Most Bible colleges and churches teach that the wretch 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.  Here is proof that those who teach this are wrong.

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 obey it from being carnal people bound by sin’s power.  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 are presented with 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, and is a captive to the law of sin and death.  

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 (see especially Romans 5:20-21).  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.  We see in 1 John 3:4 that sin is the transgression of the law.

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

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 finding this promise true already by experience.  

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 3:7-10: “But when he (John the Baptist) saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.  And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”

Aaron’s email is: [email protected]

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