Are Christians still “sold under sin” after their conversion? There is no doubt that Romans 7:13-25 can be difficult to follow and its meaning hard to unravel. Perhaps this is one of the passages Peter had in mind when he wrote of Paul’s letters, “There are some things in them that are hard to understand” (2 Pet. 3:16). The difficulty of this passage is attested by the variety of interpretations. The biggest point of debate is over whether Paul is writing about himself before his conversion or after becoming a Christian.
Key to this debate is verse 14: “I am of the flesh, sold under sin.” If Paul is “under the flesh,” then it would seem he is describing himself from Christ, before conversion. In Christ, as he just articulated in Romans 6:18, Christians are a new creation in Christ Jesus who, “having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.” If Christians have been freed from sin, then how can Paul be speaking as a Christian when he says he is under the flesh and under sin? It seems that Paul is speaking about his pre-conversion spiritual state. Despite what verse 14 may seem to mean, a closer study of Romans 7 reveals several reasons to interpret this passage as speaking of Paul not before but after his conversion.
A Description of the Christian Life
In his article “Romans 7 and the Normal Christian Life,” Kim Riddlebarger points out five reasons to believe that Paul is speaking of himself post-conversion in Romans 7:13–25.2.
- Paul’s use of the present tense in Romans 7:3–25 is in sharp contrast to his use of the past tense in Romans 7:1–6. Consider the difference between verse four: “you also have died to the law through the body of Christ,” and verse 15: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” (emphasis added). Why would Paul switch to writing in the present tense? The simplest and most obvious reason is because he was writing about the present. Paul was not talking about himself before he met Christ, but was talking about himself at that moment as a Christian.
- Riddlebarger points out a parallel passage that helps us understand what Paul is teaching in Romans 7. In Galatians 5, it is clear that Paul is writing about post-conversion Christians. In this chapter, he says something similar to what he writes to the church in Rome: “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Gal.5:17). What this tells us is that even Christians struggle against the flesh—that is, against our sinful nature and desires. Therefore, when Paul says he is “of the flesh,” it does not mean that he is unconverted, but simply that like all Christians he is struggling against sin.
- Paul writes that he finds “delight in the law of God, in my inner being” (Rom. 7:22). This kind of delight is not possible for the unconverted whom Paul describes as ungodly, weak, enemies of God (Rom. 5:1–10). In actuality, Paul tells us that the law is a curse to the unbeliever: “For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code” (Rom. 7:5–6). Delighting in the law is something that can happen only after a person is freed from the burden of following it to earn salvation. Delighting in the law flows out of a heart full of gratitude. Only a heart that has been set free by God’s grace can delight to obey him out of love and thankfulness.
- Though Paul describes himself in verse 14 as “sold under sin,” he is not speaking as an unconverted person enslaved by sin, but as a Christian struggling against sin. This is clearly seen just a few verses later: “For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members” (Rom. 7:22–23).
- Before his conversion, Paul believed that he perfectly followed God’s law. As he describes to the Philippian church, he says that before he became a Christian, he felt he was “as to righteousness, under the law blameless” (Phil. 3:6). The struggle with sin Paul describes in Romans 7 sounds nothing like his pre-conversion self.
- It is clear from these arguments that in Romans 7 Paul is giving a vivid description of the Christian life. All Christians know from experience what Paul is talking about. He is describing the battle to obey God, to resist temptation, and to forsake sin.
The War between Sin and the Desire to Obey God.
At the heart of Paul’s discussion of the Christian life is the question of a believer’s relationship to the law. If we “are not under law but under grace” (Rom. 6: 14), is there any continuing role for God’s law in the life of a Christian? In Romans 7:1–6, Paul addresses this question with the analogy of a marriage in which the husband dies. The point he wants to make is that “as death breaks the bond between a husband and wife, so death—the believer’s death-with-Christ—breaks the bond which formerly yoked him to the law, and now he is free to enter into union with Christ.” The Christian was married to the law but is now by faith married to Christ.
This leads us to question the role or use of the law in the Christian life even further. If we have died to the law and are married to Christ, should we reject the law entirely? Is the law actually something bad? As Paul asks in Romans 7:7, “What then shall we say? That the law is sin?” His answer is “absolutely not!” The law is not bad, and it is not sin.
Far from being sin, the law teaches us what sin is. It reveals God’s standards. In and of itself, the law is good. People are sinful and bad, but “the law is holy, and the commandment is holy righteous and good” (Rom. 7:12). So, God’s law is good, but when it confronts sinners it has a way of stirring up sin.
Although Christians should delight in God’s law and enjoy following it, the opposite is often the case. This is the experience Paul wrote about when he said, “Apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died” (Rom. 7:8–9). Have you ever had the temptation to do something simply because you were told not to do it? That is what Paul is describing in these verses. In verse 13, Paul clarifies what he is saying about the law: The law is good; it is not the law itself that makes Paul sin. Rather, it is his sinful nature reacting against the law that leads to his sinful actions.
This is the reality of the Christian life. We are dead to sin and alive in Christ. We are not under the law but under grace, yet our sinful nature is not eradicated. Our old, sinful self clings on for dear life whenever we try to become less wicked and more holy. As Paul highlights in this passage, the Christian life is one of wrestling against sin and desiring to obey God.
This battle is never easy, and, at times, it is downright confusing and painful. As Paul says, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” (Rom. 7:15). While God declares us righteous on the basis of Jesus’ righteousness the moment we are converted, he does not make us righteous instantaneously. Sanctification is a lifelong, continual process in which God removes sin from our hearts and makes us more holy. This process is a struggle for us (Rom. 7:21–23).
The good news of the gospel is that there is hope. Just as we are justified by faith, God sanctifies us by faith. It is not ultimately up to our effort and willpower. While we are not passive in the battle against sin, our certain victory comes only by the power of God, and it happens in his perfect timing. Jesus Christ has delivered and continues to deliver us from our sinful self so that we can be renewed and remade in his image.
This is an excerpt adapted for online reading from Core Christianity’s Bible Study, Romans, by Andrew Menkis. The full study is available here: Romans Bible Study
Footnotes
For a helpful discussion of this passage, listen to White Horse Inn episode #799, “An Unspiritual Apostle.” July 30, 2006, https://www.whitehorseinn.org/show/an-unspiritual-apostle/.
Kim Riddlebarger, “Romans 7 and the Normal Christian Life,” Modern Reformation, May/ June 2007, http://www.whitehorseinn.org/article/romans-7-and-the-normal-christian-life/.
[3] F.F. Bruce, Romans: An Introduction and Commentary, TNTC (IL: InterVarsity Press Academic, 2008), 137.
