Almost every Bible college and church teaches that the man defeated by sin in Romans chapter 7 is a description of the Apostle Paul’s Christian experience as he wrote the Book of Romans.  

If they’re right, then there is no hope of anyone ever being delivered from the bondage of sin in this life- and anyone who says that such a hope exists would be a liar. 

If they are wrong, they are deceivers doing an important work in the service of the devil by essentially telling people that even a true Apostle of Christ remained a wretched sinner who couldn’t do good and inevitably succumbed to evil on a continual basis.  

The Apostle Paul did indeed describe a man who couldn’t do good and inevitably succumbed to evil in Romans chapter 7.  He also gave this description in the first person.  

Aren’t all the scribes and pastors who teach that Romans 7 was Paul’s present experience obviously right then?  

They are actually dead wrong. 

There is a mountain of evidence which contains many proofs that, in spite of the account of the defeated man of Romans 7 being given in the first person, yet make it evident beyond any doubt that Romans 7 does not describe Paul’s present Christian experience.

We’ll examine eight of these proofs here:

One)  The Bible identifies the righteous and the wicked by what they actually do.

John 8:39: “They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father.  Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.”

Matthew 13:40-43: “As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.  The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.  Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.  Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

1 Corinthians 6:20: “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

3 John 11: “Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good.  He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.”

Two)  The man of Romans Chapter 7 is carnal and sold under sin.  The Gospel of Christ practically delivers from the power of sin- and thus delivers those who believe it from being carnal people bound by sin’s power.

Romans 7:14 says: “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.”

This is obviously not a person walking in the victory which Christ’s Gospel promises.

Matthew 1:21: “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.”

John 8:31-36: “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.  They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.  And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

Three)  To both strengthen the previous proof, and give another key proof as well, the things spoken in the Book of Romans before and after chapter 7 make it evident that Paul was not describing his present Christian experience as he wrote Romans chapter 7.

Paul had already spoken in Romans chapter five of the truth that those who’ve been reconciled to God through Christ are partakers of a salvation through Christ’s life that is an actual remedy for all the damage caused by sin’s reign in them when they were enemies of God. 

Romans 5:20-21: “Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound.  But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Paul would go on in Romans chapter six to warn that we cannot continue in sin that grace may abound, and he would command that we let not sin reign in our mortal bodies but instead yield the members of our bodies to God as instruments of righteousness (Romans 6:12-13).  

This command is given with a promise for those who heed it in Romans 6:14: “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”  

Not being under law in the true Gospel sense means not being under the law’s condemnation- and that is only the case when one is submitted to the demands of the Law and looks to Christ (whom the Law points as the remedy for sin) to deliver them from sin’s guilt and power.

Four)  It is warranted to conclude that the things which Paul said in the first person regarding a carnal man in the flesh stemmed from revisiting his past (or the was just generally speaking in the first person about the experience of an unconverted man being confronted by the demands of the Law of God).

In reading Romans chapter 7 notice (as Paul writes to faithful Roman Christians) the flashback to “when we were in the flesh…” of Romans 7:5 (Paul grouped himself with other Christians here).  Paul compares this to the present time of deliverance, the “But now we are delivered…” of Romans 7:6. Paul would then do an extended flashback of his time in the flesh throughout the rest of Romans chapter 7 to better illustrate the struggle of a man in the flesh to fulfill God’s Law when confronted with its demands and recognizing its inherent goodness and excellence.  

In considering what the Apostle Paul had said before in Romans, and by what he would say afterwards in Romans chapter 8 (about the deliverance that is in Christ which the Apostle himself no doubt was walking in as he wrote the book), this proves that the constantly defeated man in Romans chapter 7 was not Paul as he was living by faith in Christ (nor is it anyone who is truly abiding in Jesus Christ).

Five)  The reality of experiential Christian deliverance from the power of sin described in Romans chapter eight is the opposite of the powerless, defeated person’s experience described in Romans chapter seven.  

In Romans chapter 8 we have the present experience of those truly abiding in Jesus Christ, exercising an acceptable living faith in Him.  We see there that the one in Christ Jesus who is now not condemned, walks not after the flesh but after Christ’s Spirit and is freed from the law of sin and death, fulfilling the righteousness of God’s Law by Christ’s Spirit.  This is in contrast to the Romans seven man who is carnal, sold under sin (7:14) and is a captive to the law of sin and death (that captivity is described as Romans 7 continues).  

This obliterates any consideration that Romans chapter seven was Paul’s experience in the present as he wrote Romans.  

Romans 8:1-4: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus (my note- don’t stop there; keep reading- many stop there), who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” 

Six)  The Apostle Paul’s own testimony about his Christian life in Scripture is utterly opposed to the defeated man’s walk described in Romans chapter 7.

The same was also expected of the Christians whom Paul oversaw.  It is surely not any different now.

1 Thessalonians 2:9-12: “For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail: for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.  Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe: As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.”

Galatians 5:16: “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”

Paul would have been a hypocrite if he was not doing the same and finding this promise true by experience already.

Seven)  The man of Romans chapter 7 is wretched.  His wretched, corrupt state cannot reflect acceptable Christian experience because Jesus certainly does not accept the morally wretched.  He rather calls them to repent that they might live unto Him and be delivered from their morally wretched state (see Revelation 3:14-22, etc).  

Eight)  The lukewarm and all those who have a degraded form of godliness which denies the genuine, effective power of Christ’s Gospel obviously would be drawn to believing that the man described in Romans 7 represents Paul’s experience as a Christian.  Of course they would.

In that case, they wouldn’t really need to die to themselves in repentance to follow Christ in suffering to do the will of God.  In that case, they could be secure in the Gnostic-influenced lie that one’s spirit can be redeemed while their body remains a servant to moral corruption.  In that case, they could then trust in physical death to cure their bondage to sin- while also claiming that Jesus covers them as they continue to serve self and yield to wicked works.  

And that is exactly what multitudes of unconverted and backslidden professors of faith in Christ are doing.  And in many cases they are claiming “Oh, the Apostle Paul said he was a wretched man in Romans 7- I must be that way too until I die.”

Let those who continue to hold to such a hope be warned that death will only seal their condemnation to the fire of hell.  

1 John 3:2-3: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”

Revelation 21:27: “And there shall in no wise enter into it (the New Jerusalem) any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

Aaron’s email is: [email protected]

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