The Law and Sin. (Romans 7: 13–25)

🎙️ Welcome to The Bible Project Daily Podcast

Episode Title: The Law and Sin
Text: Romans 7:13–25

👋 Welcome

In today’s episode, we enter one of the most personal passages in the entire letter to the Romans—Paul’s raw and honest confession of his struggle with sin. Even as a committed believer, he lays bare the inner battle between his desire to obey God and the reality of his ongoing struggle with sin. If you've ever found yourself asking, "Why do I keep doing the things I don't want to do?"—you’re in good company.

Together, we’ll explore what Paul means when he says, “The law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.” Is this a pre-Christian experience or the daily reality of a believer in Christ? And how can we live in the tension of being made new in Christ while still battling with the flesh?

📖 Episode Summary

This episode dives deep into Paul’s confession about the Christian struggle with sin. Though the law is good and spiritual, sin uses the law as an opportunity to bring about death. Paul makes it clear—the law isn’t the problem. The real issue is the sin that dwells within us, even after salvation.

We break the passage into three cycles of confession, where Paul reveals:

1. The nature of sin – not merely a behavior, but a power within.
2. The ongoing war between the mind that delights in God’s law and the flesh that resists it.
3. The cry of frustration – “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me?”

This isn’t just Paul's story—it’s our story too. And while Romans 7 ends in tension, it sets the stage for the glorious hope of Romans 8.

🔑 Key Takeaways

• Sin hijacks what is good (the law) to bring death—but the law itself is not to blame.
• The Christian life includes real inner conflict, even after salvation.
• Paul is describing the sanctification journey—not a pre-Christian life, but the ongoing battle for believers.
• Victory is not found in self-effort, but in Christ: the One who sets us free from the law of sin and death.

🛤️ Coming Up Next

Don’t miss the next episode as we turn the page into Romans 8, where Paul joyfully declares:

“The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
(Romans 8:2)

Stay with us—hope is on the horizon.

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• 23:41 (Cont.) The Law and Sin. (Romans 7: 13–25)

Transcript

"The Law and Sin" (Romans 7:13–25)

 Transcript: 

The experience is discouraging and defeating. It goes something like this:

As a Christian believer despite your deep desire to know God and to do His will. As far as your head and your heart are determined—you’re want to do what God wants you to do.

Then... you don’t.

Instead of doing what you know is right, you do the very thing you don’t want to do. And in your discouragement and disgust, you might just cry out in exactly the same way as the Apostle Paul does in today’s passage from Romans…

13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

(Romans 7: 13-20)

To fully grasp this section of Romans 7, we need to back up and get a running start from the beginning of the chapter. Because the whole chapter is focused on the believer’s relationship to the law. And that’s a crucial point to understand.

Paul had just concluded in chapter 6 that we are not under law, but under grace.

Then, as we enter chapter 7, he makes sweeping statements like: “We are dead to the law” (v. 4) and “We have been delivered from the law” (v. 6). So, a natural question arises Is the law itself sinful?

Paul asked that very question in verse 7: “Is the law sin?” And his emphatic response is: “Certainly not!”—then he spent verses 7 to 12 explaining why.

The law is good, he says. Nevertheless, it is involved in bringing about death. There’s the paradox: the law is good, yet somehow it plays a role in the process that ends in death.

“I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.”

(Romans 7: 9)

So, before we arrive at the powerful confession that begins in verse 13, Paul has already established that while the law is not itself sinful—it is holy, just, and good but it is involved in this deadly process. And that leads him to ask: “Has then what is good [the law] become death to me?” That’s the pressing question of verse 13.

His answer is the same kind of emphatic denial he’s used before: “Certainly not!” And then comes the real culprit: “But sin…”

That’s the answer. The problem is not the law. The problem is sin.

Paul then gives two “reasons/purpose” in beginning in verse 13 to explain how sin operates.

First: That is, sin used the law. The law wasn’t the problem, it was simply the instrument that sin hijacked and abused.

Second: Sin is exposed. It’s true, hideous nature is revealed. The law didn’t cause death—sin did.

The law of God is not the problem. The problem is the sin that lives in me, he says. Sin used the law to reveal itself as sin and to produce death. The law, which is good, is not the cause. The cause is the sin within.

Here’s a helpful illustration: A man approaches an road crossing with traffic lights. The light turns yellow/amber. Something in him prompts him to take a chance and step on the accelerator instead of the brake. He darts through the intersection, the light turns red just before he crosses, and there’s a collision. And he dies.

What caused the death? Was it the red light? Of course not. That’s absurd. As Paul would say, “Certainly not!” The real issue was whatever it was in that man that made him accelerate instead of stop. The problem wasn’t the red light, it was the disobedience in his heart. That’s what caused his death.

And that’s exactly what Paul is saying in verse 13: the law—the red light—wasn’t the cause. It was the lawlessness in us that violated it. That is what brings death.

That answers the question of verse 13. But Paul doesn’t stop there. 

From verse 14 to 24, he enters into what many have called “The Great Confession.” It’s an honest, raw, and deeply personal struggle. And it unfolds in cycles—three cycles of confession.

Each cycle follows the same pattern: a confession, a supporting explanation, and then a conclusion.

Each cycle points to the same ultimate truth: the problem is not the law. The problem is sin in us.

So, through a series of very personal confessions, Paul is going to explain in depth what he calls “sin”. So, let’s walk through these three confessions—quickly but carefully.

Confession 1.

“We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.”

That’s the first confession. The word carnal comes from the Greek word for “flesh.” Paul is saying, “I’m made of flesh, I am a mortal human being and I am fleshly. And I’m sold “under sin,” which is a striking image: it means I am a slave to sin.

Now remember—this is all flowing out of verse 13, where Paul made it clear that the problem wasn’t the law. The law is spiritual. That is, it originates from God and reflects His holy nature. 

But the issue, he says, “is me”. The problem is me.

Now some people get tripped up here and say how can Paul, a Christian, say that he’s “sold under sin”? Didn’t he already say back in chapter 6 that we’ve been freed from sin?

Yes, he did—but in chapter 6 he also said that you become a slave to whatever or whomever you obey. So yes, we’re free from sins penalty in Christ, but there’s still a very real battle going on inside us.

And I believe Paul is talking here as a believer. Remember he has now moved past salvation and is dealing now with sanctification. This is the reality of living the Christian life. And he emphasizes this struggle by placing the word “I” at the front of the Greek sentence—it’s emphatic. I am the one who is a slave to sin.

So, what’s going on? Under what condition is he a slave to sin?

Paul explains in the next verse: “What I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.”

Sound familiar? Ever been there? Of course, you have—if you’re a Christian, you’ve been in that struggle. Paul says: “What’s happening to me mystifies me. I don’t get it. I want to do what’s right! But I don’t do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate.”

This is the picture of an honest Christian feeling defeated. Paul is confessing that he’s doing the very things he wants to do. 

Paul draws two conclusions from this experience:

“If I do what I do not want to do, and I agree with the law that it is good.” In other words, even when I fail, the fact that I hate what I did means I agree with God’s law being correct. “But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”

There’s the real problem, again it’s the sin that dwells in me.

So just to recap this first cycle:

Verse 13: The problem is sin.

Verse 14: I am carnal, sold under sin, he says.

Verse 17: It is sin that dwells in me.

For us this means that even though you’re a new creation in Christ, you still have this capacity for sin. You still have an underlying fallen sinful nature.

And not only is that nature real, but it’s also creative. It can come up with new ways to sing.

Like the coach of a really struggling teams once commented, we keep finding new ways to lose.”

That’s Paul’s confession in spiritual terms. There’s something in me that just keeps finding new ways to sin. 

Confession 2

In verse 18, Paul makes his second confession: “For I know that in me nothing good dwells.”

He’s already said the problem is sin (v. 13). He’s said the problem is in himself (v. 17). Now he narrows it down even more: “The problem is in my humanity.”

That word, “flesh” is used several ways in the bible. Sometimes it refers to your literal body—flesh and blood. But more often, especially in Paul’s writings, it refers to the capacity to sin that still lives in believers.

And here’s the important point: Even if you’ve trusted in Christ, you still have the flesh. You’re still in your body, and your body still houses that sin principle.

Romans 6 tells us, yes, “We are in Christ—new creatures”. But Romans 7 now reminds us that we’re still living in these mortal bodies, and those bodies are home to the flesh. And that flesh is still bent on sinning.

Paul is clarifying that even though he wants to do what is good—he has the desire buthe lacks the will power to carry it out.

There is a clear internal war going on here: The desire to follow God’s law is there, but something within him is actively resisting it.

So even as a believer, Paul recognizes a capacity for sin that’s still active and it doesn’t go away completely just because you're saved.

Paul’s point is that it is not just “bad people” who struggle with sin. Even the virtuous have an internal conflict.

Third Confession. – Verse 21: “So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.”

This time Paul identifies a kind of principle or law at work: even when he wants to do good, evil is right there with him.

The word “law” here doesn’t mean the Mosaic Law, but a kind of spiritual principle or pattern he observes.

Verses 22–23 confirm this:

“For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.”

So now we see:

The inward believer that delights in God’s law.

But the outward facing person (the flesh) actively resists it.

Paul paints a vivid picture for us. He’s in a kind of spiritual civil war. There’s a battle between two principles—God’s law in his mind and the law of sin outworking through his body in the real world, and the law of sin appears to be winning that battle.

His conclusion to all this is found in Verse 24 and he cries out.

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

This is a cry of deep frustration and misery here. Paul sees the problem clearly: he’s trapped in a body still under the influence of sin, even though his heart and mind want to follow God.

Paul's honesty here is crucial. He’s not sugarcoating the Christian life—he’s revealing the depth of the struggle with sin even as a believer we can have, and indeed he is having. 

And while Romans 7 will leave us in tension, hang on for Romans 8 because it brings the hope and power of victory.

In my view, Paul is describing all Christian believers as well as himself.  Several reasons lead to that conclusion:

First, this is the sanctification section of Romans. We are no longer talking about how someone who has just been saved, which was the theme of earlier chapters. They have now moved on to living the Christin life, sanctification.

Second, Paul is clearly talking about himself in this passage—using the first-person “I” again and again. Some argue that he’s speaking of his pre-conversion state, but that seems unlikely for several reasons. Because Paul also uses the phrase “my inner being” (v.22). That phrase appears only twice elsewhere in the New Testament (2 Corinthians 4:16 and Ephesians 3:16), and in both cases, it clearly refers to a believer. So, all the evidence points to this being about a Christians, like himself.

Specifically a carnal believer—who is still subject to the law of sin and death. But here’s the good news: that’s not the end of the story.

Look at what’s coming next time.

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”

(Romans 8:2😊

This believer can move beyond the Romans 7 experience and into the freedom we will find described for us in Romans 8.

And Paul tells us how in today’s closing verse 7: 25.

“I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Romans 8 tomorrow will then goes on to describe in detail how Jesus Christ, through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, delivers us from sin and death.

“So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

That’s the whole picture. There are two parts to us:

With the mind, I want to serve the law of God (that’s the new nature).

But in the flesh, I am drawn to sin (that’s the old nature).

And here’s the hard truth: When these two are in conflict, the old nature wins every time—unless something changes. That’s what Romans 7 shows us—defeat, over and over again.

There’s a tragic honesty here. As Plato said centuries before. “The human soul is like a chariot with two headstrong horses pulling in opposite directions.

So, Let Me Wrap This Up

What’s the real problem? It’s not the law.

The problem is sin in us—our old nature trying to live by the law in my own strength.

Paul’s message is clear: the law is holy and good, but it cannot save us, and it cannot sanctify us. If we rely on rules alone—on our willpower to do what's right—We will always fall short. Not because the law is bad, but because sin within us twists even good things into occasions for failure.

Here’s what’s crucial to see here:

Throughout Romans 7, the Holy Spirit is never mentioned.

It’s all human effort, all struggle, and all defeat.

But turn the page to Romans 8—and everything changes.

John Calvin summarized this tension beautifully:

“Paul is not a man who despises God’s law. He delights in it. But when his life is judged by the law’s demand for perfect righteousness, even his best efforts fall short.”

Paul isn’t describing himself at his worst here—he’s describing himself at his best. Even a sincere, God-loving heart cannot overcome the power of sin without the Spirit.

That’s the problem we still see today. Too often, believers are guilt-tripped back under the law by other Cgristians. We emphasize rules over relationship, performance over grace. And then we wonder why people keep stumbling.

But there’s another way. 

In Romans 7, the flesh is fighting the new nature.

In Romans 8 and also in passage like Galatians 5, the flesh is battling the Holy Spirit. And that makes all the difference.

“Walk in the Spirit,” Paul says, “and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh.”

The desires don’t vanish—but you don’t have to give in.

Victory is possible—not through effort, but through abiding in Christ.

So, what’s the answer to all this?

Paul asks that question himself, didn’t he? 

“Who will deliver me from this body of death?” And he answers: “Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

So don’t focus on the law.

Focus on Christ.

Meditate on His Word. And depend on His Spirit.

And as you do, the Spirit of God will take the Word of God and us it to make you more like Jesus himself. (Conform)

And fruit will begin to grow—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

That’s not the law of God that does that, it the grace of God that accomplishes it.

We’ll dive deeper into this tomorrow in Romans 8. 

In The Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian meets an enemy called the “old man,” who tries to lure him with his three daughters:

– the lust of the flesh,

– the lust of the eyes,

– and the pride of life.

But the main character, Christian, he is called, walks with a friend named Faithful, and through the Spirit’s help, he learns not to overcome sin by sheer will, but by walking in God’s grace and by keeping his eyes on Christ.

Can we do the same?

Paul says Yes! “Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord.”