The Bridge · Explore the Bible · Session 6 of 13

Struggle

Romans 7:4-6,14-25 · CSB

The Bridge · First Baptist Church Minden · October 11, 2026 · Taught by Billy

Because sin remains a powerful force, believers should not be surprised when doing right is a struggle.

Setting the Scene

In Romans 6, Paul told believers to consider themselves dead to sin and alive to God, and not to let sin reign in their bodies. Then he used two illustrations — slavery and marriage — to show that believers have been freed from sin and released from the law to belong to Christ. But if we really are dead to sin, why is obedience still so hard? In Romans 7, Paul gets honest: sin is no longer the believer's master, but it can still be a thief. He answers in three movements — Freed, Conflicted, and Hope.

Passage — Romans 7:4-6,14-25 (CSB)

⁴Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another. You belong to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. ⁵For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused through the law were working in us to bear fruit for death. ⁶But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law. … ¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold as a slave under sin. ¹⁵For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. ¹⁶Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. ¹⁷So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸For 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. ¹⁹For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me. ²¹So I discover this law: When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me. ²²For in my inner self I delight in God's law, ²³but 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. ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.

Key Truths

Point 1 — Freed (7:4-6)Believers bear fruit for God when they live in the Spirit of God.A death has released us from the law so we can belong to Christ. The old letter told us what to do but couldn't change us; in Christ we have both the desire to obey and the power for obedience — fruit that grows from the inside out.
Point 2 — Conflicted (7:14-23)Believers need to recognize that the struggle with sin is real, and they need help.Paul describes a real, ongoing battle: wanting what is good but lacking the ability in himself, delighting in God's law while sin wages war in his body. The struggle doesn't mark someone as a failed Christian but as a growing one.
Point 3 — Hope (7:24-25)Believers can express gratitude to God that they do not have to battle sin in their own power, but that Christ provides the victory."Who will rescue me?" — not what, but who. Paul's answer is immediate: Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The battle continues until Christ returns, but the outcome is settled, and Romans 8:1 follows: no condemnation.

Key Doctrine

Sanctification

Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God's purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him.

Philippians 2:12-13 · 1 Thessalonians 5:23

Worth Noting

Point 1"Dead to the law" does not mean the law was bad, or that Christians can live lawlessly. Paul says a few verses later that the law is "holy, just, and good" (7:12). The problem was never the law — it was us. And freedom from the law isn't freedom to sin; Paul already closed that door in 6:1-2 and 6:15.
Point 2"It is sin living in me" (vv. 17, 20) is not an excuse. Paul was not shirking responsibility; yielding his body to unrighteousness was a choice he made. He's describing where the pull comes from, not denying that he gave in. And temptation itself is not sin — Jesus "has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15). Feeling the pull is not the same as yielding to it (James 1:14-15). Our response is what matters.
Point 3Don't stop at verse 25. There were no chapter breaks in Paul's original letter, and the very next sentence is "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus" (8:1). Romans 7 is the honest diagnosis; Romans 8 is the answer — life in the Spirit. Some conflicts in life get resolved; others can only be managed until the end. Our conflict with sin is the second kind. That's not defeat; it's honesty — and we look forward to the day it ends (1 John 3:2).

Memorize

Romans 7:4 (CSB)

"Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another. You belong to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God."

Class Passphrase