Romans 7 man

Rom 7:14-23 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.

17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

18 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.

19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,

23 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.




I did some commentary reading on these verses last night on these verses because I have battled with who the Romans 7 man is, I've settled on it and battled again, and I am currently unsettled. Through my reading last night I found that theologians have been debating this for years. “The Romans 7 man isn't saved”, “no he's saved he is just being sanctified”, “Paul is talking about himself before he was born again”, “Paul's talking about himself in his current condition”.

I am not saying I am right, but here is where I have landed so far. I think the Romans 7 man is born-again because he clearly has Godly sorrow over his sin, and he is not completely enslaved to his sinful flesh. The Romans 7 man is Paul and he is all of us who are born again; being born again and being sanctified. I can only explain where I am at by relating to my path. When I got truly born-again....not just saying I am a Christian and living like the world....but truly surrender to Jesus; He first freed me from the bondage of sexual immorality. But then He revealed other things, like anger and He dealt with that....then profanity.....then gossip....you get the idea. Do I still have lustful thoughts; relative to the way I used to be, hardly never...but when it happens I go right to Him for strength and forgiveness and each time my mind spends less and less time there. This is the same format that seems to be followed in all my sin that God is pruning out. I hardly ever get really angry any more, WHICH IS AMAZING considering the hot head I used to be...Praise God! The ultimate point is, the Romans 7 man doesn't live (or walk) in sin. He stumbles and is being sanctified. Romans 7 is sandwiched between 2 chapters that make it clear that we are not to practice, live, walk-in or deliberately continue in sin. If “practice, live, walk-in or deliberately continue in sin” describes our relationship with sin, we are not Romans 7 men.

Romans 7:24-25

24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

25 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.