What does Romans 7:19 mean?
In the previous verse, Paul declared that nothing good dwells in his flesh. By flesh, he referred to his physical self, his body. He repeats now the pattern he has observed over and over in his life: He doesn't do the good he wants to do, but he keeps doing the evil he does not want to do. Paul is describing an endless battle between good intentions and actual actions.Is he describing himself as he was before he came to know Christ? Back then, he was attempting to follow the law of Moses. A few Bible scholars believe Paul is painting the picture of what it is like to live under the law without the ability to keep the law. Other Bible scholars think Paul is describing the experience of all Christians struggling to stop sinning and to do the good they are capable of doing in the power of the Holy Spirit now that they are no longer slaves to sin. Both harmonize with the experience of believers and the information presented in the rest of the New Testament.
Based on analysis of the Greek language alone, it seems more likely that Paul is speaking of his current experience.
Romans 7:7–25 explores the relationship between the law of Moses and human sin. Paul insists that the law is how he came to know and understand sin, in general, and his own sin specifically. He also explains how knowing the law does not make a person holier; it can actually tempt us to sin even more! Paul changes his perspective in this passage, speaking in a first-person-here-and-now manner, as a Christian, wanting to do what is right and finding himself doing what is sinful instead. Paul recognized his natural inability to do right and realized his need to be delivered from sin by God through Jesus.
In Romans 7, Paul describes the relationship between Christians and law of Moses and between the law and human sinfulness. Because we died spiritually when we came to faith in Christ, Christians have been freed from our obligation to follow the law. Paul insists, though, that the law is holy and good in the sense that it reveals to all who try to follow it just how very sinful we are. The law shows us that no matter how good our intentions, we still end up in sin and in need of the deliverance available only through faith in Jesus.
