THE GOSPEL OF GOD 
Meditations in St. Paul's Letter to the Romans 
FACING THE LAW AS A CHRISTIAN (Part 2) 

"We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is not longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 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 that I do not want to do - this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I that do it, but it is sin living in me that does it." 
Romans 7:14-20. 

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WE return to these verses in chapter 7 of Romans, and as we read verses 15 to 20 two things immediately impress themselves on our minds. 
The first is that Paul is describing Christian experience, and illustrating it from his own experience. He is describing the action of the law of God in the life of the Christian. He is not looking at any particular aspect of the law because for each one of us there are different aspect of the law of God that has a particular problem for us. The place in the law of God that I find particularly difficult may be one in which others have little difficulty, whereas where they are having difficulty, I may have no problem. What is true is that Satan knows each one of us, and presses home his attacks at the places where we are vulnerable. 

The second thing that impresses itself on our minds as we read these verses is that Paul is describing and illustrating what he means in what he declares in verse 14. This is extremely important, for when we see this we are totally unable to see these verses as describing a Christian who is worldly and immature in their Christian understanding and living. Such people do not have conflicts and feelings which are described here. It is only the spiritual believer that finds this sort of experience in their lives. 

CHRISTIAN PERPLEXITY. 

Paul expresses this in verse 15. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 

If we read this verse superficially then we shall miss the whole thrust of Paul's speaking. Paul finds in his experience something that is contrary to nature. The basic way of ordinary humanity is that they do what they want to do and don't do what they don't want to do. If they do what they don't want to do, it is done out of duty or duress, because of some pressure in life, like the opinion of others, the work we do, or the image we want to create amongst our contemporaries. There is also the pressure of rules in society which curb what we want to do and which causes people to hold back on their desires. People will hold back from doing something desired simply because there is some other desire which is stronger. However the truth is that we are driven by our desires, and we only do what we do not want to do under pressure. 

This is the reason that there is so much sin in the world. People have sinful desires which are attractive and this they do. 

Now Paul describes something totally opposite. He expresses a desire to do something, and to be a certain sort of person, and we can easily understand that he is speaking of the desire to please God and live the beauty of the character of God seen in the law. This is a great and continuing desire within the depth of his being. This is what he wants to do and to be. In normal human behaviour there would be no problem here, because he would just be like this, and do these good things which are his strong desire. However it is not like that. He finds that instead of doing what he wants to do, he does something else which he does not really want to do. 

There is not just one desire in the believer, but two, and these are conflicting. The desire to live the life of the law is strong and abiding, but to the dismay of the Christian there is another desire, which we hate, but strangely still holds fascination for us, and a pulling power over us. 
This is not the sort of experience which a person who is not a Christian experiences, for they are not hindered from doing what they want by some inner pressure. If they are hindered it is by some external pressure. On the other hand it should be a simple thing to do what the believer desires because the desire is good and according to the law. Yet it is not easy to do because of some other powerful desire within that fights the desire which is paramount, which is to approve and perform the good law of God. 

This conflict is strictly a Christian experience. We are unable to know this conflict unless we are a Christian. If we are not a Christian then we are governed by the desires of the flesh, and there is no conflict. It is true that the desires of the flesh can have some good motivations, for in the grace of God he does not allow human nature to be as bad as it could be, but as we learnt in chapter 1 of this letter, if God gives humanity up and withdraws his grace, then the sinful desires of the flesh grow in multiplicity and strength, and human society is plagued with more and more evil. Good in natural society is simply because God in his common grace prevents human nature from showing the total corruption that is present in it. This corruption is not how God created humanity, but is the result of Adam's choice to give allegiance to the evil one rather than God. 

The conflict in the believer arises because although we have risen to knew life, and this new life is created to be like God in righteousness and true holiness, yet the flesh in our bodies remains the same, and is not renewed in any way. So there is this conflict between the flesh and the Spirit who dwells within our new life. With our new life we love the law of God with all our hearts and this we desire to perform and live, but the flesh fights this. This is the conflict every Christian knows, and which the most holy in living know more than others. It is that which causes us pain and grief. 

THE DEDUCTION FROM THIS CONFLICT. 

Paul draws a deduction from this conflict concerning the law, and this is to prove that he is not casting off the law as superseded in his Gospel of grace and forgiveness in Christ. This deduction is found in the next verse, verse 16. "And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good". 

Paul argues like this. If I have this total dislike for the evil that I do that I don't want to do, and a tremendous desire for that which I really want to do, then as a Christian, far from casting the law away, I approve the law and know it to be good. This conflict would not be there if I had any other view of God's law. 

This verse and this deduction also shows us what Paul means by the desires that he wants to do. The desires he wants to do with all his heart are the precepts and actions which the law sets forth and approves. 

When Paul speaks of the law as good he is stating a very comprehensive approval. What we see described by Paul here is a person who not only approves the law of God as good in the sense of being what is right and from God and the way of God; but he is also expressing and evaluation of the law of God which expresses the desire and approval within his heart and life. The law is good under this evaluation because there is within the heart and life a delight in the law, and a joy in the law. It is an expression of how much the law of God is treasured as that which is the greatest good in life, and that which gives true happiness. It can also be said to be an expression of our delight in God, and the joy of being with God and beholding God, and being filled with the beauty of the Lord. 

So again we are unable to have any other view of this passage than as an expression of the experience of the mature believer. Only those who are walking in the delight of the presence of God, and are filled with beauty of the person of Jesus, can feel like this about the law of God. It is only those who are in such a relationship with the Lord that can feel such grief and pain at the desires of the flesh which are contrary to there love for the Lord. 

Let us notice also that although Paul speaks of the two desires within the believer he is not dividing the person but always speaks of the whole person as acting and feeling. 

FURTHER UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHRISTIAN PERSONA. 

Verse 17 is a continuation of the understanding which Paul has arrived at concerning the Christian persona which these meditations and deliberations on experience causes him to understand. Paul deduces "As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but sin living in me." 

On the experimental level this conclusion is inevitable. However when we begin to analyse the statement we find so many difficulties. This conclusion which Paul makes is inevitable as he evaluates the Christian experience that he knows, but the way that he finds it necessary to express it gives rise to the difficulty that he seems to be suggesting that the human persona is divided, or double, or split, or something! This difficulty is real and has caused so much argument and controversy. I believe that we will never be able to analyse this Christian experience and come up with a way of understanding that is true to the revelation and avoids the dualism that is apparent. This should not bother us, because we have the same problem when we come to consider the revelation of God expressed by the Trinity, and when we seek to formulate the revelation we have concerning the person of Jesus as both God and man in one person. What Paul is seeking to do is to express the truth every believer knows when growing spiritually they struggle against sin within. 

Paul has come to understand here that when he finds himself doing what he does not want to do, and failing to do the good that he wants to do, that because of this paramount desire for good in him, and this desire to approve and conform to the law of God, it can't be the true person he is in Christ, but something else in him which is contrary to the real person he is in Christ. These desires to glorify the law of God by obedience comes from the new creation we are in Christ. All things have become new, and we desire only holy things. For this reason the deduction that must be made is that these unholy desires are from some other source than our new nature which is eternal. 

Paul speaks of this other source of desire within him, the desire to do what is contrary to the new creation we are, as sin that is living in him. If sin is living in him, it must be living somewhere, and it can't be living in the new creation which is created to be righteous like God, so it must be living in another part of us which is apart from the new creation. This argument shows how difficult it is the explain the Christian experience. Even if it is difficult to explain the Christian experience we must never seek to rationalise it in such a way that our rationalisation gives a wrong expression of the Christian experience. This has often happened, and in the end we arrive at error. On the one hand the error of speaking of sin as unimportant, and on the other hand of speaking of Christian experience as achieving in this life a perfection which eradicates sin. 

CONCLUSION. 

Again we must leave these verse for the next meditation. Where we have arrived at is the conclusion that the law of God has a very important place in the life of the believer, because through the new creation we are in Christ the law is what we love and approve and delight in because it is the very reflection of God and his love and holiness. We approve the law because it is the mirror which gives the beatific vision. 
On the other hand the law is painful because it causes us to grieve over how much we still fall short of this goal, and it grieves us that we have these desires within us that contradict the true desires we have to live to the glory of God. 

However let us rejoice that our experience is like this for such and experience is only that of the true child of God.