“O Wretched Man That I Am!” #2302

24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 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 (Romans 7:24–25, NKJV).

In Romans 7:14-25, the apostle Paul uses himself to portray the person who is under law, under sin. He is lost, outside of Christ, being ruled by sin. His spiritual condition is “wretched” (miserable, afflicted, impure). He is shrouded in spiritual death as he serves sin (Rom. 7:24; 6:16, 23). This condition describes every person lost and outside of Christ (Rom. 3:23). Who can rescue the wretched person from the bondage of sin’s rule and the death it brings? (1) The sinner cannot save himself. He is dead because of his sin (Rom. 7:9). (2) Another sinner cannot save a sinner. Both are guilty before God and worthy of death (Rom. 6:23). (3) The law of God that the sinner violated cannot save him. It indicts and convicts him as guilty (Rom. 7:13-14; 3:19-20). (4) More sin will not save the sinner. Giving in to sin only increases guilt, imprisoning the soul in evil (Rom. 7:14-21). (5) Only Jesus Christ our Lord can deliver us from the body of death caused by sin (Rom. 7:25; 5:6-11; Acts 4:12). We escape sin’s condemnation and obtain life in Christ by choosing not to “walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Rom. 8:1-2). Christ’s gospel is God’s power to save the wretched soul from sin’s guilt, pain, and death (Rom. 1:16-17). The gospel calls us to believe, repent, and be baptized into Christ to escape the misery and eternal death caused by sin (Rom. 6:3-11; Heb. 5:9).

Death of Sin or Life in Christ? #518

24  O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 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. 1  There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. (Romans 7:24–8:1, NKJV)

Paul is describing the lost man who is under law, under sin in verse 24. The law of Moses could not rescue him from sin’s death; it magnified the problem of sin (Rom. 7:13; 5:20). This man is “carnal, sold under sin” (Rom. 7:14). He is “dead in trespasses and sins” because sin is ruling him (Eph. 2:1-3). He is lost in sin, miserable and consumed by death (Rom. 6:23). (He was not born this way; he chose to sin, Rom. 5:12). Lost in sin, he is sin’s slave, serving sin with the flesh. The sinner can only be rescued from sin and death through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is no condemnation in Christ – thank God! The sinner puts on Christ when he is baptized into Christ (Gal. 3:26-27; Matt. 28:19). Once in Christ, he is saved from sin’s death. Now, he lives according to the Spirit of truth and serves God, no longer indulging the sins of the flesh. Are you lost? Christ will save you. Come to Jesus in faith and enter a saved relationship with Him by being baptized into Him. He is ready and willing to save you.