As chapter 6 has presented, believers are to reckon themselves as dead to sin, and yet without a doubt there remains an internal conflict whereby we struggle with sin.
It must have been a most difficult situation for the Jew under the Law to have had the sinful passions aroused from within as the commandments came to bear upon his or her life. Praise be to God that those who were once under the Law (as good as it was), may now serve God in the newness of life in the Spirit (v.6). Praise be to God that we Gentiles have been included into Christ that we also can serve Him in this same way!
Because of the fact that Paul consistently used the present tense in 7:14-25, it seems to me that he was relating this to his own current personal experience. Even though humanity cannot avoid personal responsibility before God in regard to how they live their lives, as with Paul the power of sin living inside us (v.20) is strong such that at times we can identify with him in that we find ourselves doing what we really do not want to do (v. 15). Without a doubt I can identify both with Paul's cry of anguish...'wretched man that I am', and also his cry of relief in that our rescue from the body of death comes through Jesus. This should be understood as referring to both now (as we live by the power of the Spirit), and also to the future as we join with Christ in our future resurrected bodies!! Praise be unto our great GOD!!!!
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