“For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.”
For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. — The repetition of 7:15 hammers home the contradiction: the self's willed good is consistently replaced by unwilled evil; the habitual action (προσσάσσω, prassō, "keep doing") is the opposite of intention. This is the lived chaos of the person ἄνομος (anomos, "lawless") in one sense, yet obsessed with the law—aware of obligation but incapable of fulfillment.
Church Fathers on Romans 7:19
“For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it but sin that dwells in me.” Do you see, how he acquits the essence of the soul, as well as the essence of the flesh, from accusation, and removes it entirely to sinful actions? For if the soul wills not the evil, it is cleared: and if he does not work it himself, the body too is set free, and the whole may be charged upon the evil moral…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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