The Lost Years of the Apostle Paul

Verse 24 states, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” We must camp out on this verse for a moment. From many years ago comes a haunting picture of what Paul is saying. It seems that it was a common practice in Paul’s day to punish a political prisoner by taking a dead body from the arena and strapping or chaining that rotting, stinking corpse to the prisoner face to face. The corruption of the decaying flesh would soon penetrate the healthy flesh of the prisoner. Death of the most horrible nature would soon occur. This is an unthinkable picture, but its power to let us hear the heart of Paul, and most surely the heart of God, is undeniable. I, myself, have known Paul’s struggles. I believe that every truthful Christian will attest that he or she has not been able to live the Christian life in his or her flesh. Every morning, the old man, my flesh, rises with me. Every day there is the struggle. I think that the Great Apostle had been comfortable in his ignorance concerning the true nature of sin. He had been a proud Pharisee. He had been confident of his position in God as a true Hebrew, chosen of God, special, elite. As the rich, young ruler, as the fire-breathing Saul, he was comfortable. But when he met Jesus, He came face to face with the reality of his own sinfulness. The old proverb (23:7) echoed through his mind: “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Was there any hope? In verse 25 of chapter 7, the lightning flashes: “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.” Through the death, burial, and resurrection, he could be saved. By the power of Christ, he could find victory over his weaknesses. While he still sinned, in him dwelt the eternal God who was forgiving him, transforming him, making him a new man, a spiritual man, daily. We read in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”