“Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind, I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. “Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Rom. 7:24, 25 NLT 

After a cry for deliverance Romans 7 ends with the joyful shout “Thanks be to God!” It is Christ who delivers us from the ongoing sin dilemma and will quite literally rescue His people from this “body of death” at the Second Advent when Paul assures us, “the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1Cor.15:52, 53, NASB). 

The joyful shout of Rom.7:25 will provide the subject matter for Romans 8. Dealing with Christian victory, it is in many ways the high point of the book of Romans. But before moving to the victorious themes of chapter 8 Paul adds a bit of balance at the end of chapter 7. His concluding words are: “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” (Rom.7:25, NIV). 

Some have found that to be a strange saying after the victory cry in the first part of Rom.7:25 and just before the tremendous statement of Christian assurance in Romans 8:1. Paul may know that Christ is the victory, but he is still a realist. Thus the ending of v25 is a reminder that the war is not over and the battle will continue, but with the certainty of victory instead of the inevitability of defeat. 

The ongoing tension between the spirit and the flesh remains. But the Christian does not fight the battle alone. Christ is on the side of each believer and through the Holy Spirit (a major topic in Romans 8) the victory will be won.  

Romans 8 is probably one of the most loved chapters of the Bible. If chapter 7 dealt with tension, frustration, and temporary defeat, chapter 8 is one of victory. The chapter opens with “no condemnation” and ends with “no separation”, while in between it is characterised with “no defeat”. 

Romans 8 is a chapter about victory. But even more than that it is a chapter about assurance, the assurance of salvation to those who are in Christ. The chapter illustrates the new and wonderful life that opens for those who put their trust in Him