Who is the Man in Romans 7:14-25?

Have you ever heard someone who claims to be a believer say, “I do not sin.” Before I say anything about this statement, lets go to the Bible and see what it has to say.

If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the Truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us. 1 John 1:8-10

There are three things to notice in this passage concerning the one who says he has no sin:

If he says he has no sin, he is deceiving himself.

If he says, he has not sinned.

1. He makes God a liar. 
2. God’s Word is not in him.
3. The Truth is not in him.

Those who walk in the LIGHT walk in the Truth. Truth is, the more exposure we have to the Light the more our sin is exposed. It has been my experience that the longer I walk with Christ the more I see the sin that still dwells in me and I hate it more and more! Those who say they have no sin are walking in darkness, and the Truth is not in them. Look at what John Owen and AW Pink say:

I do not understand how a man can be a true believer in whom sin is not the greatest burden, sorrow and trouble. John Owen

It is not the absence of sin but the grieving over it which distinguishes the child of God from empty professors. AW Pink

I chose to start this article off with this passage of Scripture because I believe the man in Romans 7:14-25 is a believer. I do not want you to take my word on this as gospel. I want you the student of God’s Word to study it for yourself. The Holy Spirit is your teacher. Pray and ask Him to guide you into the Truth. I have written a list of questions in my Romans Bible Study that will take you through this passage step by step. At the end of this post, you can find a FREE Download of this study.

The One Who Knows

Paul begins Romans 7:14 with the phrase, “For we know that the law is spiritual.” I am going to start this portion of our study, pulling out the parts of this text that only a believer would understand. An unbeliever thinks that they are good people. There is no understanding of their depravity before God. Only a believer would understand what Paul is saying. Remember what he teaches in 1 Corinthians 2:14:

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

Who is the one who knows, The Believer or the unbeliever?

1. I know that the law is spiritual, but I am of flesh.
2. I know I am not practicing what I would like to do.
3. I know I am doing the very thing I hate.
4. I know and confess that the law is good.
5. I know sin dwells in me.
6. I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.
7. I know the good that I want to do.
8. I know that I practice the very evil that I do not want.
9. I know and understand this principle, evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.
10. I know and joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man.
11. I know there is a waging war going on inside of me.

There is a war going on in every believer. If you have been a believer for any length of time, you can testify to what Paul is teaching. Paul delights in the law of God, but he says in verse 23 that he sees a different law in the members of his body waging war against the law of his mind and making him a prisoner of the law of sin. This man that is regenerated to love and understand God’s Law fights a fight every day against the sin that still dwells in him. A believer is a prisoner to sin. Paul is not contradicting what he taught in Romans 6. A believer is freed from the power of death that sin once had. But sin is still present in this body of death. It vies for our attention like it’s calling out to us. It is tempting us and deceiving us just as it did in our unregenerate state. The difference now is we are secure in Christ, and we know what it is and what it is trying to accomplish. We have the Spirit that warns us of its attacks.

Who Will Set This new man Free!

This is a battle we will fight until death. Paul wants to serve God by being obedient to His law, but he always finds that what he wants to do he does not do. He cries out wretched, miserable, afflicted man that I am who will set me free from this body of death?

Thanks be to God one day we will be set free through Christ!

Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:12