Romans 7:14-25 reads, “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 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. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 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. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
Here, Paul is saying that because of Adam’s sin, we were born with sinful blood, but Jesus was not born with sin-filled blood. Also, Paul bemoans that the good he desires he did not do (stressing the object, the act, how it is phrased there in the Greek language), but the evil he did not desire is what he practiced. He is developing a concept of conflict between his new nature, the born-again nature, which he rejoices in the now New Law of God, and his old nature.
We can see that in Paul’s letters. The new law of God is not the Old Testament Law, or Mosaic Law, but what Jesus provided, which freed him. But he still has the problem of his old nature, his sinner’s blood, that wants him to think that while he is a Christian there is something good in him, and something he can do to keep himself saved. However, I have said repeatedly there is nothing good in us that we can do, because our part of the transaction would be in the flesh, which would be works; thinking that whatever we do, God would pay close attention and say, “That’s pretty close,” and provides salvation or will keep your salvation. There is nothing you can do. That is why I can imagine Paul probably just raising his pen and saying, “Therefore now there is no condemnation” and to heck with all that I just said in verses 14-25, because that struggle will be there continuously until we die.
“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Then he answers it in verse 25, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God;”
What mind? The mind that recognizes that it is not through his merit that he will be able to be a servant to the law of God. It is through Christ, because Paul finishes it up by saying, “but with the flesh the law of sin.” So, any time you bring the flesh into it, any works, it allows you to bring in sin, especially concerning anything that has to do with your salvation. That is why he says, “Therefore now no condemnation,” which is katakrima in the Greek, meaning no judgment, no separation, no divide for those who are in Christ Jesus “who walk not after the flesh.”
from TeachingFaith.com