Who Shall Deliver Me?

Romans 7:24-25

(24)  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Here, Paul exclaims the cry of any truly born-again person when they commit a sin of any degree. “O wretched man that I am”. Any man or woman who can commit even one sin however slight and even if only to themselves, and yet feel no sense of conviction over it, clearly shows they have not yet come to the place of desiring a holier life in Christ! Though Paul was still experiencing his shortcoming of sin, he did desire a holier life, and would eventually find it because he kept seeking.

(25)  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Paul finally comes to the place or realizing where his help comes from! He no doubt knew by memory Psalms 121:2  My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth, but had only just come to the realization of what that psalm actually means!

“So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin” – Paul is not saying, “Well, I serve God in my heart but I commit sin in my flesh”. Rather, this is the culmination of the entirety of Romans 8.

He’s saying, “In my mind (spirit and soul) I want to serve God, but if I try to serve Him in my own power (“with my flesh” by simply performing the commandments) I will end up serving the law of sin (because eventually the flesh grows weary of Godly commandments). The only way to truly serve God is through the power of Jesus Christ our Lord which is made available to us by His finished work on the Cross!”