Who Shall Deliver Me?

“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” — Romans 7:24–25 (KJV)

Romans 7 is one of the most honest chapters in the Bible. In it Paul describes a person who really loves God’s law and wants to do right, and keeps doing wrong anyway. “The good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.”

Murray says that this person is not someone who doesn’t care. They genuinely want to please God. They can say, “I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” Their heart is in the right place. And still they fail.

That is where many people get confused. “How often people tell us,” Murray says, “that if you set yourself determinedly, you can perform what you will!” But the person in Romans 7 was as determined as anyone could be, and still said, in effect: I want to do good, but I can’t find the power to do it.

So the person ends up crying out: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Murray calls these “the words of a man who has come to the end of himself.”

If you have ever been there, frustrated, ashamed, fighting the same thing over and over, these words might feel very familiar. Murray wants you to know that this cry is not the end of the road. It is the gateway.

Because in the very next breath, Paul answers his own question: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” And then comes Romans 8, a chapter full of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of life who sets us free. Murray points out that in the first sixteen verses of Romans 8 the Holy Spirit is named sixteen times. In Romans 7 he barely appears. That is the difference. Romans 7 is a person trying in their own strength. Romans 8 is a person living by the Spirit.

Notice the question Paul asks: not “what will deliver me?” but “who?” The answer isn’t a technique, a program or a stronger resolution. It is a person: Jesus Christ, by his Spirit.

So if you feel like the wretched man of Romans 7, don’t despair. Let the cry turn into thanks. Look away from yourself and towards Jesus. He is the one who delivers.

One thing to do this week: read Romans 7:15–25 and then Romans 8:1–11. Count how many times the Spirit is mentioned in each. Then, when you next feel frustrated with yourself, pray Paul’s words: “Who will rescue me? Thank God, through Jesus Christ!”