What is ‘this body of death’ in Romans 7:24?

This text is from a transcript of a talk by David Gooding, entitled ‘God’s Power for Salvation’ (2005).

Let's read that verse.

O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? (Romans 7:24)

As generally in Hebrew idiom, there is the question of what a phrase like that means linguistically. What does 'the body of this death' mean? Does it mean: 'this dead body'? An 'idol of silver' in Hebrew usage means 'a silver idol'. Some people say, 'Yes, "body of this death" means "this dead body".' Paul felt that his old self—struggling to find perfection and salvation through keeping the law and endlessly failing and feeling the conflict within his members and the strife, so to speak, in his mind and all the rest, it was, as some people say, like being chained to a dead body. In the ancient world a punishment sometimes inflicted by the government would be for a living person to be chained to a dead body, and as the dead body went to putrefaction, of course, the experience was hideous.

Or, is it merely saying, 'Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?'; not in the sense that the physical human body is dead, but 'the body' meaning now, as we've thought before, the whole setup of a man: unsaved, unregenerate, without God, without Christ, without the Holy Spirit, trying to be good ethically and earn salvation maybe. But under that condition that kind of behaviour will lead to death. And anybody, like Saul of Tarsus or anybody else who was conscious of the holiness of God's law, will eventually come to see that in spite of all their struggles they continually fail, and this whole setup of a life built on that principle is bound to lead to death in the end. How can he get rid of that? He is desperately trying to keep the law but is always falling short. His mind, emotions and will all agree in trying to keep the law, but he finds himself falling short. Believing the law, he is therefore subject evermore to its penalties; and it is leading to death, and eventually to eternal death. 'Who shall deliver me from it?' Well, the law can't. It's the law that is part of the trouble. It's not that the law is sinful; the law is good.

Or was it that the law was good in itself, but was bad for me? The English (poor souls) were rationed during the war, and they didn't get much meat. I remember a story of one man who went to a nice, civilized, foreign land when the war was over, and he was entertained by his host and hostess and fed lavish beefsteaks. He hadn't seen such things for some years, and his system wasn't used to digesting them either, but he ate liberally. Then, unable to cope with it, he found himself being a little bit confused in the brain, and he came up with some very curious behaviour, which I won't describe now. There was nothing wrong with the beefsteaks, but in his condition it was bad to give them to him. I mean, if you get somebody nearly starving, don't push a beefsteak down his mouth; you'll kill him! It's not that there's anything wrong with beefsteaks; it's that he's not in a condition to receive it.

'And is it so,' asks Paul, 'that the law is good, but it wasn't particularly good for me, and it was stupid to give it to me?' No, it wasn't stupid to give it to me, because the law is holy and good. And what is more, I agree with it. My mind agrees with it; my emotions agree with it; my will agrees with it.' We mustn't say to God, 'Don't be so foolish. I mean, after all, have common sense. It's no good telling a child of two to ride a bicycle. It's no good telling Saul of Tarsus to keep the law. I mean, you can tell Caiaphas the high priest to keep the law, if you like, but not Saul of Tarsus. That's no good for him.'

'No,' says Paul, 'it isn't that. I agree with the law, and it's good. I couldn't keep it, that's the trouble. Therefore it had to be a different principle' (see Romans 7:7–23).