Is Paul Discussing the Christian Experience in Romans 7?
Whether or not Rom 7:14-25 is reflective of Paul’s experience as a believer, is not as important as understanding the truth he wanted to convey to his readers. As such, on the heels of using divorce as an illustration of the believer’s freedom from sin, the apostle seeks to show the implications of being under the dominion of sin. In effect, he shows the impossibility of one, who is under sin, to be simultaneously under grace and, by a clear implication, vice-versa. Here he effectively elaborates on statements made in 6:16, 21.
Before we continue, please note, there are no gray areas in Paul’s discussion here; it is either this or that, and if it is this it is certainly not that, and if it is that it is certainly not this. The apostle does not appeal to either looseness or moderation – there is no “mean way” – but it is to the extreme that he makes his argument. However, that does not mean the point he wishes to make is not factual but rather reinforces it.
Paul first wants it understood that the problem is not the Law but our sinful, unregenerate condition (vss.7,13). In addition, since the problem resides in sin, freedom from sin can only be found through Christ (vss. 24-25a).
With the backdrop of divorce as an illustration (7:1-6), in Rom 7:7-25 Paul elaborates on a point he left off on in 6:25, that sin certainly and inevitably results in death, and recalls his assertion in 6:16, that whomever we obey, that is the one to whom we are enslaved, “either sin resulting in death or obedience resulting in righteousness,” each at the exclusion of the other. Rom 7 obviously speaks of one whose end is death (v.13; as such, I must disagree with the NET's sectional heading for Rom 7).
Regarding 7:25b: It is not an immediate response that refers to the first portion of the verse (i.e. 25a), but refers back to the whole gist of his argument in this chapter (i.e. he is "unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin").
The apostle presents not only the objective implications of his teaching, but the subjective as well (7:7; cf. 6:1; Paul’s theology is always towards the practical, not merely abstract or esoteric). Whether or not one views ch.7 as depicting his experience as a believer or not is actually beside the point. What he is depicting is what clearly one’s experience ought not to be if he has been “baptized into Christ” and “baptized into his death” (6:4).
The thrust of the apostle’s argument in Rom 7 is this: if one is sinning, such a one is not “under grace” and, therefore, not saved (Rom 6:14).
If it is insisted that Rom 7 explains Paul’s experience as a believer, I would think one needs to be hard-pressed to explain how this experience is consistent with what the Bible affirms is the true state and experience of one who is “born again”. For example:
- sin…produced in me all kinds of wrong desires.”
- “…sin became alive and I died…”
- “…sin…deceived me and through it I died.”
- “…sin…produced death in me…”
- “…I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin.”
- “…sin lives in me…”
- “...nothing good live in me.”
- “…I want to do good, but I cannot…”
- “…I do the very evil I do not want!”
- "…sin…lives in me.”
- “…evil is present with me.”
- “…captive to the law of sin…” Note that in this verse, if it is understood as the apostle’s experience as a believer, Paul admits he is in a struggle with sin but also admits he losses that struggle because sin consistently and always (the only way to understand it in view of the whole context) overcomes him.
- “…I serve the law of sin.”
Are we to understand that this is the expected and normal experience of believers, to be “unspiritual and sold into slavery to sin”? Is this what is meant by being under grace? Is Rom 7 what is meant by the “new creation” (2 Cor 5:21)?
“Recently a leading Calvinistic exponent, Anthony Hoekema, Calvin Seminary professor emeritus, reversed himself and declared that he no longer believes Romans 7 describes a regenerate person. He stated: ‘The mood of frustration and defeat that permeates this section does not comport with the mood of victory in terms of which Paul usually describes the Christian life. The person pictured is still a captive of the law of sin (7:23), whereas the believer described in 6:17-18 is no longer a slave to sin’.” (See http://www.fwponline.cc/v10n1/v10n1reasoner.html)
If Paul meant that “Believers are justified from sin, yet sin remains in them”? How is 1 John 1:8-10 is to be interpreted?
If Paul’s experience is one who is “born again”, how can he sustain his thesis that “just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness”?
Joshua and Osborne,
It seems to me that the apostle is stating that without the Holy Spirit one is not a believer unless the experience of a believer can be identified as I suggested by the list given as examples.
If one is under grace being a believer, how is it that he can be overcome by sin in such a way as to be "sold under sin" (7:14 KJV), and "in captivity to the law of sin" (7:23 KJV)?
It is agreed that without the Holy Spirit one cannot overcome sin; however, it is also true that one under grace is neither, simultaneoulsy, sold nor in captivity to sin. If enslaved to sin, one is outside of grace and, therefore, destitute of the Spirit; there is no Holy Spirit residing in him.
As such, I think Romans 7 doesn not depict the "fact that without the Holy Spirit, the believer cannot obey", which is, nevertheless, true. It depicts one who does not have the Spirit and is outside of grace. That is why Rom 8 begins with the fact that believers, "them who are in Christ" who experience a "walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit" are, therefore, not under "condemnation" (i.e. doom, the sentence of eternal death, hell) in contratst to those depicted in the experience of Rom 7.
Now whether the apostle in Rom 7 is explaining his own experience seems irrelevant. What is clear to me is that he depicts the experience of those outside of grace seeking to obey the law in order to obtain favor with God. Note Rom 8:14. Those led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Rom 7 does not depict one being led by the Spirit, does it?
atdCross
http://atdcross.blogspot.com/
http://evangelicalarminians.org/