7:24
This is a terrible place to be in, and Paul has been describing the nature of this torment. “Wretched man that I am!” This is a body of death. We think that if we want to do the right thing, if we plan to do the right thing, then we will get there, or at least make progress towards it. Instead we find an indomitable force at work within us, the force of sin, a force that is stronger than us. “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Is there any hope for us? Is there any way of escape?
7:25
“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Yes there is an escape, we do have a saviour, and His name is Jesus Christ the Lord. Having reached this high point Paul then seems to immediately come down again into the depths. What he is doing is summing up the argument of this chapter, and the solution to the problem will be explained in the next chapter. The problem is summed up as being that we serve the Law of God with our mind. I.e. we may genuinely want to live according to God’s ways. Even in the world which has rejected a lot of God’s ways, there is still a desire to do right, even if the world’s concept of “right” is often severely distorted from the truth and is actually “wrong”. So we are committed to doing right, but in practice we find ourselves doing the opposite.
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