Romans 7:14

For we know The "for" points to the fact just cleared up that sin, not the law, is the true cause of the soul's misery; which results from the collision of sinwith the law. "We know;" as an admitted foundation-truth among Christians; a truth not only implied by the whole drift and often by the words (e.g. Psalms 19:7-8, and Psalms 119 passim,) of the Old Testament, but explicitly taught in the Sermon on the Mount.

spiritual Coming from Him who is a Spirit, and addressed to man's spirit. The practical force of the word here, is to shew the law as claiming internal as well as external obedience; that of thoughts as well as acts.

I am carnal The pronoun is emphatic, and the form (in the best reading) of the Gr. word rendered "carnal" is emphatic too, as meaning that the very material(as it were) of the Ego was "flesh." It is remarkable how on the other hand, in e.g. Romans 7:25, he distinguishes the Ego from the flesh. But the contradiction is in form only. In the present verse he contrasts Paulwith the Law. In Romans 7:25 he contrasts the "mind" of Paul with his "flesh;" and views the "mind" as influenced by Divine grace. Paul, as in contrast with the absolutely spiritual Law, is in his own view emphatically carnal;falling as he does (because of the element of the "flesh" still clinging to him) far indeed below its holy ideal. But Paul's will, in the regenerate state, (and the will is the essence of the person,) is, in contrast with the same element of the "flesh"still encumbering it, not carnal. In view of the Law, he speaks of the whole state of self as, by contrast, fleshly. In view of the "flesh" he speaks of his self, his rectified will, as not fleshly.

We here remark on the general question whether he means the veritable Paul, and Paul in the regenerate state, in this passage. (See on Romans 7:7 for some previous remarks to the point.)

It is held (a) by some expositors, that the "I" is purely general; a human soul relating a conceivable experience. But such a reference is so extremely artificial as to be not only unlike St Paul's manner, but à prioriunlikely in anyinformal composition.

It has been held again (b) that he speaks as Paul, but as Paul quite unregenerate: or again (c) as Paul in the first stage of spiritual change, struggling through a crisis to spiritual peace; having seen the holiness of the Law, but not yet the bliss of redemption. As regards (b), this surely contradicts St Paul's doctrine of grace; for he views the soul, before special grace, as (not without the witness of conscience, which is another matter, but) "alienated and hostile as to the mind" towards the true God. (See Colossians 1:21; Romans 5:10; Romans 8:7-8, &c.) But the "I" of this passage "hates" sin, (Romans 7:15,) and "delights in the Law of God" (Romans 7:22; see note below). As regards (c), the same remarks in great measure apply. In St Paul's view elsewhere hostilityand reconcilementare the only alternatives in the relations of the soul and God. But the "I" of this passage is not hostile to God.

The primâ facieview of the passage, certainly, is that by the first person and the present tense St Paul points to (one aspect of) his own then present experience. And is not this view confirmed by what we know of his experience elsewhere? See 1 Corinthians 9:27: "I buffet my body and drive it as a slave;" words which, on reflection, imply a conflict of self with self, just such as depicted here. See too Galatians 5:17; where the conflict of regeneratesouls is evidently treated of. The language of 1 Corinthians 15:10, ad fin., must also be compared.

The records of Christian experience, and particularly of the experience of those saints who, like St Augustine, have been specially schooled in spiritual conflict, surely confirm this natural view of the passage. It is recorded of one aged and holy disciple that he quoted Romans 7 as the passage which had rescued him from repeated personal despondency. It would be a very shallow criticism here to object that the Paul of ch. 8 could not be, in the same part of his history, the Paul of ch. 7.

The language of the present passage is indeed strong; but it is the strength of profound spiritual insight. The man who here "does what he hates" is one who has so felt the absolute sanctity of God and of His law as to see sin in the slightestdeviations of will and affection from its standard. Such penitence, for such sin, is not only possible in a life of Christian rectitude, but may be said to be a natural element in it [37].

[37] See further remarks on this whole passage in Appendix E.

sold under sin i.e. so as to be under its influence. The metaphor is from the slave-market; a recurrence to the topics of ch. 6. But the difference here is that the redeemed and regenerate man is now in question, and the slavery is therefore a far more limitedmetaphor. He is now only so far under the mastership of sin as that he is still in the body, which is, by reason of sin, still mortal and still a stronghold of temptation. As regards a claim on the soul to condemnation, he is free from sin; as regards its influence, its temptations, he is liable. And such is now his view of holiness that the presence of these, and the leastyielding to them, is to him a heavy servitude. To the question, When was he thus sold? we answer, At the Fall and in Adam.