Romans 7:17

Romans 7:17. How then, or, ‘but now,' as the case stands.

It is no longer I that perform it, i.e., ‘what I wish not.' I am a slave under sin, what ‘I perform, I know not' (Romans 7:16). Both ‘now' and ‘no longer' are logical, not temporal; they point to an inference, not necessarily to a transition from a former condition into a state of grace. ‘I' refers to the ‘moral self-consciousness,' but there is as yet no indication that this state of things of itself does or can lead to anything better. The desire is powerless; the ‘I' is enslaved.

But sin dwelling in me; the master to whom I am enslaved. ‘In me' is supposed by many to differ from ‘I,' since Romans 7:18 explains the former as ‘in my flesh.' The two phrases are a verbal reproduction of the apparent duality in the person who is passing through such a moral conflict. There is no sign of release, no assertion of power to do good of which the ‘I' approves. Whether the experience be that of a regenerate or unregenerate man, the moral responsibility rests on him in whom sin dwells; the description is intended to prove the powerlessness of man under the law, not to define his responsibility.