Joel M Bradshaw

14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15I [Paul]do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.–Romans 7

1. Paul was doing what he shouldn’t do and not doing what he should do.
2. Paul felt convicted by this struggle and wished it wasn’t so.
3. He even knew what to do in his mind, but didn’t carry it out in his actions.
4. Paul saw himself as a sinful, hypocritical wretch with no hope on his own.
5. This is such a relatable passage of Scripture!
6. According to this passage, the only hope to be delivered from this struggle is Jesus.
7. So if you feel like Paul, then Romans 7 is your friend. Like Paul, own what you can own, and turn to Jesus for deliverance. This has changed my own life.–JMB