SEV Biblia, Chapter 7:18
Y yo s que en mí (es a saber, en mi carne) no mora el bien, porque tengo el querer, mas efectuar el bien no lo alcanzo.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Romans 7:18
Verse 18. For I know that in me, &c.] I have learned by experience that in an unregenerate man there is no good. There is no principle by which the soul can be brought into the light; no principle by which it can be restored to purity: fleshly appetites alone prevail; and the brute runs away with the man. For to will is present with me] Though the whole soul has suffered indescribably by the FALL, yet there are some faculties that appear to have suffered less than others; or rather have received larger measures of the supernatural light, because their concurrence with the Divine principle is so necessary to the salvation of the soul. Even the most unconcerned about spiritual things have understanding, judgment, reason, and will. And by means of these we have seen even scoffers at Divine revelation become very eminent in arts and sciences; some of our best metaphysicians, physicians, mathematicians, astronomers, chemists, &c., have been known-to their reproach be it spoken and published-to be without religion; nay, some of them have blasphemed it, by leaving God out of his own work, and ascribing to an idol of their own, whom they call nature, the operations of the wisdom, power, and goodness of the Most High. It is true that many of the most eminent in all the above branches of knowledge have been conscientious believers in Divine revelation; but the case of the others proves that, fallen as man is, he yet possesses extra-ordinary powers, which are capable of very high cultivation and improvement. In short, the soul seems capable of any thing but knowing, fearing, loving, and serving God. And it is not only incapable, of itself, for any truly religious acts; but what shows its fall in the most indisputable manner is its enmity to sacred things. Let an unregenerate man pretend what he pleases, his conscience knows that he hates religion; his soul revolts against it; his carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. There is no reducing this fell principle to subjection; it is SIN, and sin is rebellion against God; therefore sin must be destroyed, not subjected; if subjected, it would cease to be sin, because sin is in opposition to God: hence the apostle says, most conclusively, it cannot be subjected, i.e. it must be destroyed, or it will destroy the soul for ever.
When the apostle says, to will is present with me, he shows that the will is on the side of God and truth, so far that it consents to the propriety and necessity of obedience. There has been a strange clamour raised up against this faculty of the soul, as if the very essence of evil dwelt in it; whereas the apostle shows, throughout this chapter, that the will was regularly on God's side, while every other faculty appears to have been in hostility to him. The truth is, men have confounded the will with the passions, and laid to the charge of the former what properly belongs to the latter. The will is right, but the passions are wrong. It discerns and approves, but is without ability to perform: it has no power over sensual appetites; in these the principle of rebellion dwells: it nills evil, it wills good, but can only command through the power of Divine grace: but this the person in question, the unregenerate man, has not received.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 18. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh , etc..] The apostle goes on to give some further account of himself, what he knew, and was fully assured of by long experience; as that dwelleth no good thing in him, that is, in his flesh, or carnal self; for otherwise there were many good things dwelt in him; there was the good work of grace, and the good word of God in him, and even Father, Son, and Spirit, dwelt in him; but his meaning is, that there was no good thing naturally in him; no good thing of his own putting there; nothing but what God had put there; no good thing, but what was owing to Christ, to the grace of God, and influence of the Spirit; or as he himself explains it, there was no good thing in his flesh; in the old man that was in him, which has nothing in his nature good; no good thing comes out of him, nor is any good thing done by him: and this explanative and limiting clause, that is, in my flesh, clearly proves, that the apostle speaks of himself, and as regenerate; for had he spoke in the person of an unregenerate man, there would have been no room nor reason for such a restriction, seeing an unregenerate man is nothing else but flesh, and has nothing but flesh, or corrupt nature in him; and who does not know, that no good thing dwells in such persons? whereas the apostle intimates by this explication, that he had something else in him beside flesh, and which is opposed to it; and that is spirit, or the new man, which is of a spiritual nature, and is seated in the spirit, or soul, and comes from the Spirit of God; and in this spiritual man dwell good things, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth; so that though there was no good thing dwelling in his flesh, in the old than, yet there were good things dwelling in his spirit, in the new and spiritual man, the hidden man of the heart: and he adds, to will is present with me ; which must be understood, not of the power and faculty of the will, with respect to things natural and civil, which is common to all men; nor of a will to that which is evil, which is in wicked men; but of a will to that which was good, which he had not of himself, but from God, and is only to be found in regenerate persons; and denotes the readiness of his mind and will to that which is spiritually good, like that which Christ observes of his disciples, when he says, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, ( Matthew 26:41), which may serve much to illustrate the passage before us: since it follows, but how to perform that which is good, I find not ; he found he had no strength of himself to do what he willed; and that he could do nothing without Christ; and that what he did by the strength and grace of Christ, he did not do perfectly. To will to live without sin, not to have a lustful or a revengeful thought in his breast, was present with him, but how to perform, how to live in this manner, which was so desirable to him, being born again, he found not. It may be asked, how does this agree with what the apostle says, it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure? ( Philippians 2:13). To this it may be replied, that when God does work in his people both to will and to do, he does not work both equally alike, or to the same degree, so that the work answers to the will; God never works in them so to do, as to will, for when they are wrought in, acted upon, and influenced to do the most, and that in the best manner, they never do all that they would; and sometimes God works in them to will, when he does not work in them to do; as in the case of the disciples of Christ, in whom he worked to will to watch with Christ an hour, but did not work in them to do, ( Matthew 26:40); and whenever he works in the saints, whether to will or to do, or both, it is always of his own good pleasure.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 18-22 - The more pure and holy the heart is, it will have the more quic feeling as to the sin that remains in it. The believer sees more of the beauty of holiness and the excellence of the law. His earnest desire to obey, increase as he grows in grace. But the whole good on which his will is fully bent, he does not do; sin ever springing up in him through remaining corruption, he often does evil, though against the fixed determination of his will. The motions of sin within grieved the apostle. If by the striving of the flesh against the Spirit, was mean that he could not do or perform as the Spirit suggested, so also, by the effectual opposition of the Spirit, he could not do what the fles prompted him to do. How different this case from that of those who make themselves easy with regard to the inward motions of the fles prompting them to evil; who, against the light and warning of conscience, go on, even in outward practice, to do evil, and thus, with forethought, go on in the road to perdition! For as the believer i under grace, and his will is for the way of holiness, he sincerel delights in the law of God, and in the holiness which it demands according to his inward man; that new man in him, which after God is created in true holiness.
Greek Textus Receptus
οιδα 1492 5758 V-RAI-1S γαρ 1063 CONJ οτι 3754 CONJ ουκ 3756 PRT-N οικει 3611 5719 V-PAI-3S εν 1722 PREP εμοι 1698 P-1DS τουτ 5124 D-NSN εστιν 2076 5748 V-PXI-3S εν 1722 PREP τη 3588 T-DSF σαρκι 4561 N-DSF μου 3450 P-1GS αγαθον 18 A-ASN το 3588 T-NSN γαρ 1063 CONJ θελειν 2309 5721 V-PAN παρακειται 3873 5736 V-PNI-3S μοι 3427 P-1DS το 3588 T-ASN δε 1161 CONJ κατεργαζεσθαι 2716 5738 V-PNN το 3588 T-ASN καλον 2570 A-ASN ουχ 3756 PRT-N ευρισκω 2147 5719 V-PAI-1S
Vincent's NT Word Studies
18. In me. The entire man in whom sin and righteousness struggle, in whose unregenerate condition sin is the victor, having its domain in the flesh. Hence in me considered as carnal (ver. 14). That another element is present appears from "to will is present with me;" but it is the flesh which determines his activity as an unregenerate man. There is good in the I, but not in the I considered as carnal. This is brought out in ver. 25, "With the flesh (I serve) the law of sin." Hence there is added that is, in my flesh. Is present (parakeitai). Lit., lies beside or before.Perform (katergazesqai). Carry the desire into effect.
I find not (ouc euriskw). The best texts omit find, and read simply ouj not. So Rev., "To do that which is good is not (present)."
Robertson's NT Word Studies
7:18 {In me} (en emoi). Paul explains this by "in my flesh" (en ti sarki mou), the unregenerate man "sold under Sin" of verse #14. {No good thing} (ouk--agaqon). "Not absolutely good." this is not a complete view of man even in his unregenerate state as Paul at once shows. {For to will is present with me} (to gar qelein parakeitai moi). Present middle indicative of parakeimai, old verb, to lie beside, at hand, with dative moi. Only here in N.T. {The wishing} is the better self, {the doing not} the lower self.
