According to many contemporary commentators of Romans 7,
. . . Paul is using the “I” to speak imaginatively but
appropriately, as a believer, about the experience of nonbelievers: either
fellow Jews or people in general who are outside the Messiah. The apostle is offering
his perspective on unredeemed humanity seen through the prism of his redemption
in Christ. Paul is following the ancient convention of speech in character
(which is occasionally still used today). This involves using “I” to speak
about someone other than oneself—a person, group, of humanity in general—for some
rhetorical purpose. We see something similar in 1 Cor 13 (the love chapter), in
which the “I” is more than Paul.
More specially, we may say that Paul’s “I” in Rom 7 is
Adam, in the sense of everyone living in Adam and thereby under the reign of
sin, Death, and (after Moses) the law (cf. 5:12-14; 1 Cor 15:22). Paul even
alludes to Gen 2-3 to tell the story of sin’s entry into the human race (past
tense, 7:7-13) and the ongoing consequences of its reign (present time, 7:14-25).
This condition of being in Adam and enslaved to Sin is also described as being “of
the flesh” or in my/the flesh (7:14, 18; 8:8-9). Its antithesis—and its
antidote—is being “in Christ” and therefore “in the Spirit” (8:1, 9-11). (Michael
J. Gorman, Romans: A Theological and Pastoral Commentary [Grand Rapids,
Mich.: Eerdmans, 2022], 183)
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