7:16
“Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the Law, that it is good.” Paul is at pains to show that there is nothing wrong with the Law, quite the opposite for it is good. The frustration we encounter when we want to be different, want to do the right thing, to behave in line with God’s law, is proof that the law is indeed good. This is in contrast to the way too many Christians seem to think, which is to say that the law is bad, usually in regard to sexual morality. So when we recognise that something is good, but find ourselves doing the exact opposite, the human reaction is to think we must try all the harder. This is living out of the flesh and is doomed to failure. Imagine you have a water pump and it is pumping contaminated water. In order to solve this problem we decide to install a brand new pump. This will do no good at all, for the new pump will still pump contaminated water, just as the old pump did. That is what happens when we “try harder”, we are still drawing on the same contaminated source, our flesh, our human nature.
7:17
“So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me”. Let’s first say what Paul is not saying here. He is not absolving us of any responsibility. “It was sin that made me do it”, or a more common equivalent “the devil made me do it”. We are responsible for our actions, and a key step to making progress with Christ is accepting responsibility. Conversely, a sure way of ensuring we get absolutely nowhere with God is to deny responsibility and to be constantly blaming someone else.
What Paul is trying to do is to demonstrate the true and serious nature of the problem, and to realise that just trying harder is not going to work.
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