THE GOSPEL OF GOD
Meditations in St. Paul's Letter to the Romans 
THE CONCLUSION ARRIVED AT FROM EXPERIENCE WITH THE LAW 

"So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is present with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin."
Romans 7:21-25

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HAVING analysed his experience in relation to the law of God as a Christian, Paul now comes to a conclusion. He has examined his experience as he relates to the law of God in his life, and now he is able to arrive at some understanding. Having said this, there can be no doubt that the conclusion he comes to is a difficult one to comprehend, but it is one a Christian finds he or she is in tune with, that is if they are willing to face their experience honestly. For someone who has not got faith in Jesus as Saviour, and so has not experienced new birth, it must be totally incomprehensible, because there is little in their experience which can identify with this conflict and duality Paul describes.

PAUL'S CONCLUSION.

Paul tells us that this is what he finds! Firstly he finds in his heart and life a desire to do good. This is the paramount motivation that is in him. To appreciate this is extremely important. Paul is not saying that sometimes he has a desire to do good, but that all the time he desires to do good. To do good is the habitual direction of his mind and heart. Surely this is what Paul is describing in verses 21 and 22. In his inner being he delights in the law of God, and so he wants to do good all the time. The 'when' (when I want to do good) in verse 21 therefore is not telling us that Paul sometimes wants to do good, but in this general constant desire to do good he finds evil constantly opposing him, that is constantly rearing its ugly presence to oppose his desire to do good.

This can only describe a Christian who has been raised to new life, and had the law of God written on his or her heart according to God's promise given in Jeremiah and Ezekial. This is an experience which only a true Christian can know. Those who are unbelievers have good motivations, but there is not this paramount desire for good and to glorify God.

Then Paul says, though from my heart I want to do good, something else is always present within me. Evil is right there with me. This something Paul describes as a law at work in the members of his body, which wages war against this desire to do good, which is his real desire.

This law operating in his body is not something he wants to obey, but still it is a powerful force which excites his emotions and feelings and is always opposing the desire to be good that is his real motivation.

This is the conclusion that the apostle comes to as he honestly views his experience in the light of the law of God. When I have spoken to other Christians who claimed to have had some second work of the Holy Spirit in their lives that have lifted them out of such an experience, I have always found that this claim is only achieved by closing the mind and consciousness to the real truth about their living and behaviour. There is an amusing story from the life of the great Baptist preacher of the 19th century, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. On one occasion a young man came to Spurgeon claiming that he had been lifted to this experience of holiness. After listening to this young man for a while, Spurgeon then trod heavily on his toe. At this point the young man became rather angry, and by this simple action Spurgeon exposed the folly of this young man's claim.

WHAT IS PAUL TELLING US ABOUT THE CHRISTIAN PERSONA.

What is the teaching we have in these verses before us. Paul describes to us what he knows within him. He knows the holy life of this inner being which desires only to do good. This can be nothing less than the new creation brought about by new birth in the Spirit that is the work of God in all who believe in Jesus as Saviour and Lord. We have been raised to life. 

Our earthly and natural physical life is very precious and we rightly seek to hold on to it as long as we can, and cherish it, but it is not real life, but a living death. This is proved by the fact that eventually this life will be ended by death. Since Adam's sin all humanity has been born without real life, and subject to death. It is this real life that has been lost when Adam sinned that has been resurrected or born in the believer. It is the life which conforms to the character of God, and allows us to know God and have fellowship with God. The separation from God, which Adam and all his posterity were sentenced to when he sinned, has now been ended, and the believer is given this eternal and holy life back. No one with this life can go on sinning without pain, because this new life is the real life we have, and it desires only what is good. It is because of this inner being that the pain and conflict Paul owns to being his experience is there, and it is there for every true believer.

Then Paul describes what he calls a 'law at work in the members of his body'. Law here must be describing a principle or power within the members of the body, but it is so constantly at work it can be described as a law of Christian experience, or something that is evident all the time. This power or principle at work in his body, Paul speaks of as the 'law of sin at work within his members'.

Notice how Paul is careful to make a distinction between his bodily members, that is his physical body, and the law of sin resident in those members. By this Paul is careful not to say that our bodies are sinful, which is a conclusion that people often come to, and which is not true; but rather Paul speaks of corruption that has infected the body, so that there is this corruption effecting every part of the body in its desires and affections. This what Paul so often speaks of as 'the flesh', or which the Authorised Version of the Bible speaks of as carnal, which means fleshly. The trouble is that all these words have special meaning in our minds which is the result of teaching which have received, and this teaching is often imperfect and unhelpful, and so we need to come to the Scriptures with an open mind, ready to have misconceptions corrected.

Then we have a complication. Paul speaks of the law at work in the members of his body, waging war against the law of his mind. Some have understood the expression 'the law of my mind' as being the same as 'in my inner being'. I find myself drawn to this as I meditate on these verses, but I am still troubled by the question, that if Paul was speaking of the inner being, why did he use another expression which only causes confusion.

I also see something else which is significant in the way Paul speaks here. When he is speaking about the law of sin, he sees it working in the members of his body. On the other hand when he speaks about the holy inner being he speaks of it in reference to the mind. From this it seems to me that Paul, in his strong desire to be faithful to his experience and the truth revealed, is describing how the conflict between the inner being and the law of sin actually presents itself in the Christian experience of conflict. In the conflict thoughts, feelings, affections and desires are all involved, but it is to the mind that the inner being particularly communicates, and it is to the desires of the body the law of sin particularly communicates. When the Christian succumbs to the law of sin, the mind still approves the way of the inner being, but the desires of the flesh in one way or the other overcome the believer.

CHRISTIAN WRETCHEDNESS

In verse 24 Paul cries "What a wretched man I am!" So many feel that no Christian who is walking in the Spirit in holiness of life can ever speak in this way. However it is the natural response to the evaluation of experience with the law of God which Paul has been describing. What is this wretchedness?

I don't believe it is a description of feeling but rather an evaluation of our condition as we live in relation to the holy desire within the believer. No person born again of the Spirit of God can be happy with his or her condition still in this world. We long to be free from this continual warfare, where we are never able to live to the standard of complete holiness which represents the earnest desire of the new person we are in Christ. We hate sin because we have been raised to be like God in his character of holiness and righteousness. Sin is an offence to us, and the fact we are continually being overcome with this falling short of the glory of the purity of God is a continual sorrow and pain

Although we are redeemed so that there is no uncertainty of our eternal welfare and the possession of eternal life, we have not achieved yet the fulness and perfection of that redemption while we still live on this earth and in this earthly body. We long to be able to express the holiness in our inner being perfectly, but because we are still in the flesh we are unable to attain that perfection which our heart longs for. The things that trouble our pure soul are hardly things that the world feel are sins at all, and think such evaluation as being over scrupulous, but because of the holy inner being we have, we can't be sanguine about such failure, and we mourn over this falling short of God's glory. Until the fulness of redemption is ours in the heavenly glory, we shall always be wretched. We feel wretched specially because this falling short prevents us from enjoying and experiencing the fulness of communion with God by the Spirit that is our inner desire, and we feel wretched because such falling short dishonours our Lord, and gives our precious Saviour pain.

HOW WE DEAL WITH THIS WRETCHEDNESS.

The question is - How do we deal with this wretchedness. Paul tells us. Our wretchedness posses the question as to who will deliver us from this body of death. Here Paul is expressing the truth about our bodies in which the law of sin resides. This human life, in one sense, is the problem, for while we are in this human existence we express ourselves through the body, and it is not the physical body that is redeemed. We can't be free from the conflict which produces wretchedness while in this life.

The bible nowhere tells us that this earthly body in which resides the law of sin can ever be changed or redeemed. The corruption due to the law of sin can't be removed or changed. All that we can so is to put to death the desires and affections of the body through the power of the Spirit. This is the denying the law of sin within our bodies, and refusing to respond to it. As we grow in sanctification we gain success in this work, but the body and the corruption within is still there unchanged and must be continually subdued.

What the bible promises is that the new birth and new creation we enjoy in Christ will be completed when through physical death we shall be separated from this body of sin, and where this body of sin and corruption will remain on this earth, and we shall be free. The bible promises also in Christ that we shall receive a new resurrection body in the heavenly glory which will be entirely free from corruption and which will be like Christ's resurrection body.

So Paul declares that in Christ Jesus our Lord, and through his perfect work of redemption for us we will be rescued, not in this life but in the life to come, though in this life we shall be kept by the power of God unto salvation. This is the sure and certain hope we have, and this fills us with strength in the struggle.

CONTINUING IN THIS EARTHLY LIFE.

So Paul comes to his final conclusion. While we are in this life it will always be like this. I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law. Here is the truth about our redemption in Christ. We have been justified and so raised to new life, and this inner being works on our mind making us a slave to an overwhelming desire, which is to honour the law of God in our living. But though this desire of our inner being is paramount, yet in this life we will always be in this slavery which is part of this life, that we shall never be free in this earthly life from the law of sin within our bodies which constantly causes us to fail in our paramount desire to perfectly live all that the law of God sets before us.

However we are not in despair, because we know in Jesus Christ our Lord, we will one day be taken from this earthly life, and freed from this body of sin, and be able to live as we truly desire in the holiness which is the atmosphere and life of heaven.