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Christian Standard Bible ®

Romans 7:25

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh, to the law of sin.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Depravity of Man;   Faith;   Good and Evil;   Justification;   Man;   Regeneration;   Salvation;   Thankfulness;   War;   Scofield Reference Index - Flesh;   Law of Moses;   Thompson Chain Reference - Flesh, the;   Man;   The Topic Concordance - Flesh;   Law;   Mind;   Thankfulness;   War/weapons;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Thanksgiving;   Warfare of Saints;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Body;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Mind/reason;   Praise;   Sin;   Spirituality;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Law;   Prayer;   Sin;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Sanctification;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Death;   Deliverance, Deliverer;   Flesh;   Freedom;   Grace;   Law, Ten Commandments, Torah;   Romans, Book of;   Thanksgiving;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Flesh;   Justification, Justify;   Liberty;   Man;   Perfection;   Psychology;   Romans, Epistle to the;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Demon;   Flesh ;   Good;   Law;   Mediation Mediator;   Mind;   Regeneration;   Regeneration (2);   Sin;   Sin (2);   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Liberty;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Saul of Tarsus;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Baptismal Regeneration;   Law in the New Testament;   Mind;   Pauline Theology;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Judaism;  

Devotionals:

- Daily Light on the Daily Path - Devotion for June 13;  

Parallel Translations

Simplified Cowboy Version
Thanks to God that the answer is Jesus Christ. In summary, I want to follow God's code, but because of my human nature I am a slave to sin.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
Legacy Standard Bible
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
Bible in Basic English
I give praise to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So with my mind I am a servant to the law of God, but with my flesh to the law of sin.
Darby Translation
I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then *I* *myself* with the mind serve God's law; but with the flesh sin's law.
World English Bible
I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then I of myself with the mind, indeed serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself with my mind serve the law of God, but with my flesh the law of sin.
Weymouth's New Testament
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!) To sum up then, with my understanding, I--my true self--am in servitude to the Law of God, but with my lower nature I am in servitude to the Law of sin.
King James Version (1611)
I thanke God through Iesus Christ our Lord. So then, with the mind I my self serue the Law of God: but with the flesh, the law of sinne.
Literal Translation
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then I myself with the mind truly serve the Law of God, and with the flesh the law of sin.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
I thanke God thorow Iesus Christ oure LORDE. So then wt the mynde I serue ye lawe of God, but with the flesh the lawe of synne.
Mace New Testament (1729)
the divine grace thro' Jesus Christ our Lord. so then, with the mind I my self am devoted to the law of God; tho' my carnal inclinations are enslaved to the law of sin.
THE MESSAGE
The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.
Amplified Bible
Thanks be to God [for my deliverance] through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind serve the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh [my human nature, my worldliness, my sinful capacity—I serve] the law of sin.
American Standard Version
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I of myself with the mind, indeed, serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Revised Standard Version
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I of myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
I thanke God thorow Iesus Christ oure Lorde. So then I my silfe in my mynde serve the lawe of God and in my flesshe the lawe of synne.
Update Bible Version
But thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I of myself with the mind, indeed, serve as a slave to the law of God; but with the flesh, to the law of sin.
Webster's Bible Translation
I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Young's Literal Translation
I thank God -- through Jesus Christ our Lord; so then, I myself indeed with the mind do serve the law of God, and with the flesh, the law of sin.
New Century Version
I thank God for saving me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So in my mind I am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful self I am a slave to the law of sin.
New English Translation
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Berean Standard Bible
Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Contemporary English Version
Thank God! Jesus Christ will rescue me. So with my mind I serve the Law of God, although my selfish desires make me serve the law of sin.
Complete Jewish Bible
Thanks be to God [, he will]! — through Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord! To sum up: with my mind, I am a slave of God's Torah; but with my old nature, I am a slave of sin's "Torah."
English Standard Version
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Geneva Bible (1587)
I thanke God through Iesus Christ our Lorde. Then I my selfe in my minde serue the Lawe of God, but in my flesh the lawe of sinne.
George Lamsa Translation
I thank God through our LORD Jesus Christ. Now therefore with my mind I am a servant of the law of God; but with my flesh I am a servant of the law of sin.
Hebrew Names Version
I thank God through Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord! So then I of myself with the mind, indeed serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
International Standard Version
Thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.1 Corinthians 15:57;">[xr]
Etheridge Translation
25 I give thanks to Aloha ! (it is) by the hand of our Lord Jeshu Meshiha. Now then, I in my mind am the servant of the law of Aloha, but in my flesh [fn] I am the servant of the law of sin.
Murdock Translation
25 I thank God; by means of our Lord Jesus Messiah [fn] Now, therefore, in my conscience, I am a servant of the law of God; but in my flesh, I am a servant of the law of sin.
New King James Version
I thank God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
New Living Translation
Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.
New Life Bible
God's Law has power over my mind, but sin still has power over my sinful old self. I thank God I can be free through Jesus Christ our Lord!
English Revised Version
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself with the mind serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
New Revised Standard
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Butthanks be unto God! - Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Hence, then, - I myself, with the mind, indeed, am in servitude unto a law of God; but; with the flesh; unto a law of sin.
Douay-Rheims Bible
The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, I myself, with the mind serve the law of God: but with the flesh, the law of sin.
King James Version
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Lexham English Bible
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself with my mind am enslaved to the law of God, but with my flesh I am enslaved to the law of sin.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
I thanke God through Iesus Christe our Lorde. So then, with the mynde I my selfe serue the lawe of God: but with the fleshe, the lawe of sinne.
Easy-to-Read Version
I thank God for his salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord! So in my mind I am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful self I am a slave to the law of sin.
New American Standard Bible
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
Good News Translation
Thanks be to God, who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ! This, then, is my condition: on my own I can serve God's law only with my mind, while my human nature serves the law of sin.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
The grace of God, bi Jhesu Crist oure Lord. Therfor Y my silf bi the soule serue to the lawe of God; but bi fleisch to the lawe of synne.

Contextual Overview

14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am made out of flesh, sold into sin's power. 15 For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. 19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that lives in me. 21 So I discover this principle: When I want to do what is good, evil is with me. 22 For in my inner self I joyfully agree with God's law. 23 But I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

thank God: Romans 6:14, Romans 6:17, Psalms 107:15, Psalms 107:16, Psalms 116:16, Psalms 116:17, Isaiah 12:1, Isaiah 49:9, Isaiah 49:13, Matthew 1:21, 1 Corinthians 15:57, 2 Corinthians 9:15, 2 Corinthians 12:9, 2 Corinthians 12:10, Ephesians 5:20, Philippians 3:3, Philippians 4:6, Colossians 3:17, 1 Peter 2:5, 1 Peter 2:9

So then: Romans 7:15-24, Galatians 5:17-24

Reciprocal: John 3:6 - born of the flesh John 8:34 - Whosoever Romans 3:27 - but by Romans 3:31 - yea Romans 6:6 - that henceforth Romans 6:22 - become Romans 7:18 - in my Romans 7:23 - another Romans 8:2 - from 1 Corinthians 9:21 - not Galatians 3:24 - the law Galatians 5:19 - the works

Gill's Notes on the Bible

I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord,.... There is a different reading of this passage; some copies read, and so the Vulgate Latin version, thus, "the grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord"; which may be considered as an answer to the apostle's earnest request for deliverance, "who shall deliver me?" the grace of God shall deliver me. The grace of God the Father, which is communicated through Christ the Mediator by the Spirit, the law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ, the principle of grace formed in the soul by the Spirit of God, which reigns in the believer as a governing principle, through righteousness unto eternal life, will in the issue deliver from indwelling sin, and all the effects of it: but the more general reading is, "thanks be to God", or "I thank God"; the object of thanksgiving is God, as the Father of Christ, and the God of all grace: the medium of it is Christ as Mediator, through whom only we have access to God; without him we can neither pray to him, nor praise him aright; our sacrifices of praise are only acceptable to God, through Christ; and as all our mercies come to us through him, it is but right and fitting that our thanksgivings should pass the same way: the thing for which thanks is given is not expressed, but is implied, and is deliverance; either past, as from the power of Satan, the dominion of sin, the curse of the law, the evil of the world, and from the hands of all spiritual enemies, so as to endanger everlasting happiness; or rather, future deliverance, from the very being of sin: which shows, that at present, and whilst in this life, saints are not free from it; that it is God only that must, and will deliver from it; and that through Christ his Son, through whom we have victory over every enemy, sin, Satan, law, and death; and this shows the apostle's sure and certain faith and hope of this matter, who concludes his discourse on this head thus:

so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin; observe, he says, "I myself", and not another; whence it is clear, he does not represent another man in this discourse of his; for this is a phrase used by him, when he cannot possibly be understood of any other but himself; see Romans 9:3; he divides himself as it were into two parts, the mind, by which he means his inward man, his renewed self; and "the flesh", by which he designs his carnal I, that was sold under sin: and hereby he accounts for his serving, at different times, two different laws; "the law of God", written on his mind, and in the service of which he delighted as a regenerate man; "and the law of sin", to which he was sometimes carried captive: and it should be taken notice of, that he does not say "I have served", as referring to his past state of unregeneracy, but "I serve", as respecting his present state as a believer in Christ, made up of flesh and spirit; which as they are two different principles, regard two different laws: add to all this, that this last account the apostle gives of himself, and which agrees with all he had said before, and confirms the whole, was delivered by him, after he had with so much faith and fervency given thanks to God in a view of his future complete deliverance from sin; which is a clinching argument and proof that he speaks of himself, in this whole discourse concerning indwelling sin, as a regenerate person.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I thank God - That is, I thank God for effecting a deliverance to which I am myself incompetent. There is a way of rescue, and I trace it altogether to his mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ. What conscience could not do, what the Law could not do, what unaided human strength could not do, has been accomplished by the plan of the gospel; and complete deliverance can be expected there, and there alone. This is the point to which all his reasoning had tended; and having thus shown that the Law was insufficient to effect this deliverance. he is now prepared to utter the language of Christian thankfulness that it can be effected by the gospel. The superiority of the gospel to the Law in overcoming all the evils under which man labors, is thus triumphantly established; compare 1 Corinthians 15:57.

So then - As the result of the whole inquiry we have come to this conclusion.

With the mind - With the understanding, the conscience, the purposes, or intentions of the soul. This is a characteristic of the renewed nature. Of no impenitent sinner could it be ever affirmed that with his mind he served the Law of God.

I myself - It is still the same person, though acting in this apparently contradictory manner.

Serve the law of God - Do honor to it as a just and holy law Romans 7:12, Romans 7:16, and am inclined to obey it, Romans 7:22, Romans 7:24.

But with the flesh - The corrupt propensities and lusts, Romans 7:18,

The law of sin - That is, in the members. The flesh throughout, in all its native propensities and passions, leads to sin; it has no tendency to holiness; and its corruptions can be overcome only by the grace of God. We have thus,

  1. A view of the sad and painful conflict between sin and God. They are opposed in all things.

(2)We see the raging, withering effect of sin on the soul. In all circumstances it tends to death and woe.

(3)We see the feebleness of the Law and of conscience to overcome this. The tendency of both is to produce conflict and woe. And,

  1. We see that the gospel only can overcome sin. To us it should be a subject of everincreasing thankfulness, that what could not be accomplished by the Law, can be thus effected by the gospel; and that God has devised a plan that thus effects complete deliverance, and which gives to the captive in sin an everlasting triumph.



Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Romans 7:25. I thank God through Jesus Christ — Instead of ευχαριστω τῳ Θεῳ, I thank God, several excellent MSS., with the Vulgate, some copies of the Itala, and several of the fathers, read ἡ χαρις του Θεου, or του Κυριου, the grace of God, or the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; this is an answer to the almost despairing question in the preceding verse. The whole, therefore, may be read thus: O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? ANSWER-The grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus we find that a case of the kind described by the apostle in the preceding verses, whether it were his own, before he was brought to the knowledge of Christ, particularly during the three days that he was at Damascus, without being able to eat or drink, in deep penitential sorrow; or whether he personates a pharisaic yet conscientious Jew, deeply concerned for his salvation: I say, we find that such a case can be relieved by the Gospel of Christ only; or, in other words, that no scheme of redemption can be effectual to the salvation of any soul, whether Jew or Gentile, but that laid down in the Gospel of Christ.

Let any or all means be used which human wisdom can devise, guilt will still continue uncancelled; and inbred sin will laugh them all to scorn, prevail over them, and finally triumph. And this is the very conclusion to which the apostle brings his argument in the following clause; which, like the rest of the chapter, has been most awfully abused, to favour anti-evangelical purposes.

So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God — That this clause contains the inference from the preceding train of argumentation appears evident, from the αρα ουν, therefore, with which the apostle introduces it. As if he had said: "To conclude, the sum of what I have advanced, concerning the power of sin in the carnal man, and the utter insufficiency of all human means and legal observances to pardon sin and expel the corruption of the heart, is this: that the very same person, the αυτος εγω, the same I, while without the Gospel, under the killing power of the law, will find in himself two opposite principles, the one subscribing to and approving the law of God; and the other, notwithstanding, bringing him into captivity to sin: his inward man-his rational powers and conscience, will assent to the justice and propriety of the requisitions of the law; and yet, notwithstanding this, his fleshly appetites-the law in his members, will war against the law of his mind, and continue, till he receives the Gospel of Christ, to keep him in the galling captivity of sin and death."

1. THE strong expressions in this clause have led many to conclude that the apostle himself, in his regenerated state, is indisputably the person intended. That all that is said in this chapter of the carnal man, sold under sin, did apply to Saul of Tarsus, no man can doubt: that what is here said can ever be with propriety applied to Paul the Apostle, who can believe? Of the former, all is natural; of the latter, all here said would be monstrous and absurd, if not blasphemous.

2. But it is supposed that the words must be understood as implying a regenerate man, because the apostle says, Romans 7:22, I delight in the law of God; and in this verse, I myself with the mind serve the law of God. These things, say the objectors, cannot be spoken of a wicked Jew, but of a regenerate man such as the apostle then was. But when we find that the former verse speaks of a man who is brought into captivity to the law of sin and death, surely there is no part of the regenerate state of the apostle to which the words can possibly apply. Had he been in captivity to the law of sin and death, after his conversion to Christianity, what did he gain by that conversion? Nothing for his personal holiness. He had found no salvation under an inefficient law; and he was left in thraldom under an equally inefficient Gospel. The very genius of Christianity demonstrates that nothing like this can, with any propriety, be spoken of a genuine Christian.

3. But it is farther supposed that these things cannot be spoken of a proud or wicked Jew; yet we learn the contrary from the infallible testimony of the word of God. Of this people in their fallen and iniquitous state, God says, by his prophet, They SEEK me DAILY, and DELIGHT to know my ways, as a nation that did RIGHTEOUSNESS, and FORSOOK not the ORDINANCES of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of JUSTICE, and TAKE DELIGHT in approaching to God, Isaiah 58:2. Can any thing be stronger than this? And yet, at that time, they were most dreadfully carnal, and sold under sin, as the rest of that chapter proves. It is a most notorious fact, that how little soever the life of a Jew was conformed to the law of his God, he notwithstanding professed the highest esteem for it, and gloried in it: and the apostle says nothing stronger of them in this chapter than their conduct and profession verify to the present day. They are still delighting in the law of God, after the inward man; with their mind serving the law of God; asking for the ordinances of justice, seeking God daily, and taking delight in approaching to God; they even glory, and greatly exult and glory, in the Divine original and excellency of their LAW; and all this while they are most abominably carnal, sold under sin, and brought into the most degrading captivity to the law of sin and death. If then all that the apostle states of the person in question be true of the Jews, through the whole period of their history, even to the present time; if they do in all their professions and their religious services, which they zealously maintain, confess, and conscientiously too, that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good; and yet, with their flesh, serve the law of sin; the same certainly may be said with equal propriety of a Jewish penitent, deeply convinced of his lost estate, and the total insufficiency of his legal observances to deliver him from his body of sin and death. And consequently, all this may be said of Paul the JEW, while going about to establish his own righteousness-his own plan of justification; he had not as yet submitted to the righteousness of God-the Divine plan of redemption by Jesus Christ.

4. It must be allowed that, whatever was the experience of so eminent a man, Christian, and apostle, as St. Paul, it must be a very proper standard of Christianity. And if we are to take what is here said as his experience as a Christian, it would be presumption in us to expect to go higher; for he certainly had pushed the principles of his religion to their utmost consequences. But his whole life, and the account which he immediately gives of himself in the succeeding chapter, prove that he, as a Christian and an apostle, had a widely different experience; an experience which amply justifies that superiority which he attributes to the Christian religion over the Jewish; and demonstrates that it not only is well calculated to perfect all preceding dispensations, but that it affords salvation to the uttermost to all those who flee for refuge to the hope that it sets before them. Besides, there is nothing spoken here of the state of a conscientious Jew, or of St. Paul in his Jewish state, that is not true of every genuine penitent; even before, and it may be, long before, he has believed in Christ to the saving of his soul. The assertion that "every Christian, howsoever advanced in the Divine life, will and must feel all this inward conflict," c., is as untrue as it is dangerous. That many, called Christians, and probably sincere, do feel all this, may be readily granted and such we must consider to be in the same state with Saul of Tarsus, previously to his conversion; but that they must continue thus is no where intimated in the Gospel of Christ. We must take heed how we make our experience, which is the result of our unbelief and unfaithfulness, the standard for the people of God, and lower down Christianity to our most reprehensible and dwarfish state: at the same time, we should not be discouraged at what we thus feel, but apply to God, through Christ, as Paul did; and then we shall soon be able, with him, to declare, to the eternal glory of God's grace, that the law of the Spirit of life, in Christ Jesus, has made us free from the law of sin and death. This is the inheritance of God's children; and their salvation is of me, saith the Lord.

I cannot conclude these observations without recommending to the notice of my readers a learned and excellent discourse on the latter part of this chapter, preached by the Rev. James Smith, minister of the Gospel in Dumfermline, Scotland; a work to which I am indebted for some useful observations, and from which I should have been glad to have copied much, had my limits permitted. Reader, do not plead for Baal; try, fully try, the efficiency of the blood of the covenant; and be not content with less salvation than God has provided for thee. Thou art not straitened in God, be not straitened in thy own bowels.


 
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