Why Romans 7 Happens: The Pain of Self-Dependence (I Do What I Hate)

Romans 7 has a sound to it. Many sincere believers recognize it immediately.

It’s the sound of someone who loves what is right, and yet can’t seem to live what is right. It’s the inner conflict of wanting obedience, yet finding yourself doing what you hate. If you have ever read Romans 7 and thought, “That’s me,” this episode is for you.

In Episode 5 of The Abiding Life: Foundations in Romans 6–8, we walk slowly through Romans 7:14–25 and listen to Paul’s honesty. Romans 7 is not written to shame believers. It names what happens when a Christian tries to live for God from self-dependence, when the “I” becomes the engine. The law can show what is right, but it cannot supply the life required to do what is right. This is why the cycle feels so relentless, and why it produces fear, discouragement, and confusion.

But Romans 7 does not end with a new strategy. It ends with a cry: “Who will deliver me?” And that cry is not failure. It is the turning point. It is Paul’s doorway into Romans 8, where deliverance is found in a Person, and where the Spirit does what the law could never produce from the flesh.

📖 Key Text: Romans 7:14–25
🌿 Series: The Abiding Life — Foundations in Romans 6–8 (Episode 5)

If you’re weary from trying, you’re not alone. And you’re not without hope. The question is not merely “How do I change?” The question becomes, “Who will deliver me?”

If you would like a deeper companion to this episode, I wrote a blog post that walks slowly through Romans 7 with fuller Scripture support and a clear path into Romans 8. Read it here: https://www.rootedinchristjournal.com...

Next episode: Romans 8:1 — no condemnation.

Mentor Comments:
Dr. John Woodward, Grace Fellowship International
"Amen. We cannot overestimate the importance of this lesson for enjoying the Abiding Life in Christ! In addition to the helpful description under the video, the companion Journal article by “Believing Thomas” deserves careful reading and a heart-felt positive response.

Some Bible teachers view the inner struggle of Romans 7 as an unbeliever’s condition approaching salvation. But [Believing Thomas] observes that 7:18 declares “I delight in the law of God in the inner man” [the regenerated human spirit - Eph 4:24; 2 Cor 5:17]: “Desire matters. A dead heart does not grieve sin. A dead heart does not long for what is right. A dead heart does not experience that ache of contradiction. In many cases, the struggle is not proof that you do not belong to Christ. The struggle is proof that you do.“

But Paul is using present tense verbs in this passage. Why? Because this inner conflict is a present tense struggle for believers as they traverse the Romans Road of sanctification (chapters 5-8). In the apostle’s case the desperation and discovery happened during his time in Arabia (Gal 1:17) following his dramatic salvation experience on the road to Damascus (Acts 9). Yet he was (and we are) still vulnerable to walking after the flesh (“I am fleshly” 7:14) because the flesh programming is still in us (“in my flesh dwells no good thing” (7:18). However, when this passage was written Paul was living in the provision of the Holy Spirit as Source, under grace, as revealed in Romans 8.

Don’t miss {Believing Thomas'] illustration in the Journal article that compares the despair described in Romans 7:14-24 to a car with a dead battery. The jumper cables symbolize God’s provision of living under grace through Indwelling Life of Christ!

We are at the edge of our seat for the next lesson on Romans chapter 8, where the anguished cry of the “selfer” under a law mentality (7:24) is answered by the ministry of the Holy Spirit under grace!

Thank you 😊👍🙏✝️🦅"

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