Nothing Good Dwells In Me

“For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” -Romans 7:18–20

Continuing with his use of the rhetorical “I,” Paul reinforces his refutation against those who claim that the gospel he is preaching includes the denigration of the law. It is not the law that has failed. It is the sin nature that dwells in him. That part of him which constitutes the “I” part of him desires to do good, but that which carries out his actions is the sin nature that dwells in him (his flesh), and nothing good dwells there. Therefore, there exists in one man a conflict of natures—the desire to do good but the inability to carry it out.

Again, recall Paul is not speaking necessarily of his present spiritual condition in Christ, but as one who represents Israel, and ultimately, human kind born of Adam, and living under the law of God.

It seems, however, we can all relate to Paul’s scenario: The good we want to do, we don’t; and the evil we don’t want to do, we do. Why? Because each of us have inherited a nature foreign to our original design—a sinful nature that dwells in us—that is inconsistent with our desire to do good.

This is where the culpability lies, not in the law.