This is Paul writing
in Romans. As you know, I have some
issues with Paul's writings. Here he
seems to be rationalizing and justifying.
He also seems to be directly contradicting Jesus in my opinion. That makes for an interesting dilemma because
we are told in Scripture that Jesus chose Paul to carry His message to the
Gentiles. So who do we listen to when
there seems to be a direct contradiction?
Here is what Jesus
said about the law.
Matthew 5:17(NKJV)
“Do not think that I
came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to
fulfill.
Now compare that to
what Paul writes.
Romans 7:1-25(NKJV)
Or do you not know,
brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion
over a man as long as he lives?
For the woman who
has a husband is bound by the law to her
husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the
law of her husband.
So then if,
while her husband lives, she
marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies,
she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married
another man.
Therefore, my brethren, you also
have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married
to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to
God.
For when we were in
the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in
our members to bear fruit to death.
But now we have been
delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should
serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in
the oldness of the letter.
What shall we say
then? Is the law sin? Certainly
not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I
would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”
But sin, taking
opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.
I was alive once
without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
And the commandment,
which was to bring life, I found to bring death.
For sin, taking
occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.
Therefore the
law is holy, and the commandment
holy and just and good.
Has then what is
good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was
producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment
might become exceedingly sinful.
For we know that the
law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
For what I am doing,
I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I
hate, that I do.
If, then, I do what
I will not to do, I agree with the law that it
is good.
But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that
dwells in me.
For I know that in
me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me,
but how to perform what is good I
do not find.
For the good that I
will to do, I do not do; but the
evil I will not to do, that I
practice.
Now if I do what I
will not to do, it is no longer I
who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
I find then a law,
that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
For I delight in the
law of God according to the inward man.
But I see another
law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into
captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
O wretched man that
I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
I thank God—through Jesus Christ our
Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh
the law of sin.
This last part
highlighted in green I find suspect as well.
It seems like Paul is saying that after accepting Jesus, when he sins it
is no longer his (Paul's) fault. That
just seems dubious to me.
