Romans 7:16-17 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Paul knows the law is good but the problem is keeping it. Any honest person will know that he or she cannot keep the law very well. We are weak in our ability and have inherited the problem of decay and death from Adam and Eve. Those who believe in God and have trusted in Jesus for salvation should in our humility realize that we cannot live up to the demands of the law by our own human effort. We want to do what is right but fail because of our weakness and even rebellion. Paul personifies sin here as a thing that lives in us and causes us to disobey. In reality, sin in this situation is merely on our created physical situation and our rebellion against God. It is the deep condition often termed original sin and the acts of sin that stem from this in rejection of God’s sovereignty. In our thinking in our “good times,” we want to obey God. But along comes a temptation and our weak flesh, distorted by self-sovereignty or self-preservation, gives in and rebels against God’s commandments. From a human perspective, there is no answer for this. The only answer is a new resurrection life which can begin in this lifetime through submission to Jesus Christ’s sovereignty as Lord. This is the “newness of life” to which Paul referred in 6:4.
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