Sometimes, the English translation of the words of Paul are very confusing, especially if you don't know the whole story. Here in chapter 7 of Romans, beginning at verse 7, Paul describes his confusing battle with sin. He says he would not have been conscious that his feelings of covetousness were sin if he had not read the Law. He knew he had all of these feelings and desires, but did not realize they were sinful until he found the law saying, 'Thou shalt not covet". The discovery was devastating to him, for the law condemned the coveter, without offering him any way to be forgiven. The Law only justified the innocent, but condemned without hope the sinner. So Paul said when he saw that his covetous feelings were sinful, he died. Then he said, "The Law deceived me." That was because the Law left him feeling that he was hopeless, but he was to find out differently as God revealed His truth to him later.
After this experience of despair, when he saw himself condemned as a sinner, Paul says that did not make the Law bad. It simply made him see more clearly the difference between his human nature and the ways of God. It made sin clear to him. It also made him long all the more to do what the Father wanted, but he was constantly frustrated by his human nature, which
always seemed to get in the way. He describes this inner warfare between the man he wanted to be, and the man his human nature imposed on him. Finally he exploded in frustration, and said, "O wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death?" Had the chapter ended here, it would have been a tragedy. But it didn't!
The words at the end of chapter 7, and the beginning of chapter 8, are a thunderous shout of victory, echoing across twenty centuries, to cheer the heart of everyone who would be a child of the King. "Thanks be to God...through Jesus Christ our Lord...there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus"!
The rest of chapter 8 is a litany of victory and joy. Every struggling soul, who wrestles with his sins, and worries about his eternal destiny, should find peace and comfort in these two magnificent chapters. One as dedicated as the Apostle Paul, found the struggle with sin a hurdle too high even for him. Yet he proclaimed, in clarion tones, the victory, which was not just for him, but for every trembling soul, including me.
