Romans 7:14-25 (Amplified Bible)
14 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.
15 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 [[b]which my moral instinct condemns].
16 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.
17 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.
18 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.]
19 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.
20 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 [[c]fixed and operating in my soul].
21 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.
22 For I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inmost self [with my new nature].
23 But I discern in my bodily members [[d]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 [[e]in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh].
24 O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from [the shackles of] this body of death?
25 O thank God! [He will!] through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) our Lord! So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and heart, serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
I believe that in this Romans 7:14-25 passage, Paul is encouraging all who are born again Christians to live by the Spirit and not by our own fleshly self willpower. Many in church today have actually excluded the Holy Spirit from their theology, and because of this exclusion we see a lot of struggling Christians doing their utmost best to live for God. Most in church today are actually told that they need to just keep trying harder to live for God, that they just need to get the latest “how to live for God” book and try harder to do it. But this self willpower theology will never work, and only keeps them in a continuous vicious cycle of temporary victories but mostly defeat. It didn’t work before they were saved, and it will not work after they are saved. We cannot live for God by sheer willpower.
Now in Romans 7, the flesh is not talking about the old Adamic nature, but the mortal body that was corrupted by the old nature. We cannot live for God by the flesh. We cannot live for God by sheer willpower, or by just trying harder, or how- to books, recommitments, or new resolutions. The law of sin in our body, like gravity, will sooner or later cause us to eventually fall.
In verse 22, Paul lets us know that we may delight in the law of God in the inward man or the new nature, but because of this other law that still exists in our members or mortal body, it will not allow us to do what we desire to do in the inward man. In verse 24, Paul finally makes a point by shouting out, “O wretched man that I am ! Who then will deliver me from this body of death ?” Or how can I stop this vicious up and down cycle of victory and defeat ? The answer to this struggle of trying and failing, is to stop trying to live for God by the flesh and sheer willpower, and instead surrender by faith to the One inside of you who is the Spirit … We don’t live for God, we live from God. It is God who is at work inside of us both to will and to do His good pleasure. It takes faith to just surrender to the Holy Spirit, to believe that He is the one that will do the living, not you ! The answer to living a victorious Christian life is to stop trying to live the victorious Christian life, quit buying all the “how to live for God” books, and just know that God is at work in you to lead you and guide you into victorious living.
How many Christians today live more of a Romans 7 defeated, condemned way of life, instead of a Romans 8 way of life, of peace and no condemnation ? Sad to say most live more of the Romans 7 way than the Romans 8 way because of where their focus is. In Romans 7, the word “I” is mentioned over 30 times and “spirit” only once ! But in Romans 8, it’s reversed ! “Spirit” is mentioned 19 times and “I” only twice !
The key to our victory is where our attention is. Is our attention on “I”, trying my best to live for God, or is our attention on the Spirit of Christ who lives in me ?
Paul says it best in Galatians 2:20:
I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
It's Grace 