Paul agrees with his fellow apostle John that a believer need not sin. Then why is Paul, of all people, used as an example of a defeated Christian? Why is Paul used as an example to prove that a believer cannot be completely delivered from committing sin in this life? Again, as with John, it is due to a misunderstanding, a satanic misunderstanding, of what Paul wrote in Romans, chapter 7. In the 7th chapter of Romans, beginning with verse 14, Paul wrote these words: “I am carnal, SOLD UNDER SIN, for that which I do, I allow not: for what I would (or should do), that do I not; but what I hate, that do I…Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing, for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I FIND NOT” (See Romans 7:14-18). Now do you really think this apostle is saying He doesn’t know how to get the victory over sin, because right before writing those words Paul had urged these Roman believers, “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin.” (See Romans 6:11). And again, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof” (verse 12). He had just assured them, “Sin shall NOT have dominion over you” (verse 14). Does he then turn around and confess that in his own life he found none of this to be true? How absurd to even think so!
The KEY to a proper understanding of Paul’s clearly defeatist statements in Romans 7 is what Paul says in the 19th verse of Romans 6: “I speak AFTER THE MANNER OF MEN (and defeated men at that) because of the infirmity (Greek, “weakness”) of YOUR flesh.” Notice, Paul is not speaking of any weakness in his OWN flesh, but of the weakness of these Roman believers. Previously Paul had written the believers at Corinth, “I keep under (control) my body, and bring it into subjection (to the Spirit)…” (See I Corinthians 9:27). Paul hadn’t lost the victory between the time he wrote the Corinthians and the Roman believers. In writing, “I speak after the manner of men,” Paul was merely saying, “I am going to put myself in your shoes and address this problem from your viewpoint, your perspective, and show you the way to victory – Jesus Christ!”
Putting himself in the place of another in order to address THEIR problem was a tactic used by Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians. (See I Corinthians 4:6). It’s the tactic he uses in Romans 7. Don’t be thrown by his use of the personal pronoun “I.” Approximately six years before writing the Romans, Paul wrote the Thessalonian believers, “You are witnesses, and God also (God will bear me out on what I now say), how holily (in what a holy manner) and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe” (I Thessalonians 2:10). Did Paul and his companions live holy, just and blameless lives among the Thessalonians while being carnal and sold under sin among the Romans??? Of course not! Paul told the Galatian believers it pleased God to reveal His Son to them THROUGH PAUL. (See Galatians 1:15-16). Just as Jesus told Philip, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father,” Paul could say to the Galatian AND ROMAN believers, “If you have seen me, you have seen Jesus Christ!” That’s rightly dividing the Word, brethren.
Christ’s Aged Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley