Romans VerseQuest Commentary Essay 46: The War in My Members Text: Romans 7:18–23
Introduction
Romans 7:18–23 says, “For 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. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But 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.” If Romans 7 had been written by a modern religious salesman, this passage would have been deleted, softened, footnoted into meaninglessness, or replaced with a smiling testimony about continuous victory and a five-step plan for never struggling again. But the Holy Ghost does not sell plastic halos to church people. He tells the truth. Paul opens the believer’s chest, lays the inward conflict on the table, and shows that the saved man has a renewed inward man that delights in God’s law while still carrying flesh in which dwelleth no good thing.
This is one of the most honest descriptions of the Christian’s internal conflict in the entire Bible. Paul is not writing as a lost man who loves sin, despises God, and has no inward desire for righteousness. He says, “to will is present with me.” He says, “the good that I would.” He says, “the evil which I would not.” He says, “I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” That is not the vocabulary of a spiritually dead man wallowing in sin like a hog in warm mud. That is the vocabulary of a saved man who knows the law is spiritual, knows the commandment is holy, consents unto the law that it is good, and yet discovers another law in his members fighting against the law of his mind. The struggle does not prove he is lost. It proves there is a real inward man that hates what the flesh still tries to perform.
Romans 7:18–23 is not an excuse for sin. It is not a couch for lazy saints, a blanket for carnality, or a permission slip for defeat. Paul is not saying, “I struggle, therefore I may as well surrender.” He is showing the futility of seeking victory through the flesh, even religious flesh under a holy law. Desire alone cannot produce victory. Willpower cannot sanctify Adam. Good intentions cannot put the old nature in a coffin. A saved man may will what is right and still find no power in himself to perform it. That is why Romans 7 must lead into Romans 8. The war in the members cannot be won by admiring the law, condemning the flesh, or making another promise at the altar. Deliverance comes through Jesus Christ our Lord, and the walk comes by the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The diagnosis is ugly because the cure is glorious.
Chapter One: In My Flesh Dwelleth No Good Thing
Paul begins, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing.” That parenthesis is vital. Paul does not say there is no good thing in him absolutely, as though the new man, the indwelling Spirit, the word of God, and the life of Christ were absent. He qualifies the statement: “that is, in my flesh.” The flesh is the old Adamic nature, the fallen principle still tied to the mortal body, the corrupt factory that has not improved one inch since the day the sinner got saved. The flesh can be religious, educated, emotional, disciplined, respectable, and publicly polished, but it remains flesh. John 3:6 says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Flesh does not become spirit by attending church regularly.
“In my flesh dwelleth no good thing” is not low self-esteem; it is sound doctrine. Modern religion wants to rehabilitate the flesh, understand the flesh, affirm the flesh, heal the flesh, motivate the flesh, and give the flesh a platform to share its journey. God says no good thing dwells in it. That does not mean the flesh cannot perform outwardly moral actions, use religious language, give money, behave politely, or impress other people. It means there is nothing in the flesh acceptable to God as a source of spiritual life, righteousness, holiness, or victory. Romans 8:8 will say, “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Cannot means cannot, even when dressed in church clothes and carrying a King James Bible.
This truth is devastating to pride and liberating to faith. As long as a believer thinks there is some good reserve in the flesh that can be trained into holiness, he will keep returning to the same bankrupt bank expecting a withdrawal. The flesh promises funds it does not possess. It signs checks marked “victory,” “discipline,” “purity,” “patience,” “prayer,” and “obedience,” but heaven stamps them all insufficient. God’s answer is not to improve the flesh but to crucify the old man, reckon him dead, and walk in the Spirit. You do not get apples from a thorn bush by hanging fruit on it with string. You get fruit from life. The flesh has no good thing dwelling in it, and every attempt to sanctify it is spiritual taxidermy.
Chapter Two: To Will Is Present With Me
Paul says, “for to will is present with me.” Here is the saved man’s inward desire. He wants what is right. He wills the good. He agrees with God. This is one of the reasons Romans 7 cannot honestly be reduced to an unregenerate man with no spiritual life. The lost man may will self-improvement, moral respectability, religious success, escape from consequences, or relief from guilt, but he does not delight in the law of God after the inward man. Romans 8:7 says, “the carnal mind is enmity against God.” The will toward God’s good in Romans 7 belongs to a man who has light, conviction, and an inward man that responds to God’s truth.
But willing is not performing. That distinction exposes a thousand shallow sermons. Many preachers act as though victory over sin is merely a matter of wanting it badly enough. If you really wanted to pray, you would pray. If you really wanted purity, you would have it. If you really wanted holiness, you would produce it. Paul says, “to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” The will may be present while the power is absent. Desire can be real and still insufficient. A man can want to lift a thousand pounds and still be crushed under the bar. Wanting does not create strength. Wanting without power becomes frustration.
This should help believers understand why spiritual victory cannot be built on resolutions alone. Resolutions have their place when governed by truth, but the flesh can make noble promises and then break them before lunch. A Christian may genuinely desire a disciplined prayer life, a clean mind, a guarded tongue, a patient spirit, a faithful witness, and a separated walk. Yet if he attempts to produce these things by fleshly determination under law, he will discover the same bitter lesson Paul records: “how to perform that which is good I find not.” The believer does not need merely a stronger will. He needs a stronger principle of life. The will may point toward the battlefield, but the Spirit supplies the power to fight.
Chapter Three: How to Perform I Find Not
Paul says, “but how to perform that which is good I find not.” That statement is the graveyard of self-confidence. Paul is not ignorant of what good is. He is not confused about the law. He is not uncertain about God’s standard. He knows the good, wills the good, approves the good, and yet finds no ability in himself to perform it. The problem is not information. The problem is power. The law can tell a man what to do, and the renewed mind can agree that it ought to be done, but the flesh cannot perform spiritual good acceptable to God. The commandment can point to the mountain. It cannot give Adam legs strong enough to climb it.
This is why legalism produces misery when applied to sanctification. Legalism assumes the believer can perform the good if the command is made sharp enough, the threat heavy enough, the accountability strict enough, or the shame public enough. Paul says the issue is deeper. The performance is not found in the flesh. Law says, “Do.” Flesh says, “I will.” Sin says, “No, you won’t.” The result is frustration. Galatians 3:3 asks, “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” That question ought to be carved over the entrance of every church that tries to use grace for salvation and law for Christian power. You do not begin with resurrection and finish with a corpse.
Paul’s confession also destroys the fantasy that spiritual maturity means the absence of inward weakness. Maturity does not mean a man has discovered good in his flesh. Maturity means he has stopped expecting good from it. The closer a believer walks with God, the more honestly he sees the corruption of the flesh and the more completely he must depend upon Christ. Immature religion boasts about its own strength because it has not seen itself under enough light. Spiritual reality says, “I know that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.” The believer who learns that lesson is not ruined. He is finally ready to stop trusting the wrong source.
Chapter Four: The Good I Would, I Do Not
Paul says, “For the good that I would I do not.” The good he wills is not performed. This is the painful contradiction between desire and action. Every honest believer knows the sting of it. He wants to pray, but distraction comes. He wants to speak gently, but irritation rises. He wants to walk in faith, but anxiety grabs the wheel. He wants to forgive, but the old wound keeps presenting evidence. He wants to be content, but covetousness whispers from the corner. He wants to witness boldly, but fear tightens his throat. He wants to meditate on Scripture, but the mind runs after vanity like a dog chasing trash in the wind.
This is not because the inward man hates good. Paul says he wills good. The failure occurs because sin remains present in the flesh. The believer is a divided man in experience until glory: redeemed inwardly, indwelt by the Spirit, alive unto God, yet still carrying a mortal body with flesh that resists God. This is why the Christian life is not a simple matter of sincerity. Many sincere Christians have been beaten half to death by their own sincerity because they thought sincerity alone could do what only the Spirit can do. Sincerity without spiritual power becomes a well-dressed failure. You can be sincere and still be sincerely unable in the flesh.
Paul is teaching the believer not to make the flesh the engine of holiness. The good that he would, he does not, when the battle is fought on fleshly ground. This is why Romans 6 gives reckoning and yielding under grace, Romans 7 exposes the failure of flesh under law, and Romans 8 brings the walk after the Spirit. The Bible does not leave the believer in Romans 7 as though this groan is the whole Christian life. But it does make him pass through Romans 7 so he stops lying about his own ability. The man who has never said, “how to perform I find not,” probably still thinks Adam can be trained.
Chapter Five: The Evil I Would Not, That I Do
Paul continues, “but the evil which I would not, that I do.” This is the other side of the conflict. Not only does the believer fail to perform the good he desires; he may also commit the evil he hates. This is the kind of honesty that religious performance hates. Religion prefers polished testimonies with all the mud edited out. The Bible tells the truth. A saved man can hate evil and still find himself doing it when he walks according to fleshly strength. That does not justify the evil. It exposes the enemy within.
The phrase “which I would not” matters. The renewed man does not approve the evil. He does not embrace it as his true desire. He does not call it home. He hates it. This hatred is part of the evidence of inward life. The lost man may hate consequences, embarrassment, exposure, disease, broken relationships, or judgment, but the believer hates the evil because it is evil before God. That is a different hatred. A criminal may hate prison without hating crime. A son may hate sin because it grieves the Father who loved him and saved him. Romans 7 shows the grief of a man who knows the difference.
Still, hatred of evil by itself is not enough to produce victory. A man can hate a chain and still be bound by it. He can hate the ditch and still fall into it. He can hate the old habit and still obey it if he keeps yielding the members and fighting by the flesh. That is why Paul’s honesty is so important. He does not say, “I hated evil, therefore victory automatically came.” He says, “the evil which I would not, that I do.” The will and hatred are present, but the flesh still fails. The cure is not pretending sin is harmless, nor pretending the struggle is absent. The cure is deliverance from the right source: Jesus Christ our Lord, applied in the life by the Spirit.
Chapter Six: Sin That Dwelleth in Me
Paul says again, “Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” This statement must be handled honestly. Paul is not dodging responsibility like Adam behind a tree. He is not saying, “It was not my fault.” He is identifying the source of the evil within his members. The renewed “I,” the inward man, consents to God’s truth and hates the evil. The sin that dwells in the flesh operates against that renewed desire. There is a real distinction between the believer’s new identity in Christ and the indwelling sin still present in the flesh.
This distinction is essential for sanity in the Christian life. If a believer identifies himself entirely with every evil motion in the flesh, he will live in despair and conclude he must not belong to Christ. If he denies the evil motions exist, he will become a hypocrite and call darkness light. Paul gives the biblical path. He acknowledges sin dwells in him, but he locates it in the flesh, not in the renewed inward man as his true identity. The believer can say, “That sin is in my flesh, and I am responsible to judge it, refuse it, mortify it, and yield to God; but that sin is not my new man in Christ.” That is not excuse-making. That is spiritual anatomy.
Indwelling sin is a terrible reality. It does not disappear because the believer knows doctrine, preaches sermons, writes commentaries, sings hymns, or separates from worldly religion. Sin dwells in the flesh and looks for occasions. It can operate in respectable forms as easily as scandalous forms. Pride can wear a pulpit robe. Envy can carry a hymnbook. Bitterness can quote verses. Lust can hide behind a clean reputation. Covetousness can call itself ministry ambition. The believer must not trust the flesh just because the flesh learned religious vocabulary. A snake is still a snake when it crawls through a Bible college library.
Chapter Seven: When I Would Do Good, Evil Is Present With Me
Paul says, “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.” He has discovered a principle operating in experience. Whenever he wills to do good, evil is present. Not occasionally. Not only on unusually difficult days. Present. The flesh does not take a vacation because the believer decided to obey God. In fact, often the resistance becomes more obvious when the believer sets his heart toward good. Try to pray seriously, and distraction suddenly grows muscles. Try to witness, and fear starts preaching. Try to forgive, and memory becomes a prosecuting attorney. Try to walk humbly, and pride volunteers to supervise humility.
This principle explains why new commitments often meet immediate opposition. A believer says, “I will read Scripture faithfully,” and suddenly the phone becomes a revival meeting for distractions. He says, “I will guard my tongue,” and irritation lines up at the door. He says, “I will separate from that sin,” and temptation sends flowers, memories, invitations, and excuses. Evil is present when he would do good. That does not mean obedience is impossible. It means obedience requires spiritual warfare, not romantic notions about the flesh. The believer should not be shocked when resistance appears. He should be shocked if he thought the flesh would applaud.
Paul calls it “a law” because it operates with consistency. This is not random. There is a fixed principle of opposition in the members. The believer who does not understand this will misread the battle. He will think the presence of evil means his desire for good was fake. Not necessarily. Paul says evil is present precisely “when I would do good.” The conflict may intensify because the inward man is now moving against the old current. Dead fish float downstream without complaint. Living fish feel the current because they are swimming the other way. The presence of resistance does not prove you are not alive. It may prove you are no longer drifting.
Chapter Eight: I Delight in the Law of God After the Inward Man
Paul says, “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” This is one of the strongest evidences that the speaker is not an unregenerate rebel. The inward man delights in God’s law. Not merely fears punishment. Not merely admires religion. Not merely respects morality. Delights. The inward man sees that God’s law is holy, just, good, spiritual, and true. There is an inward agreement with God. The saved man may struggle in the members, but the inward man delights in what God says. The battlefield exists because there is a new man inside who loves the truth.
The “inward man” is the renewed inner life of the believer. Second Corinthians 4:16 says, “though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” Ephesians 3:16 speaks of being “strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.” The inward man is not Adam dressed in religious clothing. It is the inner reality of the saved man in relation to God. That inward man delights in God’s truth, wants righteousness, hates evil, and longs for deliverance. This delight is real, but it must not be confused with automatic performance. The inward delight must be strengthened by the Spirit and expressed through yielded members.
This delight also exposes counterfeit Christianity. A man who has no inward delight in God’s truth, no grief over sin, no desire for righteousness, no hatred of evil, and no concern for obedience has no right to hide behind Romans 7. Paul’s struggle is not between loving sin and fearing consequences. It is between delighting in God’s law inwardly and finding another law in his members resisting that delight. Romans 7 is not the diary of a hypocrite who loves his sin and wants a verse to protect it. It is the confession of a man whose inward heart loves God’s truth but whose flesh still fights like a condemned criminal on the way to execution.
Chapter Nine: Another Law in My Members
Paul says, “But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind.” Here is the battlefield named plainly. There is the law of the mind—the renewed mind agreeing with God—and another law in the members. This other law is not God’s law. It is the principle of sin operating in the bodily members, pulling against the renewed mind. It wars. It does not debate politely. It does not send a memo. It wars. The Christian life includes warfare inside the believer, not merely opposition from the world and the devil outside him. Some of the fiercest battles are fought behind the ribs.
This other law brings the man “into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” Captivity is strong language. Paul is describing the experience of defeat when the law in the members overpowers the resolve of the mind. This is why willpower alone cannot win. The mind may agree with God and still be carried into captivity when the believer relies on fleshly strength. The enemy in the members has experience, strategy, memory, appetite, and old roads already worn into the ground. You cannot defeat that enemy by telling him you feel serious this time. He has heard that speech before.
But Romans 7’s captivity is not the final word. The chapter is moving toward the cry, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” and the answer, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Then Romans 8 opens with no condemnation and the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The war in the members is real, but it is not bigger than Christ. The believer must learn the lesson of Romans 7 so he stops trusting the mind’s approval, the will’s desire, and the flesh’s promises as sufficient power. The mind may know the right thing. The will may want the right thing. But victory comes only as the believer walks in the Spirit and refuses confidence in the flesh.
Conclusion
Romans 7:18–23 gives the Christian one of the most honest maps of the internal battlefield ever written. In the flesh dwelleth no good thing. The will may be present, but performance is not found in self. The believer may desire good and fail to do it. He may hate evil and still find himself doing it. Sin dwells in the flesh, evil is present when he would do good, and another law in the members wars against the law of the mind. That is not pleasant doctrine, but it is true doctrine. The Holy Ghost tells the truth because only truth leads to deliverance.
This passage also guards the believer from despair and from pride. It guards him from despair by showing that inward conflict does not mean he is lost. The inward man delights in the law of God. The renewed mind consents to God’s truth. The hatred of evil and desire for good are real evidences of life. But it guards him from pride by showing that desire alone is not victory, knowledge alone is not victory, and the flesh contains no good thing. The saved man must never trust the flesh, even when the flesh sounds religious. Adam in a choir robe is still Adam.
The war in the members drives the believer away from self-confidence and toward Christ. Romans 7 is not a home address; it is a battlefield report leading to deliverance. The believer must not excuse sin, but neither should he pretend the flesh has improved. He must reckon the old man crucified, yield his members unto God, walk in the Spirit, and look to Jesus Christ our Lord for deliverance. The flesh is a traitor in the camp, the mind may consent to truth, and the inward man may delight in God, but the power for victory is not found in the old nature. The answer is not better flesh. The answer is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Romans 7:18–23 Commentary – The War in My Members
The War in My Members
Key Passage: Romans 7:18–23
Romans VerseQuest Commentary
Essay 46: The War in My Members
Text: Romans 7:18–23
Introduction
Romans 7:18–23 says, “For 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. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But 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.” If Romans 7 had been written by a modern religious salesman, this passage would have been deleted, softened, footnoted into meaninglessness, or replaced with a smiling testimony about continuous victory and a five-step plan for never struggling again. But the Holy Ghost does not sell plastic halos to church people. He tells the truth. Paul opens the believer’s chest, lays the inward conflict on the table, and shows that the saved man has a renewed inward man that delights in God’s law while still carrying flesh in which dwelleth no good thing.
This is one of the most honest descriptions of the Christian’s internal conflict in the entire Bible. Paul is not writing as a lost man who loves sin, despises God, and has no inward desire for righteousness. He says, “to will is present with me.” He says, “the good that I would.” He says, “the evil which I would not.” He says, “I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” That is not the vocabulary of a spiritually dead man wallowing in sin like a hog in warm mud. That is the vocabulary of a saved man who knows the law is spiritual, knows the commandment is holy, consents unto the law that it is good, and yet discovers another law in his members fighting against the law of his mind. The struggle does not prove he is lost. It proves there is a real inward man that hates what the flesh still tries to perform.
Romans 7:18–23 is not an excuse for sin. It is not a couch for lazy saints, a blanket for carnality, or a permission slip for defeat. Paul is not saying, “I struggle, therefore I may as well surrender.” He is showing the futility of seeking victory through the flesh, even religious flesh under a holy law. Desire alone cannot produce victory. Willpower cannot sanctify Adam. Good intentions cannot put the old nature in a coffin. A saved man may will what is right and still find no power in himself to perform it. That is why Romans 7 must lead into Romans 8. The war in the members cannot be won by admiring the law, condemning the flesh, or making another promise at the altar. Deliverance comes through Jesus Christ our Lord, and the walk comes by the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The diagnosis is ugly because the cure is glorious.
Chapter One: In My Flesh Dwelleth No Good Thing
Paul begins, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing.” That parenthesis is vital. Paul does not say there is no good thing in him absolutely, as though the new man, the indwelling Spirit, the word of God, and the life of Christ were absent. He qualifies the statement: “that is, in my flesh.” The flesh is the old Adamic nature, the fallen principle still tied to the mortal body, the corrupt factory that has not improved one inch since the day the sinner got saved. The flesh can be religious, educated, emotional, disciplined, respectable, and publicly polished, but it remains flesh. John 3:6 says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Flesh does not become spirit by attending church regularly.
“In my flesh dwelleth no good thing” is not low self-esteem; it is sound doctrine. Modern religion wants to rehabilitate the flesh, understand the flesh, affirm the flesh, heal the flesh, motivate the flesh, and give the flesh a platform to share its journey. God says no good thing dwells in it. That does not mean the flesh cannot perform outwardly moral actions, use religious language, give money, behave politely, or impress other people. It means there is nothing in the flesh acceptable to God as a source of spiritual life, righteousness, holiness, or victory. Romans 8:8 will say, “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Cannot means cannot, even when dressed in church clothes and carrying a King James Bible.
This truth is devastating to pride and liberating to faith. As long as a believer thinks there is some good reserve in the flesh that can be trained into holiness, he will keep returning to the same bankrupt bank expecting a withdrawal. The flesh promises funds it does not possess. It signs checks marked “victory,” “discipline,” “purity,” “patience,” “prayer,” and “obedience,” but heaven stamps them all insufficient. God’s answer is not to improve the flesh but to crucify the old man, reckon him dead, and walk in the Spirit. You do not get apples from a thorn bush by hanging fruit on it with string. You get fruit from life. The flesh has no good thing dwelling in it, and every attempt to sanctify it is spiritual taxidermy.
Chapter Two: To Will Is Present With Me
Paul says, “for to will is present with me.” Here is the saved man’s inward desire. He wants what is right. He wills the good. He agrees with God. This is one of the reasons Romans 7 cannot honestly be reduced to an unregenerate man with no spiritual life. The lost man may will self-improvement, moral respectability, religious success, escape from consequences, or relief from guilt, but he does not delight in the law of God after the inward man. Romans 8:7 says, “the carnal mind is enmity against God.” The will toward God’s good in Romans 7 belongs to a man who has light, conviction, and an inward man that responds to God’s truth.
But willing is not performing. That distinction exposes a thousand shallow sermons. Many preachers act as though victory over sin is merely a matter of wanting it badly enough. If you really wanted to pray, you would pray. If you really wanted purity, you would have it. If you really wanted holiness, you would produce it. Paul says, “to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” The will may be present while the power is absent. Desire can be real and still insufficient. A man can want to lift a thousand pounds and still be crushed under the bar. Wanting does not create strength. Wanting without power becomes frustration.
This should help believers understand why spiritual victory cannot be built on resolutions alone. Resolutions have their place when governed by truth, but the flesh can make noble promises and then break them before lunch. A Christian may genuinely desire a disciplined prayer life, a clean mind, a guarded tongue, a patient spirit, a faithful witness, and a separated walk. Yet if he attempts to produce these things by fleshly determination under law, he will discover the same bitter lesson Paul records: “how to perform that which is good I find not.” The believer does not need merely a stronger will. He needs a stronger principle of life. The will may point toward the battlefield, but the Spirit supplies the power to fight.
Chapter Three: How to Perform I Find Not
Paul says, “but how to perform that which is good I find not.” That statement is the graveyard of self-confidence. Paul is not ignorant of what good is. He is not confused about the law. He is not uncertain about God’s standard. He knows the good, wills the good, approves the good, and yet finds no ability in himself to perform it. The problem is not information. The problem is power. The law can tell a man what to do, and the renewed mind can agree that it ought to be done, but the flesh cannot perform spiritual good acceptable to God. The commandment can point to the mountain. It cannot give Adam legs strong enough to climb it.
This is why legalism produces misery when applied to sanctification. Legalism assumes the believer can perform the good if the command is made sharp enough, the threat heavy enough, the accountability strict enough, or the shame public enough. Paul says the issue is deeper. The performance is not found in the flesh. Law says, “Do.” Flesh says, “I will.” Sin says, “No, you won’t.” The result is frustration. Galatians 3:3 asks, “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” That question ought to be carved over the entrance of every church that tries to use grace for salvation and law for Christian power. You do not begin with resurrection and finish with a corpse.
Paul’s confession also destroys the fantasy that spiritual maturity means the absence of inward weakness. Maturity does not mean a man has discovered good in his flesh. Maturity means he has stopped expecting good from it. The closer a believer walks with God, the more honestly he sees the corruption of the flesh and the more completely he must depend upon Christ. Immature religion boasts about its own strength because it has not seen itself under enough light. Spiritual reality says, “I know that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.” The believer who learns that lesson is not ruined. He is finally ready to stop trusting the wrong source.
Chapter Four: The Good I Would, I Do Not
Paul says, “For the good that I would I do not.” The good he wills is not performed. This is the painful contradiction between desire and action. Every honest believer knows the sting of it. He wants to pray, but distraction comes. He wants to speak gently, but irritation rises. He wants to walk in faith, but anxiety grabs the wheel. He wants to forgive, but the old wound keeps presenting evidence. He wants to be content, but covetousness whispers from the corner. He wants to witness boldly, but fear tightens his throat. He wants to meditate on Scripture, but the mind runs after vanity like a dog chasing trash in the wind.
This is not because the inward man hates good. Paul says he wills good. The failure occurs because sin remains present in the flesh. The believer is a divided man in experience until glory: redeemed inwardly, indwelt by the Spirit, alive unto God, yet still carrying a mortal body with flesh that resists God. This is why the Christian life is not a simple matter of sincerity. Many sincere Christians have been beaten half to death by their own sincerity because they thought sincerity alone could do what only the Spirit can do. Sincerity without spiritual power becomes a well-dressed failure. You can be sincere and still be sincerely unable in the flesh.
Paul is teaching the believer not to make the flesh the engine of holiness. The good that he would, he does not, when the battle is fought on fleshly ground. This is why Romans 6 gives reckoning and yielding under grace, Romans 7 exposes the failure of flesh under law, and Romans 8 brings the walk after the Spirit. The Bible does not leave the believer in Romans 7 as though this groan is the whole Christian life. But it does make him pass through Romans 7 so he stops lying about his own ability. The man who has never said, “how to perform I find not,” probably still thinks Adam can be trained.
Chapter Five: The Evil I Would Not, That I Do
Paul continues, “but the evil which I would not, that I do.” This is the other side of the conflict. Not only does the believer fail to perform the good he desires; he may also commit the evil he hates. This is the kind of honesty that religious performance hates. Religion prefers polished testimonies with all the mud edited out. The Bible tells the truth. A saved man can hate evil and still find himself doing it when he walks according to fleshly strength. That does not justify the evil. It exposes the enemy within.
The phrase “which I would not” matters. The renewed man does not approve the evil. He does not embrace it as his true desire. He does not call it home. He hates it. This hatred is part of the evidence of inward life. The lost man may hate consequences, embarrassment, exposure, disease, broken relationships, or judgment, but the believer hates the evil because it is evil before God. That is a different hatred. A criminal may hate prison without hating crime. A son may hate sin because it grieves the Father who loved him and saved him. Romans 7 shows the grief of a man who knows the difference.
Still, hatred of evil by itself is not enough to produce victory. A man can hate a chain and still be bound by it. He can hate the ditch and still fall into it. He can hate the old habit and still obey it if he keeps yielding the members and fighting by the flesh. That is why Paul’s honesty is so important. He does not say, “I hated evil, therefore victory automatically came.” He says, “the evil which I would not, that I do.” The will and hatred are present, but the flesh still fails. The cure is not pretending sin is harmless, nor pretending the struggle is absent. The cure is deliverance from the right source: Jesus Christ our Lord, applied in the life by the Spirit.
Chapter Six: Sin That Dwelleth in Me
Paul says again, “Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” This statement must be handled honestly. Paul is not dodging responsibility like Adam behind a tree. He is not saying, “It was not my fault.” He is identifying the source of the evil within his members. The renewed “I,” the inward man, consents to God’s truth and hates the evil. The sin that dwells in the flesh operates against that renewed desire. There is a real distinction between the believer’s new identity in Christ and the indwelling sin still present in the flesh.
This distinction is essential for sanity in the Christian life. If a believer identifies himself entirely with every evil motion in the flesh, he will live in despair and conclude he must not belong to Christ. If he denies the evil motions exist, he will become a hypocrite and call darkness light. Paul gives the biblical path. He acknowledges sin dwells in him, but he locates it in the flesh, not in the renewed inward man as his true identity. The believer can say, “That sin is in my flesh, and I am responsible to judge it, refuse it, mortify it, and yield to God; but that sin is not my new man in Christ.” That is not excuse-making. That is spiritual anatomy.
Indwelling sin is a terrible reality. It does not disappear because the believer knows doctrine, preaches sermons, writes commentaries, sings hymns, or separates from worldly religion. Sin dwells in the flesh and looks for occasions. It can operate in respectable forms as easily as scandalous forms. Pride can wear a pulpit robe. Envy can carry a hymnbook. Bitterness can quote verses. Lust can hide behind a clean reputation. Covetousness can call itself ministry ambition. The believer must not trust the flesh just because the flesh learned religious vocabulary. A snake is still a snake when it crawls through a Bible college library.
Chapter Seven: When I Would Do Good, Evil Is Present With Me
Paul says, “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.” He has discovered a principle operating in experience. Whenever he wills to do good, evil is present. Not occasionally. Not only on unusually difficult days. Present. The flesh does not take a vacation because the believer decided to obey God. In fact, often the resistance becomes more obvious when the believer sets his heart toward good. Try to pray seriously, and distraction suddenly grows muscles. Try to witness, and fear starts preaching. Try to forgive, and memory becomes a prosecuting attorney. Try to walk humbly, and pride volunteers to supervise humility.
This principle explains why new commitments often meet immediate opposition. A believer says, “I will read Scripture faithfully,” and suddenly the phone becomes a revival meeting for distractions. He says, “I will guard my tongue,” and irritation lines up at the door. He says, “I will separate from that sin,” and temptation sends flowers, memories, invitations, and excuses. Evil is present when he would do good. That does not mean obedience is impossible. It means obedience requires spiritual warfare, not romantic notions about the flesh. The believer should not be shocked when resistance appears. He should be shocked if he thought the flesh would applaud.
Paul calls it “a law” because it operates with consistency. This is not random. There is a fixed principle of opposition in the members. The believer who does not understand this will misread the battle. He will think the presence of evil means his desire for good was fake. Not necessarily. Paul says evil is present precisely “when I would do good.” The conflict may intensify because the inward man is now moving against the old current. Dead fish float downstream without complaint. Living fish feel the current because they are swimming the other way. The presence of resistance does not prove you are not alive. It may prove you are no longer drifting.
Chapter Eight: I Delight in the Law of God After the Inward Man
Paul says, “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” This is one of the strongest evidences that the speaker is not an unregenerate rebel. The inward man delights in God’s law. Not merely fears punishment. Not merely admires religion. Not merely respects morality. Delights. The inward man sees that God’s law is holy, just, good, spiritual, and true. There is an inward agreement with God. The saved man may struggle in the members, but the inward man delights in what God says. The battlefield exists because there is a new man inside who loves the truth.
The “inward man” is the renewed inner life of the believer. Second Corinthians 4:16 says, “though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” Ephesians 3:16 speaks of being “strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.” The inward man is not Adam dressed in religious clothing. It is the inner reality of the saved man in relation to God. That inward man delights in God’s truth, wants righteousness, hates evil, and longs for deliverance. This delight is real, but it must not be confused with automatic performance. The inward delight must be strengthened by the Spirit and expressed through yielded members.
This delight also exposes counterfeit Christianity. A man who has no inward delight in God’s truth, no grief over sin, no desire for righteousness, no hatred of evil, and no concern for obedience has no right to hide behind Romans 7. Paul’s struggle is not between loving sin and fearing consequences. It is between delighting in God’s law inwardly and finding another law in his members resisting that delight. Romans 7 is not the diary of a hypocrite who loves his sin and wants a verse to protect it. It is the confession of a man whose inward heart loves God’s truth but whose flesh still fights like a condemned criminal on the way to execution.
Chapter Nine: Another Law in My Members
Paul says, “But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind.” Here is the battlefield named plainly. There is the law of the mind—the renewed mind agreeing with God—and another law in the members. This other law is not God’s law. It is the principle of sin operating in the bodily members, pulling against the renewed mind. It wars. It does not debate politely. It does not send a memo. It wars. The Christian life includes warfare inside the believer, not merely opposition from the world and the devil outside him. Some of the fiercest battles are fought behind the ribs.
This other law brings the man “into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” Captivity is strong language. Paul is describing the experience of defeat when the law in the members overpowers the resolve of the mind. This is why willpower alone cannot win. The mind may agree with God and still be carried into captivity when the believer relies on fleshly strength. The enemy in the members has experience, strategy, memory, appetite, and old roads already worn into the ground. You cannot defeat that enemy by telling him you feel serious this time. He has heard that speech before.
But Romans 7’s captivity is not the final word. The chapter is moving toward the cry, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” and the answer, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Then Romans 8 opens with no condemnation and the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The war in the members is real, but it is not bigger than Christ. The believer must learn the lesson of Romans 7 so he stops trusting the mind’s approval, the will’s desire, and the flesh’s promises as sufficient power. The mind may know the right thing. The will may want the right thing. But victory comes only as the believer walks in the Spirit and refuses confidence in the flesh.
Conclusion
Romans 7:18–23 gives the Christian one of the most honest maps of the internal battlefield ever written. In the flesh dwelleth no good thing. The will may be present, but performance is not found in self. The believer may desire good and fail to do it. He may hate evil and still find himself doing it. Sin dwells in the flesh, evil is present when he would do good, and another law in the members wars against the law of the mind. That is not pleasant doctrine, but it is true doctrine. The Holy Ghost tells the truth because only truth leads to deliverance.
This passage also guards the believer from despair and from pride. It guards him from despair by showing that inward conflict does not mean he is lost. The inward man delights in the law of God. The renewed mind consents to God’s truth. The hatred of evil and desire for good are real evidences of life. But it guards him from pride by showing that desire alone is not victory, knowledge alone is not victory, and the flesh contains no good thing. The saved man must never trust the flesh, even when the flesh sounds religious. Adam in a choir robe is still Adam.
The war in the members drives the believer away from self-confidence and toward Christ. Romans 7 is not a home address; it is a battlefield report leading to deliverance. The believer must not excuse sin, but neither should he pretend the flesh has improved. He must reckon the old man crucified, yield his members unto God, walk in the Spirit, and look to Jesus Christ our Lord for deliverance. The flesh is a traitor in the camp, the mind may consent to truth, and the inward man may delight in God, but the power for victory is not found in the old nature. The answer is not better flesh. The answer is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Romans Verse-by-Verse Commentary
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Romans 1:1 Commentary – Paul, a Servant of Jesus Christ
Romans 1:2-4 Commentary – The Gospel Promised Beforehand
Romans 1:5–7 Commentary – Grace, Apostleship, and Obedience to the Faith