2. Paul says (Romans 7:20) that ‘sin dwells in me’. Jesus says that bad thoughts are as bad as bad actions. What does that mean for the understanding of what a person must do to become a good person?
Paul connects sin with carnality, in that “nothing good dwells within [him], that is, in [his] flesh” (Romans 7:18). He describes his internal sin as a law at war with the law of God, in that both forces dictate his actions (Romans 7:23). To the extent that he cannot escape sin because it dwells in his flesh, it seems as if bad thoughts and bad actions are inevitable, tied inextricably with the body. But sin can only be defined in relation to law: Paul states, “if it had not been for the law, I should not have known sin. I should not have known what is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”” (Romans 7:7). In this sense, the effort to overcome sin, which makes a person bad, must come through the agent that creates it, i.e. the law. Paul therefore asserts that one must let the Spirit within him, for the flesh has already died because of sin and corrupted the law (Romans 8:10). This echoes the notion of fulfilling the Spirit rather the letter of the law, in that law is “weakened by the flesh” but the Spirit can stay alive through devotion to Jesus (Romans 8:3). In other words then, because sin is intrinsically tied into the mortal body, one can only become a good person by giving in their spirits to Christ Jesus and abandoning the will of the flesh.
I think this theme of devotion and being a good person (i.e. a good Christian) transcending the "flesh" exists throughout the New Testament, especially the idea of abandoning the sinful body and taking up a new body in Jesus Christ. In Romans 12:4, Paul tells the Romans that they are all "one body in Christ," playing on the idea of "body" as a group of people. All this tension between the physical flesh, the Spirit, and this "body in Christ" makes me think of the idea of transubstantiation, which is the idea that the bread and wine offered during Communion services literally become the body and blood of Christ, respectively. The tension between physicality and spirituality in the New Testament confuses me at times, and I guess it has confused Christian leaders too, considering that different sects of Christianity varyingly accept or reject the idea of transubstantiation.
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