Letter to the Romans -- Chapter 7
In order to better illustrate how thru the cross we are dead to the law, Paul uses an example for those who are familiar with the law: “Do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to men who know the law—that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man” (Romans 7:1-3). In the same way that a marriage vow is binding under the law until death, so also our sin is bound to us until death. When we have died however we are finally released from the hold of sin that is seen under the law and thereby become free men. Therefore because we have shared in the death of Christ in Baptism we are free from the bondage of sin and the law which once kept us from living freely in the righteousness that comes from God. “So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code” (Romans 7:4-6). Because being bound to the law only brings death to us, we must die to the law so that we may be released from its hold over us and then in turn serve God in the Spirit who now guides us in Christ Jesus. As Paul says we now belong to another, namely Jesus Christ, because He has bought us and brought us to be His own in the cross. “He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:15). Before when we were slaves in sin we ignorantly thought we were “free” when in reality we were children and slaves of sin and Satan. There was no freedom, we lived in a state that was totally controlled by our sinful nature. “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Ephesians 2:1-2). “He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work” (1 John 3:8). Now in Christ Jesus however we belong to another as Jesus Christ Himself has paid the full price and bought us out of the sinful enslavement we were living under. “You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20). “You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men” (1 Corinthians 7:23). We now live as men who are not slaves to a written code of legalism, but we are free men who live bound to Jesus Christ and the will of God that is made clear in Him. We have died to the dead moralism of the law, and now we live in the spirit of the law, which makes known to us the living and active will of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The clever minds of our sinful nature once again rise in opposition to these profound proclamations of Paul’s, and begin to question whether the law itself is sin and the “real” problem in this situation. If the law is what we need to die to, then the problem must be the law, right? Wrong. “What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘Do not covet.’ But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire” (Romans 7:7-8). Once again Paul squashes the sinful reason of man which desires to excuse us and allow us to continue in our sinning. The fact that we did nothing but sin under the law does not make the law itself sin, but in reality it makes you and I convicted and condemned sinners. Without the law to show us where and how we sin we would never be aware that we are sinners in the very depths of our dark, diseased, and depraved hearts. Without the law we would never see the enmity that our hearts have towards our gracious God. But when God gives us the law to follow and keep perfectly, the truth of our depravity comes forth as our hearts fight tooth and nail against every demand put upon them. “Apart from law, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death” (Romans 7:8-11). It is not as though sin does not exist apart from the law, but it is simply that sin lies dormant and quiet apart from the law. Without the law there is nothing for sin to break or rebel against, and so it goes unnoticed and untouched. However once the law comes to us our sin springs to action showing that it cannot help but break every command it is given. Paul also explicitly tells us that sin deceives us in regard to the commandment. This is illustrated best in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve were faced with the temptation of the serpent. Sin sneakily deceived Adam and Eve into believing that the commandment itself was the problem and that if they followed their own will and self that they would find new “life” and new “knowledge” that God had been hiding from them; this is the great and horrible lie of sin. It is also important to notice how Paul states that the commandment was intended to bring life. The commands of God are intended to bring because thru them we learn how to live for the will of God and as His creature. But because we are depraved, rebellious men the law only causes our wickedness to shine forth as we reject God’s will for our own will.
Paul continues: “So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful” (Romans 7:12-13). Here Paul once again touches on the need for the law to increase sin in us and to truly bring out our utter sinfulness. Our temptation is to think that the law is bad because thru the law we ourselves are shown to be bad and are brought to death, but in reality it is because the law is so good and so holy that it in fact brings out our utter wickedness. It is only in juxtaposition to true good that we are shown to have no good in us whatsoever. There is a phrase that says, “Without the sour, the sweet ain’t as sweet.” Here this phrase means that without the law to sit side by side with our sin we will never realize our utter sourness and then the subsequent sweetness of the grace of Christ’s gospel will go completely ignored, abused, and despised. Without the sour truth of the law the gospel is not sweet news to our ears; without the sourness of our revealed sin, grace is not a cherished and welcome sweet relief. This true role of the law, to bring out our sourness in order to glorify the sweetness of the gospel, is hidden apart from Christ and it is only in Jesus Christ incarnate, crucified, and risen, that both the law and the gospel are seen in their proper roles. “Their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:14-17). Let us pray therefore that we recognize the glory of the ministry that condemns men (the law) so that thru this condemnation we will have our eyes daily opened to the surpassing glory of the ministry of reconciliation and righteousness (the gospel of the cross of Christ Jesus our Lord) and that by His grace we will continue to cling to it with renewed fervor and passion. “If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!” (2 Corinthians 3:9).
After having implored us to not give in to sin any longer, because we have died to sin in Christ, Paul continues on and touches on the reality of the battle that ensues within the Christian for the rest of his life. Though we have died to sin in Christ Jesus and are no longer the spiritual slaves of sin we still have our sinful self of death hanging around our necks while we are in this life. This flesh (which is unspiritual) wages war against our new spiritual selves who exist alone thru faith in Christ Jesus. “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin” (Romans 7:14). Here Paul starts out by pronouncing that we ourselves are unspiritual. All the “me” and “self” that constitutes our sinful nature and flesh are completely unspiritual and are nothing but helpless slaves to sin. The regeneration that exists only in Christ Jesus is from the outside of us (it is “alien” to “me”), it is the work of the Spirit of God that comes to us thru the external Word of God: “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:12-14). We ourselves cannot understand the things from God; the Spirit of God is required to teach us the spiritual truths of Christ Jesus. Our “self” is completely blind to what God has freely given us and therefore it requires God’s work thru His Spirit to open our eyes to the truths of the cross.
Paul continues: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Romans 7:15). As sinful human beings who have received the Spirit of God we will live a life on this earth of constant conflict and battle within ourselves. The Spirit of God gives us a new will in Christ Jesus that brazenly conflicts with the will and desires of our flesh. If we look closely at our lives we will find with Paul that despite all of our best efforts that the sinful flesh still manifests itself in our lives, causing us to slip up and do things that we now hate to do based on the desires of the Spirit of God living within us. Here in these words of Paul to the Romans we also find that, as Christians who have died to sin, we should no longer desire to sin or offer ourselves consciously to our fleshly desires. We need to be clear however that Paul is not offering us an excuse to continue in sin by telling us of this struggle. He is not saying “Go ahead and sin and then just claim it is the sinful nature living in you.” No, not at all! The true disciple of Christ fights tooth and nail against the sin living inside of him and will stop at nothing to quell the flesh from ruling him on a daily basis. Certainly we will slip up, but it is never without a fight and it is never a conscious consenting decision. “And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good” (Romans 7:16). Because we now hate falling into the sinful slop of our flesh we agree that God’s law is good and that it is the proper way that we are called to live for God and His will in Jesus Christ.
This new desire to willingly and happily uphold God’s law shows both the world and ourselves that we have the Spirit of God working within us. “As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me” (Romans 7:17). As Christians we must begin to separate all that was once “me” from our new lives in the Spirit. We need to see that the flesh that still sins is not “me” any longer because we have died to sin and have shared in the crucifixion of Christ. That prideful and selfish flesh that continues to sin is no longer who we are or who we identify ourselves as, but we now have a new identity which loses all the “self” and “me” focus: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20). Life is no longer about “me” and our identity is now completely wrapped up in something bigger, better, and outside of “me” and “self,” it is wrapped up in Jesus Christ. As Paul says so plainly and eloquently: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” This is what it means to have our “self” and “ego” crucified with Christ: we no longer see ourselves independent or individually from God, but our entire lives (our purpose, life, meaning, etc.) are now completely about God as He has revealed Himself in Christ Jesus our Lord. “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” (Romans 7:18-19). Seeing that everything good about us is the result of Christ Jesus and His work alone we can say with Paul that “nothing good” lives in us, that is in our old “self” and in the “me” that still plagues our flesh. Our flesh still drags us down in carrying out some of the evil we hate (the gossip, the slander, the anger, the hatred, the lusting, the coveting, the laziness, the overindulgence, etc.) and so it is a constant battle for the Spirit of God within us that desires total devotion and focus on Jesus Christ. The “me” and “self” of who I once was has no good in it whatsoever; everything that is good, productive, clean, and pure is Jesus Christ Himself who lives in us thru His Word and promise.
Paul continues on and once again reiterates the essential fact that the continued failings we no longer desire are only a result of the sinful and evil nature living in our earthly bodies of death. “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” (Romans 7:20). So what does this all mean? What is the big picture summary and perspective that we need to garner from all this? “So I find this law 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” (Romans 7:21-23). As Christians we are simultaneously saint and sinner. There is a constant war waging inside of us between our sinful nature (the sinner and selfish “me” who needs to die) and the new creation of faith that clings to Christ Jesus alone with complete and undivided devotion (the saint who has been saved by grace alone). While we strive to follow the Spirit and happily desire to uphold the law and will of God, our sinful nature is busy creating evil right along side of the fruit of faith that Christ bears within us. Our entire “self” and “me” is nothing but sinful evil, yet we have been crucified with Christ and therefore our true identity is no longer “self-centered” but it is only “Jesus Christ-centered.” However, because the sinful nature still clings to us until we are removed from this life, it is imperative that we not become complacent but that we instead actively and daily put to death our earthly nature: “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3:5-10).
As we fight this battle against sin we become more and more aware of the true magnitude and filth of our selfish and “me-centered” nature and therefore in desperate need we fall to our faces and we declare with Paul: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). This declaration is one of brokenness and contrition as we repentantly see that we are truly helpless to wage this war against sin on our own. We in our “self” are nothing but helpless and wretched men who are impotent in all things that really matter. We are truly wretched in our “self” beyond compare and stand in desperate need of rescuing. In immeasurable hope however, we have come to know that the ultimate war has already been won in the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and so we therefore respond to our despair and brokenness in bold faith: “Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25). Jesus Christ is the answer and solution; He is our way, our truth, and our life. Therefore the battle that continues on within us bears witness to the new life of Jesus Christ. In Him we are reborn slaves to God’s law, while in our “self” and flesh we are nothing but condemned and dead slaves to sin. “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” (Romans 7:25).
The clever minds of our sinful nature once again rise in opposition to these profound proclamations of Paul’s, and begin to question whether the law itself is sin and the “real” problem in this situation. If the law is what we need to die to, then the problem must be the law, right? Wrong. “What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘Do not covet.’ But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire” (Romans 7:7-8). Once again Paul squashes the sinful reason of man which desires to excuse us and allow us to continue in our sinning. The fact that we did nothing but sin under the law does not make the law itself sin, but in reality it makes you and I convicted and condemned sinners. Without the law to show us where and how we sin we would never be aware that we are sinners in the very depths of our dark, diseased, and depraved hearts. Without the law we would never see the enmity that our hearts have towards our gracious God. But when God gives us the law to follow and keep perfectly, the truth of our depravity comes forth as our hearts fight tooth and nail against every demand put upon them. “Apart from law, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death” (Romans 7:8-11). It is not as though sin does not exist apart from the law, but it is simply that sin lies dormant and quiet apart from the law. Without the law there is nothing for sin to break or rebel against, and so it goes unnoticed and untouched. However once the law comes to us our sin springs to action showing that it cannot help but break every command it is given. Paul also explicitly tells us that sin deceives us in regard to the commandment. This is illustrated best in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve were faced with the temptation of the serpent. Sin sneakily deceived Adam and Eve into believing that the commandment itself was the problem and that if they followed their own will and self that they would find new “life” and new “knowledge” that God had been hiding from them; this is the great and horrible lie of sin. It is also important to notice how Paul states that the commandment was intended to bring life. The commands of God are intended to bring because thru them we learn how to live for the will of God and as His creature. But because we are depraved, rebellious men the law only causes our wickedness to shine forth as we reject God’s will for our own will.
Paul continues: “So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful” (Romans 7:12-13). Here Paul once again touches on the need for the law to increase sin in us and to truly bring out our utter sinfulness. Our temptation is to think that the law is bad because thru the law we ourselves are shown to be bad and are brought to death, but in reality it is because the law is so good and so holy that it in fact brings out our utter wickedness. It is only in juxtaposition to true good that we are shown to have no good in us whatsoever. There is a phrase that says, “Without the sour, the sweet ain’t as sweet.” Here this phrase means that without the law to sit side by side with our sin we will never realize our utter sourness and then the subsequent sweetness of the grace of Christ’s gospel will go completely ignored, abused, and despised. Without the sour truth of the law the gospel is not sweet news to our ears; without the sourness of our revealed sin, grace is not a cherished and welcome sweet relief. This true role of the law, to bring out our sourness in order to glorify the sweetness of the gospel, is hidden apart from Christ and it is only in Jesus Christ incarnate, crucified, and risen, that both the law and the gospel are seen in their proper roles. “Their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:14-17). Let us pray therefore that we recognize the glory of the ministry that condemns men (the law) so that thru this condemnation we will have our eyes daily opened to the surpassing glory of the ministry of reconciliation and righteousness (the gospel of the cross of Christ Jesus our Lord) and that by His grace we will continue to cling to it with renewed fervor and passion. “If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!” (2 Corinthians 3:9).
After having implored us to not give in to sin any longer, because we have died to sin in Christ, Paul continues on and touches on the reality of the battle that ensues within the Christian for the rest of his life. Though we have died to sin in Christ Jesus and are no longer the spiritual slaves of sin we still have our sinful self of death hanging around our necks while we are in this life. This flesh (which is unspiritual) wages war against our new spiritual selves who exist alone thru faith in Christ Jesus. “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin” (Romans 7:14). Here Paul starts out by pronouncing that we ourselves are unspiritual. All the “me” and “self” that constitutes our sinful nature and flesh are completely unspiritual and are nothing but helpless slaves to sin. The regeneration that exists only in Christ Jesus is from the outside of us (it is “alien” to “me”), it is the work of the Spirit of God that comes to us thru the external Word of God: “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:12-14). We ourselves cannot understand the things from God; the Spirit of God is required to teach us the spiritual truths of Christ Jesus. Our “self” is completely blind to what God has freely given us and therefore it requires God’s work thru His Spirit to open our eyes to the truths of the cross.
Paul continues: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Romans 7:15). As sinful human beings who have received the Spirit of God we will live a life on this earth of constant conflict and battle within ourselves. The Spirit of God gives us a new will in Christ Jesus that brazenly conflicts with the will and desires of our flesh. If we look closely at our lives we will find with Paul that despite all of our best efforts that the sinful flesh still manifests itself in our lives, causing us to slip up and do things that we now hate to do based on the desires of the Spirit of God living within us. Here in these words of Paul to the Romans we also find that, as Christians who have died to sin, we should no longer desire to sin or offer ourselves consciously to our fleshly desires. We need to be clear however that Paul is not offering us an excuse to continue in sin by telling us of this struggle. He is not saying “Go ahead and sin and then just claim it is the sinful nature living in you.” No, not at all! The true disciple of Christ fights tooth and nail against the sin living inside of him and will stop at nothing to quell the flesh from ruling him on a daily basis. Certainly we will slip up, but it is never without a fight and it is never a conscious consenting decision. “And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good” (Romans 7:16). Because we now hate falling into the sinful slop of our flesh we agree that God’s law is good and that it is the proper way that we are called to live for God and His will in Jesus Christ.
This new desire to willingly and happily uphold God’s law shows both the world and ourselves that we have the Spirit of God working within us. “As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me” (Romans 7:17). As Christians we must begin to separate all that was once “me” from our new lives in the Spirit. We need to see that the flesh that still sins is not “me” any longer because we have died to sin and have shared in the crucifixion of Christ. That prideful and selfish flesh that continues to sin is no longer who we are or who we identify ourselves as, but we now have a new identity which loses all the “self” and “me” focus: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20). Life is no longer about “me” and our identity is now completely wrapped up in something bigger, better, and outside of “me” and “self,” it is wrapped up in Jesus Christ. As Paul says so plainly and eloquently: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” This is what it means to have our “self” and “ego” crucified with Christ: we no longer see ourselves independent or individually from God, but our entire lives (our purpose, life, meaning, etc.) are now completely about God as He has revealed Himself in Christ Jesus our Lord. “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” (Romans 7:18-19). Seeing that everything good about us is the result of Christ Jesus and His work alone we can say with Paul that “nothing good” lives in us, that is in our old “self” and in the “me” that still plagues our flesh. Our flesh still drags us down in carrying out some of the evil we hate (the gossip, the slander, the anger, the hatred, the lusting, the coveting, the laziness, the overindulgence, etc.) and so it is a constant battle for the Spirit of God within us that desires total devotion and focus on Jesus Christ. The “me” and “self” of who I once was has no good in it whatsoever; everything that is good, productive, clean, and pure is Jesus Christ Himself who lives in us thru His Word and promise.
Paul continues on and once again reiterates the essential fact that the continued failings we no longer desire are only a result of the sinful and evil nature living in our earthly bodies of death. “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” (Romans 7:20). So what does this all mean? What is the big picture summary and perspective that we need to garner from all this? “So I find this law 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” (Romans 7:21-23). As Christians we are simultaneously saint and sinner. There is a constant war waging inside of us between our sinful nature (the sinner and selfish “me” who needs to die) and the new creation of faith that clings to Christ Jesus alone with complete and undivided devotion (the saint who has been saved by grace alone). While we strive to follow the Spirit and happily desire to uphold the law and will of God, our sinful nature is busy creating evil right along side of the fruit of faith that Christ bears within us. Our entire “self” and “me” is nothing but sinful evil, yet we have been crucified with Christ and therefore our true identity is no longer “self-centered” but it is only “Jesus Christ-centered.” However, because the sinful nature still clings to us until we are removed from this life, it is imperative that we not become complacent but that we instead actively and daily put to death our earthly nature: “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3:5-10).
As we fight this battle against sin we become more and more aware of the true magnitude and filth of our selfish and “me-centered” nature and therefore in desperate need we fall to our faces and we declare with Paul: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). This declaration is one of brokenness and contrition as we repentantly see that we are truly helpless to wage this war against sin on our own. We in our “self” are nothing but helpless and wretched men who are impotent in all things that really matter. We are truly wretched in our “self” beyond compare and stand in desperate need of rescuing. In immeasurable hope however, we have come to know that the ultimate war has already been won in the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and so we therefore respond to our despair and brokenness in bold faith: “Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25). Jesus Christ is the answer and solution; He is our way, our truth, and our life. Therefore the battle that continues on within us bears witness to the new life of Jesus Christ. In Him we are reborn slaves to God’s law, while in our “self” and flesh we are nothing but condemned and dead slaves to sin. “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” (Romans 7:25).
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