Unsaved Man

1. “Sold as a slave” and “making me a prisoner of the law of sin” are strong words and indicate slavery to sin.

2. Paul does not seem to be able to produce any spiritual good.

3. He uses no words like “salvation,” “Christ,” or “Holy Spirit,” and it is not until Romans 7:25 that Paul cries out for deliverance through Christ.

4. Romans 8:1 speaks of “no condemnation” and this makes sense if Paul was unsaved.

5. Language used seems to be of an unsaved man under law.

Saved Man

1. Romans 6-8 is a unit and deals with sanctification.

2. There is no evidence Paul ever had struggled as an unsaved man. In fact, he was a self-confident and self-satisfied Jew.

3. Paul says he desires to serve God and keep His law (7:15, 18-19, 21, 25). These are the words of a saved man.

4. Paul says, “What I hate I do.” Only a saved man can hate evil.

5. Paul acknowledges that God’s law is good and only a regenerate person can do that.

6. The word “unspiritual” is sarkinos and means constituted or made of flesh, speaking of weakness because of the sin nature. The word sarkinos is also used in 1 Cor. 3:1, and there the Corinthians were called saved “babes” in Christ.

7. In Romans 7:24, Paul is crying for deliverance from the power of sin, not the penalty of sin.

8. It would be difficult, if not impossible, for an unsaved man to diagnose his own moral condition as did Paul in Romans 7:18: “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sin nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”