ROMANS 7:14

“For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold into bondage to sin.”

Try as I might, I will never live perfectly. As a human being it is just not possible. I don’t care how much Bible I read or how many hours of the day I pray, I still battle my flesh. That’s why the remainder of Romans 7 really hits home with me. I can relate to Paul’s confession here. Most scholars agree that these verses (14-25) are referring to Paul’s life after Christ, whereas back in verse 7 he was using the past tense of the verb denoting his life before Christ. Hey, if Paul is saying this about himself, I am in good company.

But what a way to start his confession! He says, “but I am fleshly,” To be honest, we can all say that. Paul is not saying he is some extreme fleshly being seeking sin out in every corner. He is simply stating the fact that he is still in the flesh which has all the same old temptations before it. Becoming a Christian did not immediately remove all those “common” sins from Paul no more than it does for us now. As long as we live in this fleshly, human body, we will be in the presence of sin and its influence.

APPLICATION

Great news, Carl. I guess I can just give up then. Now, hang on. We will be analyzing the rest of the chapter a verse at a time as we normally do. We will see what Paul is saying about this dilemma and will see how to apply Paul’s confession to our own. The word used here for “fleshly” is sarkinos which comes from the root sarx. However, this adjective form is referring to the human flesh and not the fleshly behaviors. That is sarkikos. That’s a big difference. Can we all agree that if you are still living and breathing, you are in the flesh? You have a fleshly body.

Sarkinos is used in 1 Corinthians 3:1 when Paul says, “And I, brothers and sisters, could not speak to you as spiritual people, but only as fleshly, as to infants in Christ.” He uses the word again in 2 Corinthians 3:3 referring to “human” hearts. “revealing yourselves, that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

And then we see it used one more time in the New Testament in Hebrews 7:16 where the writer says, “who has become a priest not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life.” The word “physical” is sarkinos.  So, in just four verses, we see it translated as fleshly, human and physical. Don’t beat yourself up then. Just because you’re made of human flesh, that doesn’t make you fleshly in behavior. That is your choice. We’ll see more on that later. Today, choose the spiritual over the fleshly.

O Lord, even though I am still in this old human body, I desire to live holy and pure before You.

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