Many people today talk about getting out of Romans 7:1–25 into this glorious state of Romans 8:1–39. This glorious chapter, perhaps the most glorious chapter in all the Bible. But they forget that Paul has already taken us through Romans 5:1–21, where he has already spoken to us about being justified by faith and having peace with God and getting assurance of faith. These people do not understand that even after the greatest of spiritual experiences and exercises of faith, as described in Romans 8:1–39, God’s people are brought back again to Romans 7:24, time and time again. Romans 7:1–25 and Romans 8:1–39 complement each other. Romans 7:1–25 tells you how matters do go in the Christian life, the battle; Romans 8:1–39 tells you how matters should go in the Christian life, the victories of the Spirit: the witnessing of the Spirit that we are the children of God. Both are experiential. That is both are experienced in the believer. In fact, my personal definition of experiential Christianity, that is the work of the Spirit in the soul that is tasted and experienced, is very much based on these two chapters. I like to put it this way: True Christian experience tells us both how it should go in the Christian life (Romans 8:1–39), but also how it does go in the Christian life (the battle of Romans 7:1–25).¹

Joel Beeke