Romans 7:18 Study Bible: For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but to do that which is good is not.

◄ Romans 7:18 ►

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

Study Bible

I know
The phrase "I know" reflects a deep, personal conviction and understanding. In the Greek, the word used is "oida," which implies an intuitive knowledge or awareness. This is not merely intellectual assent but a profound realization that comes from experience and reflection. Paul is expressing a certainty that comes from his own struggles and spiritual insights.

that nothing good lives in me
Here, Paul acknowledges the inherent sinfulness of human nature. The Greek word for "nothing" is "oudeis," emphasizing the absolute absence of goodness in the flesh. This is a humbling admission that aligns with the doctrine of total depravity, which suggests that sin affects all parts of a person. Paul is not denying the presence of good desires but is highlighting the incapacity of the flesh to produce righteousness on its own.

that is, in my flesh
The term "flesh" (Greek: "sarx") is often used by Paul to denote the sinful nature of humanity, as opposed to the spiritual nature. It represents the part of human beings that is prone to sin and rebellion against God. This distinction is crucial in understanding the internal conflict that believers face. The flesh is not merely the physical body but the fallen human nature that is at odds with God's will.

For I have the desire to do what is good
Paul acknowledges the presence of a genuine desire to do good, which is a testament to the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer's life. The Greek word for "desire" is "thelo," indicating a strong intention or wish. This desire is a reflection of the new nature that believers receive through faith in Christ, which is in constant conflict with the flesh.

but I cannot carry it out
This phrase captures the essence of the struggle between the flesh and the spirit. The Greek word for "carry out" is "katergazomai," meaning to accomplish or achieve. Paul is expressing the frustration of wanting to do good but lacking the ability to do so because of the power of sin. This highlights the need for divine intervention and the grace of God to overcome the limitations of the flesh.

Persons / Places / Events

1. Paul the Apostle
The author of the Book of Romans, Paul is addressing the Roman Christians, sharing his personal struggle with sin and the law.

2. Roman Christians
The recipients of the letter, living in a diverse and often morally challenging environment, needing guidance on living a Christian life.

3. The Flesh
Refers to the sinful nature inherent in humanity, which Paul describes as being devoid of anything good.

4. The Law
The Mosaic Law, which Paul discusses extensively in Romans, highlighting its role in revealing sin but not in providing salvation.

5. The Inner Conflict
The struggle between the desire to do good and the inability to carry it out, a universal human experience Paul articulates.

Teaching Points

Understanding the Flesh
Recognize that the "flesh" refers to our sinful nature, which is inherently opposed to God's will. This understanding is crucial for identifying the source of our struggles.

The Reality of Inner Conflict
Accept that the struggle between the desire to do good and the inability to carry it out is a common experience for all believers. This acknowledgment can lead to greater reliance on God's grace.

Dependence on the Holy Spirit
Emphasize the importance of relying on the Holy Spirit to overcome the desires of the flesh. The Spirit empowers us to live according to God's will.

The Role of the Law
Understand that the Law reveals sin but cannot save us. Salvation and the power to live righteously come through Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit.

Hope in Christ
Encourage believers to find hope in the fact that, despite our struggles, Christ has overcome sin and offers us victory through His sacrifice and resurrection.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does Paul's struggle with the flesh in Romans 7:18 resonate with your personal experiences as a believer?

2. In what ways can understanding the role of the Law help you in your daily walk with Christ?

3. How can you practically rely on the Holy Spirit to overcome the desires of the flesh in your life?

4. What steps can you take to remind yourself of the hope and victory found in Christ when facing inner conflict?

5. How do the additional scriptures (e.g., Galatians 5:17, Philippians 2:13) enhance your understanding of Romans 7:18 and its application to your life?

Connections to Other Scriptures

Galatians 5:17
This verse also discusses the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit, emphasizing the struggle between sinful desires and the desire to live according to the Spirit.

Philippians 2:13
Highlights God's role in working within believers to will and to act according to His good purpose, providing a solution to the struggle Paul describes.

Jeremiah 17:9
Describes the deceitful nature of the human heart, aligning with Paul's acknowledgment of the sinful nature within.

Psalm 51:5
David's acknowledgment of being sinful from birth parallels Paul's understanding of the inherent sinfulness of the flesh.

1 John 1:8-9
Offers assurance of forgiveness and cleansing from sin, providing hope amidst the struggle with the flesh.

Sermons

Grace in Believers Weakened by the Flesh	J. Stafford.	Romans 7:18
Inefficacious Convictions	John Foster.	Romans 7:18
Nature and Grace in the Same Individual	T. Chalmers, D. D.	Romans 7:18
Willing Inability	Wickham Tozer.	Romans 7:18
The Character Described in the Seventh Chapter of Romans	J. Leifchild, D. D.	Romans 7:7-25
The Moral History of the Inner Man Illustrated by This Passage	D. Thomas, D. D.	Romans 7:7-25
To Whom Does the Passage Refer	Prof. J. A. Beet.	Romans 7:7-25
A Common Experience	C. Hodge, D. D.	Romans 7:14-25
Believers Carnal in Comparison with the Law Which is Spiritual	J. Stafford.	Romans 7:14-25
Believers Consent unto the Law that it is Good	J. Stafford.	Romans 7:14-25
Carnality and Slavery	Homiletic Monthly	Romans 7:14-25
Indwelling Sin	C. Hodge, D. D.	Romans 7:14-25
Legal Experience a Defeat	W. W. Patton, D. D.	Romans 7:14-25
Man's Natural Incapability of Good	J. Lyth, D. D.	Romans 7:14-25
Principles and Conduct At Variance	Dean Alford.	Romans 7:14-25
Sensitiveness Increases with Soul Development		Romans 7:14-25
Sin Dwells Even Where it Does not Reign	J. Stafford., W. Howels.	Romans 7:14-25
Sold to Sin	T. De Witt Talmage.	Romans 7:14-25
Sold Under Sin!	T.F. Lockyer	Romans 7:14-25
The Bad in the Good		Romans 7:14-25
The Christian's Conflict	T. Chalmers, D. D.	Romans 7:14-25
The Condition of the Awakened Sinner	J. Lyth, D. D.	Romans 7:14-25
The Harmony of the Law and Conscience	J. Lyth, D. D.	Romans 7:14-25
The Law, Man, and Grace	J. Lyth, D. D.	Romans 7:14-25
The Prevalence of Indwelling Sin	J. Brown, D. D.	Romans 7:14-25
The Principle of Progress Through Antagonism	R.M. Edgar	Romans 7:14-25
The Sinner Without Excuse	J. Lyth, D. D.	Romans 7:14-25
The Spirituality of the Divine Law and the Sinfulness of Man	Essex Congregational Remembrancer	Romans 7:14-25
Thraldom of Sin	Charles Lamb.	Romans 7:14-25
The Inward Conflict of the Christian Heart	C.H. Irwin	Romans 7:18-25

People

Paul, Romans

Places

Rome

Topics

Carry, Conscious, Desire, Dwell, Dwelleth, Dwells, Flesh, Home, Lower, Mind, Nature, Nothing, Perform, Power, Present, Self, Sinful, Willing, Within

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Romans 7:18

     5450   poverty, spiritual
     5832   desire
     8224   dependence

Romans 7:7-25

7449 slavery, spiritual

Romans 7:13-23

8442 good works

Romans 7:14-20

6213 participation, in sin
6663 freedom, of will

Romans 7:14-23

     6163   faults
     8484   spiritual warfare, enemies
     8735   evil, origins of

Romans 7:14-25

     5024   inner being
     6022   sin, causes of
     6166   flesh, sinful nature
     6662   freedom, abuse
     8672   striving with God

Romans 7:15-25

5033 knowledge, of good and evil

Romans 7:18-23

6250 temptation, sources

Library

Advent Lessons
Westminster Abbey, First Sunday in Advent, 1873. Romans vii. 22-25. "I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." This is the first Sunday in Advent. To-day we have prayed that God would give us grace to put away the works …
Charles Kingsley—All Saints' Day and Other Sermons

July 24. "The Righteousness of the Law Might be Fulfilled in Us" (Rom. vii. 4).
"The righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us" (Rom. vii. 4). In our earlier experiences we know the Holy Ghost only at a distance, in things that happen in a providential direction, or in the Word alone, but after awhile we receive Him as an inward Guest, and He dwells in our very midst, and He speaks to us in the innermost chambers of our being. But then the external working of His power does not cease, but it only increases, and seems the more glorious. The Power that dwells within us …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

The Original and the Actual Relation of Man to Law.
ROMANS vii. 10.--"The commandment which, was ordained to life, I found to be unto death." The reader of St. Paul's Epistles is struck with the seemingly disparaging manner in which he speaks of the moral law. In one place, he tells his reader that "the law entered that the offence might abound;" in another, that "the law worketh wrath;" in another, that "sin shall not have dominion" over the believer because he is "not under the law;" in another, that Christians "are become dead to the law;" in …
William G.T. Shedd—Sermons to the Natural Man

Sin is Spiritual Slavery
John viii. 34.--"Jesus answered them, Verily, verily I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." The word [Greek: doulos] which is translated "servant," in the text, literally signifies a slave; and the thought which our Lord actually conveyed to those who heard Him is, "Whosoever committeth sin is the slave of sin." The apostle Peter, in that second Epistle of his which is so full of terse and terrible description of the effects of unbridled sensuality upon the human will, …
William G.T. Shedd—Sermons to the Natural Man

The Impotence of the Law.
HEBREWS vii. 19.--"For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh to God." It is the aim of the Epistle to the Hebrews, to teach the insufficiency of the Jewish Dispensation to save the human race from the wrath of God and the power of sin, and the all-sufficiency of the Gospel Dispensation to do this. Hence, the writer of this Epistle endeavors with special effort to make the Hebrews feel the weakness of their old and much esteemed religion, …
William G.T. Shedd—Sermons to the Natural Man

The Fainting Warrior
Now, humble Christians are often the dupes of a very foolish error. They look up to certain advanced saints and able ministers, and they say, "Surely, such men as these do not suffer as I do; they do not contend with the same evil passions as those which vex and trouble me." Ah! if they knew the heard of those men, if they could read their inward conflicts, they would soon discover that the nearer a man lives to God, the more intensely has he to mourn over his own evil heart, and the more his Master …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 5: 1859

Thou Shalt not Commit Adultery.
In this Commandment too a good work is commanded, which includes much and drives away much vice; it is called purity, or chastity, of which much is written and preached, and it is well known to every one, only that it is not as carefully observed and practised as other works which are not commanded. So ready are we to do what is not commanded and to leave undone what is commanded. We see that the world is full of shameful works of unchastity, indecent words, tales and ditties, temptation to which …
Dr. Martin Luther—A Treatise on Good Works

"O Wretched Man that I Am!"
"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 7:24, 25). You know the wonderful place that this text has in the wonderful epistle to the Romans. It stands here at the end of the seventh chapter as the gateway into the eighth. In the first sixteen verses of the eighth chapter the name of the Holy Spirit is found sixteen times; you have there the description and promise of the life that a child of God can live in the …
Andrew Murray—Absolute Surrender

How Christ is to be Made Use of as Our Life, in Case of Heartlessness and Fainting through Discouragements.
There is another evil and distemper which believers are subject to, and that is a case of fainting through manifold discouragements, which make them so heartless that they can do nothing; yea, and to sit up, as if they were dead. The question then is, how such a soul shall make use of Christ as in the end it may be freed from that fit of fainting, and win over those discouragements: for satisfaction to which we shall, 1. Name some of those discouragements which occasion this. 2. Show what Christ …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

Of the Corruption of Nature and the Efficacy of Divine Grace
O Lord my God, who hast created me after thine own image and similitude, grant me this grace, which Thou hast shown to be so great and so necessary for salvation, that I may conquer my wicked nature, which draweth me to sin and to perdition. For I feel in my flesh the law of sin, contradicting the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the obedience of sensuality in many things; nor can I resist its passions, unless Thy most holy grace assist me, fervently poured into my heart. 2. There …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

The Positive Side
What is the relation of the Law (the Ten Commandments) to Christians? In our previous chapter we pointed out how that three radically different answers have been returned to this question. The first, that sinners become saints by obeying the Law. This is Legalism pure and simple. It is heresy of the most dangerous kind. All who really believe and act on it as the ground of their acceptance by God, will perish eternally. Second, others say that the Law is not binding on Christians because it has been …
Arthur W. Pink—The Law and the Saint

Carey's Last Days
1830-1834 The college and mission stripped of all their funds--Failure of the six firms for sixteen millions--Carey's official income reduced from L1560 to L600--His Thoughts and Appeal published in England--His vigour at seventy--Last revision of the Bengali Bible--Final edition of the Bengali New Testament--Carey rejoices in the reforms of Lord William Bentinck's Government--In the emancipation of the slaves--Carey sketched by his younger contemporaries--His latest letters and last message to Christendom--Visits …
George Smith—The Life of William Carey

His Freedom from Sin.
THE first impression which we receive from the life of Jesus is that of perfect innocency and sinlessness in the midst of a sinful world. He, and he alone, carried the spotless purity of childhood untarnished through his youth and manhood. Hence the lamb and the dove are his appropriate symbols. He was, indeed, tempted as we are; but he never yielded to temptation.[21]21 His sinlessness was at first only the relative sinlessness of Adam before the fall; which implies the necessity of trial and temptation, …
Philip Schaff—The Person of Christ

Sin not a Mere Negation.
"I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind."--Rom. vii. 23. Dr. Böhl's theory, that sin is a mere loss, default, or lack, is an error almost as critical as Manicheism. This should not be misunderstood. This theory does not deny that the sinner is unholy, nor that he ought to be holy. It says two things: (1) that there is no holiness in the sinner; but--and this indicates the real character of sin--(2) that there ought to be holiness in him. A stone does not hear, nor …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

The Good that I Would I do Not. Rom 7
…
John Newton—Olney Hymns

There are Therefore in us Evil Desires, by Consenting not unto which we Live...
20. There are therefore in us evil desires, by consenting not unto which we live not ill: there are in us lusts of sins, by obeying not which we perfect not evil, but by having them do not as yet perfect good. The Apostle shows both, that neither is good here perfected, where evil is so lusted after, nor evil here perfected, whereas such lust is not obeyed. The one forsooth he shows, where he says, "To will is present with me, but to perfect good is not;" [1875] the other, where he says, "Walk in …
St. Augustine—On Continence

Its Source
Let us here review, briefly, the ground which we have already covered. We have seen, first, that "to justify" means to pronounce righteous. It is not a Divine work, but a Divine verdict, the sentence of the Supreme Court, declaring that the one justified stands perfectly conformed to all the requirements of the law. Justification assures the believer that the Judge of all the earth is for him, and not against him: that justice itself is on his side. Second, we dwelt upon the great and seemingly insoluable …
Arthur W. Pink—The Doctrine of Justification

Temptations.
TEMPTATIONS OF SATAN. Satan, even from himself, besides the working of our own lust, doth do us wonderful injury, and hits our souls with many a fiery dart, that we think comes either from ourselves or from heaven and God himself. Satan diligently waiteth to come in at the door, if Careless has left it a little ajar. There is nothing that Satan more desires than to get good men in his sieve to sift them as wheat, that if possible he may leave them nothing but bran; no grace, but the very husk and …
John Bunyan—The Riches of Bunyan

Work, for God Works in You
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to work, for His good pleasure.'--Phil. 2:12, 13 In our last chapter we saw what salvation is. It is our being God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. It concludes, as one of its chief and essential elements, all that treasury of good works which God afore prepared that we should walk in them. In the light of this thought we get the true and full meaning of to-day's text. Work …
Andrew Murray—Working For God!

Redemption
"Ye shall therefore be perfect, as your Father in Heaven is perfect."--MATT. V. 48. "Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver from the body of this death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord."--ROM. VII. 24, 25. We have studied the meaning of reconciliation through the Cross. We have said that to be reconciled to God means to cease to be the object of the Wrath of God, that is, His hostility to sin. We can only cease to be the objects of this Divine Wrath by identifying ourselves …
J. H. Beibitz—Gloria Crucis

"Who Walk not after the Flesh, but after the Spirit. "
Rom. viii. 1.--"Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." It is no wonder that we cannot speak any thing to purpose of this subject, and that you do not bear with fruit, because it is indeed a mystery to our judgments, and a great stranger to our practice. There is so little of the Spirit, both in teachers and those that come to be taught, that we can but speak of it as an unknown thing, and cannot make you to conceive it, in the living notion of it as it is. Only we may say in general,--it …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Impossible with Man, Possible with God
"And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God" (Luke 18:27). Christ had said to the rich young ruler, "Sell all that thou hast . . . and come, follow me." The young man went away sorrowful. Christ then turned to the disciples, and said: "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!" The disciples, we read, were greatly astonished, and answered: "If it is so difficult to enter the kingdom, who, then, can be saved?" And Christ gave this blessed …
Andrew Murray—Absolute Surrender

How Christ is to be Made Use Of, in Reference to the Killing and Crucifying of the Old Man.
Having thus shortly pointed out some things in general, serving to the clearing and opening up the way of our use-making of Christ for sanctification, we come now more particularly to the clearing up of this business. In sanctification we must consider, first, The renewing and changing of our nature and frame; and, next, The washing and purging away of our daily contracted spots. The first of these is commonly divided into two parts, viz. 1st, The mortification, killing, and crucifying of the …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

That all Troubles are to be Endured for the Sake of Eternal Life
"My Son, let not the labours which thou hast undertaken for Me break thee down, nor let tribulations cast thee down in any wise, but let my promise strengthen and comfort thee in every event. I am sufficient to reward thee above all measure and extent. Not long shalt thou labour here, nor always be weighed down with sorrows. Wait yet a little while, and thou shalt see a speedy end of thine evils. An hour shall come when all labour and confusion shall cease. Little and short is all that passeth …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

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