Have you ever struggled against your sin? I mean really struggled?

It usually happens like this. You feel convicted of some sin—maybe you swear, lust, or gossip, or get angry, greedy, or envious—and you want to stop. You know the right thing to do, and you want to do the right thing, but no matter how hard you struggle against your sin, you keep doing the very thing you hate. Sound familiar?

Paul says that reveals an important fact about you.

Paul has been arguing that the law can forbid sin but cannot give you the power to overcome it. On the contrary, the law provokes you to do the very sin it forbids! Haven’t we all experienced that struggle? But now Paul draws an important conclusion.

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin (Rom 7:14).

Elsewhere Paul said the law is holy, righteous, and good (v 12). Now he adds it is spiritual. In what way? Perhaps because it reflects the will of God, who is Spirit (cf. John 4:24). By contrast, Paul says he is carnal or fleshly (sarkinos), which is not a comment about his spiritual maturity, so much as a fact of the human condition on this side of eternity.

Jesus put it this way: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). Jesus means that your mother gave birth to your flesh when you were born. And when you were born again, the Holy Spirit gave birth to your regenerated human spirit. Two births. Two principles. As Govett says, “In the renewed man are found two principles opposed the one to the other. There is the flesh, begotten of the flesh; there is the spirit (or new nature), begotten by the Holy Spirit (Govett, Romans, p. 264). The Spirit does not get rid of your flesh. You keep that until you are glorified.

But having two very different principles within you creates conflict. Flesh and spirit both vie for control, and it becomes possible for born-again people to be so consistently dominated by the flesh that they can be labeled as “carnal” instead of “spiritual.” That’s how Paul described the Corinthians: “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ” (1 Cor 3:1; cf. vv 3, 4).

What’s it like to be carnal in that sense?

For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do (Rom 7:15).

You have every intention of living a godly life that is pleasing to God. In fact, you hate sinning. And yet, despite your best inner resolve to do better, you end up doing the very thing you hate. In Paul’s case, the results were so different from what he intended that he didn’t understand what happened.

However, this inner struggle did mean two things.

If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good (Rom 7:16).

First, if you hate the sin that you do, at the very least, that means you agree that the law is good. And that’s a good thing. Some part of you agrees with God. And for Paul, that implies something surprising about the whole struggle:

But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me (Rom 7:17).

Second, if you hate the sin you do, then Paul’s surprising insight is that you are not the one doing the sinning! Who else is to blame? There’s another power at work within you, namely, sin itself.

Paul’s argument will probably sound strange. Once again, he personifies sin. Paul implies that sin uses your body to do evil, just as it used the law for evil purposes. Paul makes it sound like believers are possessed with an evil power that is responsible for all the wickedness that you do. It dwells in your flesh—your mortal body—with all of its lusts (cf. Rom 6:12).

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice (Rom 7:17-19).

Paul’s regenerate self wanted to do good, but he lacked the power to do it—or rather, his flesh lacked the power to do good. On its own, apart from the Spirit, the flesh is powerless to do good as a car with an empty tank is powerless to drive.

The flesh is powerless to do good, but sin gave it the energy to do evil! And that brings Paul back to his earlier insight:

Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me (Rom 7:20).

Like a good doctor, Paul has diagnosed one of the biggest obstacles to living the Christian life—the activity of sin dwelling in your flesh. The question is, what do you do about it? The answer will come in Romans 8.

For now, you’ve learned some important insights about spiritual growth, namely, there’s a war within you between flesh and spirit and between your will and sin. I’m sure you already knew what it’s like to struggle against sin, but now you know sin is like a personal power that struggles back.