Romans 7:24-25 - Experience - Paul's Cry (Conciliation Series, Part XLII)

 Part IV: God’s Conciliation, Confirmed

A wretched man am I! What will lead me out of this body of Death?

The war is lost. Paul is up against an insurmountable foe. Our ancestor, Adam, was unable to beat it, once death had taken over. How was he to know any better? Now we’re stuck with the after-effect; Paul felt it firsthand – a complete and utter inability to defeat an ancient enemy. This is assuredly not Paul’s current self-image; this is the Pharisee Saul, realizing his failure as a man. As a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17,) Paul is fully aware of his victory in Christ – there is no need for him to consider himself as a ‘wretched man’ under grace, given that He has been constituted just by His Lord (Rom. 3:21-23,) Who always provides victory (2 Cor. 2:14,) and strengthens Him in all things (Phil. 4:13.)

Paul recognizes that he, the inner self contrasting his flesh, is wretched. The Greek elements of this word, ‘wretched,’ is “WEIGHT-CALLOUSED.” He has become calloused by the weight of his recognition of his own sin. That said – this man, Saul, does not give himself a guilty verdict. He doesn’t seek ‘forgiveness.’ His callousness wouldn’t allow that. He wants to be led out of this body of death – rescued from it, not ‘pardoned’ because of it! He intuitively recognizes that he didn’t make the body of death – God did. Thus it is His to lead one out of this body (Rom. 9:18.)

Nonetheless, Saul, at this point in his experience, is completely subject to Sin. Christ’s saving grace has not been fully unveiled to him as of this moment, and thus: he pities himself. He is calloused, unable to defeat Sin of his own volition. He is slaving for Death – he is going to die. His cry, that he needs to be led out, is music to God’s ears – the end of man is where God begins. When we lose, He displays His victory. We, on the other side of this perpetual hell, have already read of His salvation (Rom. 6:3-7.) And what does Paul say saves him out of this body of Death?

Grace!

Grace. Grace is the only silver bullet. It’s the only way out; it is manifested through the channel of faith that God established at the cross through Christ (Rom. 3:24-26.) There is no other feasible solution than this. Man’s cries are answered in this – nothing else.

We have to discuss the elephant in the room: Grace is not in most English texts. On the one hand, if the question asked is truly, ‘What will lead me out of this body of death?’ then grace is undoubtedly the method. Just saying ‘Who will rescue me out…’ is not valuable for us, at this stage in the letter. Everyone and their mother knows that God is the Rescuer, and you don’t need to read Rom. 7:24 in order to understand this. What makes far more sense is the notion that ‘grace’ answers the question at the end of Paul’s experience, here, and leads us into Romans 8, where he discusses our allotment now.

On the other hand, what ‘makes sense’ doesn’t mean an objector cares. They want the proof. So, while such a phrase confirms the truth (that has already been unveiled to us, per Rom. 3:21-23,) and such a phrase contextualizes this truth (freedom from the bondage of Sin through law,) it is not certain to an objector that the word ‘grace’ is actually there.

So, let’s work this out. As we’ve discussed, the Concordant Version is based primarily on the three oldest Greek manuscripts, being Codex Alexandrinus, Vaticanus, and Sinaiticus. To quote Knoch:

“The collations here given (except [in Vaticanus,] on which we lay no stress) do not conform to printed editions, in which the editor uses his own judgment in selecting readings and adds headings and other matter from other sources. They are an exact report on the facts as they exist in the ancient manuscripts themselves.”

In other words, these three oldest texts are not marred by man’s reasoning (“eternal torment,” anyone?) The Concordant is an English collective version of these texts, adhering closely to the Greek first in translating the ancient manuscripts into an easier English rendering.

Codex Sinaiticus, as I’ve mentioned before, is the most complete collection of the Greek Scriptures (found by Constantin Tischendorf, if you’d like to research his discovery.) This codex has an editor that Knoch was fond of, and his reasoning for the editor’s say in the text is that, when transliterating a text from one language to another, it is far easier to omit something than include something. The editor is allegedly working to correct the Sinaiticus (which, please understand, is not inherently evil, as the Sinaiticus is a hand-written copy of the original text.) Thus the editor, in adding occasionally to Sinaiticus, is not looking to add his theology to the text, but correct the scribal error of the copier.

And, honestly, it’s understandable! Knoch had to make a judgment call, here, in transliterating the text into English. This is undoubtedly fair, and he has plenty of written defenses in the Unsearchable Riches covering this single verse. He makes a compelling case.

However – we must also ask ourselves if this is fair to include in the English rendering, based off a presumption. Once again, Knoch comes in clutch, saying, in Unsearchable Riches, Vol. 38, p. 231–

“The position is taken that Rom. 7:24 should read Who, not what, hence cannot refer to grace at all. This is fundamental error. In Greek the word grace is feminine, and calls for who (‘ANY,’ tis, not ti). In English grace is neuter, and calls for what. The languages differ, and version must vary accordingly. Should we translate Rom. 6:21 ‘Who fruit had you…?’”

This understanding of the contrast between Greek and English idiom, as well as the understanding that one of the three ancient texts (being Vaticanus) holds the word ‘Grace,’ and this is not added, but confirmed, by our Sinaiticus editor friend, we now have sufficient evidence to the fact that the answer to Paul’s cry – the firm, set statement from God – is that ‘grace’ is the only thing that leads you out of the body of Death.

I thank God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

*sigh*

At the same time, however, we have another phrase here, being ‘I thank…’ rendered ‘I am thanking…’ that is excluded from Vaticanus. Here is the direct rendering of the Greek, from Vaticanus:

As you can see, the word ‘grace’ is undoubtedly included, but “I thank God” is not. It is the Codex Alexandrinus and Sinaiticus that include “I am thanking.” As the Concordant is a collation, or collection of these three manuscripts, both phrases, being ‘grace,’ and ‘I am thanking,’ are included.

We are saved by grace (Rom. 3:24.) We are saved for grace (Eph. 2:8.) This trait is inherently of God (2 Cor. 12:9, 2 Tim. 1:9.) He tells us that He has given us grace through Christ. This is yet another verse that conclusively shows us that God operates through Christ, meaning that they are not the same. The name “Jesus Christ” here is genitive, again giving us the description of how we are thanking God. No one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6.) God rescued Paul by His grace, through Christ. Thus we can thank God for His grace (Eph. 1:6,) through Christ (Rom. 3:22.) He is the Mediator of God and man (1 Tim. 2:5.) This statement cannot make sense if Christ is God.

Consequently, then, I myself, with the mind, indeed, am slaving for God’s law, yet with the flesh for Sin’s law.

The ‘consequence’ here is his conclusion to this entire discussion about his experience. Saul was overcome with a wave of emotion – I’m unable to defeat this enemy, but God rescued me out of this body, with Grace as the method, through Christ (Rom. 5:21.)

‘I myself’ is almost counterintuitive. The word ‘I’ is the possessive pronoun ego, and ‘myself’ is the possessive pronoun autos. Both are personal. Both are nominative. The main difference is that ‘I’ is first person in the Greek, whereas ‘myself’ is not. Thus ‘I’ is that ‘inner-man-self’ we’ve been talking about, and ‘myself’ is the ‘fleshy-slave-of-Sin.’

These two components – flesh and spirit – with the mind (the moral nature of both,) show that indeed he is slaving for God’s law. This does not say that he was enslaved to God, which again drives the point home that he was not yet under grace (which, when under grace, you are not under law, and you are enslaved to God – Rom. 6:14-18.) If he were under grace, he would not be slaving in oldness of letter, but newness of spirit.

His mind apprehended the law, was gratified by it, and saw nothing but the greatest pleasure in fulfilling it for God. He is accountable (not responsible) for his actions, in that he understands the law with his mind. It gives account to his reverence for the law.

Despite this, his flesh slaved for Sin’s law. The cry he gives in the previous verse – his desire to be rescued out of such a wretched body – is the only conclusion when faced with an insurmountable enemy such as Sin. Paul can only cry for help. This statement – Romans 7:25 – is the highest level of morality than man can attain apart from Christ. Appreciating the law, but still subject to its greatest opponent. There are some expositors (including Dean Hough, surprisingly,) who will proclaim that this verse takes us into Paul’s present demeanor under grace. Yet this is still not the case – he does not cover our allotment under grace until Romans 8. He says that ‘God’s law’ contrasts ‘Sin’s law’ under grace, and that Sin being apparent in the flesh is true of ‘even the most mature saints’ (see U.R. Vol. 105, p.136.) Yet this very notion is covered in Romans 8, and it is contextualized. If it is covered doctrinally at a later point in the letter, then it is not covered here.

Anyway, so this is Paul’s entire experience under law. The life of a man in Christ is not nearly so (internally) despondent. The only one who wants to convince you that you’re subject to the sin in your flesh is Satan. God has already told us otherwise, in Romans 3 and 6, and we will elaborate more on it in Romans 8. The man in this verse is not free; he’s in a perpetual torment. The mind takes accountability, his actions are wanting, and he’s crying. He’s crying! What else can you do in this situation, but cry? Just cry out that this, this weight of righteousness under law, this kills the mortal man. Man strives for morality but despairs when they find it (all are wanting of the glory of God.)

- GerudoKing