alive apart from the law.” Paul was born as a Jew and had been instruct­ed in the law from his child­hood. He could not have said of him­self that there was a time in which he lived with­out the law.

In the let­ter to the Philip­pi­ans, he describes his back­ground:

…cir­cum­cised on the eighth day, of the peo­ple of Israel, of the tribe of Ben­jamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Phar­isee.… (Philip­pi­ans 3:5)

If Paul Is Not Speaking About Himself Nor About a Christian, What Are These Verses All About?

In this chap­ter Paul wants to show the believ­ers how the Law should be assessed from the per­spec­tive of a Chris­t­ian, some­one who has expe­ri­enced sal­va­tion in Jesus. His aim is to clear­ly illus­trate the great dif­fer­ence between life under the law (as a Jew) on the one hand, and life under grace (as a Chris­t­ian) on the oth­er.

In [details more=“verses 1–6 ” hide=“verses 1–6 ”]Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speak­ing to those who know the law—that the law is bind­ing on a per­son only as long as he lives? For a mar­ried woman is bound by law to her hus­band while he lives, but if her hus­band dies she is released from the law of mar­riage. Accord­ing­ly, she will be called an adul­ter­ess if she lives with anoth­er man while her hus­band is alive. But if her hus­band dies, she is free from that law, and if she mar­ries anoth­er man she is not an adul­ter­ess. Like­wise, my broth­ers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to anoth­er, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were liv­ing in the flesh, our sin­ful pas­sions, aroused by the law, were at work in our mem­bers to bear fruit for death. 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 and not in the old way of the writ­ten code. [/details] Paul shows that the Jew­ish Chris­tians are no longer bound to the law, but serve in the new real­i­ty of the Spir­it and not in the old way of the writ­ten code. The train of thought is con­tin­ued in chap­ter 8 where God is praised for the free­dom from sin which Jesus wants to give us (8:1–2). In verse 5 Paul reminds the Jew­ish Chris­tians of their expe­ri­ence dur­ing the time under the law (“For while we were liv­ing in the flesh, our sin­ful pas­sions, aroused by the law, were at work in our mem­bers to bear fruit for death.”). This belongs to things of the past, as he writes in verse 6: “But NOW we are released from the law, hav­ing died to that which held us cap­tive.…”

In [details more=“verses 7–13” hide=“verses 7–13”]What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to cov­et if the law had not said, “You shall not cov­et.” But sin, seiz­ing an oppor­tu­ni­ty through the com­mand­ment, pro­duced in me all kinds of cov­etous­ness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the com­mand­ment came, sin came alive and I died. The very com­mand­ment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seiz­ing an oppor­tu­ni­ty through the com­mand­ment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the com­mand­ment is holy and right­eous and good. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, pro­duc­ing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the com­mand­ment might become sin­ful beyond mea­sure. [/details] Paul vin­di­cates the law as being giv­en by God. The law clear­ly shows what sin is. It does not bring about sin, but brings sin’s true char­ac­ter to light. As soon as the com­mand­ment came, what sin real­ly is became clear: hos­til­i­ty towards God’s law.

In [details more=“verses 14–25” hide=“verses 14–25”]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. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells with­in me. For I know that noth­ing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the abil­i­ty to car­ry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells with­in me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my mem­bers anoth­er law wag­ing war against the law of my mind and mak­ing me cap­tive to the law of sin that dwells in my mem­bers. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliv­er me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. [/details] Paul states that although the law shows what man ought to do, it is unable to lib­er­ate any­one from the slav­ery of sin. What he writes in verse 19, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing”, can­not be referred to the time of the Old Tes­ta­ment in an absolute sense, since even at that time believ­ers did expe­ri­ence the help of God in their fight against sin. We know of exam­ples like Abra­ham and Job, who lived by faith and were con­sid­ered by God to be right­eous, and who knew God as their sav­iour (Job 1:8 “…a blame­less and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil.…” and Job 19:25 “For I know that my Redeemer lives.…”).

Abra­ham stands as an exam­ple of faith to the Chris­tians in the New Tes­ta­ment (Romans 4 verse 3: “Abra­ham believed God, and it was count­ed to him as right­eous­ness.”; Gala­tians 3:6 ff., e.g. verse 9 “So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abra­ham, the man of faith.”).

Fur­ther­more, Psalm 19 and Psalm 119 tes­ti­fy that even in the time of the Old Tes­ta­ment peo­ple were able to expe­ri­ence the close­ness and the grace of God:

Let the words of my mouth and the med­i­ta­tion of my heart be accept­able in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

Great peace have those who love your law; noth­ing can make them stum­ble. (Psalm 119:165)

Even Gen­tiles who lived accord­ing to their con­science were not inca­pable of doing good. Paul writes in the very same let­ter in chap­ter 2 vers­es 10,14,15a: “…glo­ry and hon­our and peace for every­one who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.… For when Gen­tiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to them­selves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is writ­ten on their hearts.…”

Paul him­self lived accord­ing to his con­science before his repen­tance. This is expressed in Acts 23:1b (“I have lived my life before God in all good con­science up to this day.”) and 2 Tim­o­thy 1:3a (“I thank God whom I serve, as did my ances­tors, with a clear con­science.”). With this he clear­ly shows that he did not intend to describe his per­son­al life in Romans 7 nor does it reflect his reli­gious life pri­or to his encounter with Jesus.

Some­one may object that if Paul writes in the first per­son, “I”, he must be refer­ring to him­self in this chap­ter. Why did he choose to express him­self this way?

The styl­is­tic device uti­lized here by Paul, in which he allows a per­son to relate his own life sto­ry, may seem unusu­al to some. How­ev­er, it makes what he wants to say more vivid than what is pos­si­ble by using abstract for­mu­la­tions. He describes the expe­ri­ence of peo­ple who lived

• before Moses with­out the law (verse 9),
• after Moses under the law (verse 9b to verse 24 and verse 25b) and
• after Jesus with­out the law, being led by the Spir­it (chap­ter 7:25a and chap­ter 8).

Paul employs this styl­is­tic device in order to clear­ly point out how much those under the law were in need of sal­va­tion. It was not his aim to write about a spe­cif­ic per­son, but rather to assess through the eyes of a Chris­t­ian what life under the law was like and through this to express grat­i­tude for the gift of sal­va­tion.

Mov­ing towards verse 24 he uses very strong lan­guage to describe the prob­lem, with state­ments such as: “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing”, or, “I know that noth­ing good dwells in me.” As we have briefly explained above, if we com­pare these state­ments with oth­er pas­sages, even those in the same let­ter, it is evi­dent that he does not intend to teach that man is inca­pable of doing any­thing good. Quite the con­trary, these state­ments express the atti­tude of some­one who is deeply aware of what his sins mean in front of God and is humbly and des­per­ate­ly seek­ing the solu­tion to his prob­lems. (“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliv­er me.…”).

Verse 25a (“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”) offers a glimpse of the answer: sal­va­tion in Jesus. In verse 25b he sum­ma­rizes every­thing once again, in order to make the tran­si­tion to his descrip­tion of Jesus’ tri­umphant vic­to­ry (begin­ning from 8:1) and the result­ing lib­er­a­tion from sin and death.

Concluding Thoughts

In spite of the clear words in the New Tes­ta­ment that state that Chris­tians live holy lives, time and time again we meet peo­ple who want to refer Romans 7 to the inner strug­gle of a Chris­t­ian. They do this with­out notic­ing that they are actu­al­ly iden­ti­fy­ing them­selves with an unre­deemed per­son who does not expe­ri­ence God’s pow­er.

The atti­tude described in this chap­ter is that of a per­son who wants to do what is good, but finds he is unable to. This per­son does not jus­ti­fy his sins, but suf­fers under the bur­den of his inabil­i­ty to do what is good. Sad­ly though, Romans 7 is fre­quent­ly and glad­ly used by peo­ple in the reli­gious world to jus­ti­fy their own sins, say­ing: “It was the same with Paul.…”

To refer this pas­sage to Chris­tians is to com­plete­ly inval­i­date the sal­va­tion Jesus brought us. How can we speak of sal­va­tion in the case of a per­son who is inca­pable of doing good and who is still tor­ment­ed by the mis­ery of being enslaved to sin?

The New Tes­ta­ment clear­ly says:

…walk by the Spir­it, and you will not grat­i­fy the desires of the flesh. (Gala­tians 5:16)

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are tru­ly my dis­ci­ples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are off­spring of Abra­ham and have nev­er been enslaved to any­one. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Tru­ly, tru­ly, I say to you, every­one who com­mits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house for­ev­er; the son remains for­ev­er. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:31–36)