Prior Book | Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | Romans 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Romans 7:24 Wretched and miserable man that I am! Who will [rescue me and] set me free from this body of death [this corrupt, mortal existence]? |
Subject: Who is the Wretched Man? |
Bible Note: Greetings Steve! I have been reading Piper's messages on this passage. Thus far, I really like what he has to say about the context of the passage. He does an excellent job exploring it. But, I have come up against two passages in his third sermon that don't make sense. Here is the first: 1) "I stressed last time - and I stress it again briefly - that the point of this text is not that we should make peace with sin, but that we should make war on sin in our own lives and know how to understand ourselves and how to respond when we suffer tactical defeats in the war. Chapter six makes clear that we will win the war against sin (see 6:14). Chapter seven makes clear that it will not be without tactical defeats that will make us love our Savior all the more. It's the earnestness of the war and the response to defeat that show your Christianity, not perfection." In short, Piper argues that Rom. 6 promises us a future victory over sin. However, that is not what the text actually says. It says that we have been set free (past tense) from sin. It says that our old man has been crucified (not will be crucified). 2) In the notes at the bottom of part 3, he writes this: "I am aware that one of the main arguments for a pre-Christian interpretation is that a Christian of the Romans 6 variety cannot be "sold under sin" (7:14, "I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin"). I take "sold" here to be an image of "sold into slavery." But I take it to be a temporary experience of what Paul says not to let happen in Gal. 5:1, "Keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." I think Paul would have said that is what Peter let happen in Gal. 2:12ff. So my understanding is that we are not in constant slavery to sin and that we have been decisively manumitted out of that state and condition, but that we slip back into it from time to time, and sin is spoken of as "enslaving" us in one sense in those times." This doesn't do justice to what Paul says in Rom. 7:14-25. He doesn't say that he sometimes fails to do what he wants, or sometimes does what he doesn't want to do. He uses present tense verbs here. He continually does what he doesn't want to do. While Rom. 6 certainly allows for the possibility that we might obey the 'sarx' and make ourselves slaves again to sin, nothing in Rom. 7 indicates that the 'wretched man' ever obeys God rather than the 'sarx'. Just some thoughts on what I have read thus far. I will post again if anything jumps out at me in the last three parts. Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |