JON 2ROM 7
In Romans 7:14-2414For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. 16If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. 17Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 18For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 19For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Romans 7:14‑24), we have the past experiences of a delivered man, who had struggled for freedom until he found he was rather getting further from deliverance than nearer the goal. He is now standing on dry ground, so to speak, and describing what he experienced before he was free.
You see a remarkable illustration of this in Jonah 2. He is put into the place where none could deliver him but God alone—in "the belly of hell" as he describes it. Three times over he promised what he would do if he only could get out. He said, "I will look again toward Thy holy temple." No, vows and resolutions will not do. "But," he cries, "I will sacrifice unto Thee with the voice of thanksgiving." Will this set him free? No! Again he cries, "I will pay that that I have vowed." All is in vain. Promises and vows, efforts and resolves, which are made in such a state, will not do. They all come from "I," and as long as "I" is recognized you have not given up "I" as one in whose flesh "dwelleth no good thing," and turned the eye away to Christ alone.
At last Jonah says, "Salvation is of the Lord." Ah, Jonah, you have found out the secret; you have touched the spring of the lock, and you are standing on dry ground the next moment! How simple, and yet how blessed to have the eye removed from self—hopeless self—and turned in the sense of utter, helpless weakness upon Christ. Then all is done, and we are free!