Romans 7:14

The law is spiritual; it requires perfect holiness of spirit; that men should love God with all their heart and soul and mind and strength; and that whatever they do, they should do all to the glory of God. But not even Paul, after his conversion, and after he had been preaching the gospel for years, did all this. So far as he fell short he was carnal, sinful, and needed the grace of God through Jesus Christ.

I am carnal; fleshly and earthly in my affections, and thus sold under sin; under its power as a bond-servant. These words describe, first, the state of all unregenerate men; secondly, the condition of believers so far as "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" has not made them free from it. In what follows to the end of the chapter, the apostle describes the painful conflict between the spiritual law of God and the carnal mind of man, in the soul of him who is earnestly seeking to render to the law a true inward obedience. What he says applies in a measure to the awakened and convicted sinner, who, without any clear apprehension of Christ's grace, is vainly seeking justification from the works of the law; but more fully to the warfare with sin in the heart of the true Christian; for he is spiritual only in part-not a willing, habitual devotee and slave of sin, but sold as a captive against his prevailing inclinations. He is not delighted or contented with his bondage. It is his grief and burden. He has tasted the beginning of liberty, and sighs and struggles for its completion.