The question here is, (Q #1) do you think the man described here is a good Jew or a Christian? (Q #2) Does a non- Christian "want to know and keep God's perfect law"?[ (Q #3)In your life as a Christian, are you saying that you never have the inner conflict and battles described in this passage?
First of all Dave let me say that I have appreciated your comments and the attitude you have maintained on this board over time and I like you. However, I believe you have allowed the Reformed teaching to warp your thinking. So, I am going to answer your questions above from a non Reformed belief of the scriptures.
Question #1 - Rom 7:1 sets the context for Rom 7: through Rom 11:12 as being a Jewish context, after which Paul begins speaking to gentiles in his letter he wrote in 58 AD and who did not have any experience to draw from the 1500 years of OT history of the Mosaic law and the covenants God began making with this family, beginning with Abraham. - Rom 11:13 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: It is important what he says here going forward to gentiles. No one believes what he says. I beseech you that you be not one of them.
(Q #2) Does a non- Christian "want to know and keep God's perfect law"?
Question #2 - When the law of Moses was the operative principle of Divine dealing, Israel, the nation, were the only people who were under it's constraints. This means there was no such thing as a Christian during those days. The gentiles were never under the Law of Moses as an operative principle of Divine dealing either then or now. The law of the conscience, knowing good and evil, was their compass towards God. This all changed for both groups but not at the same time when Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world and rose again thus making the way for sins to be separated from the sinner by his gospel. As a Reformed 5 pointer, I do not expect you to understand this or to believe it, but one cannot be saved unless they do.
Q #3 - In your life as a Christian, are you saying that you never have the inner conflict and battles described in this passage?
I am saying that when I grieve the Holy Spirit who indwells me since becoming a Christian because of my words or actions then I am troubled because sweet fellowship is broken until confession. But this presupposes that I have the Spirit indwelling me. This is not the context of one under the law of God. All Jews under the operative principle of the law for their guide to godliness would experience the same frustration of Paul in Rom 7. They would understand that the law is the spiritual agency that makes them approved of God but it would constantly condemn them because they would always fall short no matter how hard they tried to keep it. This is Paul's dilemma.
Romans 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
So the context of Romans 7 has nothing to do with the Christian faith. Romans 8 has everything to do with it. Romans 8 is the answer to Paul's dilemma.
Good men interpret it both ways, and most agree that this passage is not describing what should be a normal, Christian life of someone led by the Spirit, but it is just as hard to believe that Paul here is describing a natural man.
He says he is, Dave. Look what he says that can not be true of you or me or Paul after he is born again by the Spirit of Christ. Read it and do skip over it.
Ro 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but
sin that dwelleth in me.
Ro 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind,
and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
This is the failing doctrine of the Reformed. If sin is dwelling in you then the Spirit of God is not dwelling in you. God does not dwell with sin. Why do you think that Jesus Christ had to shed his blood? It was to wash away sin of the individual who receives him by faith.
These verses I am going to quote are real and true.
Hebrews 9:22
And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
THIS DID NOT HAPPEN UNDER THE LAW!
This next one might not be in your Bible and shame on you if it is not;
Re 1:5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
In other words, only a Christian could say the above. If that "inward man" who delights in the law of God is not a description of being born again then what is?
You have missed what it means to be a man among the sons of men. This is a reason the Reformed should not be followed. The inward man he is referencing here is the "soul." The soul is the part of man that knows. It gives him his personality. It is who he is. It is the eternal person who will exist forever. The body, the second part of a man is where the soul abides. It is that which we receive from Adam. It is weak and carnal and is called a tabernacle for the soul. Paul says this in Romans 7;
Romans 7:18
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Ask yourself, if the Holy Spirit dwells in his tabernacle, would he say such a thing? Do you see his point?
And if that is the case, the passage is a perfect example of the total inability of man to follow God. Remember, the argument is about the defects in our own will, not that we don't have one of our own.
That is not the case. I am sorry Dave, but someone made that up and you have bit into the same apple. The argument has absolutely nothing to do with defects in our own wills. It is dealing with a Jew under the law of Moses as the operative principle of God's dealing with his nation with whom he has made covenants and has given his law. Now the purpose of his law is clearly stated as the agent to bring them to Christ who can empower them to live pleasing to God, having imputed the righteousness the law required of them.
The worst thing to happen to us is to be left to follow our own natural inclinations, without the restraints of God or his Spirit. Being "given over" to follow our own lusts and desires. That is the result of our free will, and all Calvinists teach that that is our default, primary, natural inclination. We still have natural conscience and a common grace or the species would kill itself off but on your own you have no inner man that delights in the law in a true and pure manner.
You as a gentile have never been under the law of Moses and required to keep it as an expression of you faith. What the scriptures have is context, something all Reformed kick to the side God has made himself and his ways known through this Jewish nation. We know of his holiness because of the law and we know of his long suffering and mercy because of how he dealt with his imperfect people, and his plan to provide them his own perfect righteousness as his gift to them. We now know as gentiles of his marvelous grace in that he has opened the door of faith to us and allowed us to be made partakers of these unsearchable riches in Christ Jesus even though he made no promises of salvation to any of us and is under no obligation to us until his promise through Peter first, then Paul, that he would receive as many as will come to him in repentance and faith in the work his Son Jesus did on the cross of Calvary and give them the righteousness of Christ as well. Now he has obligated himself to us.
There is no doctrine in the Bible that the Reformed does not skew to some degree IMO. You need to seriously re-think your Reformed position I think.
