Romans 7:22. For I delight in the law of God. ‘For' introduces an explanation of Romans 7:21. ‘Delight in' is stronger than ‘agree with' (Romans 7:16), but must not be pressed too far, since Romans 7:21, of which this is an explanation, is a summing up of the experience in Romans 7:14-20. Meyer explains: ‘I rejoice with the law of God, so that its joy (the law being personified) is also mine.' But this is not necessary, and too strong.

After the inward man. Those who refer the experience to the regenerate man consider this phrase as identical with ‘the new man,' under the influence of the Holy Spirit. But why is the influence of the Spirit so carefully kept out of view? Some say: Because Paul would set the conflict in the strongest light. But it is unlike him to keep Christ and the Holy Spirit in the background. We prefer, then, to distinguish between ‘the inward man' and the ‘new man.' The former is the internal sphere of spiritual influence where the law operates: in the regenerate man this has become the new man, but before renewal by the Holy Spirit the inner man, despite all its agreement with the law, even when in aroused feeling it might be said to delight in the law of God, is in a helpless condition, all the more miserable, because of its approval of the law. When the Christian is ‘under the law,' his delight may be more pronounced, but so long as he seeks sanctification through the law, he is quite as helpless. ‘The inward man' here is nearly equivalent to ‘mind' in Romans 7:23; Romans 7:25; and also to ‘spirit,' so far as that term exclusively applies to the highest part of man's nature, irrespective of the inworking of the Holy Spirit. (See Excursus below.)

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Old Testament