I have heard many times people using the
words of Paul in Romans 7:24 saying: “Wretched man that I’m. Who will deliver
me from this body of death?” They use them in a way that implies that these
words are applying to us, the born again Christians. They use them like we
Christians are in a kind of slavery to sin (it is in the same context, just a
few verses earlier, that Paul says “I’m carnal, sold under sin” (Romans 7:14).
They say then: “O wretched men we are”, “we are sinners, sold under sin”, “who
will deliver us from this?”
In this article I submit that though people who love
the Lord and want to follow Him – and only to such people this article refers
to - can fall into many mistakes, they are NOT sold under sin, nor are they
wretched men waiting for a deliverer. The deliverer has come and His name is
Jesus Christ! He has opened the door of our prison and made us free. We are not
“wretched men” any more. We WERE once wretched men when we were dead in the
trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). But now we are not dead anymore! God made
us alive together in Christ, as a gift, only on the base of our faith
(Ephesians 2:5)! Now we are “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a peculiar people; that we should show forth the praises of him who has
called us out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). This is the
truth of God’s Word.
But then we are right to ask what is this pitiful
situation that Paul is describing in Romans 7? To whom is he referring to? Why
is he using this passage like it would apply for himself and why is he speaking
in present tense like it is something that is happening now? Well, we do not
need to go far to find the answer. All that we need is to read the context of
the above phrases, the whole of Romans 7. Having a look at Romans 7 shows that
its main topic is the law and how it was impossible for somebody that had only
the sinful nature of Adam to fulfill this law. To say this, Paul is using first
singular and present tense figuratively,
not literally. In other words though it appears that he says what he says for
himself personally, he only does this figuratively, putting himself into the
position of those to whom these things were directly applicable. How do we know
this? Let’s read for example the verses 7-9 of Romans 7:
Romans
7:7-9
“What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. No, I had not known sin,
but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, you shall
not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all
manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the
commandment came, sin revived, and I died.”
The age “without the law”, was before the giving of
the law, hundreds of years before the birth of Paul. So when Paul says “I was
alive without the law once” he is using the first singular person (“I”) only
figuratively. He was not alive at that time, but he figuratively puts himself
into the position of the people who were alive saying “I was alive”. Same also
for the next part of that passage that says: “but when the commandment came,
sin revived and I died”. The commandment came with Moses and Paul was not alive
then either. It is obvious then that he is using himself (first singular)
FIGURATIVELY, not literally. The same pattern continues throughout Romans 7.
Paul uses himself and many times present tense to describe what was a PAST
situation. The reason he does this is to make the situation more vivid and the
contrast with the present situation (which is described in Romans 8) even more
clearer. His main topic in Romans 7 is the without Christ situation. Before
Christ the law was present, and though this law was good and holy and just it
was impossible to be kept by people who had only their sinful, carnal1, nature. As he characteristically said:
Romans
7:12, 14
“Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good …..
the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under
sin.”
Was Paul carnal when he was writing these things? Did
he have only the old Adamic sinful nature? Was he “sold under sin”? The answer
is empathically NO. Paul, as any born again believer, had Christ living in him.
Christ had made him free. He was now born again and saved. To what therefore is
he referring to when he describes himself as “sold under sin”? He refers to the
age of the law, the main subject of Romans 7. In the age of the law, there was
no new birth! There was no new nature! All these are things available to us
after the sacrifice of Jesus but before that, in the age of the law, they were
not available. Thus the only that people had at this time was the old sinful
nature. Though the law was good and holy and just it was a spiritual law while
they were carnal, sold under sin. When Paul therefore says “but I am carnal,
sold under sin” he is using himself and present tense figuratively, putting
himself into the place of those who lived in the age of the law, exactly as he
did in verse 7 with those who lived without the law, when he said “I was alive
without the law”. When Paul was writing Romans 7, he was a new creature as any
of us, who has believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Son of God,
also is:
2 Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old
things are passed away;”
Paul uses the same way of speaking (first singular,
present tense) throughout the remaining of Romans 7. Let’s read it:
Romans 7: 15-24
“For what I am doing, I do not understand. For
what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If,
then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But
now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in
me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells [this is a timeless truth: there
is nothing good in the old man, in the flesh]; for to will is present with me,
but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do,
I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I
will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in 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 according to 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. O wretched man that I am!
Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
What Paul is describing is a miserable situation. If
you don’t take into account what is the context of the passage and if you
ignore and discount the new birth realities you will get miserable too. You too
you will cry “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of
death?”. But Paul says all that he says to describe the situation before
Christ. It is a situation longing for a deliverer. Yes, before Christ all of us
would cry “O wretched men that we are. Who will deliver us from the body of
this death”. But the good news is that some 2000 years ago the deliverer came!!
His name is Jesus Christ! Paul does not stop to the question: “O wretched man
that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” but he immediately
continues with the answer and here it is:
Romans 8:1-4
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. For
the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus HAS MADE ME FREE FROM THE LAW
OF SIN AND DEATH. For what the law could not do in that
it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the
flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who
do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
There was a time when we were slaves, sold under sin.
But no more! By believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, He freed us from this
slavery. Now we have a new nature, Christ in us. Now we are FREE. Now we are righteous!
To summarize: here is the question of Paul in Romans
7:24:
“O
wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?””
And here is the answer just 2 verses later:
“the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus HAS MADE ME FREE FROM THE LAW
OF SIN AND DEATH.”
And
again Galatians 5:1
“Stand fast therefore in the freedom wherewith
Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with
the yoke of bondage.”
We are no longer slaves, sold under sin. We are no longer
“wretched men”. Instead Christ our deliverer, came, gave himself as ransom and
made us FREE. Next time therefore you will hear somebody crying “O wretched men
that we are!”, implying that this is what we are now, you know that such an
application to us is WRONG. Praise the Lord and thanks be to God always, who,
through His Son, has delivered us from this dreadful situation. Praise be to
him always that though we were once “dead in the trespasses and sins …. God,
being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even
when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ”
(Ephesians 2:1-5). Praise be to Him and to Jesus our deliverer always.