Few chapters in the bible have been the subject of more decidedly different interpretations than this. And after all that has been written on it by the learned, it is still made a matter of discussion, whether the apostle has reference in the main scope of the chapter to his own experience before he became a Christian; or to the conflicts in the mind of a man who is renewed. Which of these opinions is the correct one I shall endeavor to state in the notes at the particular verses in the chapter. The main design of the chapter is not very difficult to understand. It is, evidently, to show the insufficiency of the Law to produce peace of mind to a troubled sinner. In the previous chapters he had shown that it was incapable of producing justification, Rom. 1–3. He had shown the way in which people were justified by faith; Romans 3:21-31; Romans 4. He had shown how that plan produced peace, and met the evils introduced by the fall of Adam; Romans 5.
He had shown that Christians were freed from the Law as a matter of obligation, and yet that this freedom did not lead to a licentious life; Romans 6. And he now proceeds still further to illustrate the tendency of the Law on a man both in a state of nature and of grace; to show that its uniform effect in the present condition of man, whether impenitent and under conviction, or in a state of grace under the gospel, so far from promoting peace, as the Jew maintained, was to excite the mind to conflict, and anxiety, and distress. Nearly all the special opinions of the Jews the apostle had overthrown in the previous argument. He here gives the finishing stroke, and shows that the tendency of the Law, as a practical matter, was everywhere the same. It was not in fact to produce peace, but agitation, conflict, distress. Yet this was not the fault of the Law, which was in itself good, but of sin, Romans 6:7-14.
I regard this chapter as not referring exclusively to Paul in a state of nature, or of grace. The discussion is conducted without particular reference to that point. It is rather designed to group together the actions of a man’s life, whether in a state of conviction for sin, or in a state of grace, and to show that the effect of the Law is everywhere substantially the same. It equally fails everywhere in producing peace and sanctification. The argument of the Jew respecting the efficacy of the Law, and its sufficiency for the condition of man, is thus overthrown by a succession of proofs relating to justification, to pardon, to peace, to the evils of sin, and to the agitated and conflicting moral elements in man’s bosom. The effect is everywhere the same. The deficiency is apparent in regard to all the great interests of man. And having shown this, the apostle and the reader are prepared for the language I of triumph and gratitude, that deliverance from all these evils is to be traced to the gospel of Jesus Christ the Lord; Romans 7:25; Romans 8.