Yes, dear brother, you are so right. Romans seven is Paul's experience as a Pharisee. Patient and prayerful study will help us to better understand Scripture and what each other believe. There are many in the church just like Saul, the Pharisee. They love God, they believe they are serving God correctly, but do not know that they are righteous Pharisees. They go about teaching others a false doctrine, they hurt others because they do not have Christ enthroned upon their hearts, they beat others over the head with the law of God, and some may even go as far as Saul when he incited the death of Stephen and then proceeded to persecute the true Christians.
You have it just right, Peter. Romans seven is indeed the expression of the experience of Paul when he was a Pharisee, but something happened in Romans seven and we move into a new arena in Saul's life. He remains a Pharisee, but he gains another perspective in Romans seven that he tells us of. The law of God is seen in a different manner. He thought he was alive without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and he died. He did not die to self as some teach, no. He saw himself dead spiritually. The commandment which was ordained to life, revealed to Saul that he was under condemnation, a sentence of death. Saul had thought that he was keeping the law, but as he got a better understanding of what the law requires, he saw that he was a lawbreaker. Being a good Pharisee who knew that he had to keep the law to go to heaven, he then attempted to keep the law, but having no Saviour, he could not.
There are many in the church today who know that if they are breaking the law, they are under condemnation, but they like Saul have no power to keep the law in and of themselves. So, like Romans seven they find themselves doing what they do not want to do and not doing what they want to do. Saul strived to keep the law because he wanted to serve God. He loved God. But, he did not love God enough. He had not yet been converted. He rejected Christ as Saviour and thus had no indwelling presence of Christ. He therefore murdered Christians. As the Holy Spirit convicted Saul of his sins, Saul understood more and more that he was resisting the truth, but not having a Saviour, it could do nothing about it. He continued in his sins. He abhorred himself and his sin. He wanted to do good. He knew the law was good, and wanted to keep it. As time goes by, he finally falls on his face and cries out to the God of heaven, the God he believes he is serving, the God he loves, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" He knows he is condemned by the broken law, and he knows that he cannot do anything but sin. He is indeed wretched. But, no longer blind. He is not a proud Pharisee, but a broken sinner in search of a Savior, for he no longer see himself as a keeper of the law. When he meets Jesus, it is in answer to his prayer. He does not argue, but accepts Christ as God. Jesus says to him, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." Yes, it was getting harder and harder for Saul to resist the Spirit who was telling Saul that he was spiritually dead and needed a Savior. Saul's response? "And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" He was converted on the road to Damascus. The proud Pharisee had loved God, but loved self more. The requirement for conversion is to love God with all the heart, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to love ones neighbor. Saul did not meet this requirement. He did not believe by faith in God, but was attempting to work his way to heaven by what he thought were good works. He had been a proud Pharisee and the religion of the Pharisee was a Christless, loveless religion of "good works". Romans seven is Paul's explanation of how he transitioned from a proud Pharisee to a broken sinner in search of a Savior. He ends the chapter with his discovery of the power of God to give him the victory over sin, over his flesh.
