Featured The Sin Question In Romans 7?

7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Sounds like an action to me, Brother Glen.

 

Oh I like that!

 

I'm on smart phone or I'd include scripture from 1st Jn.

No. The inner man NEVER sins. He CANNOT sin.

I'll try remember to come back to this Brother Glenn when I'm at computer.

Makes me happy to hear from you.

 

9 Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God. 1 Jn 3

 

Does the inner man ever become, the only man or is he already the only man?

 

He is already the only man as the outward perishes.the old man has been crucified and "put off"...we mortify remaining motions of sin in this current body.

 

Does not mean that the Christian will never again sin, for that is disproven by John in 1 John, but that the person who is now saved will not be in a continual state of ongoing sinning, not habitual, like a lifestyle .

 

Why would Jesus then instruct his disciples to take up their cross "daily" if it is a done deal? Whey would Paul say "I die daily" (1 Cor. 15:31) if it were a done deal? Why does Paul say "this body of death" if it is a done deal? No, it is not the "motions" that remain but the "law of sin" that remains active in the body.

Yes, in the sense of justification it is a done deal but it is not a done deal in the sense of sanctification and anyone who thinks so, is living in self-delusion.

 

Hello B,
Sanctification is an ongoing process yes.
The old man has been co-crucified with Christ.
The new man is in an.old body. The old man is no longer there in the body.
THE old man has been put to death...romans 6:1-11 are in the past,not ongoing.
Mortification of remaining sin and corruption is what is daily and ongoing.col3:1-16

 

I haven't followed all the discussion on the thread, so I'll start with my understanding.

Romans 7 follows Romans 1-6, & precedes Romans 8;

6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

7: 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. 6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
.....
21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 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. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I 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.

8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.​

The argument is complex; is Paul arguing with himself?

Is Romans 7 his present Christian experience, or is it his testimony of a changed life?

And can we live a sinless life?
Or should we get on with living our Christian life without trying to keep the Law?
Or should we aim to walk in the Spirit, looking unto Jesus, rather than being preoccupied with avoiding sin - i.e. being perfect?

I believe that Romans 7 is the impossible challenge facing the unregenerate, who sees his hopeless sinful condition, to be contrasted with the new life experienced by the born again believer.

It's written in the first person as a testimony. We're not sinless while we live, yet we are sinless in God's sight - in & through our Lord Jesus Christ & the full salvation we have in him, with the indwelling Holy Spirit.

​

 

From A Baptist Catechism With Commentary...by W.R. Downing;

The unbeliever is unregenerate, unconverted and so graceless, and thus lives under the reigning or dominating power of sin. Sin is the ruling principle of his life. He is the willing bondslave of sin; it is his master (Jer. 17:9; Rom. 3:9–12; 6:17).

Everything he thinks, says or does is tainted or permeated with sin; this is inescapable apart from saving grace. Sin reaches into the very motives, inclination and manifestation of his heart and mind, and is inevitably expressed in his life. Further, he has no true, abiding interest in the truth of God, but stands opposed to it and finds it insipid (Rom. 1:18–20; 8:5–9; 1 Cor. 2:14).

This does not mean that an unbeliever cannot be very religious, moral or ethical, or be socially upstanding and philanthropic to his fellow man. It means that such actions do not issue forth from right motives and inclinations, i.e., from a regenerate heart and renewed mind–set, and are thus sinful. Further, an unbeliever may be physically, morally, and even religiously active, but he remains spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1–3).

The believer, by contrast, has been freed from the dominating or reigning power of sin (Rom. 6:11–14, 17–18). He is no longer a willing bondslave to sin; it is no longer his master. Having been freed from the reigning power of sin, he is now in principle the willing bondslave of righteousness (Rom. 6:17– 18, 20, 22).

Salvation is, in essence, a change of masters. The source of this transformation is a principle of grace which derives from the believer’s union with Christ, which is a union in both his death and in his resurrection–life (Rom. 6:1–23; Eph. 4:22–24; Col. 3:1–10). Union in Christ’s death necessarily means that the reigning power of sin has been broken in the life. Union in his resurrection–life necessarily means that the enabling grace of God through the Holy Spirit is the empowering dynamic in the life and experience of every believer. See Question 77.

It is vital to understand Rom. 6:6 in this connection:

“Knowing this, that our old man...[was, aorist tense] crucified with him, [in order] that the body of sin might be destroyed, [in order] that henceforth we should not serve [as willing bondslaves to] sin.” The “old man” was the unregenerate self, who was crucified with Christ, i.e., died with Christ in his death.

The reason is so the body with its appetites might no longer dominate the personality, and that the believer will now no longer live as he once did—a willing bondslave to sin. The believer is the “new [regenerate] man” in Christ. The “crucifixion of the old man” is therefore not a subjective experience to be sought, but a reality to be reckoned in the experience, as noted in Romans 6:11–14 and 1 Peter 2:2