Note that the word “I” appears 32 times in this chapter. The words “commandment” and “law” appears 23 times and “do” appears 8 times. The words “spirit” appears only 1 time in chapter 7. This is Paul’s testimony of trying to conform to doing “the Law” out of his own resource… apart from enablement by the indwelling “Spirit of Christ.” “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.” (Gal 5:4)

Romans 7:7-25 (AMP) What then do we conclude? Is the Law identical with sin? Certainly not! Nevertheless, if it had not been for the Law, I should not have recognized sin or have known its meaning. [For instance] I would not have known about covetousness [would have had no consciousness of sin or sense of guilt] if the Law had not [repeatedly] said, You shall not covet and have an evil desire [for one thing and another].

⁸ But sin (the Sin nature), finding opportunity in the commandment (Law) [to express itself], got a hold on me and aroused and stimulated all kinds of forbidden desires (lust, covetousness). For without the Law sin is dead [the sense of it is inactive and a lifeless thing]. ⁹ Once I was alive, but quite apart from and unconscious of the Law. But when the commandment (Law) came, sin lived again and I died (I was incapable to keep it). ¹⁰ And the very legal ordinance which was designed and intended to bring life actually proved [to mean to me] death. ¹¹ For sin, seizing the opportunity and getting a hold on me [by taking its incentive] from the commandment (Law), beguiled and entrapped and cheated me, and using it [as a weapon], killed me. ¹² The Law therefore is holy, and [each] commandment is holy and just and good. ¹³ Did that which is good then prove fatal [bringing death] to me? Certainly not! It was sin (nature), working death in me by using this good thing [the Law as a weapon], in order that through the commandment (Law) sin might be shown up clearly to be sin, that the extreme malignity and immeasurable sinfulness of sin might plainly appear. ¹⁴ We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am a creature of the flesh [carnal, unspiritual], having been sold into slavery under [the control of] sin (nature).

¹⁵ For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled, bewildered]. I do not practice or accomplish what I wish, but I do the very thing that I loathe [which my moral instinct condemns]. ¹⁶ Now if I do [habitually] what is contrary to my desire, [that means that] I acknowledge and agree that the Law is good (morally excellent) and that I take sides with it. ¹⁷ However, it is no longer I who do the deed, but the sin [principle] which is at home in me and has possession of me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it. [I have the intention and urge to do what is right, but no power to carry it out.] ¹⁹  For I fail to practice the good deeds I desire to do, but the evil deeds that I do not desire to do are what I am [ever] doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not desire to do, it is no longer I doing it [it is not myself that acts], but the sin [nature] which dwells within me [fixed in my flesh and operating through my soul]. ²¹ So I find it to be a law (rule of action of my being) that when I want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present with me and I am subject to its insistent demands. ²² For I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inmost self [with my new nature].

²³ But I discern in my bodily members [in the sensitive appetites and wills of ‘the flesh’] a different law (rule of action) at war against the law of my mind (my reason) and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs [in the sensitive appetites and wills of ‘the flesh’].

Rom. 7:24-25 (KJV) O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? ²⁵I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord (i.e. I died with him). So then ‘with the ‘mind’ (new mindset of the Rom 6:3-4 truth) I myself serve (fulfill) the Law of God (in Christ); but with the flesh (by ‘self-effort’ I serve) the law of sin.

Romans 8:5-6 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit (mind) the things of the Spirit. ⁶… to be carnally minded is Death; but to be spiritually minded is Life and peace.

Continue: The New Romans 8:1 paradigm answers the cry of “O wretched man that I am” of Romans 7:24-25:

Romans 8:1 There is therefore NOW no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, (those) who walk not after the flesh, but after (in accord with) the Spirit. ²For the law (operating principle) of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath (has already) made me free from the law (operating principle) of sin and death (in my flesh).

³ For what the law could NOT do, in that it was weak through (via) the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned (restricted) Sin (Sin nature, located) In The Flesh: ⁴ (So)That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk NOT after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

The New Victorious way of Living… by the Spirit is seen here:

“I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. (Gal 2:21)

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall NOT fulfil the lust of the flesh.” (v16) “But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” (v18) “If (since) we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” (Gal 5:25)