Verses 22 and 23 say, “For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man, but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and making me a captive to the law of sin which is in my members.” These verses speak of a law which is the evil present with me and a law in the mind. We have a spirit within, a body without, and a soul as a median. The members in verse 23 are the parts of the flesh, and the mind is the main part of the soul. In the members of the body there is the evil law, the law of sin, and in the mind there is the law of good, the good yet weak law. These two laws war against each other, but the law of evil in the members is stronger than the law of good in the mind.
Whenever we have a mind to do good, we are always defeated by the lust in our members. When I was young, many people in China smoked opium. The more people smoked opium, the more they were clear in their mind that they should not do it. I knew a person who would sell everything he had to maintain his opium smoking. He realized that his smoking was damaging him and his family; therefore, many times he made up his mind not to smoke any more. He was clear in his mind not to smoke opium, and he hated it, but when the temptation came, he could not withstand it. This was because of something in his body, the lust in his members. He would say to himself with tears, “I should not do this,” but even while he was saying this, he was preparing to smoke. On the one hand, he knew he should not do it, but on the other hand, he simply did it. He could not stand against the lust in the members of his body.
In their minds, people are clear that they should not do evil, and they even make up their mind not to do it, but something in the members of their body, as a lust, is much stronger than what is in their mind. Eventually they are defeated. They are brought into captivity to do the sinful things. This is the case today with many young people. They are clear in their mind, and in their mind they make a decision not to do evil, sinful things which corrupt them physically, psychologically, and morally. However, when the time comes, something in the members of their body as a lust forces them, captures them, subdues them, and brings them into captivity to do what they do not will to do.
By this we can realize that in the human mind there is a law of good, which always tries to do good, and in the members of the body there is a law of evil as a lust, which always fights against the law of good in the mind. This law of evil is stronger than the law of good, so it always defeats the law of good and brings the people who are trying to do good into captivity to do something evil.
Verse 24 says, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” As far as doing good is concerned, our body is a body of death. In 6:6 the body is called the body of sin, while in chapter seven it is called the body of death. As far as committing sin is concerned, this body is very active, powerful, and positive. Therefore, it is a body of sin. But as far as doing good is concerned, this body is one hundred percent powerless and impotent; just like a dead body, it can do nothing.
The body is dead because it was poisoned by the evil nature of Satan. At the time of the fall, Satan injected his poisonous, evil nature into the human life through the body as the instrument. God did not create a body with something of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in it. However, at the time man took the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil into his body, the body was changed in nature. Therefore, in the members of this body there is the poison of the enemy. This body was poisoned to be powerless and impotent in doing good, in keeping God’s commands. Therefore, it is a body of death. However, Romans 7:25 says, “Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Through the Lord Jesus Christ we are delivered from this body of death.
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