Does that include Christians?
In the sense that we are still in a body that will have desires that we will war against...yes.
Understand, though, I am not saying that we do not have the ability to put this sin away, and to deny ourselves. But I am saying that we as believers, because we have had our eyes opened to understand what sin is (and this primarily through the indwelling Spirit of God, Who both speaks to our hearts as well as teaches us to understand the revealed will of God), still enter into warfare against those things we have taught ourselves before being saved.
This is why we have instruction to put sin away. If it were a matter that after salvation sin was an impossibility, then we either conclude that instruction not to sin is meaningless filler in scripture, or, it is for unbelievers.
I look at it this way: there is One sacrifice that makes atonement for sin, that being the shed blood of Christ which includes His taking the penalty for our sins. Most of us will admit that after we were saved, there were times when we sinned. No matter how small we might try to pass that sin off as, sin is sin. So we must conclude that the sacrifice of Christ, His standing in the place of judgment for us, applies to sin both before, as well as after we are born of God.
If it isn't, then there is a need for another sacrifice, and we already know that concerning atonement for sin, only One sacrifice in scripture is said to make atonement in completion, that being Christ Himself, again, standing in our place to take upon Himself the penalty for our sin.
And we know that the One sacrifice was sufficient. Christ need not die upon the Cross again in order to atone for man's sin.
Now we swing back to the believer. He is saved, and because he is limited in discernment, most understanding their guilt before God and their need to repent and plead for His mercy to be applied to them, and not much more, it is literally an impossibility that one might be saved...never to sin again.
Most are not like Paul, having been born and bread to have knowledge of God, though hypothetically we can look at scholars that have a head knowledge and are actually saved after years of association with the spiritual things of God. I know at least one man that frequents many forums that has exactly that testimony. He spent years intellectually absorbing doctrine, but came to the realization that he himself was not saved. Paul is similar to this man, or, vice versa, really. Having an intellectual knowledge and understanding, but it did not bring him into relationship with God.
But that scenario of salvation stands apart from most, I think. Now these men, after salvation, having a better understanding of God than most that are saved, have a lead on most as far as understanding sin and putting it away, but most are going to be ignorant of many things.
As God teaches us, we recognize things in our lives and are convicted of sin, and at that point begin to deal with that sin.
For example, when I was saved, I focused primarily on external sin, such as smoking, drinking, drug use. I thought that if I could put those things away, I would be a "better Christian," more pleasing to God. Well, those things were put away, but I began to recognize sin which was just as bad, probably worse: anger, hatred...things which caused me to sin against God because I sinned against others.
When God begins dealing with our hearts, He does so according to His wisdom, and teaches as we would small children. We do not put 3 year-olds behind the wheel of a car and honestly expect them to drive the vehicle, because they are incapable of understanding how it works, and they are physically incapable of performing that which we ask them to do.
Like wise, new believers are not expected to be knowledgable in all areas whereby they can remain sinless, but they learn as they grow.
Paul instructs that "we should not be many teachers," and couple that with the command not to put immature believers in a place of service, we see a teaching that is meant expressly for the purpose of avoiding sin in the lives of believers. Has that been accomplished in the Body of Christ these nearly 2000 years? No. There have been immature believers stand in the place of teacher who have succumbed to the sin of pride.
We see in scripture detailed instruction that places a responsibility of being perfected on the believer, in that he should be diligent in his desire to please God by foregoing sin in his life, yet we do not deny the power of God as He instructs the believer concerning sin, and ennables him, according to God's empowerment, to actually put that sin away.
Sorry for the length...I am a windbag for sure...lol.
Are you not aware that if a Christian walks after the Spirit he is free from the law of sin?:
I am. However, we are probably going to view this passage differently.
In ch.7 Paul recognizes his sin through the Law, and admits that at this stage, after he is saved, he can understand that his efforts were meaningless, and that the Law would bring death. I would also suggest that he states that the Law...actually brought about a desire for the things prohibited.
When he states the law is spiritual, and he carnal, he is saying exactly what he will teach the Corinthians...that the natural man cannot understand the spiritual things of God, much less perform them so as to be able to bypass the penalty which law exacts.
There is much debate whether Paul is speaking of his life before salvation when he says,
Romans 7
14For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
I believe he is talking about the fact that he is still in unredeemed flesh, and that he is speaking of his life at the time of this writing.
If we look at his statment concerning his life before salvation, we see that he implies that the law actually caused a desire, as I said, of that which was prohibited.
7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
8But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
9For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
10And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
He would not have known his coveting was sin except that the law held him guilty.
Did the law cause him to sin? God forbid, he says, that any would think so. Sin, not the law, wrought in him all manner of desire, not the other way around, as has been expressed by some.
In short, Paul speaks of two conditions, that before salvation, and that after. That is his primary thrust here. He was carnal (natural, basically) and found guilty by the law because sin wrought desire in him he could neither confront or master, but it mastered him.
After he was saved, like his analogous wife, he was no longer "married to the law," and that is what needs to be considered carefully: was he saying, "I no longer have to consider the law, because I am dead to it."
No, he is saying, "I am no longer under the death sentence that the law held for me."
When a woman's husband dies, the bond is gone. When a man becomes saved, the penalty the law exacts no longer has a claim to where it can demand payment.
So when we get ready to enter ch.8, we see Paul say...
24O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Is Paul saying he has forgotten the Gospel? No, he knows exactly Who it is that delivers him.
He is speaking of a general truth in the life of the believer which is, we still have warfare with desires of the flesh, because we are still in unredeemed bodies. This is not Paul saying "I am helpless," merely a recognition that while he has been renewed in the mind, he is still in a body that is still in need of redemption.
Okay, getting too long here, so I will move on.
And, due to length, I will have to continue...
