We Know God is Not a God of Confusion. Let us try and break this down and see if we can improve our understanding of what Paul is saying (like cleaning our glasses over and over on a rainy day).

Paul is writing to the church in Rome to give instruction to those who had not received apostolic teaching. It is understandable that he discusses the law in his letter, as many of those in the church would be early Jewish Christians who would question how their knowledge of the law fits with their faith in Christ. 

Scholars debate over who is being written about; non-believer or believer.

                Non-believer (or Paul before conversion) in v.14, 18, & 24

                Believer (or Paul after conversion) in v. 15, 19, & 21

Paul must be writing about believers (after his conversion); a non-believer would have no knowledge of God’s law, or any desire to follow any law other than his own. He would only be concerned with fulfilling his own lusts. The one that Paul writes about here certainly knows the law, and that his actions are not in agreement with it; which is causing anguish.   Perhaps about new believers then; that may explain a sense of confusion.

Law used 9 times; sin, evil, flesh used 10 times.

Positive action (do, doing, practicing) used 10 times; negative (do not do, do not practice) used 8 times.

In verse 14 he shifted the tense of his writing from past tense to present tense. Go back to chapter 6 and see all the past tense verbs

                v. 3 had been baptized

                v. 4 had been buried     

                v. 6 were crucified

                v. 8 have died

And in the present tense Paul uses I, me, my 38 times in these verses; certainly he is talking about himself; a mature Christian, at the height of his ministry. 

v. 14 Law is spiritual – of God, not confined to Mosaic Law.

          Flesh – more appropriately refers to our humanness. 

                v. 15 understand; in this passage meaning to accept or agree with.

                v. 22 joyfully concur; to be in pleasant agreement with, not by force.

                v. 15 what I want to do

                v. 22 law of God in the inner man.

                v. 16 do the very thing I do not want to do

                v. 21 the principle of evil in me (a foothold to evil doing)

                v. 17 & v. 22 sin which dwells in me, is doing it

v. 18 & v.19 we see maturity in the Christian who wants good – heart repentance, demonstrated in willingness. Yet also the actions of the flesh are still present – this great conflict continues. 

David was a man after God’s own heart.

v. 23 Paul is aware of the difference between the law of his heart and the law of his flesh. This is the battleground that Paul lives in; the one that we live in. It is on this battleground that confusion is born if we are not trained in the word of God; this is how Paul sees himself as a prisoner.

                v. 24 wretched man that I am – Paul in complete anguish; remember his self loathing.

                                Eph 3:8 “to me, the very least of all the saints”

1 Tim 1: 15 “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am the foremost of all.

Set me free from the body of this death – some pagan cultures of the time would strap the corpse of the victim to the back of the murderer; as the victim’s body rotted away, it would infect and rot away the murderer as well.

                Alcoholic at the end of bar asking how he got here again.

                Addict, leaving the dope house, promising God he will never return; this is the last time.

                The couple who are married,  but just not to each other.

                The one who deems unworthy the stranger, who somehow finds themselves in church.

                The one who wishes to live right – “if wishes were horses, we’d all be jockeys. 

v. 25 Jesus Christ – look back at v. 14; sold into bondage, there had to be a price. The debt that was created has been paid by our Lord and Savior.

Law of the body, flesh – the outer man dies

Law of the mind – inner man lives forever; Rom. 8: 6

This struggle will last as long as our physical bodies last.