"Sold as a Slave to Sin" -- Romans 7:14-25
Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 01:21PM 
The Seventeenth in a Series of Sermons on Paul's Epistle to the Romans
Romans 7:14-25 is one of the most important, but disputed passages in the New Testament. This is because in this passage Paul describes a struggle with sin so intense that he can characterize it as follows: “when I want to do good, evil is right there with me.” When the apostle seeks to avoid doing evil, he ends up doing it anyway. In fact, throughout these verses, Paul speaks of sin almost as a power or force which takes hold of him, taking him prisoner (“sold as a slave to sin,” as he puts it), even though in his heart, he delights in the law of God. In a lament of despair the apostle cries out in verse 24, “what a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
The news of the gravity and intensity of this struggle with sin either comes as a welcome relief to Paul’s reader–who may have a similar struggle–or as a word of warning that if this is their experience also, they need to move on to the victory over sin the apostle will describe in Romans 8. The dispute over this text centers around a very simple but important question. Is Paul talking about his present experience as a Christian, even that of an apostle? Or is Paul talking about that period of his life before he came to faith in Jesus Christ. Perhaps, Paul is not even talking about himself at all. Perhaps Paul is describing someone who has been convicted of their sin by the Law of God, but who has not yet come to faith in Jesus Christ. But make no mistake about it–however we interpret Romans 7, it will dramatically impact our understanding of the Christian life.
This is one of those passages in the Bible where we hit a genuine fork in the interpretive road. As baseball player-philosopher Yogi Berra once put it, “if you come to a fork in the road, take it.” We do not have the option of remaining undecided about this text, because how we interpret it will affect virtually every aspect of the Christian life. From the doctrine of justification, to the doctrine of sanctification, to our expectations about the Christian life and how we choose to live it, to the kind of teaching and preaching we hear in the church, to the way in which we deal with our troubled consciences, to the way we pray, how we interpret these few verses has such dramatic consequences for our daily lives as Christians that we have no choice but to make a choice!
If Paul is talking about his present struggle with sin, even the struggle with sin as experienced by an apostle, then Romans 7:14-25 should be interpreted as speaking of the normal Christian life. This means that Paul’s struggle to do what is right and avoid doing evil, coupled with his failure to do so as depicted throughout, is the same struggle with sin that every Christian faces on a daily basis. If we interpret Paul in this way, the struggle with sin described by Paul is the inevitable consequence of being transferred from the domination of sin, the law and death (what we were in Adam–to use the categories Paul sets out in Romans 5:12-21) to the dominion of Christ. As we saw in chapters 6 and 7 of Romans, although we have been set free from sin, death and the condemnation of the law because we were buried with Christ in baptism and have risen with him to newness of life, nevertheless, we still think and act like what we were in Adam, while we were under the dominion of this present evil age. This is why the imperative (command) which Paul gives to his reader back in Romans 6:11, focuses upon the need to reckon ourselves dead to sin, but alive unto God. It takes a fair bit of time for someone who has known only slavery, to learn to live as a freedman.
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Reader Comments (1)
I disagree with you conclusion regarding Romans 7:14-25. Here’s why.
Dr. Riddlebarger:
... That this is Paul before his conversion is argued ... in verses 7-13, Paul was unconverted ... verses 14-25 simply continue Paul’s discussion ... Paul now uses the present tense to make ... more vivid as he looks back upon his past, from the vantage point of the present. ... Viewed from the perspective of his faith in Christ, the wretched man is Paul struggling to be righteous apart from Jesus Christ. ... it is argued that when Paul gives thanks in the first half of verse 25 ... he is doing so for past deliverance, just as in Romans 8:2, [where] Paul speaks of having been set free from the law of sin and death. ... this view is now the most widely held today ... it appears to resolve the apparent contradiction between Paul’s having been set free and ... his situation depicted in Romans 7:14-25 as that of slavery ...
Jim:
This looks to me like a perfectly correct understanding of the text. I don’t see how it could be contextually or logically viewed any other way, although you go on to list what you say are problems with this most widely held view.
Dr. Riddlebarger:
... if Paul is describing his past experience, why does he switch to the present tense ...
Jim:
It has already been adequately explained above that the present tense makes the presentation of the past more vivid, which it does. It certainly makes it more vivid to me as a reader of the text. I myself sometimes use that rhetorical device, and I see no reason why Paul could not be doing the same.
Dr. Riddlebarger:
... there is no other place in Paul’s writings where he uses the present tense to emphasize the vividness or intensity of a past experience.
Jim:
Based on that logic, if something that occurs in a given text does not also occur elsewhere, then it cannot be occurring in that given text. Therefore, based on that logic, we know that Paul does not use the adjective “logikoV” (reasonable/logical) in the phrase “thn logikhn latreian umwn” (the reasonable/logical service of you) in Romans 12:1, because he does not use this adjective anywhere else. But of course Paul does use this adjective in this phrase in this verse, just as he uses the present tense to make the presentation of a past experience more vivid in Romans 7:14-25.
Dr. Riddlebarger:
It makes much more sense to see the change from past to present tense which begins in verse 14, to be indicative of the change from his past experience (unbelief) to that of his present situation (faith in Jesus Christ and union with him through the indwelling Holy Spirit).
Jim:
No it doesn’t, because Paul says EXACTLY the same thing—the sin in the members of his body produces death through the law—with the aorist (past) tense in Romans 7:5 and 7:7-13 that he says with the present tense in 7:14-25. It is not logical that Paul’s experience as a believer in Christ (with the indwelling Spirit of God) would be EXACTLY the same as was his experience as an unbeliever (without the indwelling Spirit of God), especially when Paul describes the OPPOSITE of this law-and-sin-and-death experience whenever he uses the word “Spirit.”
The only logical conclusion is that the reason that Romans 7:5 and 7:7-13 and Romans 7:14-25 describe EXACTLY the same thing is that what they are describing ARE the same thing, namely, Paul’s law-and-sin-and-death experience in the Oldness (the Old Covenant) of the letter (Judaism) in Romans 7:5 and 7:7-25 in contrast to his Spirit-and-righteousness-and-life experience in the Newness (the New Covenant) of the Spirit (Christianity) in Romans 7:6 and 8:1-14.
Dr. Riddlebarger:
If the prayer Paul offers—“Thanks be to God”—is one of thanksgiving for present deliverance from the struggle with sin described in verses 14-24, then last half of the verse—“So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin”—simply doesn’t follow. How can Paul be a slave to the law of sin, when he’s just given thanks in the first part of the same verse for being delivered from this very thing?
Jim:
It has likewise already been adequately explained above that “Paul ... uses the present tense to make ... more vivid as he looks back upon his past, from the vantage point of the present. ... Viewed from the perspective of his faith in Christ, the wretched man is Paul struggling to be righteous apart from Jesus Christ. ... when Paul gives thanks in the first half of verse 25 ... he is doing so for past deliverance, just as in Romans 8:2, [where] Paul speaks of having been set free from the law of sin and death.”
It is because Paul has already been delivered in the Spirit-and-righteousness-and-life experience of Christianity from the law-and-sin-and-death experience of Judaism that he is able to interject this thanks to God in Romans 7:25a and to declare his freedom in Romans 8:2.
Dr. Riddlebarger:
Why does the apostle use the present tense and not the past tense—“I used to be a slave to sin” not “I am a slave to sin,” especially when he had just done this in verses 7-13?
Jim:
Because, as it has already been adequately explained above, “Paul ... uses the present tense to make ... more vivid as he looks back upon his past, from the vantage point of the present. ... Viewed from the perspective of his faith in Christ, the wretched man is Paul struggling to be righteous apart from Jesus Christ. ... when Paul gives thanks in the first half of verse 25 ... he is doing so for past deliverance, just as in Romans 8:2, [where] Paul speaks of having been set free from the law of sin and death.”
Paul DOES say that he USED TO BE a slave to sin. He says it in Romans 8:2, where he explicitly states that “the law of the Spirit of the life in Christ Jesus FREED (aorist [past] tense) me (the Majority Text) from the law of the sin and the death,” having explicitly stated in verse 8:1 that this is what is true “NOW” that he is “IN CHRIST JESUS.” Paul used to be a slave to sin through the law in the Oldness (the Old Covenant) of the letter (Judaism), as described in Romans 7:5 and 7:7-25, but now, in Christ Jesus, he has been freed from all of that through the indwelling Spirit of God in the Newness (the New Covenant) of the Spirit (Christianity), as stated in Romans 7:6 and 8:1-14.
Dr. Riddlebarger:
A third reason why the argument fails that Paul is talking about his struggle with sin before his conversion is a theological one. Paul speaks of the person struggling with sin as having a delight in the law of God (v. 22). In verse 16 he states, “the law is good,” while in verses 15 and 18-21, he speaks of a desire to fulfill (obey) the law. He speaks of serving the law in his mind (v. 25), because, as he already stated in verse 22, he delights in the law.
Jim:
Paul says the same thing in Romans 7:5 and 7:7-13.
In 7:12-13, using the aorist (past) tense, he says, “Truly so as the law holy, and the commandment holy and righteous and good. Therefore, the thing good, to me it became death? May it not be! But the sin, so that it would be brought to light, sin, through the thing good, to me accomplishing death, so that it would become, according to supremacy, sinful, the sin, through the commandment.” This describes, in the aorist (past) tense, Paul viewing the law as holy and righteous and good and the law revealing to Paul the utter sinfulness of his sin and producing death in him.
In 7:5, using the aorist (past) tense, he says, “For when we were in the flesh, the sufferings of the sins, the/which through the law, energized/worked (aorist) in the members of us for the to produce fruit for/to the death.” This describes, in the aorist (past) tense, Paul incurring, through the law, death from the sin in the members of his body.
Now compare 7:16, where, using the present tense, Paul says, “... I consent to the law that, good,” and 7:22-24, where he says, “... I rejoice with the law according to the inside man, but I see another law in the members of me, warring against the law of the mind of me and capturing me in the law of the sin, the/which being in the members of me. ... Who, me, He will rescue out of the body of the death, this?”
As we see, in 7:5 and 7:12-13, as in 7:16 and 7:22-24, Paul is saying the SAME thing, the only difference being the tense, aorist (past) in 7:5 and 7:12-13 versus present in 7:16 and 7:22-24. Paul rejoices with the law (7:22), consenting that it is good (7:16), and recognizing that it is holy and righteous and good (7:12). He sees his sin as utterly sinful (7:13), and he suffers (7:5 and 7:23) both guilt and consequences from the sin that is in his members (7:5 and 7:23), which produces death (7:5 and 7:13 and 7:24).
The best that Paul can do in this law-and-sin-and-death experience in the Oldness of the letter (Judaism) in Romans 7:5 and 7:12-13 and 7:22-24 is to serve the law of God with his mind by imagining himself doing what the law says to do (7:25), because he cannot actually do it, as stated in 7:5 and 7:12-13 and 7:22-24 (as well as in 7:25).
Dr. Riddlebarger:
David delights in God’s law, but is crushed by the guilt of his sin. No non-Christian can pray Psalm 51. But every Christian prays it!
Jim:
David was not a Christian. He was not a participant in the Newness (the New Covenant) of the Spirit (Christianity). He did not have the indwelling Spirit of God. Thus, he was not in the Spirit, but in the flesh. He was a participant in the Oldness (the Old Covenant) of the letter (the law). This in-the-flesh participant in the Oldness of the letter (Judaism), David, delighted in the law of God with his mind, hence the Psalms, but he could not actually do what the law of God says to do, hence the adultery and the murder. He could imagine doing what the law of God says to do, and thus he served the law of God with his mind, but he was helpless to actually do it, because he did not have the indwelling Spirit of God to enable him to do it, and thus he served the law of sin with his flesh.
In Romans 7:5 and 7:7-25, Paul describes his past experience in Judaism (the Oldness [the Old Covenant] of the letter [the law]) the same way. Like David, Paul (then called Saul), as an in-the-flesh participant in the Oldness of the letter, did not have the indwelling Spirit of God to enable him to do what the law of God says to do, that is, the morality of the law, which is love. He could do the rituality of the law by wearing the right clothing and eating the right food and observing the right days, and so forth, hence his statement in Philippians 3:5-6 that he had become blameless in regard to the righteousness which is out of the law, but he could not do the morality of the law, which is love (Romans 13:8-10 and Galatians 5:13-14), as explained in Romans 7:5 and 7:7-25—he could not prevent himself from coveting—and thus he regarded his own righteousness through the law as nothing more than garbage, as stated in Philippians 3:7-9.
As viewed from his present experience as a Christian, Paul used to be blameless in the letter (ritual law), but not in morality, hence his own righteousness through the law being thrown away as garbage; and he used to persecute the Church, although when he was doing, he saw it as defending Judaism. Now that Paul is a Christian, he is no longer involved with the law, just as he no longer persecutes the Church; now everything is Christ.
Romans 7:5 and 7:7-25 describes an in-the-flesh participation in the Oldness (the Old Covenant) of the letter (the law), whereas Romans 7:6 and 8:1-14 describes an in-the-Spirit participation in the Newness (the New Covenant) of the Spirit. In 7:5 and 7:7-25, Paul describes what it was like back when he was “in the flesh.” But in 8:9, Paul says that a Christian, a person who has the indwelling Spirit of God, is “not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.” Thus, the person described in 7:5 and 7:7-25 is not a Christian. He does not have the indwelling Spirit of God, and thus he is not in the Spirit, but in the flesh, and thus he cannot actually do what is right with his flesh (his body), but he can only imagine doing it with his mind.
But “now” that he is “in Christ Jesus,” the indwelling “Spirit” has “freed” Paul from that “sin” and “death” experience (8:1-2), hence the “thanks to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord” in 7:25a.
Dr. Riddlebarger:
Given what Paul says elsewhere about the non-Christian’s relationship to the law, such statements would be rather shocking if Paul did indeed delight in the law before his conversion. In Ephesians 2:3 Paul states regarding those in Adam ... Ephesians 4:17-23, Paul is even more specific about the effects of sin upon a person’s desire to obey God’s commandments. ... For Paul, it is the new self that delights in the law–the consequence of being made new–while the old self lives to satisfy the desires of the flesh.
Jim:
People who do not have the indwelling Spirit of God do not do what is right. Paul says so not only in Ephesians, but also in Romans 7:5 and 7:7-25. In contrast, people who have the indwelling Spirit of God (Christians) do what is right. Paul draws this contrast in Ephesians as well as in the rest of his epistles. Unsaved people have sinful actions and sinful thoughts. The very same person who had a high regard for the law of God could not keep himself from the sinful thoughts of coveting in Romans 7:5 and 7:7-25.
But Paul does not discuss the law of God in Ephesians, except to say in Ephesians 2:14-16 that Christ did away the law at the cross. Thus, whereas Judaism is a law experience, Christianity is a Spirit experience. Romans 7:5 and 7:7-25 describes the law-and-sin-and-death experience of the Oldness (the Old Covenant) of the letter (the law), that is, Judaism, whereas Romans 7:6 and 8:1-14 describes the Spirit-and-righteousness-and-life experience of the Newness (the New Covenant) of the Spirit, that is, Christianity.
In Galatians 5:22-26, Paul does discuss the law. What does he say? He says that the “law” functioned as a “tutor” to teach us all about “sin.” Isn’t that what Paul describes in Romans 7:5 and 7:7-25? Yes, it is. And what does Paul say in Galatians 5:22-26 regarding when this tutorage of the law occurs? Does it occur DURING belief in Christ? No. Paul says that it occurs BEFORE belief in Christ. He says that it STOPS when a person becomes a Christian.
Whereas Judaism is a law experience, Christianity is NOT a law experience, but a Spirit experience. What Paul is describing in Romans 7:5 and 7:7-25 is NOT a Christian experience of the Spirit, but a Judaism experience of the law, and what he is describing in Romans 7:6 and 8:1-14 is NOT a Judaism experience of the law, but a Christian experience of the Spirit.
Dr. Riddlebarger:
Furthermore, there is a parallel passage in Galatians 5:17. ... Paul is clearly describing the struggle between the indwelling Holy Spirit and the flesh ... Paul is probably describing the same struggle here in Romans 7:14-25, only this time from the perspective of a Christian’s relationship to the law.
Jim:
A Christian does not have a relationship to the law, because Christianity is a Spirit experience, not a law experience. It is not Christianity but Judaism that is a law experience. As Paul says in Romans 7:4-6, a Christian is made dead to the law in order to be joined to Christ, in order to produce fruit for God (7:4). In the past, when we were in the flesh (not yet Christians, not yet in the Spirit), the sufferings of the sins, which were through the law (a pre-Christian experience), operated in our members to produce death (7:5). But “NOW” (as Christians) we “were done away from the law” to serve God “in the Newness (the New Covenant) of the Spirit (Christianity), and NOT in the Oldness (the Old Covenant) of the letter (the law) (Judaism) (7:6). This agrees with what Paul says about the law in Galatians 3:22-26 and in Ephesians 2:14-16, as previously (above) discussed. Christianity is not a law experience, but a Spirit experience.
Anyone who is having a law experience is having a Judaic experience, not a Christian experience. That was the problem with the Galatians; they were turning away from Christianity to Judaism. They were perverting the Gospel (Galatians 1:6-9) and turning away from the Spirit to the flesh (Galatians 3:1-3) and falling from grace (Galatians 5:1-4). They were abandoning Christianity (the Spirit) for Judaism (the law) and thus severing themselves from Christ (Galatians 5:4). As Paul says in Romans 7:4, there is the law, and there is Christ, and to be joined to one is to be severed from the other. One cannot have it both ways. One must choose either Christ or the law. To choose the law is to choose death, whereas to choose Christ is to choose life.
In Galatians 5:13-18, Paul says, “13 For you ON FREEDOM (from the law) YOU WERE CALLED, brothers, only not the freedom for opportunity to the flesh, but through the love you must serve one another. 14 For the whole law in one word has been fulfilled ... YOU WILL LOVE ... 16 ... BY SPIRIT you must walk, and YEARNING OF FLESH NEVER YOU WOULD COMPLETE (emphatic negative [double negative subjunctive]). 17 For the flesh yearns against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. For these things to one another are in opposition, SO THAT NOT, which things if ever you would desire (the desire of the flesh), THESE THINGS (the yearning of the flesh) YOU WOULD DO. 18 And if by Spirit you are led, NOT you are UNDER LAW.”
Here, in Galatians 5:13-18, Paul describes a free-from-the-law experience of the Spirit, in which the Christian relies on the yearning of the indwelling Spirit to oppose the yearning of the flesh, so that “yearning of flesh never you would do / not ... these things (the yearning of the flesh) you would do.”
This correlates with the Christian experience that Paul describes in Romans 7:6 and 8:1-14, where he states that the Christian was done away from the law to serve God in the Newness of the Spirit, and not in the Oldness of the letter (the law) (7:6), and that the Spirit freed the Christian from the sin and the death (8:2), and that it is by the Spirit that the Christian puts to death the deeds of the body (8:13), and that the Christian is led by the Spirit (8:14), Paul having stated in Romans 6:14 that sin will not master the Christian, because the Christian is not under law, but under grace.
Thus, the Spirit experience (Christianity) described in Galatians 5:13-18 correlates with the Spirit experience (Christianity) described in Romans 7:6 and 8:1-14, not with the law experience (Judaism) described in Romans 7:5 and 7:7-25.
In Galatians 5:16-18, the desire that the New Covenant Christian is prevented by the indwelling Spirit of God from doing is the desire of his flesh to do the wrong thing. This is what happens as the Christian relies on the indwelling Spirit (walks by the Spirit) to do this.
In Romans 7:5 and 7:7-25, the desire that the Old Covenant Jew is prevented by the indwelling sin from doing is the desire of his mind to do the right thing that the law of God says to do. This is what happens as the Old Covenant Jew relies on his flesh to try to do what the law of God says to do. He is a slave to sin, because he does not have the indwelling Spirit of God to set him free from the indwelling sin (the desire of his flesh). He is “in the flesh,” and not “in the Spirit,” because he does not have the indwelling Spirit of God. He is not a Christian. His law experience is Judaism. He does not have the Spirit experience of Christianity.
Dr. Riddlebarger:
Even more telling is what Paul states in the next chapter of Romans. ... VERSES 5-8 OF ROMANS 8 ... PAUL IS TEACHING THAT NON-CHRISTIANS CANNOT SUBMIT TO GOD’S LAW, it is highly unlikely that IN ROMANS 7:14-25, PAUL IS TEACHING THAT A NON-CHRISTIAN can delight in God’s law and truly desire to obey it, only to feel the crushing guilt of FAILING TO DO [GOD’S LAW (INSERTED BY JIM)] the very thing he (or she) desires.
Jim:
What this proves is that the person in Romans 7:5 and 7:7-25 is NOT (I'm not shouting, but merely emphasizing) a Christian, because only the NON-Christian is UNABLE TO DO the right thing. In contrast, the Christian is ABLE TO DO the right thing, which he does BY THE INDWELLING SPIRIT. The most that the NON-Christian can do is to merely imagine IN HIS MIND doing what right; HE CANNOT ACTUALLY DO IT, because he does not have the indwelling Spirit of God to enable him to actually do it.
Romans 7:5 and 7:7-25 describes the law experience of Judaism, NOT the Spirit experience of Christianity. As Paul says in Romans 6:14, the Christian is NOT MASTERED BY SIN, because his is NOT UNDER THE LAW, but under grace. It is the one who under the law in Judaism that is mastered by sin. The one who is under grace in Christianity is NOT mastered by sin. As Paul says in Romans 8:2, the Spirit indwelling the Christian frees him from the sin and the death. As Paul says in Romans 8:13, the Christian puts to death the deeds of the body BY THE SPIRIT. As Paul says in Romans 8:3-4, God accomplished by sending His Son (Christianity) what the law (Judaism) could not accomplish; He condemned (and thus subdued) the sin in the flesh, so that the right thing of the law of God would be fulfilled in the Christian, the one walking ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT. Here, again, the Christian is freed by the indwelling Spirit of God from the sin that indwells his flesh, whereas in Judaism, the law does NOT set anyone free to do what is right.
Dr. Riddlebarger:
Unless Paul contradicts himself in the next chapter ... Paul CANNOT be speaking in Romans 7:14-25 of a NON-Christian ...
Jim:
To the contrary, it is because Paul does not contradict himself that he CANNOT be speaking in Romans 7:5 and 7:7-25 (7:14-25) of a CHRISTIAN. In Romans 7:5 and 7:7-25, Paul describes someone who is very much involved with the law and who is a slave to sin and death, whereas in Romans 7:6 and 8:2, Paul describes a Christian being done away from the law to serve God in the Newness of the Spirit, and NOT in the Oldness of the letter (the law), and he describes him being freed by the Spirit from the sin and the death. In Romans 7:5 and 7:7-25, Paul describes someone who is “in the flesh,” whereas in Romans 8:9, Paul says that the Christian is “not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.” Thus, the person described in Romans 7:5 and 7:7-25 is not and cannot be a Christian, according to Paul’s own words.
Dr. Riddlebarger:
What does the wretched man desire? The wretched man cries out for deliverance from this body of death (v. 24). ... The wretched man of Romans 7:14-25 is someone longing for the resurrection at the end of the age. ... in Romans 8:23 Paul says that ... we wait eagerly for ... the redemption of our bodies ... The wretched man of Romans 7 gives thanks to Jesus Christ, because despite the present struggle with sin, God will certainly grant future deliverance, something which would make no sense at all if the condition described in verses 14-25 is something in Paul’s past, not in his present experience.
Jim:
It is true that the ULTIMATE DELIVERANCE FROM SIN will be at THE RESURRECTION. Until then, the Christian relies on THE INDWELLING SPIRIT of God TO ENABLE HIM TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT, as stated in Romans 8:2 and 8:3-4 and 8:13. In contrast, the person described in Romans 7:5 and 7:7-25 CANNOT DO WHAT IS RIGHT. What is described in Roman 7:5 and 7:7-25 is the LAW EXPERIENCE of someone who is NOT IN THE SPIRIT, BUT IN THE FLESH, and who CANNOT DO what is right. In contrast, what is described in Romans 7:6 and 8:1-14 is the SPIRIT EXPERIENCE of the Christian, who HAS BEEN DONE AWAY FROM THE LAW to serve God in the Newness (the New Covenant) of the Spirit (Christianity), and NOT in the Oldness (the Old Covenant) of the letter (Judaism), and who is NOT IN THE FLESH, BUT IN THE SPIRIT, and who CAN DO what is right, which he does BY THE SPIRIT.
Dr. Riddlebarger:
Paul writes in the present tense, because he is taking about his present experience ...
Jim:
Not so. Paul uses the adverb “now” temporally in Romans 7:6 and 8:1-2 to establish his present (“now”) experience as a Christian, who has been done away from the law to serve God in the Newness of the Spirit, and not in the Oldness of the letter (the law), and who is in Christ Jesus, and to whom there is no condemnation, and whom the Spirit has freed from the sin and the death.
In contrast, Paul describes in Romans 7:5 and 7:7-25 his past experience with the law in Judaism, in which he tried to serve God in the Oldness of the letter (the law), having not yet participated in the Newness of the Spirit (Christianity), and having not yet been in Christ Jesus, and having not yet been freed by the Spirit from the sin and the death, in which he was not yet in the Spirit, but in the flesh, whereas later (“now”), as a Christian, he would no longer be in the flesh, but in the Spirit, having been indwelt by the Spirit of God (8:9).
Paul uses the aorist (past) tense to express exactly the same thing in Romans 7:5 and 7:7-13 that he uses the present tense to express in Romans 7:14-25. Throughout Romans 7:5 and 7:7-25, Paul describes his past Judaic experience with the law, in contrast to which he describes his present Christian experience with the Spirit in Romans 7:6 and 8:1-14. Paul changes from the aorist (past) tense in 7:5 and 7:7-13 to the present tense in 7:14-25 in order to present his past Judaic experience with the law more vividly to the reader. As Paul says in Romans 7:5-6 and in Galatians 3:22-26, the law is a pre-Christian experience.
Jim