Are Men Born Sinners? - Library of Theology

the Lord Jesus Christ (ROM 7:4-6) that we receive life and grace and are set free from
the bondage of sin.
It was after showing the glorious power of Christ to deliver from the bondage of sin, and
the utter inability of the law to do anything more than judge and convict of sin, that the
Apostle uses himself as an illustration of one who is in the bondage of a carnal servitude
to the law--one who is convicted by the law of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, but still
unable by the motives of the law to free himself from his fleshly passions and lusts. But,
if Paul were describing in ROM 7:14-25 his own Christian experience or the experience
of any other Christian, it would directly contradict everything he said in both chapters six
and eight about the Christian being freed from sin. It is impossible that the Apostle could
be inspired by the Holy Spirit to teach the contradiction that the Christian is both
gloriously saved by Christ from his sins and at the same time a total slave to them. This is
the folly of interpreting a text without giving attention to its context.
It is sad that many who call themselves Christians have misused this text in Romans
7:14-25 to excuse their sins, saying that even the great Apostle Paul could not overcome
sin, and that they don't consider themselves to be any greater or more spiritual than he.
They say that they are having the same experience that the Apostle Paul had in Romans
seven, that sin dwells in them the same as it dwelt in Paul, and that we all have inherited
the same old Adamic sin nature. They will say that if the Apostle Paul could not
overcome sin, they don't see how they can expect to live without sin. I heard one
preacher's comment in the Sunday morning service after having read this passage. His
comment was "I'm glad this is in the Bible; it makes me feel a lot better." He assumed
that Paul was describing his own Christian experience, and it relieved his conscience to
know that the Apostle Paul was in bondage to sin just like other Christians. But the
person who uses this passage to relieve his conscience and to convince himself that he is
a Christian while living in bondage to sin is deceiving himself. He is not a Christian. No
man is a Christian who is a slave to sin. Christ sets his people free from their sins.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath
made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was
weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for
sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us,
who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. ROM 8:1-4
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God,
neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not
in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead
because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ROM 8:7-10
If ROM 7:14-25 were a description of Paul's own Christian experience, it would directly
contradict the Christian experience he describes above. He says, "There is now no
condemnation"; "Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death"; and