Our Internal, Ongoing Battle with Sin

Passage: Romans 7:13-25

These verses give the reason I am not a golfer.  All golfers know that what you want to do, you do not do, and what you do not want to do, that is the very thing you do.

If you asked 100 biblical scholars to list the ten hardest to understand or most controversial chapters in the Bible, it is almost certain Romans 7 would be on most of their lists, and there would be much disagreement.  I asked ChatGPT that question and sure enough Romans 7 made the list.

Peter said there are some things in Paul’s writings “that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction” (II Peter 3:16).

The debate is over whether this is Paul talking about his pre-Christian life or his post-Christian life, earthly Paul or heavenly Paul, sinner Paul or saint Paul.

I believe this passage bears all the marks of being post-Christian Paul.  It is written in first person singular, present tense.  He hates his sin, he is humble about it, he says he delights in the law in his inner being (vs. 22) and desires to please God, to do what God wants, all of these are marks of the work of the Holy Spirit.

Paul’s description of his struggle with sin in Romans 7:14-25 is nowhere found in his pre-conversion testimony.  Philippians 3:4-6 does not indicate Paul wrestled with or agonized over his sin like he does in Romans 7:14-25, nor do the personal narratives he offered in Acts 24:1-27 and Acts 26:1-32 indicate Paul was deeply troubled over his sin prior to his conversion to Christ (Derek J. Brown).

Those who say this is pre-Christian Paul do so because he describes himself as sold under sin (vs. 14) when in the previous chapter he said Christians are not slaves to sin, but slaves to Christ.  And he says there is no good in him, that sin lives in him and evil is right there with him.