Romans 7:16-18 – Good is not In my flesh

Now if what I am not willing, this I am doing, I am conceding that the law is ideal. Yet now it is no longer I who am effecting it, but Sin making its home in me. For I am aware that good is not making its home in me (that is, in my flesh), for to will is lying beside me, yet to be effecting the ideal is not.

The law says, “You shall not covet” (7: 7). And “I” say: that is indeed what I do not want. With that I recognize that the law is good. After all, I agree with the norm. But now it comes: precisely because I am no longer i to covet all kinds of things, I notice that I do. The command makes me aware of the attractiveness of what is not allowed. And the more I try to suppress that, the more the desire arises. Paul says: but then it is no longer me who does this (= desires) but “the sin making its home in me”. I want the good, but I can’t because of “my flesh”. Or, as we read elsewhere, “the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).

It should be clear: from “I” and “me” and from “my flesh” we should not expect the good.

Delen: