Romans 7:18-25a
Chapter 7
18
I know that what is right does not reside in me, I mean, in my flesh. I can want to do what is right, but I am unable to do it.
19
In fact, I do not do the good I want, but the evil I hate.
20
Therefore, if I do what I do not want to do, I am not the one trying to do wrong, but sin, which is within me.
21
I realize, then, this truth: although I want to do what is right, the evil inside me rises first.
22
My innermost self agrees with and rejoices in the law of God,
23
but I notice in my body another law, challenging the law of the Spirit and making me a slave to the law of sin, which is written in my members.
24
Alas for me! Who will rescue me from this entity that is nothing but death?
25
Let us give thanks to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So, with my conscience, I am a servant of the law of God, and with my mortal body, I serve the law of sin.
Commentaries
Dominated by Sin.
Paul reflects on the condition of the “I” under sin with almost despairing words: “I am sold into slavery to sin” (14). Amidst feelings of defeat: “Wretched man that I am!” (24), he responds with a grateful cry of victory: liberation is already present “thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (25). It is as if, on the brink of the abyss, he has grown wings. Thus, Paul concludes his dramatic journey through the “Gospel of wrath” (1:18), which has taken us from examining the corruption of the pagan and Jewish worlds of his time, to the origin of sin in Adam, then into the human laws twisted by sin, and even into the very structure of the person where sin also resides. The Apostle has reached the core that unites all men and women in a global solidarity of guilt, before and beyond religions, races, and cultures: the sinful condition of humanity. Yet, this “Gospel of wrath” from God is only one side of the mystery: the “Gospel of universal salvation” offered in and through Jesus Christ.