Now we have seen that God’s Law embodies knowledge and truth.  Yet, even though he highly acknowledged and esteemed God’s Law, Paul confessed and did not deny that he could not perfectly keep that Law.  Paul spends most of the first seven chapters of Romans to conclusively make this one point.   At the climax of this section he says,

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.  [15] I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.  [16] Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.  [17] So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.  [18] For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.  [19] For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.  [20] Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

[21] So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.  [22] For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,  [23] but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.  Romans 7:14-23 (ESV) 

Do you ever have experiences like Paul’s?  Do you ever find that you simply cannot live up to God’s standards for you?  Or, do you only find that you don’t live up to your own or your church’s standards.  There is a difference you know.  God’s Law embodies knowledge and truth, not man’s laws, and certainly not your church’s law.  Paul said that he delights in the law of God in his inner being.  Do you say the same thing?  This dilemma of Paul’s can only be shared by those who in fact do delight in God’s Law.   Remember the words of Jesus who said,

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  [18] For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.  [19] Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”  Matthew 5:17-19 (ESV) 

Be assured, Paul’s teaching did not “relax” or “abolish” God’s Law either.  He interpreted God’s Law in the light of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  He understood that certain laws dealing with food and clothing, for example, dealt with the concept of separation from the things of the world, from the harlot Babylon.  So, Paul could eat with the Gentiles and eat the food they set before him, even if it was pork, without breaking God’s Law.  Nevertheless, even though Paul now understood spiritual applications of God’s Law, he still could not perfectly obey it.  Thus he ends this section of Romans with the poignant statement,

For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,  [23] but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.  [24] Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?  [25] Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. Romans 7:22-25 (ESV) 

Paul makes it very clear that he wants to obey God’s Law, but finds through experience that  he simply cannot do so perfectly.  His body of flesh compels him to sin.  What is he to do?  He begins by giving thanks to God through Jesus Christ our LORD, but why?  He still wars against sin and finds that he often sins, doesn’t he?  Why give thanks to God for that?  In Romans 8 Paul explains this mystery even further, and it is a mystery we do well to understand.