Two Laws At War: Romans 7:7-25 (Sermon)

WELCOME 

Good morning! Welcome back if you travelled over the holidays. I travelled and brought the cold from the motherland, Minnesnowda. We got slowed down on the way back because of a blizzard, and then there was the stomach flu. Don’t worry, we are all better [cough]. We probably brought the plague from Michigan, not to it. One notable feature in Minnesota and the surrounding area is the accent. The gal at the gas station scanned my snacks and answered my question with a warm, “You Betcha.” Sometimes you will hear the “Ya, sure” and “Don’t you know,” but I didn’t. Happy New Year, by the way. Did you make any resolutions? You still have time, if you haven’t. Each year, I reflect on the past and look forward to the future. Today, we will hear some of the apostle Paul’s spiritual reflections, which can help us with our own. 

RECAP

We are back in Romans, finishing Chapter 7. In it, Paul offered a reminder and hope for the human condition. 

TEXT 

Turn in your Bibles to Romans Chapter 7, verses 7 through 25. Please stand with me in honor of God’s Word? I will have D. C. come up here and read for us: 

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 

Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (Romans 7:7–25, ESV)

PRAYER 

Thank you. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your law. It is good, right, and perfect. Yet, we are bad, wrong, and imperfect people apart from you. I know I am. Even my best efforts are tarnished with sin. Many of us feel the weight of what we have done and what we have not done as we reflect on this past year. We need hope when temptations come our way. We can’t rest on our past, present, or future performance. We need you. Thank you for today, for new mercy, and for verses like 7:25, which remind us where that hope comes from. Now, by the power of the Spirit, open our eyes to see the truth of your Word, we pray all this in Jesus’s name, Amen. You may be seated.  

CONTEXT 

For review, 

• Paul was writing to whom?—Shout it out. [The church in Rome.] 

• The church was made up of whom? [Jewish and non-Jewish followers of Jesus.] 

Paul was writing to those with a theological framework to help the church comprehend life and empower practical Christian living. The driving force for personal growth and ultimate reconciliation with God was, and is, the gospel: the good news about Jesus Christ. The argument Paul was making was that every single person on the planet is a sinner and thus under God’s judgment. Sin results in bondage and spiritual death decreed by God. Yet, God’s people are free from this enslavement through the work of Jesus on the cross. In other religious systems, like Judaism, rules may seem to promise rescue and safety. The law of God, the Ten Commandments, the Torah, the Tannak, or in other words, the Old Testament, is true and inspired by God. They may procure a good life, but they can’t offer eternal life, freedom from sin, or a release from guilt and shame. Verses 7 through 25 offer Paul as an example illustrating this truth. To get more context, we can look at verse 5 of Chapter 7: 

“For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death” (Romans 7:5 ESV).

For some people, religious rules can become a snare and promote sin. How? 

EXPLANATION OF LAW PROBLEMS

Have you ever done something bad and regretted it? I have. Have you ever felt dirty or unworthy, so you try to do extra-long devotions or say something nice to try to erase the memory of the past? I have done that as well. Maybe that is one reason you came to church this morning. Good deeds and spiritual habits are beneficial, but they don’t make us right with God or lighten his judgment. By nature, we all live in the “flesh” and bear the “fruit of death” to use verse 5’s words. Yet, as much as that makes sense, we may still have some questions. Paul asked and answered one in verse 7. 

MAIN IDEA

His point was that God’s law was not inherently bad. In fact, we can take away from these verses that the law of God is good because it reveals sin, which leads to death, but it doesn’t replace the gospel. Paul’s Jewish audience was familiar with the law and likely loved it, just as he did. They were also likely tempted to put their trust in it. Now, most of us are not Jewish. But there is a way we can, too, return to our religious roots, traditions, and practices to feel better about life and God. Although I am a fan of spiritual disciplines and resolutions, they don’t make us right with our Maker. Peace with God doesn’t come that way. In fact, by the end of the month or year, lofty goals and ideals can make us feel worse, like spiritual roadkill, run over by our own inability to do what we set out to do.

POINT 1

Look at Paul’s question in verse 7: 

“What then shall we say? That the law is sin?” (Romans 7:7a, ESV).

Shall we say that the law is sin, church? What do you think? [No. Now way]. 

BY NO MEANS 

How did Paul answer his own question? [By no means!] 

By no means! (Romans 7:7b, ESV). 

Why did he think that? Keep reading. 

WHY? 

“Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet’” (Romans 7:7c, ESV).

Paul didn’t think the law was sin, but revealed it. The law spotlighted it. Paul used the Ten Commandments to explain. The last is, “You shall not covet.” 

COVET

What does coveting mean? We don’t use that word anymore. Google says, to covet is to want something. What is wrong with that? Why would God prohibit wanting? It is natural. Look at the context. Coveting is more than that. Exodus 20:17 states, 

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s” (Exodus 20:17, ESV).

While no one here envies donkeys and oxen, we can be jealous of other people’s cars, houses, wealth, and spouses. Coveting is a form of idolatry, a type of worship. We can love, seek, and live for things instead of God. 

• If we don’t have them, we can get angry. 

• If they are jeopardized, we can be worried. 

This type of wanting is out of balance. 

LAW POINTS OUT WHAT IS

So, Paul was telling people that the law was good because it shows what is right and wrong. It is a measuring stick. It doesn’t make things longer or shorter; it just states what is. I know people who have not grown up in the church, who go with the flow, and find that after they become Christians, they have been breaking God’s laws. I know even as a Christian, there have been times that I thought I was in the right, but over time. I discovered that I was breaking God’s law. God’s law can reveal what is going on in our hearts. 

INTUITIVE CONSCIENCE 

But that raises a question in my mind: Didn’t Paul write that people had the law on their hearts and that they were without an excuse (Romans 2:14–15, ESV)? Yes. Why then did he make this distinction between before and after an awareness of law? I believe the reason there was a point where he didn’t technically understand the law of God and the Old Testament is that he did. Gentiles could relate to that and learn something too, and so can we.

VERSE 8

Look at verse 8. 

“But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead” (Romans 7:8, ESV). 

As Paul became aware of God’s rules, he realized how pervasive his problem was. He was far more covetous than he thought. How was that? 

ILLUSTRATION 

Let me illustrate. My family and I love to travel. When we drive, if we see a Tesla Cyber Truck, we let everyone know. That is the unsaid rule. We saw like four this week. And since we started this game, we see them everywhere. Seeing them doesn’t make them appear; they will be there, whether we notice them or not, but having that little game makes us more aware. Similarly, God’s law puts high beams on our shortcomings. They are there, but we don’t see them. 

MORE BIOGRAPHY

What did Paul say happened to him after he saw so much of his failure? Jump to verse 9:

“I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died”  (Romans 7:9, ESV). 

Paul described a time in his life when, apart from the law, he felt alive. He was fine. He was good. But then he encountered God’s rule, and sin started appearing everywhere, as in our game with the Cyber Truck. When that happened, he realized he was dead before he started. Was he describing his conversion? I don’t believe so. But it was part of his spiritual journey as God was working on his heart. A person can’t be found, unless he is lost, healed unless he is sick, and saved unless he is in jeopardy. The law clarifies the need. Paul realized at some point that he was in a spiritual state of need. He was under God’s thumb, and God was drawing him near.  

DEAD IN TRANGRESSIONS 

Paul had written as much to a church in Ephesus about their state before their conversion: 

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Ephesians 2:1–3, ESV)

RIGHTEOUSNESS THROUGH THE LAW

Paul reflected on his past:  

“The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me” (Romans 7:10–11, ESV).

Broken, deception, and murder. Yikes! This could be depressing. What was going on? In Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church, he described himself before becoming a Christian as spiritual, religious, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees. From the outside, he was blameless. We would say he was a good guy. Then, one day, on a trip to Damascus, God physically blinded him. Not as punishment but an attention-getter. And through a series of other supernatural events, God removed that handicap as well as a spiritual blindness to the solution for his condemnation. Paul became convinced Jesus was the Lord and Messiah, the hope of the world. And hope for his lawlessness. The law, as good as it was, was not his hope. Banking on religion is a fruitless endeavor. Try being perfect. It won’t last. Our performance is not our hope. What then is it? 

WHO WAS TO BLAME? 

Paul said of the law in verse 12.

“So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good” (Romans 7:12, ESV).

Yet, if the law of God is so good, where did spiritual death originate? Go to verse 13: 

“Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? (Romans 7:13a, ESV). 

What did Paul say again? [By no means.]

“By no means!” (Romans 7:13b, ESV). 

So what brought death? Read on: 

It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure” (Romans 7:13c, ESV).

Sin brought death. Remember Romans 6:23? “The wages of sin is death.” It was part of the O.G. warning God gave Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Death was the fallout of our ancestors’ rebellion. The law was not to blame; sin was. The law was simply the neon billboard flashing off the interstate, pointing out what is. 

VERSE 14

Then, in verse 14, a debate among theologians begins over what Paul is saying happened to him. Paul switched from using the past tense to the present: 

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. (Romans 7:14-21, ESV)

DESCRIPTION 

Notice how Paul described himself: 

 

• As “of the flesh” vs. 14, 

• “Sold under sin” vs. 14, 

• He didn’t “understand,” 

• He didn’t do what he wanted, 

• He did what he hated (vs. 15), 

• “Nothing good dwells in”… his flesh (vs. 18), 

• He didn’t have the ability to do good (vs. 18), 

• And sin dwelt within him (vs. 21).

Was he using the present tense to describe himself before being a Christian or not? Those who think Paul was speaking of the past would remind us of Chapter 6. He wrote to fellow believers:  

• “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin” (Romans 6:6–7, ESV).

• Verse 11 states, “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11, ESV).

• And verse 17 goes like, “Thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed” (Romans 6:17, ESV).

LAW

Paul went on: 

“For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being” (Romans 7:22, ESV).  

There is a way that believers love God’s law because it reveals who he is, who we are, and can show our need for him. There is a way for non-believers to love God’s law if they think it saves them, or they see it as beautiful history or literature.  

WAR 

Paul continued: 

“But I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members” (Romans 7:23, ESV).  

If we stick with context, Romans Chapter 8, verse 13 points to an ongoing conflict within the believer, not for salvation but for sanctification. Turn over to Romans Chapter 8, verse 13. 

“For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13, ESV).

Paul wrote almost the same words to the Colossian Christians a few years later:  

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices. (Colossians 3:5–9, ESV)

WHAT IS GOING ON 

The bottom line about verses 14 through 25 is that there are good arguments for Paul speaking of the present conflict as an analogy of a pre-Christian struggle with unrighteousness, as well as the struggle for the Christian’s sanctification. Both salvation and sanctification are actual battles in the Bible. That being the case, we can deal with both today. You may not be a Christian and know the weight of guilt and shame, or you may be a Christian and recognize the battle for holiness. There is a war for souls and a war for sanctification. Whether Paul was talking of his past or present, all sides agree that the law of God is good because it points out our deficiencies, and our hope is not in it. 

THIRD QUESTION 

But that raises the dilemma in verse 24, Paul stated: 

“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24, ESV).  

Who will deliver him? [Jesus]. 

GOOD NEWS 

Look at verse 25: 

“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Verse 25a, ESV).  

Paul praised God. Why? Because not the law but Christ will deliver him. There is salvation in no one else. There is no other name in the world where we can find salvation. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the Messiah the Jewish people are waiting for. He is the one prophesied and celebrated. He is the way, the truth, and the life. If you want to find hope and help in the internal warfare of the spirit, Jesus is the answer. He is the only one who can win the battle.

SERVE 

Paul concluded Chapter 7 with, 

“So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin” (Romans 7:25b, ESV).

Paul was divided. 

APPLICATION 

Are you? Do you know this battle of wanting to do right, but doing the wrong thing? Or are you frustrated with 2025? Do you look back over the last year and see disappointment and a desire for change? Maybe you look forward to 2026 with hope. Is it in your resolutions and new determination? I love reflecting on the past year and looking forward to the one to come. I love trying new things and growing. Maybe you do too. There is value in that. However, friends, where is our ultimate hope? Is it in ourselves, our efforts, or Jesus and his work? Come back in the next couple of weeks for more of the gospel. In the meantime, Paul’s outburst of praise gives us a glimpse of what we are looking for: it is in Jesus. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Don’t stay stuck in sin. And don’t try to save yourself by following rules. Instead, cling to Jesus and praise him for his perfect sacrifice on your behalf, who has given you peace with the Father, freedom from sin, and love everlasting. 

PRAYER 

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ. He is the Lord of all who trust in him for salvation here. Yet, we don’t full obey as we should. Help us. Rule over our hearts. Conform us into your image. He is also not the Lord of some here. They resist. They are complacent. Or at least have been. By the power of the Holy Spirit, convict them of the war that wages for the soul. Draw them to you. Win us over. We pray this in Jesus’s name, amen. 

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