What This Indwelling Sin Is, and How It Works (Romans 7:14–15)

Rom. 7:14. For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.

“The Apostle said above that evil increased, that sin, being restrained by the commandment, was intensified even more, and in fact the opposite of what the Law aimed for took place, and by this he brought the listener into great perplexity. Therefore, first freeing the Law from evil suspicion (as if it were the cause of sin), he then explains the reason why this happened” (Holy Chrysostom). And this has already been indicated, namely that this happened because of sin. It has also been hinted at how sin manages to succeed in this—namely through deception—deceives and draws toward the opposite of the Law. Now he enters more deeply into an examination of what happens in us when the Law and sin meet.

In order to understand the Apostle’s discourse more easily, one must keep in mind that he, here as before, speaking of himself, speaks in the person of a fallen man who has not received grace that restores from the Fall, but who has felt the need to rise and has desired it. It is useless to suppose that the Apostle speaks here of himself and in his person of everyone who has received grace. For to the one graced cannot apply the words: “what I do not wish, the evil, this I do” – and “it is not I who do this, but sin dwelling in me” (Rom. 7:19–20). Though sin makes itself known to the graced person, it does not have over him a determining and coercive power to action, as the Apostle said above: “sin does not have dominion over you” because you “are under grace” (Rom. 6:14) and as St. John says: “whoever is born of God does not commit sin” (1 Jn. 3:9). It is also useless to claim, as the basis of the opinion that the Apostle’s discourse can only apply to the graced, that such an inner division as is depicted here by the Apostle does not occur in the ungraced: “I delight in the Law of God according to the inward man, yet I see another law” (Rom. 7:22–23). In the fallen man without grace, sin reigns peacefully: both thoughts, feelings, and desires—everything in him has settled with sin, and there is no discord with it. For the fallen and sinning man, however much he corrupts his nature, does not transform it into an evil nature. Good principles remain in it, and it happens that they raise their voice powerfully with a demand for satisfaction. Here is the division! The Apostle in the present passage has in mind precisely this person—one who has felt such division in himself, who has recognized the necessity of passing to the good side away from sin and has desired to pass over, but finds no strength in himself to do so. We have the most obvious example of this in those struggling with drunkenness, or lustful passion, or gambling. How the Apostle’s word applies to all of them: “what I do not wish to do, the evil, this I do”!

All our interpreters understand here a depiction of the state of man before the Law and under the Law, that is, one who has not received grace to restore him from the Fall, so as to kindle a desire for this grace and draw to the evangelical faith—the one and only giver of it.

“For we know”. Here is the reason why the Law was given for one thing, but something quite different resulted! Because “the Law is spiritual, but I am carnal”.

“The Law is spiritual.” “Again he crowns the Law with praise. For what is more honourable than this designation?” (blessed Theodoret). “By this as it were the Apostle said: everyone knows and agrees that the Law is spiritual; and therefore it is impossible that it should be the cause of sin—that the blame should lie on it for the evils that occurred. And note that he not only frees it from accusation, but also praises it without measure” (Holy Chrysostom).

The Law is spiritual because it proceeded from the Spirit and leads to what is spiritual. “It was written by the Spirit of God; blessed Moses, having partaken of this grace, wrote the Law” (blessed Theodoret). “It is a gift of the Holy Spirit and was dictated by Him” (Oecumenius). – “By calling it spiritual, the Apostle gives to know that it is an instructor in virtue and an enemy of vice. To be spiritual means to turn from every sin. This is what the Law did, frightening, instructing, punishing, correcting, advising all that is virtuous” (Holy Chrysostom). “It desires what is spiritual and requires what is beneficial for the soul” (Oecumenius).

Though the dispensation under the Law was, according to the Apostle, predominantly visible, and the service in it was chiefly bodily, leading only to fleshly purity (Heb. 9:13) and to righteous ordinances of the flesh (Heb. 9:10), it was not intended that those under it should stop at this visible and bodily aspect, but from it should pass to the invisible and spiritual. It was guidance from the external to the internal: in that every precept determining a visible manner of action was given from God’s person, it impressed God through all the visible, and in that all the visible in it was instituted with a particular spiritual significance, it introduced into this spiritual aspect. Therefore, those serving in it, although they “served a copy and shadow” (Heb. 8:5), were not deprived of the ability to see through this veil and perceive what was hidden there. This must be said of the very external arrangement of the orders under the Law; as to the spirituality of the moral and religious ordinances, there is nothing to say. It is these last that the Apostle has in mind in the present passage; he says that the Law demanded what is spiritual—that is, that one should turn toward God, remain in mind and heart with Him, please Him in all ways by fulfilling His holy will with conscience, and delight only in what is Divine. Such is the Law, but I am “carnal”.

“Carnal” – not by nature, but by inner disposition, that is, I seek only what pleases the flesh or arranges my merely earthly well-being. The natural principles of spiritual life are not destroyed, but weakened and stifled, and from time to time they break through—so that on the whole carnal tendency prevails.

Carnality here does not mean solely the fleshly, sensual life, but expresses generally the poor state of the fallen sinner. In the Epistle to the Corinthians the Apostle called this same thing “soulishness” (1 Cor. 2:14). But one may also distinguish soulishness from carnality, as two kinds or two sides of a similar life, by carnality understanding the sensual life passed in fleshly gratifications, and by soulishness the life passed in the arrangement of exclusively earthly well-being through the satisfaction of only natural needs and those acquired by voluntary habit, yet never remaining in their proper place, but always disturbed and perverted by passions—so that it is justly called a life passed in gratification of soulish passions, though moving in the order determined by natural needs.

One must understand that man is not only body and soul, but body—soul—spirit. “What is body?” is clear of itself. “What is spirit?” Spirit is all those manifestations of our inner life that direct man from the earthly to the heavenly, from the temporal to the eternal, from the created to the Divine. It is that power which God breathed into man’s face at his creation and in which properly lies God’s image and likeness. As such, it directs man toward God and is satisfied only when man lives in God and is in a living union with Him. It is most tangibly revealed in us through the fear of God, the workings of conscience, and in that which does not allow us to be satisfied with anything created. All these innermost movements in us, when they are in force, separate us from all earthly things and make us heed no conditions of earthly existence. They are common to all mankind and are present in the most savage as well as in the most educated.

“What is soul?” What remains between body and spirit belongs to the soul and constitutes its life. This includes all kinds of knowledge and every science; all kinds of arts, every artistic endeavor and craft; all kinds of practical life, family and social life with all their methods of arrangement and sustenance. For all this, needs are placed in the soul, and powers are given to satisfy them with indication in them of the manner of satisfaction.

It is self-evident that bodily life is below soul life, and soul life is below spiritual life. Consequently, soul life must be subjected to spiritual life, and bodily life to both of them. The norm of human life is to live in the spirit and to spiritualize through the spirit both soul and body. Such was his original arrangement, such man came from the Creator’s hands, and such he was in paradise before the Fall. To live in the spirit is to live in God. He who lives thus receives from God the strength to govern his soul and body and subject them to the spirit. In the Fall man rebelled against God—truly rebelled. The sin of the first parents appeared small, but in its spirit it was very grave. Believing the enemy’s evil suggestion that God forbade them to eat from the tree lest they too become gods, in this very belief they perverted in themselves the most essential knowledge about God: for they supposed that God envied them and therefore kept them from what belonged to them, whereas God by His essence is a non-envious, all-flowing source of good things. Having received such an evil thought, they determined to arrange their own well-being themselves, contrary to God’s will. The violation of the commandment would not have been possible had there not arisen within them the decision: we ourselves will arrange ourselves and become what is fitting for us to be. This decision produced a complete reversal within man. Having thus wrenched themselves from God, his spirit turned away from God; as a result his spirit lost the power to rule over soul and body, and man inevitably fell subject to the manifold demands of soul and body and became soul-and-body-oriented, that is, the life of the soul became predominant in him, directed toward the arrangement of temporal existence, and bodily life, moving in fleshly gratifications; while spiritual life, though not annihilated, lost its first—ruling—place and came into subjection to the other two.

“The needs of soul and body are many, and there are many ways to satisfy them. Since the natural ruler of them, the spirit, lost power, great disorder arose among them: each need lost all measure, and all lost the law of mutual relation and subordination, and at every opportunity strive to take the predominant place and subject all others to themselves. And this is already a great evil; but it was immensely increased by the fact that, at the same time as man pronounced within himself the decision “I will arrange myself”—he fell into selfhood, and in this selfhood received the seed of evil passions springing from this selfhood and not rooted in nature. They penetrated the entire soul-and-body life, permeated it with their poison, and increased the evil of lost measure in the needs and order of their mutual relation to excess. The state of the fallen can be defined as: self-willed passionate soul-and-body-oriented existence. Its spirit is self-pleasing in defiance of all. This is precisely what Holy Paul called carnality, and what is sin dwelling in us, spawning in our life all lawlessness and all kinds of sins. Thus remains every man until he receives grace, though he may be under the Law. The Law, says the Apostle, is spiritual—it demands that I live in the spirit; but in me soul-and-body self-pleasing predominates; for which reason even under the Law I only sin. The needs of soul and body are not sinful; but when the body is gratified to the harm of the soul, and soul and body contrary to the spirit, then one sins. And sin is yet more sinful when one acts not properly to satisfy needs, but through satisfying them nourishes the passions. But in precisely such a position one who has not received grace remains. This is whom the Apostle means. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle brings forth the man before grace, troubled by passions. For “carnal” he calls one who has not yet received spiritual assistance.” “Carnal is a man,” says Oecumenius, “not insofar as he is man, but insofar as he is enslaved to passions and does what the flesh desires.” – Blessed Theophylact also indicates the source: ‘I am carnal’ – means: the whole human nature, both before the enactment of the Law and during the Law, was filled with a multitude of passions: for as a result of Adam’s transgression we not only became mortal, but our nature received passions, was sold to sin and became its slave, so that it could not even raise its head.” More fully this is depicted in Holy Chrysostom: “After death, a flood of passions rushed in. As soon as the body became mortal, by necessity it admitted in itself both lust and anger and sickness and everything else; and therefore much philosophy is needed so that reason not sink into the depths of sin amid the flood of passions.”

“Sold under sin.” Although unwilling, I sin, as a slave sold serves the will of his master. In application to what was set forth above it means: I live in soul-and-body self-pleasing and passions contrary to the spirit or to the suggestions of the fear of God and the demands of conscience. “Sold” suggests as if I have no freedom not to sin and sin as if out of necessity. But this only expresses the power of sin; in reality, however, it happens that the sinner, to gratify selfhood and passions, always does this freely and willingly decides on such deeds. Let us recall what was said under verse 11 about how sin deceives. Sin never rebels against the Law in general, but only in each particular case presents the matter so that man thinks it more suitable to act against the Law than according to it—and he sins. The learned man does not pray or prays little because he has no time now: he will pray tomorrow. Thus always. And he does not pray, knowing and affirming that he ought to pray. Thus all kinds of wrong actions. They are performed willingly. But when you look at them in their totality, the impression is made that man, like a slave sold, serves sin. This, however, does not mean he cannot help but sin, only that he is strongly bent toward sins, so that he pays no heed to the demands of righteousness.

“Sold” – in the transgression of the first parents; but then in life each man sells himself to sin every time. Blessed Theodoret sees an indication of this in the words of the prophet Isaiah: “behold, you are sold by your iniquities” (Isa. 50:1) and interprets the Apostle’s words thus: “I have sold myself to sin and I have sold myself to it.”

Rom. 7:15. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for what I will to do, this I do not practice; but what I hate, this I do.

“For what I am doing, I do not understand.” I cannot know what I do, cannot understand how it is that I do all that I do. Or in general: I do not know what is happening in me. Holy Chrysostom says that the Apostle does not mean to say that I sin in ignorance: for no one ever sinned in ignorance. If people sinned in ignorance, there would be no reason to punish them. What then does “I do not understand” mean? I remain in darkness, I am swept along, I myself do not know how I am deceived. And we ourselves commonly say: I do not know how such-and-such a person came and led me away; though we do not at all think to excuse ourselves by ignorance, but only express that there was some deception here, scheming, darkening of mind. – Blessed Theodoret likewise limits this non-understanding to a single moment, or the act of sinning. “Being overcome,” he says, “by sensual pleasure and being drunk with the passion of anger, one does not have clear knowledge of sin; but when the passion ceases to act, one begins to perceive the evil.” – Complicity with sin in the act of sinning is approved by the reason, but afterward he clearly sees that it should not have been done thus, and, looking back, asks in bewilderment: how did this happen? “I am deceived and swept away into sin—I am robbed, drawn away stealthily, and I cannot understand how I suffer this” (Oecumenius).

“For what I will to do, this I do not practice; but what I hate, this I do.” I will one thing, but I do another; what I hate, I do. Willing and hating denote general conviction and thought, but what is done is not what is willed but what is hated, this does not mean it is done against the will and with hatred, but that in the moment of action what is willed in general becomes unwilled and what is hated becomes loved. For every sin is done with desire and love. Before the decision to act there is a wish for one thing and hatred for what is before us; but sweetness of self-pleasing comes and—everything changes. There is struggle, but then everything settles down, and what was unwilled before is now done with the whole face of man with all willingness. Blessed Theodoret writes: “By the words: what I do not will and what I hate—not necessity but weakness is expressed, because it is not by any necessity and not by any compulsion that we sin, and do what we abhor as unlawful.” Holy Chrysostom says: “From this it is clear that by the words ‘what I will to do, this I do not practice’—the Apostle does not destroy free choice and does not signify some irresistible necessity. For if we sin not voluntarily, but by compulsion, there is no reason why people should have been punished all this time. But as by the word ‘I do not understand’—the Apostle expressed not ignorance but what we said above; so, adding ‘what I will to do, this I do not practice’—he expressed not necessity, but that he does not approve of what is done (both before and after the deed in general). And if he did not have such a thought, why would he not add to the words ‘what I will to do, this I do’—that I do what I am forced to by necessity? But the Apostle did not say this; instead, he replaced it with the words ‘what I hate’—so that you would understand that he also by the words ‘what I will’ did not destroy freedom.”

Just as in some household the head of the family holds intentions, which in his judgment are beneficial, but when it comes time to act, the members of the household gather and persuade him to do the contrary: he agrees and does it. Later, though he sees that he should not have agreed, but what is done cannot be undone. This, however, does not correct him; but when the time comes to act in the same sense, the members again turn him to do their way. Thus does he always do “what he wills not”. The same thing happens within us. Everyone wishes what is good and hates evil; but there comes the sweetness of self-pleasing, which clouds the eyes of the mind, perverts the disposition of the heart—and what is willed to be good is no longer willed, and what is hated as evil appears attractive; for which reason not this is done, but that is accomplished.