Paul’s Narrative Thought World: The Tapestry of Tragedy and TriumphW
In Paul’s Narrative Thought World, Ben Witherington III writes,
This whole discussion in Romans 7 clearly is a Christian insight into the human condition, not one that comes generally to fallen humanity, and it is doubtful that Paul here is reflecting on his own conversion experience. Rather, as with the rest of the chapter, the discussion is generally referring first to the condition of Adam, then to the condition of those in Adam, and perhaps particularly to the one at the point of becoming in Christ.
The problem with the most common Protestant reading of this passage is that it involves reading the passage in light of the wrong story. Instead of reading it in light of Luther’s own anguished pilgrimage, which led to see himself in Rom. 7:14-25, we should have been reading it in light of the story Paul alludes to here – the story of Adam (vv. 7-13) and his fallen descendants outside of Christ (vv. 14-25; 28).
