Conflicting Laws

“So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” -Romans 7:21–23

Paul uses a beautifully crafted rhetorical framework using laws to make his point. The word law is the Greek word nomos (νομος) and means, in its most generic sense, an established procedure or principle or system. It is usually used in regards to a government or regime (i.e., The Mosaic Law) but it can also refer to a pattern, like the law of gravity—or, as in verse 21, “I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.”

The laws he mentions in this passage are, first, the law of sin which resides in his members (vs. 21, 23), the law of God (vs. 22), and the law of his mind (vs. 23).

The pattern is that the law of Paul’s mind (note that he uses the rhetorical, unregenerate “I” that is representative of Israel, and ultimately, all humanity, so this is true of our own situation as well) delights to fulfill the law of God, but there is another law at work in his members which is the law of sin. This law wages war against the law of his mind and leverages his members to make him captive to the law of sin.

There is another contrast we need to be aware of as well. This is the contrast between his members and his “inner being.” His members are literally his body parts but are used metaphorically to represent his fallen nature, his flesh, that is at war with his inner being, his self. Paul is not a gnostic who believes the body is inherently evil and the soul is inherently good. He wrote an entire letter (i.e., Galatians) refuting the doctrine of gnosticism. But he uses this dualistic construction here to make the larger point that there are various laws at work in the unregenerate man.

Said another way: even when the law of one’s mind is in harmony with the law of God, the law of sin, dwelling in one’s members (i.e., one’s flesh), stands in opposition to the law of God. This law of sin leverages every man’s members in an effort to wage war against the law of his mind and make the man captive to sin instead of free to obey the law.