Sin and the Law

The Apostle Paul established the universality of sin, when he wrote his epistle to the Romans (Rom 3:23; 5:12). Both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin (Rom 1–3). From the inherited sin of Adam came a sin nature with a propensity to practice sin (Ps 51:5; Rom 5:12; Eph 2:3). Sin is lawlessness (1 Jn 3:4); and we know sin by the Law of God (Rom 3:20; 7:7).

The Law of God is good, righteous, spiritual, and holy (Rom 7:12, 14, 16). Most people hate the Law; but others imagine their “good” performance in obedience to the Law is acceptable to God despite their imperfections. Ironically, the Law actually arouses sinful passions (Rom 5:20; 7:5). It spurs on sinners to sin all the more. Sin, therefore, is what is killing us all (Rom 7:11). The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). It is only when one dies that he or she stops sinning; but then comes the judgment (Heb 9:27); and the sentence, which is the second death in the lake of fire, forever (Rev 20:11, 14–15).

Sin positions the sons of Adam at enmity with God (Rom 1:18; 5:9–11). We are sons of disobedience and children of wrath in our natural state (1 Cor 2:14; Eph 2:2–3). The natural man is hostile toward God because he knows God judges him according to the righteous standard of the Law. Man is guilty and polluted. Evil, not good, is present within the flesh of men (Gen 6:5; Rom 3:12). Man is already condemned, even before the coming day of judgment (Jn 3:18).

When an elect soul is baptized into Christ, he or she is moved from sin’s reign in the world (Rom 6). This is God’s gracious act of transferring one who is dead to God, in the domain of darkness, over and into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (Col 1:13). In this, the sinner is converted into being a saint, that is, set apart by God and for God’s purposes. He or she is sanctified in Christ Jesus (1 Cor 1:2).

The new man has a new relationship to God’s holy Law. He no longer hates the Law, which he now acknowledges is good. In his heart and mind, the Christian wants to keep the Law of God, which he acknowledges is righteous. Romans 7 is where the Apostle Paul explains the civil war going on inside the born again, who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit (Jn 14:17; Rom 8:9, 11).

Grace, not sin, reigns in the child of God (Rom 6:14–15). Grace is God’s work to benefit those He has chosen to save from the consequences of their sins (Eph 2:8–9). The Lord shows favor to those who do not deserve it but who receive it by God’s free will and gracious choice (Jn 1:12–23; Rom 11:5–6). God is good to Israel (Ps 73:1), Christ’s church (Gal 6:16); but the believer in Jesus has a problem as long as he possesses his body of sin and death. He still sins against the One who loved him.

The offense of the redeemed is grievous to the beneficiary of grace. His transgressions are no longer a crime against the Law and the God he hates; rather, it is the trespass or transgression against the One who has demonstrated His love for His own. Saved sinners love their Savior (1 Jn 4:19). For this reason, the Christian hates his sin. He or she wants to please God in thought, word, and deed (2 Cor 5:9).

The Christian’s civil war is between the flesh and the Spirit (Gal 5:17). Nothing good dwells in one’s sinful flesh (Rom 7:18); and yet the believer agrees with the Law over and against himself because He is learning the truth about Law and grace by the indwelling Spirit. He loathes himself, not in selfish self-pity, but in the recognition of his state in the world of sin. He knows it is very much better to be with the Lord (Phil 1:23); but he serves the living God, as an ambassador for Christ in this not hostile world (2 Cor 5:18–20). Condemned sinners have no affinity for saved saints (Jn 15:18–25).

Allegiance to Jesus Christ is foremost for the one indwelt by the Spirit of Christ (Phil 2:11). The point Paul makes in Romans 7 is that this tension is our Christian reality until we die in the flesh. In Romans 8, the “how to” of Christian living encourages the Spirit-filled believer that they are in good stead (Rom 8:31–39). From the moment of regeneration, those made alive in Christ are being taught the knowledge of Christ, the knowledge of God (Jn 14:26; 17:3; 2 Pet 3:18).

Knowing one’s total depravity and total inability to rectify one’s plight in sin; the justified regenerate rejoices in so great a salvation that is being manifest day-by-day in the newness of the indestructible life (Rom 6:4), thanks to the newness of the indwelling Spirit (Rom 7:6). The life of God is in the soul of this man made new (Gal 2:20).

God is good. God’s Law is good. Man is not good because sin that indwells man is not good. Indwelling sin competes with the indwelling Spirit and the Christian experiences it. In his mind, he agrees with God and the Law; but in his flesh, he often does exactly the opposite of what is good. The saint laments his wretched state.

When the unregenerate sinner sins, he likes it. Sinning gives him momentary pleasure and an imagined degree of power. As we have seen, however, sin has consequences, leading to death (Rom 6:23). When the Christian sins, his response is different. He immediately hates it because sinning is now contrary to his new nature. This new nature of grace is divine because it is from God. Sin still has consequences for the Christian, but the legal guilt no longer enslaves him with the fear of a righteous judgment and a just eternal punishment (Mt 25:41, 46). The truth has set him free from slavish fear (Jn 8:32, 35).

There is therefore no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1)…in Christ Jesus by God’s doing (1 Cor 1:30). The Christian was already judged at the cross of Christ where he endured our punishment for us. Jesus absorbed the wrath of God in our place (Rom 3:25; Heb 2:17; 1 Jn 2:2; 4:10), having our sins imputed to Him (2 Cor 5:21). The unredeemed, unregenerate soul remains under the judgment, the condemnation, the wrath of God against criminal lawbreakers outside of Christ. There is no civil war in the reprobate sinner. His one inclination is evil, all the time (Gen 6:5). He continues to present his body and soul to the reign of sin, which remains his master (Rom 6:6).

In summary, our consideration of Romans 7 teaches us that there are two groups of people, both of whom are sinners. The Law of God shines its light on both groups. A separation occurs in relationship to God and the Law when one is moved into Christ. The soul is a new creation (2 Cor 5:17); but the body remains under the sentence of death. The Christian physically dies in the same way as the non-Christian.

While the sanctified people of God live-on in their bodies of sin, the struggle between sin and grace is experienced. The saint must not let sin reign again in his body. The child of God must walk by the Spirit and in the faith granted to him by the Spirit (Phil 1:29). Faith in Christ is the believer’s victory (1 Jn 5:4) — his being united to Christ in His victory over sin, death, the devil and the evil world system (Rom 6:5).

In conclusion, Christians must not be melancholy because of incidences or even seasons of sin getting the upper hand. The remedy remains: if you confess your sin, Christian, remember that God is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness (1 Jn 1:9). Jesus’ victory at the cross is our victory by faith.

David Norczyk

Spokane Valley, Washington

February 7, 2025

Romans 7:1–25