December - the Free Presbyterian church of Scotland

370The Free Presbyterian Magazine(2.) Paul uses the first person singular throughout. He says, for instance,“I had not known sin”, “I died”, “The commandment which was ordained tolife, I found to be unto death,” “I consent unto the law that it is good”, “Idelight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in mymembers”. We are bound to understand the Apostle to speak of himself inthe use of such language, unless there is something in the context, or in thenature of what is said, to render the reference to him impossible. It has beenshown, however, that the context favours, if it does not absolutely demand,the reference of what is said to the Apostle himself.There is nothing in the experience here detailed that is inconsistent with theexperience of the true children of God. This is evident from the fact thatthe same humility, the same sense of guilt, the same consciousness of indwellingsin and the same conviction of helplessness, here expressed, are foundin all the penitential portions of Scripture. Job, David, Isaiah and Nehemiahmake the same confessions and lamentations that the Apostle makes here.The same is true of believers since the coming of Christ. There is not one ofthem, not even the holiest, but is constrained to speak of himself as Paul herespeaks, unless indeed he chooses to give the language of the Apostle a meaningwhich it was never intended to express.(3.) While the passage contains nothing inconsistent with the experienceof true believers, it is inconsistent with the experience of unrenewed men.They are not the subjects of the inward conflict here depicted. There indeedoften is a protracted and painful struggle in them, between reason and conscienceon the one side, and evil passion on the other. But in the unrenewedthere is not that utter renunciation of self, that looking for help to God inChrist alone, and that delight in the law of God, of which the Apostlespeaks here.2. What Romans 7:7-25 teaches. Assuming then that we have in this chapteran account of the experience of a true, and even of an advanced, Christian,we learn that (a) there is a mixture of good and evil in every Christian; (b) theoriginal corruption of nature is not entirely removed by regeneration; (c) althoughthe believer is made a new creature and is translated from the kingdomof darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son, he is but partially sanctified;(d) his selfishness, pride, discontent and worldliness still cleave to him andtorment him; (e) they effectually prevent his “doing what he would”, theyprevent his living without sin, they prevent his communion with God beingas intimate and uninterrupted as he could and does desire.He finds not only that he is often, even daily, overcome so as to sin inthought, word and deed, but also that his faith, love, zeal and devotion arenever such as to satisfy his own conscience; much less can they satisfy God.