The Four Laws Within: From Spiritual Crisis to Freedom in Christ
Orientation
The sincere attempt to obey God through our own effort often leads to a cycle of failure and despair, revealing a deeper internal conflict.
- We delight in God's law with our mind, yet find a contrary law in our members.
- Legalistic striving strengthens the power of sin within us, not our holiness.
- This struggle is not a sign of failure but a divinely orchestrated experience meant to expose our ruin.
I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. (Romans 7:21-23)
— Romans 7:21-23
Clarification
The crisis of repeated failure is not God's rejection but His tool to bring us to the end of our own resources.
- God gives the law and allows legalistic seasons to produce a necessary spiritual crisis.
- The 'wretched' cry of Romans 7:24 is a sign of progress, not regression.
- The goal is not to improve the flesh—including its 'good' intentions—but to see it fully condemned.
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Romans 7:24)
— Romans 7:24
Structure
Deliverance comes not from Christ's death for us alone, but through our death with Him, which introduces a new governing principle.
- The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus replaces the conflicting laws of the mind and sin.
- Our union with Christ in His death is the biblical logic for freedom from the law of sin and self-righteousness.
- This reduces the believer to living under one law: Christ living in them.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)
— Romans 8:2
Weight-Bearing Prose
Paul’s analysis in Romans 7 identifies four operative laws: the law of God (the standard), the law of sin in the members (the problem), the law of the mind (which agrees with God but is powerless), and the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (the deliverance). The law of the mind, while good, is still of the flesh. Its legalistic attempts to obey God’s law only empower the indwelling law of sin, creating the crisis of Romans 7. This is by God’s sovereign design. The law was given to expose human ruin and inability. God uses the believer’s failure and despair to bring them to the realization that both the sinful nature and the fleshly ‘good’ mind must die. The deliverance is found in the believer’s death with Christ (Romans 6, Galatians 2:20), not just Christ’s death for them. This union with Christ in death is the only exit from the cycle. The subsequent walk according to the Spirit (Romans 8) is freedom under the single, governing ‘law of the Spirit of life,’ which alone produces true sanctification.
Integration
The struggle you feel is not a sign that God has abandoned you. It is the very path He uses to bring you to Christ as your only life. Your cry of wretchedness is heard by God, and it leads to the answer already provided: your death with Christ. There is no pressure to advance or to manufacture this crisis. It is God’s work. Your assurance rests on Christ’s finished work for you, and your deliverance is found in your union with Him in death. The Spirit’s life is now your law. Christ in you is your sanctification, your righteousness, and your freedom. This is a landing place of rest, not a new challenge. He is your portion.