Romans 7:24-25 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 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.
Paul ends his monologue using the first person “I” with a cry for help. His cry is what every human must say in one way or another in order to find the new life described in ch. 8. We must come to the realization that we are wretched and without hope without God’s gracious intervention through Jesus Christ. There is no hope outside of Christ for the problem of sin. Paul is not saying here that no one can deliver him from this problem. We do not need to struggle under the bondage and deception of sin. There is a rescue, and it is found in Jesus Christ our Lord. The last statement in this chapter should be interpreted carefully and within the context of Paul’s argument in this chapter. He summarizes the problem in one statement. We want to do what is right, especially if we have a sense of duty and desire to be righteous. The problem of the flesh, however, keeps us trapped by sin. We need a new law to follow, one that we can actually fulfill. This law is the law of love. This can be followed with the help of the Holy Spirit. The individual laws are only a reflection of this core and central law. We can lose ourselves in trying to obey all the small laws and miss out on the more important and central law of love. The Holy Spirit will grow this law within us when we have submitted fully to the supremacy of Jesus Christ as Lord.
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