The
teachings in Romans 6 are a foundation for the new converts the apostle
Paul was writing to. He is giving instructions to these Roman believers
in Romans 6.
However, in the Romans 7:14-25 passage, he is talking about his personal experience. And he did that to illustrate more clearly what he started talking about at the beginning of Romans 7, namely the believer's relationship with God's law. So, he started talking about the time of his relationship with the law, being married to it, not being dead to it and alive to Christ yet. Romans 7:14 tells us: I am of the flesh, sold into bondage to sin. That does not describe someone who has been saved. I will strengthen that point. But before going further, let's notice that it is already established that both Paul and the believers he is writing to have come into a relationship with Jesus, so they are saved:
Romans 7:4
Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
So, now let's visit Jesus' teaching about being in bondage to sin:
John 8:34-36
34 Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. 36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
Being sold into bondage to sin is being a slave of sin needing a deliverance from sin to be then "set free" from sin by the Son, the deliverer, e.g. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness (Romans 6:18).
Let's re-enter the Romans 7:14-25 section and see that in the state Paul is describing that he is, he is both admitting to a struggle that is fully caused by his "body" – his flesh that is ruling (and ruining) his life, and he is looking forward to a deliverance, which he did find in Jesus:
Romans 7:23-25
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 will deliver me from 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.
So, up to the very end of Romans 7 he affirms that he is walking according to the flesh, the opposite of what comes in the very next verse (Romans 8:1, with the "therefore" that signals a conclusion). It's then definitely the new life in Christ Jesus spoken of in Romans 6:4, where he is no longer being led by the sinful passions of his flesh and thus no longer in bondage to sin:
Romans 8:1-2
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
The Romans 8:2 reality puts an end to the Romans 7:23 struggle. So, we have to go back now to Romans 6, the foundational teaching, to get how he became free in Christ and under no condemnation:
Romans 6:4-7
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life (cf. Romans 8:2). 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
So, that foundation having already been laid down, the apostle Paul was talking about a prior time when he made the present tense statement "I am of the flesh, sold into bondage to sin" (Romans 7:14). That foundation goes to the root of sin which is the sinful desires of the flesh that people indulge in. They are put to death in Christ, or when one comes to Christ through a real repentance according to what the Bible teaches. The old man gets crucified or put to death in that repentance. These are other scriptures that reflect what's happening or speak of what must happen in or through it:
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Galatians 5:24
And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Galatians 6:7-8
7 Do not be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a person sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Romans 13:14
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Luke 9:23-24
23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
John 12:24-25
24 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. 25 He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
Colossians 3:1-11
1 If then you were raised with Christ [unlike the Romans 7:14-25 person], seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died (cf. Romans 6:4), and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. 5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth*: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7 in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. 8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
*Such exhortations as the above are necessary, because a person only needs to feed his/her flesh that should have been put to death in Christ, for it to come back alive and it will surely rule him/her life and drag him/her right back to bondage to sin worse than before (e.g. 2 Peter 2:20-22), which is then no longer freedom in Christ. The devil is always seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). That is what "losing salvation" would mean if salvation itself is understood as being set free from sin and walking on the narrow/difficult road to eternal life (Matthew 7:14), and not being stuck in a Romans 7:14-25 experience. So, Jesus also taught that a slave does not remain in the house forever (John 8:35), which is reflected in his do or die messages to five backslidden churches in Revelation 2 and 3. He gave them notice to be zealous and repent (e.g. Revelation 3:19) and warned them of the severe consequences of not cleaning up their act.
It is thus settled for me that in the Romans 7:14-25 account, the apostle Paul was not yet led by the Spirit (Romans 8:1), which would be the case for a saved person. I see the same kind of present tense language being used in 1 Timothy 1:15, albeit in a more brief contrast between 1 Timothy 1:15 and 1 Timothy 1:16
15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
VS
16 However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.
The apostle Paul did not say to the Corinthians "Be followers of me, even as I also am [a follower] of Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1), being a "pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life" (1 Timothy 1:16), as presently then a chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15) or a wretched man (Romans 7:24) still. Someone who is a new creation in Christ or born again could not be so described.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
See also:
Who is the man struggling in Romans 7?
How Do We Know That We Love God?
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