New Testament · Letter

Romans 7

The War Within

I do what I don't want to do, and I don't do what I want to do. Paul's agonizing honesty about the inner battle resonates across centuries.

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1Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

2For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

3So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

4Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

5For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

6But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

8But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

9For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

10And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

11For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

12Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

13Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

14For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

15For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

16If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.

17Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

18For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

19For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

20Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

21I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

22For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

23But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

24O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

25I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Understand This

Romans 7, explained

What Romans 7 is saying

Paul uses the analogy of a woman bound to her husband by law (released only by death) to argue that believers have died to the law through Christ's body. He then defends the law's holiness—it is not sin, but it reveals and even provokes sin in fallen humanity. The chapter's climactic section (7:14–25) presents a tortured inner struggle between the desire to do good and the compulsion to do evil, culminating in the cry 'Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?'

The background behind it

The identity of the 'I' in 7:14–25 has been debated since patristic times. Augustine initially interpreted it as the unregenerate person but later (against Pelagius) argued it describes the ongoing Christian struggle. The Reformers followed late Augustine; many modern scholars see it as a rhetorical 'I' representing humanity under Torah. The debate remains unresolved and may be intentionally ambiguous.

Themes running underneath

Paul's defense of the law (7:12—'the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good') prevents any Marcionite rejection of Torah. The problem is not the law but sin's exploitation of the law as a 'bridgehead' (aphormē). The divided self described in 7:15–20 echoes Medea's speech in Ovid ('I see the better and approve it; I follow the worse') and Hellenistic moral psychology, but Paul provides a uniquely theological analysis: sin indwelling the person as an alien power.

Why it still matters

Romans 7's raw honesty about moral struggle has provided comfort to believers throughout history who experience the gap between aspiration and achievement. The chapter refuses to let either triumphalism ('I'm victorious over all sin') or defeatism ('I'll never change') have the last word—chapter 8 provides the resolution.

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Scripture text: King James Version — public domain.