In answer to your question, Mike, yes! I have no doubt I could find many others as well.

How many SDA's are there who know the law is good, and feel condemned by it? Or better yet, how many know that what Sister White wrote is truth, and feel condemned by what she wrote? This is the same principle.

One doesn't have to be converted to feel condemned by the law. John's quote from Acts regarding Paul is an excellent example of the principle. The experience on the Damascus road was not an all of a sudden thing, but God had been working with Saul/Paul for a long time, and things started coming to a head when Stephen was stoned.

I truly doubt there are half converted SDA's who feel exactly the same way Paul did when he finally uttered those words. In verse 25 he answered his own rhetorical question - Jesus! Jesus is the "who" in verse 24. And Paul knew that when he wrote verse 24.

Of course when Paul wrote Romans, he was long already converted. But he wrote about the time when he was not so. He wrote about the path to conversion.

In Romans 7 he wrote of a time when he was without the Law, then when the Law came in and sin revived, the realization of how sin uses the Law to kill, then of the struggle, agreeing with the law that it is good yet finding no means within himself of living that good. Then he met the Savior and discovered the means of life.

So far several of us have shared our personal testimonies, and have attempted to verify it in Romans 7. But who is right? Can we interpret scriptures based on private interpretations? If not, what, then, is the truth about Romans 7?

Since we cannot agree on verse 24, what about verses 17-20?

7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
7:18 For 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.
7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

Sister White did not comment on these verses. I do not believe, therefore, that we can base on our interpretation of them on her use of verse 24.

What is the "sin" that dwells in us, that is, in our flesh?

I believe it is referring to the unholy temptations, the sinful thoughts and feelings generated and communicated by our fallen flesh natures. The following quote provides the basis for this belief:

AH 127, 128
The lower passions have their seat in the body and work through it. The words "flesh" or "fleshly" or "carnal lusts" embrace the lower, corrupt nature; the flesh of itself cannot act contrary to the will of God. We are commanded to crucify the flesh, with the affections and lusts. How shall we do it? Shall we inflict pain on the body? No; but put to death the temptation to sin. The corrupt thought is to be expelled. Every thought is to be brought into captivity to Jesus Christ. All animal propensities are to be subjected to the higher powers of the soul. The love of God must reign supreme; Christ must occupy an undivided throne. Our bodies are to be regarded as His purchased possession. The members of the body are to become the instruments of righteousness. {AH 127.2}

In the context of sinful flesh nature, Sister White uses the words: 1) Work, 2) Act, 3) Corrupt Thought, and 4) Temptation. In other words, our fallen flesh nature has the ability to act and work to tempt us with corrupt thoughts. It's the one and only thing it can do.

Paul speaks about the same thing in verses 17-20. The "sin" that dwells in us is what Sister White calls the lower corrupt nature. The "doing" that Paul talks about is the acting and working of our fallen flesh nature to generate and communicate tempting corrupt thoughts.

Do you see what I mean?

Here is how an inspired author uses verse 18:

COL 160, 161
At every advance step in Christian experience our repentance will deepen. It is to those whom the Lord has forgiven, to those whom He acknowledges as His people, that He says, "Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight." Eze. 36:31. Again He says, "I will establish My covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; that thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God." Eze. 16:62, 63. Then our lips will not be opened in self-glorification. We shall know that our sufficiency is in Christ alone. We shall make the apostle's confession our own. "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing." Rom. 7:18. "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Gal. 6:14. {COL 160.3}