Albert Barnes Commentary Romans 7:24

"Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?" — Romans 7:24 (ASV)

O wretched man that I am! The feeling implied by this lamentation is the result of this painful conflict and this frequent subjection to sinful propensities. The effect of this conflict is:

1. To produce pain and distress; it is often an agonizing struggle between good and evil, a struggle that disturbs the peace and makes life wretched.

2. It tends to produce humility. It is humbling for one to be so under the influence of evil passions. It is degrading to one's nature, a stain on one's glory; and it tends to bring one into the dust, to be under the control of such propensities and so often to give indulgence to them. In such circumstances, the mind is overwhelmed with wretchedness and instinctively sighs for relief. Can the law aid? Can human beings aid? Can any native strength of conscience or of reason aid? All these are tried in vain, and the Christian then calmly and thankfully acquiesces in the consolations of the apostle, that aid can be obtained only through Jesus Christ.

Who shall deliver me? This question expresses the condition of a mind in deep distress, conscious of its own weakness, and looking for aid.

The body of this death. (The margin reads: This body of death.) The word body here is probably used as equivalent to flesh, denoting the corrupt and evil propensities of the soul. (See Barnes on Romans 7:18).

It is used in this way to denote the law of sin in the members, as that with which the apostle was struggling and from which he desired to be delivered. The expression "body of this death" is a Hebraism, denoting a body deadly in its tendency. The whole expression may mean the corrupt principles of human beings—the carnal, evil affections that lead to death or to condemnation. The expression is one of vast strength and strongly characteristic of the apostle Paul. It indicates:

1. That it was near him, attending him, and was distressing in its nature.

2. An earnest wish to be delivered from it. Some have supposed that he refers to a custom practiced by ancient tyrants, of binding a dead body to a captive as a punishment and compelling him to drag the cumbersome and offensive burden with him wherever he went. I do not see any evidence that the apostle had this in view. However, such a fact may be used as a striking, and perhaps not improper, illustration of the apostle's meaning here. No strength of words could express deeper feeling; none could more feelingly indicate the necessity of the grace of God to accomplish that to which unaided human powers are incompetent.

(Note: "the body" or "this body of death".)