1. No man is perfectly holy in this life, at least the apostle was not, according to his own confession, when he wrote this account of his expe- rience. That Paul throughout the latter part of this chapter is describing his own feelings when writing, appears evident from the following consi- derations.
a. Because he uses the first person and the present tense throughout the passage, and says, " I consent to the law that it is good ;" " I delight in the law of God ;" " I see another law in my members ;" " O wretched man that I am ;" " So then I myself serve the law of God ;" &c. &c. He does this with an earnestness and warmth which show that he is ex- pressing the feelings of his own heart. No example is to be found in all the apostle's writings analogous to this, if it be assumed that he is here personating another.
6. Because there is nothing in this passage inconsistent with the expe- rience of the holiest of men. This has been shown in the commentary. The inward conflict here described every Christian understands and expe- riences.
c. The passage contains many declarations inconsistent with the scrip- tural account of unrenewed men. The Bible does not speak of unrenewed men as consenting to the law, as hating sin and struggling against it, groaning under it as a tyrant's yoke, as delighting in the law of God, and doing all this as to the inward or new man.
d. Because the conflict which is here described is, in other passages, portrayed (for example, in Gal. 5 : 17) in language which, by common consent, can be applied only to true Christians. That these passages refer to the same subject is plain not only from the fact that the flesh (or corrupt nature) is mentioned in both as the evil principle, but because the descrip- tion in both cases is nearly in the same words. There the flesh is said to war against the spirit, so that we cannot do the things that we would ; here the flesh or the law in the members is said to war against the law in