Romans 7:15-20 New International Version (NIV)

In this Chapter in Paul’s letter to the Romans, Paul grapples with the reality of still wanting to do things that appear to be against God’s law. Paul argues: he seems to have two natures, one ‘sold into sin’ and one saved by Christ and delivered from sin. The two wage war in his ‘body of death’. The ‘flesh’ seems to Paul to be the origin of the problem – fleshly desires lead him astray.

15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.