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Justin King, Romans 7 and Christian Identity: A Study of the ‘I’ in Its Literary Context. By Will N. Timmins, The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume 70, Issue 2, October 2019, Pages 807–810, https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flz129
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This revised University of Cambridge dissertation aims to advance a hermeneutical trajectory of what has proven to be a polarizing pericope in Romans—does the speaking ἐγώ in Romans 7 represent the human condition before one’s encounter with the risen Christ, or does it represent a Jesus-follower caught between the ages? Situating his contributions among the latter of those options, Timmins concludes that ‘Paul portrays the anthropological condition of the ἐγώ as an Adamic state of powerlessness, without direct reference to the ἐγώ’s relational ontology … The ἐγώ’s condition is a lingering, lasting solidarity with the old order, but, as an anthropological condition, it remains with the ἐγώ even when he is no longer in the flesh, under the law’ (p. 8, emphasis original; cf. pp. 200–10). Thus, though believers, like the speaking ἐγώ of 7:14–25, experience new life in Christ and participate in it, ‘they do not yet possess it … In the believer’s mortal body two worlds collide’ (p. 82).
