1. Is Paul talking about himself or someone else?
2. If Paul is talking about someone else:
a. Is that person a believer?
b. Is that person an unbeliever?
c. Is this person someone else?
Whatever your answer there is a danger to twist and modify to fit your own subjective feelings. We must avoid this. The popular belief is that this text is our universal excuse for sin - because we too end up doing things we don't want to do. The problem with this thinking is that it creates a cycle of sin where the believer is not be changed with ever increasing glory or being sanctified through and through in spirit soul and body not to mention spiritual maturity. So the questions must be asked with guarded thought and openness to the Holy Spirit.
Is Paul speaking about himself?
Paul's method in the Book of Romans is an argument deducing the facts and arriving at a certain conclusion. He argues like a bipartisan representing both sinner and saint. (Romans 6:1) "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?" He is playing the devil's advocate that the reader comes to an understanding. (Romans 6:15) "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?" Again he is playing the same role. (Romans 9:14) "What then shall we say? Is God unjust?" Once more he is provoking the reader to think. In every argument he leaves nothing undone but concludes. (Romans 6:1-2) "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means…" (Romans 6:15) "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means…" (Romans 9:14) "What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all…" Paul is not being dogmatic but provoking the reader to think. The same method is used for our text. Paul cannot possibly be speaking about himself. Paul used expressions like 'I am fully persuaded' or 'I am convinced' (1 Corinthians 11:1) "Follow my example…" The text cannot be speaking about Paul himself.
Is Paul speaking about a believer?
The purpose of the law was so that the trespass or sin may increase. This does not mean that all is lost. (Romans 5:20) "But where sin increases, grace increased all the more." There were two kingdoms that had dominion reigning over you. (Romans 5:21) "…just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness…" The unbeliever is in the dominion of death where sin is reining. The believer is in the dominion of righteousness where grace is reigning. (Romans 6:14) "…you are not under law, but under grace." Therefore the text cannot apply to the believer being 'unspiritual' and 'sold as a slave to sin.' How can a man be sold to sin when he is in the dominion of righteousness where grace reigns? (Romans 6:14) "For sin shall not have dominion over you…" The believer is still a slave but not to sin. (Romans 6:18) "You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness." Can a man who is under the reign grace and dominion of righteousness say he is 'unspiritual' a 'slave to sin.'
Is Paul speaking about an unbeliever?
Who can say about himself that he is 'unspiritual' and a 'slave to sin.' An unbeliever cannot possibly make this statement because he is unaware of the law and that the law spiritual. (Romans 7:7) "What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law." The unbeliever does not know the spiritual nature and character of the law. (Romans 7:9) "Once I was alive apart from the law…" An unbeliever is convinced that they are fully alive until the law is introduced. The unbeliever cannot say they are unspiritual or a slave to sin. He has a wrong view of himself. He does not know he has a sinful nature but convinced that his good works will award him eternal life. He is blissfully unaware. But when the law is introduced he sees himself as he is. (v9) "…but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died." Whoever it is that Paul is referring to has had the law introduced. (Romans 5:20) "The law was added so that the trespass might increase." An unbeliever has not had the law introduced yet.
Is Paul speaking about someone else?
(Romans 7:14-15) "We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." We need to look at the language of the text carefully.
" 'Understand' is simple 'I don't know' and 'I don't approve.' So Paul is saying that the person he is speaking about did not know why or approve of what they were doing something. They did not understand, know, approve of what they were doing themselves because it was contradicting of the belief they had.
" 'Hate' is a strong word. Paul is not saying this person is always doing things they hate to do or that they never do any good at all. The text does not read 'everything I do is wrong and I cannot do anything right.' At the same time we cannot insert words that are not there. We cannot insert 'sometimes' or 'occasionally' doing wrong in the same way we cannot say 'always' doing wrong.
" 'Do' means what it says. Some have said Paul referred to the way this person thought or imagined. It is not something this person has been thinking or imagined but actually doing.
What Paul is referring to is the life of a man in balance as a whole. Not on one day but not another, or at one time or another but as a whole. It is speaking of a man who looks at his life as a whole in frustration, defeat and failure. (Romans 7:24) "What a wretched man I am!" Remember Paul is not speaking about himself, a believer or unbeliever but someone else.
" Paul did not lead a defeated life as he 'fought the good fight and finished the race to where the crown.'
" A believer does not have a life of frustration, defeat and failure.
" An unbeliever is blissfully unaware of frustration, defeat and failure unless the law is introduced to him. He cannot hate what he is unaware of.
Who is he?
Scripture does not tell us the believer is sinless. A believer who claims they do not sin does not understand sin. (1 John 1:8) "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." We shall look at this next week because the believer still fights sin and wages war with sin in the members of his own body or flesh. The members are not just limbs but his thinking, time and abilities that God wants the believer to use for righteousness and not sin. (Romans 6:12) "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body." Even when the believer sins he does not speak about himself as a frustrated, confused, defeated failure. But this man Paul speaks of loves the law of God and longs to keep it and be subject it with all his heart as a whole and complete man but he is frustrated, confused, defeated and a failure. He is a man who has come to the place of realizing that the law is spiritual and sees that he should keep it but who finds practicing it impossible. This man is no more or less than this. It is nothing more than an account of a man who the Holy Spirit has bought to the point of salvation completely set up for failure by the law and in desperate need of a savior. (Romans 7:25) "Thanks be to God - through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Conclusion
After the Word of God has been preached we must be careful in those moments that the man of frustration, confusion, defeat and failure is given an opportunity in the moment of conviction - seeing himself as unspiritual and a slave to sin - to respond to the loving revelation of Jesus Christ.
If you would like to see previous transcripts you can find them here: Teaching Series
