Approximately six years before writing the Roman letter, Paul had written the believers at Thessalonica: “You are witnesses, and God also (notice now Paul says God will attest to what he is about to say), how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe” (See 1 Thessalonians 2:10). Paul had long lived a holy, just and blameless life! That is WHY Paul could dogmatically state to both Timothy and Titus that a bishop (spiritual overseer, a pastor) MUST BE BLAMELESS…JUST, HOLY!” (See Titus 1:7-8 and I Timothy 3:1-7). Paul wasn’t a hypocrite, telling these men THEY had to be holy and blameless while he, himself, had to admit that he was “carnal, sold under sin!” How ridiculous that any Bible teacher would even think so!!!
Remember, Peter warned that Paul wrote some things hard to be understood. Some, indeed, think Paul was speaking of his own present condition in Romans 7. After all he DOES use the present tense and uses the personal pronoun “I” in all those statements about sin overcoming him and holding him captive. But they fail to consider the plain, clear VICTORY statements of Romans 6 and 8. They also fail to grasp the true meaning of that 19th verse in Romans 6, wherein Paul says that he is now going to speak “after the manner of men” who have weakness in the flesh. And, further, they fail to consider all the other statements Paul makes in his other epistles about our living dedicated lives of holiness and purity, and how he, himself, led such a life as a shining example of a true minister of Jesus Christ.
That’s not all they forget. Here are a few other statements Paul makes that they obviously overlook when reading Romans 7. Paul wrote the Corinthians: “I know of NOTHING against myself!” (See I Corinthians 4:4). He could search his mind, his heart, and life without one twinge of guilt over unforsaken sin. The New International Version words it this way: “My conscience is clear.” In writing the Philippian believers, Paul said, as touching the righteousness required in the law, he was blameless. (See Philippians 3:6). He told them that Christ was magnified in HIS body, and that for him to live was for Christ to live anew. (See Philippians 1:20-21). How could Paul seriously exhort the Philippian believers to be “blameless, and harmless, and without rebuke” if he, himself, was ever giving in to the pulls of the flesh? (See Philippians 2:15). Paul would have been a hypocrite! Paul exhorted the believers at Corinth, “Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ” (I Corinthians 11:1), and cried out to the Galatian believers, “Christ LIVES in me!” (See Galatians 2:20). It would be a pathetic joke today for many believers, even many ministers, to make such statements and apply them to their own lives and conduct.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley