As Paul continues his explanation of the work of the cross, he turns to a comparison which his readers understood well. He says that we are wives married to either one husband or another. In Paul's day, a woman's identity came entirely from her husband. In every way, she was viewed as a "receptacle" of her husband's being—his personality, love, character, and wealth. She was helpless without a husband. So Paul paints a picture which illustrates our former bondage: what if a woman were married to a man, but he wasn't the right man? What if she married an evil man? She would be bound to him until one of them died. Only death could free her from her nuptial captivity.

In the same way, we were made to die by the death of Christ which freed us from the Law that once bound us (Rom.7:4)! Here Paul launches into an explanation of the Law which very few ever grasp. In fact, the rest of this chapter probably holds the record for the most misunderstandings of any passage in all of Scripture. In verses 5 and 8, Paul states that what gives power to sin is the Law. "Apart from the Law, sin is dead"(v.8). In 6:14, he claimed that the reason that sin can no longer master us is that "we are not under Law." He states this principle again to the Corinthians when he says, "the power of sin is the Law"(1 Cor.15:56). Why then was the Law given? God gave us the Law in order to make sin's presence more obvious, so that we would know we need a Savior (Rom.7:7-13). But once that Savior has come, we no longer need the Law (Gal.3:24-25). We no longer serve "in the oldness of the letter" but in the "newness of the Spirit"(Rom.7:6). As he tells the Corinthians, "the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life"(2 Cor.3:6).

So why are Christians' lives filled with so much Law? For two reasons: First, ministers have not understood that we have died to the Law. They have also not understood that feeding Law to a congregation actually stirs up sin! If sin gets its power from the Law, then putting believers under Law only strengthens sin in their midst. As with other ministers of his day, Paul would say of these men: They have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law . . . But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing that Law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners . . . . (1 Tim.1:6-9) The second, more important reason that Law seems to "hang around" in Christians' lives goes a bit deeper. Although we have died to it, it has not died. As Jesus said, "until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished"(Matt.5:18). Why does God allow it to hang around? Because we still have not learned our lesson, that we are not independent selves, but vessels dependent on whoever indwells us. As Norman Grubb once said, first the law came to teach us our guilt, now it comes to teach us our helplessness (God Unlimited, p 103).

For our sakes, Paul now regresses into an earlier stage in his life in order to show us how the Law caught him in his independence. "I was alive then, apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin came to life and I died"(Rom.7:9). When in Paul's life did this take place? It seems to me that this would be an unusual place to go back to a time before he was a believer. He is progressing beautifully through an explanation of our new life in Christ, with Him as our life. Why interrupt the flow and return to before he was regenerated? But after reading chapter eight as he describes freedom from condemnation and being "more than conquerors" in all things, I cannot believe that chapter seven describes his present experience, either. Paul is describing a battle he once had as a believer, and the solution he found in the midst of it. Pay very close attention to what he says.

"Sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and throughout it killed me"(7:11). Then in verses 15-24 he shows us the deception in slow-motion! He puts us into his struggle to show us what he learned. He learned two things: First, he learned that sin still indwells his body (vv.17-20, 23). He finally sees this because his actions often do not match up with his identity. "That which I do not want to do, I do." But in his "inner man" he only wants to please God—and the inner man is his true self (see vv.21-22). Although sin still indwells your flesh, your flesh is no longer the real you! "We no longer regard anyone according to the flesh . . . if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature"(2 Cor.5:16-17). And your flesh is not even the one to blame, but "sin dwelling in [you]" (7:17,20). Flesh is not sinful, but it is weak and vulnerable to deception. Which leads us to the second thing Paul discovered . . .

Indwelling sin was impersonating Paul! Notice how many times the pronoun "I" appears in verses 15-24—twenty two times. But who was speaking? Here we discover one of the most well-kept secrets in history (although Paul exposed it 2,000 years ago). Sin dwells in your body, which includes your brain, and he desires what is contrary to God's character. But sin speaks to you in first person, telling you that you don't want to do what God wants you to do. He says, "I want to do this" or "I want to do that," but he speaks in your voice. He plays ventriloquist and you play the dummy! This is the deception Paul speaks of in verse eleven. It leads him to conclude in verse fourteen that he is still in slavery to sin. But by the end of the chapter, he boldly declares that he has been saved from all of this through Christ (v.25). You have too, and you need to stop believing that you are sinful, because in so doing, you deny the total work of Christ. Let the word of God pierce into you and divide soul and spirit, exposing what is going on inside of you (Heb.4:12-13). Only then can you experience the "rest" of which Hebrews 4 speaks, and you will cease being a "wretched" (literally, "unhappy") man as Paul was in verse 24.