The law is spiritual, but I am of flesh: willing and doing, and the thanksgiving (Romans 7:14–25)

Says "We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin" (7:14, BSB). From 7:14 the main verbs are present, after the past tenses of 7:7–13 (note.language.Rom.7.14-Rom.7.25.sarkinos-nomos; lex.G4152).

Uncertain Whether the present tenses of 7:14–25 describe the speaker's state as he writes or portray another state vividly. This belongs to the question of who the "I" is, and this commentary takes no lean (note.exegetical.Rom.7.7-Rom.7.25.identity-of-the-i).

Uncertain σάρκινος … πεπραμένος ὑπὸ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν (sarkinos … pepramenos hypo tēn hamartian, "of flesh … sold under sin," 7:14). This commentary follows the Greek note's lean to σάρκινος as "made of flesh," frail beside the spiritual law, since the -ινος ending marks material (2 Cor 3:3). The alternative is ethical, "carnal," like σαρκικός (sarkikos, "fleshly"); the BSB's "unspiritual" leans that way (lex.G4560; var.Rom.7.14.sarkinos). πεπραμένος uses the picture of sale into slavery (lex.G4097); how far it reaches belongs to the question of the "I".

Says "For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do" (7:15, BSB). He concludes that "it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it" (7:17, BSB), and he says, "in my inner being I delight in God’s law" (7:22, BSB) (lex.G3611; lex.G4561; lex.G4913).

Uncertain τὸν νόμον (ton nomon, "the law") in 7:21. This commentary follows the Greek note's lean to a rule or principle (BSB "principle"), since the ὅτι (hoti, "that") clause states a rule of experience. The alternative is the Mosaic law, as in 7:22.

Uncertain What Paul means by "another law at work in my body" (7:23, BSB). The lean is a different power, named in the same verse as the law of sin in the members (compare 8:2). The alternative is the Mosaic law as sin uses it (7:5, 8, 11) (lex.G497; lex.G163).

Says "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (7:24, BSB). "Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (7:25, BSB). Every form of the text of 7:25a thanks or credits God (var.Rom.7.25.charis; lex.G5005; lex.G4506).

Uncertain Why 7:25b, "with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin" (7:25, BSB), follows the thanksgiving. The lean is that ἄρα οὖν (ara oun, "so then") sums up 7:14–24, with the thanksgiving answering 7:24 ahead of 8:1–4. The alternative takes the order as displaced, a conjectural rearrangement with no manuscript support (lex.G3563).