Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
–Romans 7:21-25 (NIV)–

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John Wesley’s sermon “On Sin In Believers,” and its clarification by Dr. Oden, should prevent a person from falling into the error of sinless perfectionism or the delusion of perfect holiness, and from falling into Charles Finney’s error of misinterpreting Romans 7:14-25 exclusively as the past tense experience of an unsaved man. But make no mistake: the following sermon collections by Finney might be some of the most morally forceful, mind-altering sermons ever preached, in terms of actually helping to change the mind of an addict to the mind of an overcomer, to a man who has broken free from his habitual sinful addictions and found freedom, peace of mind, and almost total victory in Christ.

Dr. Thomas C. Oden, John Wesley’s Scriptural Christianity (Zondervan, 1994), p. 334.

Charles G. Finney, True and False Repentance (Kregel, 1975).

—. Victory Over the World (Kregel, 1975).

—. The Guilt of Sin (Kregel, 1975).

—. True Saints (Kregel, 1975).