Romans 7: 13-25 - Outline and Summary

 

Brief Summary:

Paul shows that it is not the Law that brings death, but the unbelieving Jew, who acknowledges that the Law is good, succumbs to the power of sin, because he is under its power.  

(Romans 1:13-25)

 

Detailed Summary:

•        In light of what Paul has written in the previous verses about how the Mosaic Law caused him to realize that he is spiritually dead, Paul anticipates another objection:

 

–      Romans 7:13a - Did that which is good [referring to the Law which is described in the previous verse as “holy, righteous, and good”], then, become death to me?

 

•        Note this objection is similar to the one addressed in verse 7a:

–      c.f. Romans 7:7a - What shall we say, then? Is the law sin?

 

•        Again, the apostle then answers with an emphatic NO!

–      Romans 7:13b - By no means!

 

•        Paul shows that it is not the Law that brings death, but the unbelieving Jew, who acknowledges that the Law is good, succumbs to the power of sin, because he is under its power.

 

–       Paul affirms that the Law is spiritual, that it is he, under the power of sin who is responsible for sin and resulting death:

•         Romans 7:14 - We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.

 

–       Paul then depicts the confusion that ensues as he on one hand, acknowledges that the Law is good, and he wants to obey the Law, yet continues to break the Law:

•         Romans 7:15-16 - I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.

 

–       Since the Law is good, and not the cause of evil, and he himself desires to obey the Law and yet continues to not to obey the Law - Paul concludes there must be a third factor involved: sin.

 

•         Romans 7:17-23 - As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-- this I keep on doing. Now 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. So I find this law [principle] at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.

 

–       Note: by using language that “it is no longer I, but sin” - Paul is not saying that he is not responsible for his sin. He is only concluding that since he, in one sense, wants to obey the Law and yet does not - there must be a third opposing factor involved. He identifies that third factor as indwelling sin.

 

–       Here Paul, lamenting his wretched condition, asks how he can be delivered.

•         Romans 7:24 - What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

 

–       At this point, it appears, Paul cannot resist such a question coming from an unbeliever and responds (briefly) from his Christian perspective with what he knows to be the solution to the unbeliever's dilemma.

•         Romans 7:25a - Thanks be to God-- through Jesus Christ our Lord!

 

–       Paul then returns to expressing the unbeliever's dilemma - summarizing what he has said to this point.

•         Romans 7:25b - So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.