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NASB | Romans 7:15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Romans 7:15 For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled and bewildered by them]. I do not practice what I want to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate [and yielding to my human nature, my worldliness--my sinful capacity]. |
Bible Question: Is Paul speaking from being a believer or his unsaved perspective in his battle with sin? |
Bible Answer: Please consider the other possibility: that Paul as not talking about himself, but about an unregenerate man, a wretched man still wrestling with the law, who has not yet found the Deliverer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul was an apostle, and he would likely say as John did, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves”. But would he go so far as to say that he always did wrong and never did right? He preached the gospel (Romans 1:1,13,15; Romans 15:19). Was that not a right thing? On the other hand, he did not covet (Acts 20:33) and that is at least one example of his ability to resist a wrong thing. Paul endeavored to have a conscience void of offense toward God or man (Acts 24:16) and the record of his life shows that he was largely successful (2 Timothy 4:7). It is hard enough to accept that all unregenerate men live as Paul described in Romans 7. I wonder how well it describes the way it was with Cornelius, “a centurion of the band called the Italian band, a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always (Acts 10:1,2). It is hard to see how it could even apply to Paul before his conversion. He describes his life in Judaism (Philippians 3:6) and "touching the righteousness which is in the law", he saw himself as "blameless". I think that in Romans 7 Paul is describing the man who would try to attain righteousness by means of the law. He is repeating the point made in chapter 4 and laying the groundwork for the fact the solution is found, not in a continual struggle to keep the law, but in faith in Christ. In spite of the fact he is using the words “I” and “me”, it is apparent he is putting himself in the place of a person who would seek to be justified by works. That person will not succeed. I write here to try to dispel the notion that a believer cannot resist sin and cannot live a righteous life. John would not agree. He says those who have been born of God do not practice sin (1 John 3:9). The previous verse used stronger language. All in all, John says that sin can occur in a believers life, it is neither persistent nor inevitable. The believer can live a righteous life (1 John 3:7). When he writes to us that we sin not (1 John 2:1) he is not proposing an impossibility. Another passage which seems to pose a related problem is Galatians 5:17 which in some translations seems to say that we cannot do what we should. For this I recommend that we consider the NLT rendering. It says, “The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict”. If we think that Paul had no ability to do right and no ability to resist wrong, we may think that we are also in the same situation. I submit to you that Paul was not. I submit that it is not even the situation with all unregenerate men. It is the situation with one who is attempting to attain righteousness by keeping the law. |