Romans 7:15

“ Indeed what I perform I know not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. ”

This verse contains the proof from fact of the state of slavery which Paul has just affirmed. The slave knows not what he does, for he does the will of another. So Paul complains that his work is not the result of a distinct view in which he has, as it were, intellectually possessed himself beforehand of what he was going to do; it is the result of blind instinct, which drags him along as if without his knowledge, so that when he sees it realized, it is not what he wished; it is, on the contrary, what he detests. The expression: I know not, should not be taken in the sense: “I do not own as good,” a forced sense, and one which is not necessary.

The θέλειν, will, which Paul does not execute, is of course the willing of good, and what he hates and yet executes is certainly evil. The moral tendency of his will to purpose good and hate evil, is connected with the acknowledgment of the perfection of the law of which he spoke in Romans 7:14. But this will which puts itself on the side of the law is nothing more than a desire, a wish, a simple I should like, which gives way in practice. Such, indeed, is the frequent meaning of θέλειν, to will, in Paul (1 Corinthians 7:7; 2 Corinthians 5:4; 2 Corinthians 12:20; Col 2:18).

The term πράσσειν, to do, has the meaning of working at, and expresses the idea that his practical activity does not follow the direction of his will. Μισεῖν, to hate, here denotes moral reprobation; and ποιεῖν, to do, which has the sense of accomplishing, realizing, refers not to activity in exercise (πράσσειν), but to the product of the activity, so that the exact paraphrase of the two last propositions would be this: “At the time when I act, I am not working in the direction of my desire to fulfil the law; and when I have acted, I find myself face to face with a result which my moral instinct condemns.”

It is asked how Paul could ascribe to himself this desire of good and hatred of evil, while speaking of the time when he was yet under the law? but we ask in turn of those who refer this verse to Paul in his regenerate state, how he could in this state ascribe to himself the powerlessness with which he charges himself, especially if we compare the contrast he brings out between the state described here and the delineation of the Christian he draws in chap. 8? In fact, what this verse expresses is nothing else than what is contained in the words of Jesus, John 3:24: “He that doeth truth cometh to the light.” To do the truth certainly denotes the loyal desire of goodness; and this disposition precedes faith in the case of the men of whom Jesus is speaking, since the latter is its consequence: cometh to the light. We meet with the same thought in the parable of the sower, Luke 8:15, when Jesus speaks of the honest and good heart in which the gospel seed produces its fruit; comp. also Romans 2:7 and Acts 10:34-35. It is understood, of course, that such a disposition exists only as the work of Him who is alone good. But there is a way of regarding the corruption of human nature contrary to the gospel, and which when thoroughly weighed is self-destructive.