Passage

Romans 7.25

Book: Romans · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

23. but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. 24. Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?

25. 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. (Romans 7:23-25, ASV)

WEB

23. but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. 24. What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?

25. I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve God’s law, but with the flesh, the sin’s law. (Romans 7:23-25, WEB)

KJV

23. 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. 24. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? ^{the body: or, this body of death}

25. 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. (Romans 7:23-25, KJV)

YLT

23. and I behold another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of the sin that [is] in my members. 24. A wretched man I [am]! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?

25. 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. (Romans 7:23-25, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Paul the apostle
Audience: The believers in Rome, a church Paul had long wanted to visit but had not yet seen (1:10-13)
Location: Most likely written from Corinth, home of Paul's host Gaius (16:23; compare 1 Corinthians 1:14), and commending Phoebe of nearby Cenchreae (16:1), who probably carried the letter
Time period: C. AD 56-57, near the end of Paul's third missionary journey, as he prepared to take the collection to Jerusalem (15:25-26)

Theological reading

"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."

Thanks before the explanation. The question of verse 24, "who shall deliver me?", is answered with thanksgiving rather than an argument. The full answer follows in the next chapter: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death" (8:1-2, ASV).

A puzzling second half. After the thanks, Paul sums up the divided state again: with the mind he serves "the law of God," with the flesh "the law of sin." Many interpreters read this as a summary of 7:14-24 placed after the outburst of thanks. It has also fed the long debate over whether chapter 7 describes the believer (Augustine in his later writings, Luther, Calvin) or life under the law viewed from outside it (a common modern reading). On the first reading the verse describes the Christian's ongoing conflict, with victory assured but not yet complete; on the second, the state from which Christ rescues. See Romans 7.24 and Sanctification.

Self-power and other-power. The Buddhism vs the Christian God comparison uses verses 24-25 together. In the early Buddhist texts the Buddha tells his followers to be islands and refuges to themselves, relying on the teaching rather than on another person. Not every Buddhist tradition stops there. Pure Land Buddhism in Japan teaches reliance on the vow of Amida Buddha, "other-power," rather than one's own effort, a parallel that Christian writers have often noticed. The difference is in who the deliverer is. Paul thanks God "through Jesus Christ our Lord," a historical person who died and rose (1:3-4; 4:25), and the deliverance is grounded in what he did, not in the strength of the believer's trust.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G3563 - nous, nous, Strong's G3563
G4561 - sarx, sarx, Strong's G4561
G0266 - hamartia, hamartia, Strong's G0266
G3551 - nomos, nomos, Strong's G3551
G5547 - christos, christos, Strong's G5547
G2962 - kyrios, kyrios, Strong's G2962

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Christians Behaving Badly, via Romans 7.14-25
Concupiscence, via Romans 7.7-25
Original Sin, via Romans 7.14-25
Sanctification, via Romans 7.14-25
Sin, via Romans 7.14-25, Romans 7.15-25

Lexicon:

Passages:

Romans 7.24

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.