The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum question on romans 7

Here are the arguments from Dr. Reymond who supports the non-christian view of rom. 7<br>Let me know what y'all think. [i've always wanted to say that [img]http://www.the-highway.com/w3timages/icons/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile[/img]].<br><br><br>1. The Shift of verb tense from the past to the present at 7:14 in no way effects the autobiographical character of 7:14-25. Nor must the present tenses in 7:14-25 necessarily indicate Paul's experience at the time he is writing Romans as the mature Christian apostle and missionary. <br><br>2. The man describes himself as "Carnal", which according to 8:6 is descriptive of the state of spiritual death.<br><br>3. The man says of himself that he has been "sold as a slave to sin"( 7:14), that is, he is a slave of sin, which is descriptive only of the unregenerate man. Regenerate persons "use to be slaves of sin"(rom 6:17,20) but now "have been set from sin" and have now become "slaves of righteousness" (6:18,22). They, 'were controlled by the sinful nature' (7:5), but now "are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit (8:9), "having died to what once bound them"(rom 7:6). They did "live according to the sinful nature" (8:4), but now they are living "according to the Spirit (8:4), and the law's requirements are being "fully met" in them (8:4).<br><br>4. The man says of himself that his members are being mastered by "indwelling sin"(7:17,20). This is not true of the Christian for he is governed by the "indwelling Spirit"; if he is not governed, he is not a Christian at all (8:9,11)!<br><br>5. THe man says of himself that "in me...dwells no good thing(7:18), which is not true of the Christian for the Spirit of God dwells within him (8:9,11). <br><br>6. The man says of himself that a "law [of sin]" within him is "waging war against the law of his mind and making him a prisoner of the law of sin at work within his members(7:23). Here again he stresses his slavery to sin which is no true of the Christian (6:14), for the gospel has "liberated[him] from teh law of sin and eath"(8:2).<br><br>7. The man continually does, indeed, actually practices, what he does not want to do. In sum, the man in this passage is enslaved by indwelling sin and sees his state as "Wretched" and his body as the sphere in which sin is operative unto death (7:24). This is not true of the Christian nor can this be descriptive of the Christian.<br><br>8.It may be legitimately be said that throughout his life as a self-righteous Pharisee he "Delighted in the law of God with his mind". Paul also declared that the Jewish nation was "pursuing" a righteousness of its won through law-keeping (romn 9:31-32). Apparently, then, unregenerate pople can sincerely desire to be obedient to the law. Their problem, as the passage teaches, is their impotence to do what they want to do or know to be right.<br><br>9.Romasn 7:25b is either "<br> A conclusion descriptive of the unconverted but deeply convicted Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus, struggling to obey the law in his own power, with the preceding "thanks be God" phrase (7:25a) being the regenerate Paul simply interjecting into the flow of his argument as he occasionally does an anacoluthonic praise statement from his vantage point as a Christian( Ephe. 2:5), highlighting where he found the solutuion to his struggle." <br> or the view is <br> "Thanks be to God should be construed as essential part of Paul's statement making the point in the flow of his argument when he was converted and thus the point at which his nonvictorious struggle with sin's power ceased."<br><br>10. The man in Romans 7:14-25 is struglling against sin's power and he desires to Obey God's law. But is utterly defeated by the power of indwelling sin. This is not true of the Christian who, while he too experiences a struggle against sin (Gal 5:16-18), is described as victorious in his struggle against sin's power because of his new master, the indwelling Spirit of Christ.<br><br><br><br>