Romans 7: Struggle in Sanctification

Key Verse
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 
 
Mediation
Today’s reading highlights an overlooked invitation in Christian sanctification: God’s sovereign grace gives Christian’s space to be honest about the struggle to kill sin. The gospel secures us in Christ while we fight: “By a single offering Christ has perfected for all time those who are being made holy” (Hebrews 10:14). Perfected, and still being made holy. Secure, and still struggling. This is the space of grace.
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Through Christ, we belong to God as His beloved. United to the risen Jesus, we “bear fruit for God.” We no longer serve in the exhausting way of the flesh but “in the new way of the Spirit” (vv. 1-6). Our relationship has changed. We are not slaves under condemnation but children in communion.
 
God’s law is not the villain. It is “holy and righteous and good” (v. 12). Like bright light in a dark room, it exposes what was hidden. The law reveals sin but cannot remove it. It diagnoses; it does not heal.
 
Paul’s honesty is striking. Even he describes an inner civil war, wanting to do good yet feeling the weight of sin pressing down. We can know what obedience requires and still feel pinned by indwelling sin. Exhausted, we cry with Paul, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me?” (v. 24).
 
The cry is filled with hope when faith is focused on Jesus. 

“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (v. 25). Sin does not get the final word. From our secure position in Christ, the Spirit empowers us to rise, repent, and walk forward. The battle is real, but the victory is certain.

Today’s Reading
Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.5 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. 6 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. 

The Law and Sin
7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 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. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
 
 
Richly Dwelling
-What stands out to you from today’s reading, especially Paul’s wrestling match with the sin that wars within him?
 
-Where do you identify- specifically? How are you doing in wrestling against your sin?
 
-How does the position we have in Christ’s finished work, justified and forgiven, and the power of His Spirit to put to death sin, give you confidence as you go to the mat with sin? How can you harness these gospel realities for your holiness and sanctification?
 
Key Verse
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.