Audio commentary on this verse

Note 1 at Ro 7:15: Many debates have occurred over whether here Paul was describing himself before his conversion or whether he was describing the carnality that still existed in him after all those years of walking with the Lord. Was Paul describing a condition that has already been taken care of through the new birth, or was he saying that even mature Christians are doomed to lives of schizophrenia (i.e., a split mind) where part of us wants to serve God and part of us wants to serve the devil?

Actually, Paul was not stating either one of those positions. He was expounding the impossibility of serving God in our own power, whether lost or saved. The flesh (see note 3 at Ro 7:18) is unwilling and unable to fulfill the Law of God, and if we as Christians try to fulfill the righteousness of the Law through our own will power, we will fail just the same as unregenerate people would. Paul was describing the futility of trying to obtain favor with God through our own goodness whether Christian or non-Christian. That has been the theme throughout the book of Romans.

Paul only used the term "spirit" once in Ro 7 (Ro 7:6), a chapter that described the hopelessness of people to ever keep the righteousness of the Law in their own strength. In contrast, the word "spirit" (or "Spirit") is used twenty-one times in Ro 8, a chapter that gives the answer to the hopelessness of Ro 7.

In these verses of Ro 7, Paul was not describing warfare that wages between the new man and the old man. He was contrasting the complete inability of people to save themselves because of their corrupted flesh (see note 3 at Ro 7:18) versus the life-transforming power of Christ described in Ro 8.

The Apostle Paul was not living a life of constant failure where the good that he wanted to do, he was unable to accomplish, but the evil that he didn't want to do, he did. He wasn't living that kind of life because it was no longer him living, but Christ living in him (Ga 2:20). Christ in Paul was manifesting holiness in Paul's life that was second to none.

However, if Paul had abandoned his dependency upon Christ and had started trying to live the Christian life out of his own resources, then the condition described in Ro 7:15-24 would have been his experience.

Our flesh has been corrupted through sin, and though we can renew our minds through God's Word (Ro 12:2), we can never elevate our flesh to a place where it can fulfill the Law of God. Hence, the good news of Ro 8 that what the Law couldn't do, because of the weakness of our flesh (Ro 8:3), God did for us, and all we have to do is receive by faith.