Romans chapter 7

vs 20

Note again that this doesn't absolve Paul from his sinfulness. Over the past few chapters, sin has been somewhat personified - given actions, ambitions, cognisence. It's not an alive force though. This is just a literary device. Once again, we can't blame our sinful actions on sin, saying "sin made me do it". Well, it is true that sin makes us do things, but we have to accept that the sinful nature is part of our makeup (or perhaps more correctly in light of earlier verses, has corrupted and dirtied our makeup). So it's not the cloth that dirties things, it is the grease on the cloth. But you're still using the cloth in an attempt to clean.

vs 21

Coming near to the close of this chapter, we start to face a question that won't fully dawn until vs 25 and chapter 8 verse 1. That question is - is this description in chapter 7 a description of Paul's past life before salvation, or is it a description of his current struggles? Is this verse, with good and evil side by side, the present condition of the Christian life?

vs 22

What is the 'inner being'? In a quest against dualism, we hesitate to say 'the mind', because then we know we're going to hit a mind/body dichotomy. The problem being that in vs 23 Paul uses the word mind.

Anyway, there is some part of Paul that delights in God's law.

vs 23

I wonder if the use of the word 'law' again is a wordplay.

So now there are two laws - the law of God (also the law of the mind), and another law, the law of sin. They are at war with each other in the body of Paul. The war language is exactly the kind of language that is used in religious dualism - the idea that good and evil are at war with each other. And here indeed the battle rages - inside the body of Paul (or perhaps all believers).

Maybe Paul is using this dualistic language on purpose to show that the nature of dualism, while fundamentally flawed (God is in total control - he wins every war people put against him) is reflected in some way in the body of man, and as such it's an explaination as to why people can come to this conclusion about a spiritual battle. Because from our internal, subjective experience, there is a battle between good and evil.

vs 24

Anyone who reasonably concludes that it is impossible for them to defeat the evil in their own lives will discover this wretchedness. Perhaps one of the big worries about our culture is that people have lost the will to strive for excellence, and as such they are happy enough to compromise for being "pretty good", "better than Hitler".

vs 25

Those who desire righteousness, though, will look for a way of defeating the attacks of evil. And for Paul, he shows conclusively that Christ Jesus has the answer in defeating the body of death.

It is interesting that after showing that God has the power to save us from this body of death, he still states, in the present tense, that he has this combat ensuing - his mind is a slave to God, but his flesh a slave to sin.

Graham Marlin said the other day that the word for sinful nature/flesh has with it that connotation of physical flesh, and we can't ignore the fact that sin does have a somewhat physical and fleshly nature. I wasn't convinced at first, but after going through this passage, I think I am leaning more in that direction. Paul seems to.