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Romans 7 Syndrome
Imagine a man running on a religious treadmill. He’s sweating, breathing heavily, and giving it everything he’s got. He’s determined to reach his destination. He increases the speed, pushes himself harder, and refuses to quit. But after all that effort, he looks around and discovers something rather discouraging. He hasn’t gone anywhere! He’s still standing in the same place where he started.
Now imagine that same man wearing a religious straitjacket, with handcuffs on his wrists and a ball and chain around his ankle. He’s determined to succeed, but everything about his situation is working against him.
That may sound like an unusual illustration, but I believe it describes the struggle Paul was talking about in Romans chapter 7.
Paul was a man with tremendous religious zeal. He knew the law, respected the law, and devoted himself to obeying it. Yet for all his determination, he discovered that his own efforts could never produce the righteousness he was seeking.
He was running on a religious treadmill, and he wasn’t getting anywhere!
PAUL WAS SPEAKING TO THOSE WHO KNEW THE LAW
Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
Romans 7:1
Notice whom Paul addresses. He is speaking to those who know the law. This is important because the chapter is not simply a discussion about human weakness or the everyday difficulties of Christian living. Paul is explaining the relationship between the Mosaic Law, sin, death, and deliverance through Jesus Christ.
Paul himself was born under that covenant. He was circumcised the eighth day, raised as a Hebrew, and eventually became a Pharisee. According to Philippians 3:6, concerning the righteousness which was in the law, he considered himself blameless.
This was not a man who lacked religious commitment. Paul was serious about serving God. He possessed knowledge, discipline, determination, and a remarkable willingness to sacrifice for what he believed.
But religious determination and righteousness through faith are two entirely different things.
WHEN THE COMMANDMENT CAME
For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
Romans 7:9
This statement deserves careful consideration.
How could Paul say he was once alive without the law when he had been born under the Mosaic Covenant?
I believe Paul was describing his personal experience as he became conscious of the law’s demands. As a young child, he was already living under the covenant, but he had not necessarily developed a mature understanding of its requirements or the consequences of failing to obey them.
As he grew older, the commandments became increasingly personal. He began attempting to live according to their demands through his own determination and willpower.
Then something happened. The very commandments he believed would lead him into life began exposing his inability to accomplish what they required.
Paul said sin revived, and he died.
He certainly wasn’t describing his physical death. He was alive when he wrote those words. Rather, he was describing the condemning effect of sin under the law, an experience of death associated with the covenant that demanded righteousness but could not impart the life necessary to produce it.
But I believe there is another dimension to Paul’s words that we should not overlook. Paul was not merely speaking as an isolated individual. He belonged to the corporate body of Israel, a people who had lived under the Mosaic Covenant for generations. Adam Clarke, in his commentary on Romans 7:9, quotes Dr. Daniel Whitby, who understood Paul’s statement as representing the descendants of Abraham before the law was given at Sinai.
In that interpretation, the words I was alive without the law once reflect Israel’s corporate history before receiving the Mosaic commandments. I believe this complements Paul’s personal experience rather than contradicting it. Paul was personally acquainted with the struggle of living under the law, but he was also giving a voice to the covenantal people of whom he was a part. His individual experience reflected the condition of the corporate body.
They were all living under an administration that exposed sin, pronounced condemnation, and could never establish righteousness through human performance. Paul was speaking as one of them, representing the struggle of the people under that covenant.
Notice how Paul moves between the plural and singular throughout the chapter. In Romans 7:5, he says when we were in the flesh. In Romans 7:7, he says I had not known sin but by the law. Then in Romans 7:24, he cries out, O wretched man that I am! This movement fits the understanding that Paul was expressing a personal experience within a larger corporate covenantal condition.
And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
Romans 7:10
Notice those words, I found.
Paul discovered something through personal experience. What he had approached as a means of obtaining life became an instrument that exposed sin and brought condemnation.
He was trying to find salvation through a law that was actually pointing him toward a Savior.
There is also an interesting parallel with Adam in the Garden of Eden. Adam received a commandment, was deceived, transgressed, and experienced death. Paul uses similar language concerning the commandment, deception, and death in Romans 7:11. Although I understand Paul primarily to be recounting his own experience under the Mosaic Law while representing Israel’s corporate condition, the resemblance to Adam helps us recognize the larger biblical relationship between commandment, transgression, and death.
THE MINISTRATION OF DEATH
Paul gives us another important description of the Mosaic Covenant.
But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
2 Corinthians 3:7
Paul called the law written and engraved in stones the ministration of death.
Think about that expression.
The very covenant Israel had received at Sinai, accompanied by such remarkable glory, was described by Paul as a ministry of death.
Why?
Not because the law was evil. Paul specifically declared in Romans 7:12 that the law was holy, just, and good. The problem was never the moral character of the law. The problem was that sinful humanity could not obtain righteousness through its own obedience.
The law could identify transgression, but it could not provide the power to overcome it. It could pronounce condemnation, but it could not justify the sinner through human performance.
Paul was living under a covenant that exposed his failures every time he attempted to establish righteousness through his own efforts.
It was like wearing a religious straitjacket. He wanted to accomplish something, but the very system he was depending upon could not give him the freedom he needed.
And this is where we must understand the historical setting. Paul was describing the administration of the Old Covenant, which was passing away during that first-century transition. His struggle was rooted in a covenantal system that had served its appointed purpose and was approaching its final removal.
THE RELIGIOUS TREADMILL
Now we come to the portion of Romans 7 that so many people recognize.
For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Romans 7:19
Can you hear Paul’s frustration?
He wanted to do what was right, but his own efforts were not producing the results he desired.
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.
Romans 7:18
There is the religious treadmill!
Paul said the will was present. He had the desire. He had the determination. He wanted to accomplish what the law required.
But he could not find the ability to perform it.
He could run faster, work harder, and increase his religious determination, but none of those things could produce the righteousness he was seeking.
The religious treadmill kept him busy, but it wasn’t taking him anywhere.
I believe this is where many people misunderstand Romans 7. They read Paul’s description of struggle and assume he was establishing the permanent condition of every believer in Christ.
But remember where Paul began his discussion. He was addressing those who knew the law, explaining its dominion, and describing deliverance from the covenant under which they had been held.
Paul was revealing the futility of attempting to obtain righteousness through the law rather than presenting defeat as the intended condition of those who had found freedom in Christ.
And that brings us to his desperate cry.
WHO SHALL DELIVER ME?
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Romans 7:24
Notice what Paul asked.
He didn’t ask for another commandment. He didn’t ask for a stricter religious standard or a better method of self-discipline.
He asked who would deliver him!
Paul had finally come to the realization that the answer was not found in his own ability.
He needed deliverance, not another set of instructions.
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Romans 7:25
There was his answer. Jesus Christ!
The law had been pointing toward Christ all along. Paul had devoted himself to a system that could expose his need for righteousness but could never become the source of that righteousness.
He had been looking to the commandments for something only the Savior could provide.
And when Paul understood that, everything changed.
DELIVERED FROM THE RELIGIOUS STRAITJACKET
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
Romans 7:6
I want you to notice one particular word in that verse.
Held.
The Greek word is katechō, carrying the sense of holding fast, retaining, or restraining.
Paul was describing the authority under which they had been held. But he did not say they needed to learn how to become more successful under that authority.
He said they had been delivered from it!
That is a remarkable difference.
Paul wasn’t announcing a new exercise program for people exhausted from running on the religious treadmill. He was announcing deliverance from the very covenant under which they had struggled.
The religious straitjacket was coming off. The handcuffs of condemnation no longer defined their relationship with God. The ball and chain of attempting to establish righteousness through personal performance had lost its claim upon them.
They were no longer to serve in the oldness of the letter but in the newness of the Spirit.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Romans 8:2
There is the victory!
Paul moves from describing the inability of the flesh under the law to declaring freedom through the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
He wasn’t teaching people how to run faster. He was showing them that righteousness was never waiting at the end of that religious treadmill.
CHRIST DESTROYED THE POWER OF DEATH
This brings us to something we recently studied in Hebrews.
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
Hebrews 2:14
And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Hebrews 2:15
The word translated destroy in Hebrews 2:14 comes from the Greek katargeō, which carries the meaning of rendering ineffective, abolishing, or bringing to nothing.
Christ came to render powerless the one who held the power of death, identified in the passage as the devil, the accuser.
The Greek word diabolos, translated devil, describes a slanderer or false accuser. Satan is a title meaning adversary. As I have discussed in previous studies, I understand this adversarial and accusatory power within the first-century covenantal conflict, particularly the religious leadership that opposed Christ and His people.
But notice the people Hebrews describes as being subject to bondage.
They lived under the fear of death. Within the Old Covenant administration, sin brought condemnation, and the law exposed transgression without providing the righteousness that could only come through Christ.
The ceremonial system continued year after year. Sacrifices were offered, priests ministered, and commandments regulated the covenantal life of Israel. Yet Hebrews 10:1 explains that those sacrifices could never make the worshippers perfect.
That was the ceremonial treadmill!
The system could remind the people of sin, but it could not accomplish the final redemption they needed. Its repeated sacrifices pointed forward to the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
They were subject to bondage under an administration that could expose sin but could not bring the promised perfection. The fear of death was not merely the fear of physical dying. In this covenantal understanding, it included the condemnation and judgment associated with sin under the law.
Christ came to accomplish what that administration could never accomplish.
Paul helps us understand the relationship between sin, law, and death.
The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
1 Corinthians 15:56
I have previously written about the law being the life support to sin, so I won’t repeat that entire discussion here. But we cannot overlook the connection.
The law gave sin its strength, and the administration of that covenant brought condemnation and death.
Christ did not come merely to make people more successful at keeping the Mosaic Law. He came to accomplish what the law could not accomplish and to deliver His people from the bondage associated with that administration.
This is why fulfilled theology and radical grace belong together.
The victory over death in 1 Corinthians 15 was not disconnected from the passing of the Old Covenant. Paul was addressing a first-century people living during the transition from the old administration of death into the completed reality of the New Covenant.
The old order was passing away, and the victory accomplished through Jesus Christ was being revealed.
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:57
Notice again where the victory came from.
Not the law. Not religious determination. Not human performance.
Jesus Christ!
GOD BROUGHT ISRAEL OUT OF EGYPT
There is another illustration that helps us understand why people can experience deliverance and still struggle with the mentality of bondage.
God delivered the children of Israel from Egypt, but then He had to deal with the Egypt that remained in their thinking.
They had been brought out of bondage, yet whenever difficulties arose, they began remembering Egypt. They had left the land of their captivity, but they continued thinking like people who belonged there.
And I believe something similar happens in religion today.
The Mosaic Covenant has passed away, but that doesn’t mean people have abandoned the mentality of trying to establish their own righteousness.
They simply develop another set of commandments.
They create religious standards, regulations, expectations, and measurements of holiness. Then they spend their lives attempting to satisfy the very system they have created.
And I’ll say it again.
Religion is the first cousin to the law!
The rules may be different, but the principle of attempting to establish righteousness through personal performance remains.
THE RELIGIOUS TREADMILL IS STILL RUNNING
I understand this from personal experience.
I spent years living under religious standards that seemed to measure righteousness by outward performance. There was always something else to accomplish, another expectation to satisfy, or another standard by which to examine myself.
You could be sincere, devoted, and determined, yet still feel as though you were never doing enough.
The religious treadmill never stopped.
And the sad part is that people can become so accustomed to that religious environment that they mistake exhaustion for spirituality.
They believe that because they are constantly struggling, they must be making progress.
But activity and progress are not necessarily the same thing.
You can be extremely busy with religion and still fail to understand the simplicity of righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ.
Paul addressed this very problem.
For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Romans 10:3
There it is again.
Establishing their own righteousness!
Modern religious systems can reproduce the same mentality without actually placing anyone back under the historical Mosaic Covenant.
And that distinction matters. The Old Covenant is gone. Its covenantal administration of condemnation and death has reached its fulfillment. But people can still create their own religious bondage by trusting in their performance rather than the righteousness found in Christ.
They put themselves on another religious treadmill, fasten another set of religious handcuffs, and wonder why they never experience the freedom they keep hearing about.
THE END OF THE OLD COVENANT ADMINISTRATION
For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
2 Corinthians 3:11
Paul was contrasting two covenantal administrations.
One was passing away. The other remained.
The Old Covenant had served its purpose, but it was never intended to remain forever. The law pointed toward Christ, and the promises associated with redemption were reaching their fulfillment during that first-century generation.
Hebrews describes the condition of the old administration.
In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
Hebrews 8:13
Notice the language. The old covenant was ready to vanish away.
The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70 marked the historical conclusion of that covenantal order. The priesthood, sacrifices, and temple administration associated with the Mosaic system came to their end.
This was not the beginning of another religious treadmill. It was the removal of an order that had fulfilled its appointed purpose.
Christ had accomplished the work of redemption. The New Covenant was established through His blood, and the old administration was no longer the governing covenant of God’s people.
That is why I believe fulfilled theology is so important to understanding radical grace.
We cannot fully appreciate the freedom of the New Covenant while continuing to treat the Old Covenant as though it were still waiting to be fulfilled.
WHY I CALL IT RADICAL GRACE
When I use the expression Radical Grace, I’m not suggesting there is another kind of grace. God’s grace has always been grace. But I call it radical because of what it did in my life.
Radical means revolutionary, extreme, and drastic! And that’s exactly how I would describe the transformation I experienced when I began to understand the finished work of Jesus Christ.
For years, I lived under religious rules, regulations, and expectations. I was constantly trying to measure up, attempting to obtain through my own efforts what Christ had already provided.
Then I began to understand the freedom of righteousness through faith and the fulfillment of the Old Covenant in Jesus Christ.
It revolutionized my understanding of God, salvation, righteousness, and my relationship with Him.
I think about John Newton, who wrote the hymn Amazing Grace. He wasn’t describing a different kind of grace when he called it amazing. He was expressing the profound impact God’s grace had upon his life.
That’s how I use the word radical.
I didn’t discover another grace. I discovered just how powerful God’s grace really is!
The grace didn’t change. My understanding changed, and that radically changed my life.
And this is why I believe fulfilled theology is the other side of radical grace. Grace reveals the freedom accomplished through Jesus Christ, while fulfilled theology reveals the covenantal fulfillment of the promises associated with that freedom.
RIGHTEOUSNESS WAS NEVER AT THE END OF THE RELIGIOUS TREADMILL
Paul eventually came to understand something that changed his entire life.
He had spent years trusting in his religious credentials, his obedience, and his standing as a Pharisee. But when he came to know Christ, he recognized that none of those things could establish the righteousness he needed.
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
Philippians 3:9
What a remarkable change!
Paul went from depending upon his own righteousness to resting in the righteousness that comes through faith.
He no longer needed to prove himself through the religious system that had once defined his life.
And neither do we.
I believe far too many people today are still living with what I call the Romans 7 syndrome. They are constantly trying to accomplish through their own willpower what can only be received through faith in Christ.
They are sincere. They are determined. They are religiously active.
But they’re exhausted.
And all the while, they are running on a religious treadmill that cannot take them where they want to go.
The answer is not to run faster.
The answer is Jesus Christ.
The law was pointing toward a Savior, but Paul had been looking to the law for salvation.
When he finally understood the difference, he discovered the freedom he had been seeking.
The Mosaic Law was a religious treadmill for the man attempting to establish righteousness through his own performance. He could run until he was exhausted, but his efforts could never accomplish what only Christ could provide.
And that’s the message I want people to understand.
Quit trying to earn what God has already provided through Jesus Christ.
Righteousness is not the reward waiting at the end of your religious treadmill.
It is the gift of God received through faith in Jesus Christ.
The religious treadmill can stop. The religious straitjacket can come off. The handcuffs and the ball and chain no longer have to define your relationship with God.
Christ has accomplished what human determination never could.
Stop running on the religious treadmill and start resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ!
