Albert Barnes Commentary Romans 7:22

"For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:" — Romans 7:22 (ASV)

For I delight. The word used here (sunēdomai) occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It properly means to rejoice with anyone, and expresses not only approbation of the understanding, as in the expression I consent to the law (Romans 7:16), but, more than that, it denotes sensible pleasure in the heart.

It indicates not only intellectual assent but emotion—an emotion of pleasure in the contemplation of the law. And this shows that the apostle is not speaking of an unrenewed man. Of such a man it might be said that his conscience approved the law, that his understanding was convinced that the law was good; but it never yet occurred that an impenitent sinner found emotions of pleasure in the contemplation of the pure and spiritual law of God.

If this expression can be applied to an unrenewed man, there is, perhaps, not a single mark of a pious mind that may not just as appropriately be so applied. It is the natural, obvious, and usual way of denoting the feelings of piety: an assent to the Divine law followed by emotions of sensible delight in its contemplation. Compare Psalm 119:97, O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. See also Psalm 1:2, But his delight is in the law of the LORD. Compare also Psalm 19:7-11 and Job 23:12.

In the law of God. The word law here is used in a broad sense to denote all the communications that God had made to control man. The sense is that the apostle was pleased with the whole. One mark of genuine piety is to be pleased with the whole of the Divine requirements.

After the inward man. This phrase pertains to the inner self. The expression "the inward man" is sometimes used to denote the rational part of man, as opposed to the sensual, and sometimes the mind, as opposed to the body (compare 2 Corinthians 4:16 and 1 Peter 3:4). It is used in this way by Greek classical writers.

In this context, "the inward man" is evidently used in opposition to a carnal and corrupt nature, to the evil passions and desires of the soul in an unrenewed state, and to what is called elsewhere the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts (Ephesians 4:22).

Furthermore, the "inward man" is also called the new man (Ephesians 4:24). It denotes not the mere intellect or conscience, but is a personification of the principles of action by which a Christian is governed: the new nature, the holy disposition, and the inclination of the heart that is renewed.