Much has been said about Paul's use of tenses in Romans 7. The tenses that cause the most attention are those where Paul uses the past tense and present tense in this chapter. In both cases there are issues that a serious reader of Romans 7 must take into account (also see previous blogs to account for context and other matters).
Paul makes some staggering statements with the past tense (7:4--:"have died to the law; 7:5--while we were living in the flesh"). These and other instances of the past tense cause the reader to take note that Paul has declared some things about the Christian life that are in the past.
So, how can one reconcile what Paul has stated about our past and then using the present tense where he seems to contradict what he has just previously stated? Well, one might accept that Paul is contradicting himself in the matter of a few verses (see 7:5 and 14). He after all gives other statements in the present tense (7:15-23) that seem contradictory what he has previously alleged about the past tense.
Or, is there some grammatical matter that we have not accounted for with the present tense. There is surely the "simple" present that at times is not so simple. For example, I might use the present tense in saying "I am writing a blog" which would indicate at this very moment I am writing a blog. Or, I might use the present tense saying "I am writing a blog" meaning that I am now engaged in the practice of writing a blog (maybe every other week).. So you see it is a bit more complicated than saying Paul is using the present tense.
Finally, there is a use of the present tense that is not often discussed but used throughout the Scriptures. This use is what is called the "historic present." In most physical Bibles there are pages in the front that explain the use of Italics, small caps, and asterisks. Asterisks denote the use of the historic present. This historic present tense is used by authors to heighten vividness of a past event by brining the reader into the present (Explanation of General Format, NASB). See Matthew 4:19 as an example: "he is saying to them" is in present tense while we know this is not present.
This must be Paul's technique here since he has made such striking statements about our past or one is compelled to believe that Paul is contradicting himself. Or, is Paul using a technique known to authors of his day to bring his reader into the past experience with the failure of law to deal with sin in vivid "present-ness." This seems to be the only way one can reconcile the stark statements of what "has" happened to us and what Paul is referring with this use of the present tense.
Paul, I conclude, is revealing what was a past experience of trying to deal with sin and what this looks like: utter failure by using the historic present tense. So, he is Not referring to his present condition but a past condition of dealing with sin by using the law.
The utter failure of the law to deal with sin leads to his astounding statement in Romans 8:3 and serves to conclude what Paul started back in Romans 6:15. We will discuss this in the next blog.
REFLECT: How much effort do you invest in understanding grammatical matters as you study the Bible? Tools for this endeavor are available on line. Why not investigate how you could employ these tools in your study of the Bible?