Today we will unpack the second half of the book of Romans and look at a critical passage that will help remove confusion from the life of a believer that has trusted Christ but cannot understand why they continue to sin. Without a proper understanding of the gospel, your growth in Christ will be stunted by misunderstanding and confusion. Paul explains how the law can actually result in “sinful passions being awakened and aroused.” He explains in Romans 7 than this was not the laws fault but because of the sinful nature. He describes living the natural life as a life disconnected from relationship with God.

When we were living in the flesh (mere physical lives), the sinful passions that were awakened and aroused up by [what] the Law [makes sin] were constantly operating in our natural powers (in our bodily organs, in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh), so that we bore fruit for death.

But now we are discharged from the Law and have terminated all intercourse with it, having died to what once restrained and held us captive. So now we serve not under [obedience to] the old code of written regulations, but [under obedience to the promptings] of the Spirit in newness [of life].

(Romans 7:5-6 AMPC)

The law had a purpose according to Paul and that purpose was to help us recognize and see the sinful nature inside us. Pride often hides this reality from us and when we see the difference between right and wrong we find out how difficult it actually is to do right.

But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment [to express itself], got a hold on me and aroused and stimulated all kinds of forbidden desires (lust, covetousness). For without the Law sin is dead [the sense of it is inactive and a lifeless thing]. Once I was alive, but quite apart from and unconscious of the Law. But when the commandment came, sin lived again and I died (was sentenced by the Law to death). [Psa_73:22] And the very legal ordinance which was designed and intended to bring life actually proved [to mean to me] death. [Lev_18:5]

(Romans 7:8-10 AMPC)

Paul describes the struggle that will occur in any human being trying to do what is right but coming face to face with their own weakness.

For sin, seizing the opportunity and getting a hold on me [by taking its incentive] from the commandment, beguiled and entrapped and cheated me, and using it [as a weapon], killed me. The Law therefore is holy, and [each] commandment is holy and just and good. Did that which is good then prove fatal [bringing death] to me? Certainly not! It was sin, working death in me by using this good thing [as a weapon], in order that through the commandment sin might be shown up clearly to be sin, that the extreme malignity and immeasurable sinfulness of sin might plainly appear.

(Romans 7:11-13 AMPC)

Paul describes the Jeckle and Hyde nature of trying to do what is right but failing. Part of the process of learning to depend upon the Spirit for life is discovering your own in ability to produce good things apart from Christ. This is an essential part of learning to live in the New Covenant. You must come to the end of yourself, practically and experientially, if you will ever have a chance of bearing true fruit. There is no short cut to this. You simply must go through it and cling to the gospel as your only hope.

We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am a creature of the flesh [carnal, unspiritual], having been sold into slavery under [the control of] sin. For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled, bewildered]. I do not practice or accomplish what I wish, but I do the very thing that I loathe [which my moral instinct condemns]. Now if I do [habitually] what is contrary to my desire, [that means that] I acknowledge and agree that the Law is good (morally excellent) and that I take sides with it. However, it is no longer I who do the deed, but the sin [principle] which is at home in me and has possession of me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it. [I have the intention and urge to do what is right, but no power to carry it out.] For I fail to practice the good deeds I desire to do, but the evil deeds that I do not desire to do are what I am [ever] doing. Now if I do what I do not desire to do, it is no longer I doing it [it is not myself that acts], but the sin [principle] which dwells within me [fixed and operating in my soul]. So I find it to be a law (rule of action of my being) that when I want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present with me and I am subject to its insistent demands. For I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inmost self [with my new nature]. [Psa_1:2] But I discern in my bodily members [in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh] a different law (rule of action) at war against the law of my mind (my reason) and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs [in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh]. O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from [the shackles of] this body of death?

(Romans 7:14-24 AMPC)

While Romans 7 describes the powerlessness we experience trying to stop sin from controlling us, we also see a work being done in our soul that is humbling our pride and show us our utter need for help. God’s grace comes to those who see their need of it. If we think we are good apart from Christ, the work of the law is not yet complete in us. It has not sufficiently shown us how deep the sin condition is within us. God does not want to leave us in this helpless condition but we will never be free until we experience it for ourselves. Fortunately, chapter 8 of Romans offers hope for those that have given up trying in their own strength.

THEREFORE, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit. [Joh_3:18] For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being] has freed me from the law of sin and of death.

(Romans 8:1-2 AMPC)

Jesus ushered in a new agreement between God and man. To this day, legalistic religion still thrives and competes against the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul called it “another gospel” and warned against it’s dangers. Take the time to ask Jesus to help you detox off of anything that is not the gospel.