^“But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good.  So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. Romans 7:16-17” NLT 

In these two verses, we come to the heart of what Paul is trying to tell us in Romans 7:14-20. His main point is that it is not the law that is the problem but us who are less than perfect people. If the law is so good,(v16) why does it create so much trouble for us? It is that very question that Paul answers in Romans 7:14-20. 

In v16 we see that Paul fully believed in the law’s goodness. Thus Paul does not oppose the law. He agrees with it. Only a committed Christian can acknowledge that the law is good and blameless. As a redeemed person he longs to honour the depth of the law and fulfill it perfectly. Every Christian is like Paul in that sense. Each has a sense of the law’s moral excellence and a desire to be in harmony with it. Beyond that, the more mature Christians become, the more they perceive the holiness and glory and goodness of God’s law of love, the greater will be their desire to be in harmony with it. 

Paul knows that it is not the law that is at fault in the tension he experiences, but the “sin that dwells within” him. Sin is resident but not president, it remains but does not reign, it is a squatter – not legitimately there but very difficult to eject. The problem is our sinful nature (v18 NLT or flesh NRSV NKJV NASB). Paul declares there is nothing good in our fleshy human nature. 

We need to recognise that the apostle uses a qualifier when he speaks of the “nothing good”. He alerts us to the fact that the “nothing good” in him refers to his “sinful nature”. Thus he in effect contrasts his lower nature (his fleshly self) with his higher nature (his spiritual self). Our flesh, or sinful nature, is the workshop of sin. We cannot manage our sinful nature by morality, we need help outside of ourselves and that is where the chapter is heading. Not by trying, but by dying (to our old self.) Our only hope is in Jesus Christ our Lord.