"I know, that what is right, does not abide in me, I mean, in my flesh. I can want to do what is right, but I am unable to do it. In fact, I do not do the good I want, but the evil I hate. Therefore, if I do what I do not want to do, I am not the one striving toward evil, but sin, which is in me.
I discover, then, this reality: though I wish to do what is right, the evil within me asserts itself first. My inmost self, agrees and rejoices with the law of GOD, but I notice in my body, another law, challenging the law of the spirit, and delivering me, as a slave to the law of sin, written in my members. Alas, for me! Who will free me from this being, which is only death? Let us give thanks to GOD through JESUS CHRIST, our LORD!
So, with my conscience, I am servant of the law of GOD, and with my mortal body, I serve the law of sin." - Romans 7:18-25
(Paul describes the situation of the person who knows the commandments, but not the love of GOD. He is not a liberated person, but a divided one. Two opposing forces struggle within him; on one side the law that tells him what to do, and on the other another law in his flesh, that is, in his nature. He is not really free.
There is something well disposed within human beings: the spirit; and something that resists the demands of duty: the flesh [see Mark 14:38]. The flesh does not mean the body; this word designates what in us is weak in face of duty and GOD's call to holiness.
Our liberty is impotent when faced with sin, that is, it can do nothing against the forces of evil dragging down all humankind. Dullness of spirit in our fellow workers, family problems, the general spread of pornography, selfishness and consumerism: the flesh within us becomes an accomplice in all these evils.
In this chapter Paul continues to play the role of the one who still does not know CHRIST and remains divided and enslaved. The next chapter will deal with the opposition between the spirit and the flesh for those who believe in CHRIST. For them there is a solution to their conflicts: they live in peace. And so Paul ends crying out: who will free me...? Thanks be to GOD.)
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