Romans 7 speaks of our involvement with several persons. In this chapter there are a woman (vv. 2-3), two husbands (vv. 2-4), “I” (vv. 7-24), and sin (vv. 8-9, 11, 13-14, 17, 20). Chapter eight shows us another person. Verse 1 says, “There is now then no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” We are now in Christ Jesus, not in the old husband, the “I,” or sin. However, if in our experience we remain in the old husband or the “I,” we are under sin. According to Romans 7, sin is a person (vv. 8, 9, 11, 17, 20). It is difficult to say whether this person is Satan or ourself, because these two are one. In Matthew 16 when Peter rebuked the Lord, saying, “God be merciful to You, Lord,” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan!” (vv. 22-23). At that time, Peter and Satan were one. The “I” in Romans 7 is not merely identified with Satan; the “I” and Satan are one. Jesus Christ is the only person in the entire universe who is not one with Satan.
On the one hand, sin is Satan himself. On the other hand, because Satan injected himself into the human race, the entire human race also became sin, that is, the entire human race became one with Satan. In the eyes of God, Satan, sin, and the human race are one. If we live by the “I,” we cannot avoid sin, because the “I” is sin. We can never get away from sin, and we can never overcome sin because we ourselves are sin. Regardless of how good one might seem to be in the eyes of others, in the eyes of God he is sin.
The experience of sin in Romans 7 leads us into condemnation (7:24; 8:1). The condemnation in Romans 8:1 is not the condemnation concerning the things we did in the past. It is the condemnation of our current situation. No one else condemns himself as much as a seeking Christian. Before we were seeking Christ, we did not condemn ourselves very much. After we had a clearance with God, we made up our mind to be perfect, pure, and right in everything. As a result, we may constantly condemn ourselves. Those who seek the Lord may not only be under this condemnation day after day, but even hour after hour. We condemn ourselves that we are wrong in our attitude and wrong in the way we speak, in the inaccurate words we use. If one means business to seek after Christ, he may become a person that constantly condemns himself. This is the condemned person unveiled in Romans 7 who eventually says: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” (v. 24).
In Romans 7 Paul could not escape from sin. However, in chapter eight he declares, “There is now then no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (v. 1). Paul was no longer in himself. Therefore, he was not in sin, that is, he was not in Satan. He was in another person, Christ Jesus, who in our experience of life is the Spirit of life. Christ Jesus in verse 1 and the Spirit of life in verse 2 are one person. Without being the Spirit of life, Christ could not be real to us. In Christ we are freed from condemnation because Christ Jesus today is the Spirit of life.
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