Well, I invite you to turn to Romans 7. After some time, we return to our study in Romans 7. And I'd like to finish chapter 7 and then begin the new year in 8:1, continuing to work through this book. I'm going to read at verse 7. Our text tonight begins at verse 14 to the end of the chapter of Romans chapter 7 tonight. Let's give our attention to the Word of the Lord.
"What then shall we say that the law is sin? By no means. Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had said, you shall not covet Not said, you shall not covet but sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Where apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive, and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means. It was sin producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
Now our text tonight: for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but the not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind, and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin
There will end tonight the reading of God's Word.
Well, we have spent a lot of time wrestling through the Christian life and the struggle against sin, looking at what the Christian life is designed to be, what it is designed to accomplish, but the realistic struggles that are happening in the Christian life. And what we have seen is this great theme that runs through six and seven is really that sin is greatly confusing for the life of the believer. It's confusing for us. The Apostle Paul captures this in Romans 7 when he says, "The things that I will not these I do." It's one of the great frustrations of the Christian life, isn't it? um The great frustrations that I have these desires to do something different, and then I don't find, at times, that I perform those desires. I actually do what I don't want to do. And that is so confusing. How could that be?
Our Heidelberg Catechism is realistic in its presentation of the Christian life. It says that even the holiest of this life who's that here tonight? Only makes a small beginning. When I've said, "What about the least holy?" Who's that here tonight? All right, I'll raise my hand. Think about that. The holiest in this life only make a small beginning. Problem is, I want more. The Christian life with regard to sin is confusing because we often feel the little power is our experience. If we're talking about experience, little power to do what we want. And I want to wrestle with that tonight. I want to i want to look at what paul is saying to us tonight to give you help and encouragement with this very real struggle in your lives, which you're having if you're at all checked in and you are all in the fight you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you check out, you might not.
We want to take a realistic view then of the Christian life tonight, and Romans is helping us to do this as we take seriously sin. That's another important thing to say. This, is whatever we're about to look at, does not lessen the importance of taking serious sin. So that's what we're looking at tonight: to help you through. Why is this struggle at times so fierce? Why does it rage on? Why at times does it seem to rage in the worst sort of ways? And at other times, I seem to make more progress, and then I fall back into the same ditch and I do the same stupid things. Why is this so up and down? Why is the Christian life like that?
Well, everything so far in Romans has been somewhat straightforward, but verse 14, he begins to say something here. He says something that has caused a lot of confusion for people in the history of interpretation. That's why I I stopped at 13 last time because i wanted 14 to kind of ring out. 14 is a crucial verse to the end of the chapter, where he says, in verse 14: "For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin." That's quite a statement. I'm carnal, sold under sin. That's pretty strong to say for a Christian, isn't it? Is that really what we want to say about a Christian? That doesn't sound like the glorious view of Romans 6. Romans 6 was pretty triumphant presentation: that when Christ died, I died; when he was buried, I was buried; when he was raised, I was raised by virtue of my union with him. I've been so united to him that his one act was for the people, his people, so that whatever was said of him is said of us. We're victors in Christ. We're no longer slaves of sin. He said. He comes here and he says, "But I'm sold under sin." What do you do with that?
This led to a few different views of Romans 7 in history. The question is really it goes like this: Is Paul here speaking of his experience as a Christian, or is he now going back and looking at his life before he became a Christian, when he was under the law? The concern is this: How could Paul sound so defeatist about the Christian life? Should we really view the Christian life this way? And that's been a struggle for us throughout history to get our minds around.
We think about why does the Bible present and this is this is the frustration you know this frustration why does the bible present this glorious view of life of the triumph of christ over sin death and the grave think of this morning peace And joy and yet I don't seem, in my life, to experience much of that or feel much of that, right? Am I missing something? I used to hear people say that about Reformed people, that we're just so defeatist in our view of sin. "You negative Reformed people, right? Um, you grumpy Reformed people. Am I grumpy? I don't think I'm grumpy. Maybe my wife does, but I don't."
Some have hated Reformed faith because of all this talk about how wretched we are, and they've reacted against that. They've reacted against what is appears to be just a bunch of darkness and gloom. Well, that's that, that could be fair. There was a movement in the Reformed churches years ago by Robert shuler you remember, at the Crystal cathedral which by the way, is owned now by Roman Catholics. Crystal Cathedral. His message was, "We need a new Reformation," and the new Reformation was to be a new reformation of self-esteem because this old view, the Reformed view of sin, is too inherently oppressive, and it doesn't help anyone. So, to really make the Christian life want to be lived, we've got to build up self-esteem again. It's sold. But does it really deal with the problem? It hasn't really helped people with the problem. You either end up in denial about sin, or you just justify living in sin because sin is no longer taken seriously. That can't be a solution. Sin is still a real problem. You don't have to look far into people's lives. You don't have to look far into your own life. You can read the stories about the ongoing problem of sin.
So here's the issue: Can we say that we are still sold under sin and that nothing good dwells within me? Do we really want to run around saying that? Or, even further, does Paul say that here for the believer?
The heart of debate centers on whether Paul is speaking of himself as a saved, mature Christian or is he looking back to some pastime, before his conversion, describing his relationship with the law at that point. So those are the two main views of Romans 7. And it's important that we think about this and get this right because it has a great bearing on the reality of what you're going to experience in the Christian life.
Number one: The first view is Romans 7 is speaking. Paul is speaking as a non-believer. He is describing his life before he was converted. Or, number two: he's describing the real Christian experience of the believer with sin in this life. The issue is that to say we are sold under sin seems to be in conflict with everything he said in chapter 6 that we, when Christ died, we died, and that we've been set free and we are now have become slaves of God. So if we're set free, why then would he say, here in reference being, "Slaves of sin"? Sold? Even further, verse 23: "I see another law. Notice this. In my members, warring against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members." That is, that is quite a statement. How could a Christian still have that kind of thing going on if he's victorious? so
Some in the history of the church have said, "Well, Romans 7 paul is not talking as a mature Christian. He is still unsaved, and how he relates to the law as he's not yet converted." That view found heavy support among the Arminians, who didn't believe we were all that bad. Well, I don't know if you can figure out what my position is. It's not the first one. It is the second one. It is that Paul is really describing here the struggle of the believer.
Follow what we've been saying for a moment. I think you'll see the flow of this. We run into the tension here in Romans 7 of the already and the not yet: already delivered, not yet fully put off the body of sin in our lives. That's it. Already justified, yet still sinner. That's the tension of the Christian life. That's the confusion of the Christian life. When we have young people come before us to profess faith, we say, "Are you a sinner?" And they'll say yes. And then we say, "Are you a saint?" Yeah. Simultaneously both.
In Romans 6, Paul spoke of the work of Christ for us and he spoke of his works and being united to him by faith, and all that flows from that. And so because of that, we indeed are free, set free from the law of sin and death unto condemnation, as he'll say in Romans 8:1. But Romans 7, he's been wrestling now the question about the goodness of the law of God and the Christian's relationship to the law. And that leading tonight, Paul began by, as we looked at last time, looking at his own conversion experience, didn't he? He described it for us. Remember what he said? Verse 9, so important. Verse 9: "I was alive once without the law." Now we're talking pre-conversion. "But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." There was a time in my life, he said, when I thought everything was fine. Who can't testify of that here? "My life was together. My life was good." In fact, I suggest, I've said before, you go out and you want to do door-to-door evangelism. Ask everyone at the door if they think they're bad. Most of the time, you're going to hear, "We're good people." That was Paul. "I kept the commandments from my youth. I lived a good and a moral life. I honored God. I was blameless. There was no one who could measure up." Remember he said that in Philippians 3? "As a Pharisee, he said, if anyone thinks there has reason for confidence in the flesh, I've got more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews. As to the law, of Pharisee, As to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. No Christian says that.
Then one day, he says, verse 9, I heard the law. It came home to me, and I began to understand the demands of it. And then I woke up. And you know what happened to me? I died." Meaning, sin came to life in me, verse 9. And all of a sudden, I began to understand, "Whoa, and this is so amazing when you see this happen in someone's life. You know it's a work of the Holy Spirit. All of a sudden, the righteous requirement of the law comes home to the human heart, and you are now with Isaiah saying, I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell with everyone who's unclean. Lord, cover me. I died. What he's saying there is, I came to a recognition of who I am. I died to myself. That's what we're called to. I was deceived about my life So then I discovered that the commandment I thought would bring life brought what? So I thought at one time the commandment would bring me life. if I kept it, but i didn't keep it because i saw my life. i realized the commandment brought death, in my life it killed me it put me under the sentence of death under the righteous judgment of God.
So that's that's rock bottom for someone's life, isn't it? That's the bottom of the barrel. Sometimes we have to pray for people to get to hard prayer. But if we're going to be honest, some people in this life who've run like the prodigal son need the bottom of the barrel. That's it. I, I'm in the pigsty. Why did I leave my father's house? Overwhelmed by a burden of sin and inability to keep the law, you are now woke. That's kind of a bad thing, but you get my point. You're awake.
So what he does in Romans 7, from here, is he doesn't go back to describe the period previous to this. He doesn't say, "Well, before I came to Christ, I now then saw my sin and how bad it was, so that I kept on doing the things I didn't want to do." That doesn't make any sense. He was the rich young ruler: "I've kept all these things from my youth." And all of a sudden, in verse 14 to the end of the chapter, everything shifts to the present tense. In the Greek, it's really important. When he describes what I do is all in the present, he's no longer talking about the past. "What I do is Here's what i do here's now my experience in the Christian life." I'm talking now about when my eyes have been opened to the truth of sin in my life, and now I'm really sensitive about that. And now I've been regenerated. And here's what followed. He's he describes now the experience of the true believer in this life. That's why it's encouraging for you. It's meant to encourage you. You need this. Whatever he is now going to describe, he is going to say, "This is now happens. This is now what's happening to me in the present. Now that I become a Christian." So it's kind of the backward thing. When I was a Pharisee, I saw myself as good, you know? But when the commandment came, when the law came home to my heart, I realized I was dead, that I couldn't do the law. It was exposing me not as a good person but as one who was a bad person. And and before the law, when I didn't see, I was at the we could use this I was at the front of the sanctuary saying god i thank you that I'm not like that guy over there a tax collector I pray twice a week I fast i do all these things." But now, you know, I'm finding when I come, I'm beating my chest and saying, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." "Oh, that's the guy that goes down to the house justified," said Jesus.
So he's describing the realistic view of the Christian life now. The redeemed heart here's crucial, and you know this, the redeemed heart has come to love God's law. Oh, we love it. Of course we love it. It reflects his character. It it's good. It's right. Everything about the law it's good and right. No. When you see something wholesome in this life, and you feel so tainted by sin, you look at that and you know how you feel in that presence of what's wholesome and right. It's what you want. We desire to honor the Lord, don't you? We're being transformed. He's going to say in chapter 8, into the image of Christ. Ongoing process and sanctification. But Paul says this has all created a great problem for you. You have to understand about Christian life. I live every day needing grace because, as I go on in this life as a Christian, I'm finding myself in a warfare to which now notice this carefully. This is this is crucial, I think to this. This body of sin remains in me. It wars against my new desires, my redeemed desire to honor the law of God. But I'm still realizing in my life, I'm constantly doing the things I, at times, don't want to do.
Now you see why this would not, people would not like this presentation of the Christian life, right? "What does it mean for the rest of our lives? I mean, we still have to take sin seriously?" Well, Paul says, "Let's talk about that. Let's talk about what the Christian life is." Now that you've died to yourself and you've been regenerated by the Spirit, you've been born again nicodemus by the spirit let's talk about your life now.
Three times, he is now going to define the Christian life. He's going to explain the problem and why he's facing it. He says the three things. To make sure we get this, look at verse 14: "For we know that the law is spiritual, but I'm carnal, sold under sin." Here's my problem in this life. I'm continuing to face, says Paul. The law is spiritual. The law is not the problem. The commandments are good. The commandments are holy. The commandments are just. But I'm of the flesh, sold under sin. What does that mean? He defines it further. There's progression here. In verse 18, notice what he says. He says, "For I know he's defining this, that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh." Crucial. "For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out." Further, verse 21: "So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand."
This is my grand problem. God gave this perfect law, which is an expression of his holy character. That law is set before me. And now that I'm redeemed, I love that law. I really care about that law. I've come to see very clearly that what's going on in my heart now is that there's a sort of another law happening there, that evil is always present with me. And as I come into contact with the holy law of God, and as I grow in the holy law of God, and as I come to hear the will of God, I'm realizing what I'm realizing about my life is, and welcome to sanctification, all of my acts are full of sin. That bothers me. Bother you? Until I die, this is my great problem.
Paul calls it notice this the body of sin. Before I came, I was great. See, you see why you can live under the delusion when you're not converted? You don't have any of this experience. You're great. You've convinced yourself there's no accountability in your life, convinced yourself you'll never have to have to give an account of your life, you've convinced yourself there's no God, convinced yourself that you're your own standard of morality. So you don't have to worry about a thing. And ironically, doesn't make anyone happy.
Before I came, I was like that. I didn't understand. And then he says three times that we get the point. Verse 15: "For what I will to do, that I do not practice, but what I hate, that I do." Verse 18: "For what I for to will is present with me, but how to perform? Isn't that interesting how he says it?" "For I know that nothing good is for I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good that I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing." Verse 22: "For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. Notice the distinction. But I I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members, in my body."
Let me be as clear as I can. Deep within my heart is a desire to live a blameless life. That's the desire. What's he describing? The regenerated heart. The inward man. That's in all of you, that yearning to want to do what's right and sensitive now. Do you at times harden yourself? Sure. But there's that desire that's there because the heart's been changed. But I'm finding myself doing the things that I hate. See why I said confusing? That's confusing. There's an inward fight going on in you. There's a war in your members. Times it feels, says Paul, like I'm two persons. You ever feel that way? My heart is often being pulled a whole different way than what I'm actually doing.
And so Paul's answer to this is, notice verse 17. It's so important. "It's no longer I who do it. Whoa. But sin that dwells in me." Verse 20: "Now if I do what I do not want, it's no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me." I'm not doing it. No, you can't say that, Paul. Sorry, can you? This is the distinction I want you to hold on to tonight. It's very important for this passage. Some would say, "You know, how is this any different than from a non-believer who could just say something like that?" A lot different. When a Christian man sins, notice the distinction here. A Christian woman sins, notice the distinction. He sins. Now I'm quoting Hierom Zanke here so you know this comes right out of Reformed writers. And it's biblical because he's engaging Romans 7. He's the best I've ever found on Romans 7.
He sins only in the body, but not with the whole will or the whole heart. He does not sin according to the Spirit, but according to the flesh. He makes a distinction between the outward man and the inward man. When the believer sins, he says, they do not sin according to the inward man, that is, in that part where they're regenerate, but only in that part where they are not regenerate or to sin not according to the Spirit, but according to the flesh. It's not with the whole heart, is what he's saying. And that's your struggle. You know this. It's fundamentally different from the wicked who, listen, obey with a whole will, full consent, a whole heart, with all their might, and offend of purpose, malice, and forethought, or with study from the heart. It's a heart given to sin this way.
So the most common experience is great confusion happens when the Christian sins. Just take lust for a minute. Zanke engages this. When lust arises in you or within us and we're hauled away by those desires, we're drawn away from consent, he says, to God's law and a right will into the evil. In this moment, now follow me for a second, when violent desires have overcome us, we, for a short time, are driven by lusts and make foolish judgments, he says. Before we were bewitched by the violence of our own desires, we, before we did that, we disavowed, we hated, we refused the evil, all until we were overtaken with the desire. But, listen to what he says. When we become our own man again, and the heat of the flesh is abated, which surprises our minds, shortly after we again detest and disapprove of the evil that we just did. You know that whole experience. That's you saying, "How in the world could I have done such a thing when God has been so good to me?" And what do you do at that moment? You repent, and you come back, and you confess your sins, and he's faithful and just to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. This is the ongoing struggle of the Christian life until resurrection glory.
Or, as our Heidelberg says, why do we die? We're not paying for sin. The beautiful statement in the Heidelberg is there's a death benefit. When you die, you finally put off sin. It's like the old, old 85 year old woman in Linden one time ran up to me after the sermon, and I had said something offhanded: "Won't you be so happy when you finally don't sin against the Lord?" And she comes up in tears. This 85-year-old sanctified woman and says, "Pastor, you have no idea. I long to not sin against God." That was a saint. And that was the struggle. Part of our sufferings in this life is that there is a constant cry until we come home: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." And why is that good for you? Because it keeps you on your knees. It keeps you trusting. It keeps pride away. It doesn't justify sin. But it reminds you how needy you are for His grace and mercy.
And so He says, "Will rescue me from this body of death?" That's future. That's a future tense there. When the resurrection comes, it will finally be dealt with. It is Christ. He will put away this great enemy once and for all. The body of death in the resurrection, you get a brand new body no more tainted by sin and the sinful nature is done away with.
Body of sin. To close this: Back in the his day, at least when Paul said it, they would punish a criminal who committed bad crimes by attaching a dead corpse to the guilty party. Did you know that? This was a cruel, cruel way that the Romans dealt with people. The corpse would rot on the offender so that the disease within a week or two would kill him. That's probably in Paul's mind when he says, "This: Who will rescue me from this body of death?" Christ will. He will not allow sin to have the last answer. And he didn't. When he died on the cross and beat it and rose for our justification, he promises that he will deal with this once and for all in the resurrection.
But it's a life of fighting. It's why it's called warfare. It's why you're called to put on the armor of God. It's why you're called to not be overtaken by Hebrews, the deceitfulness of sin. It's why you're called to be awake. It's why you're called to be looking. It's why you're called to be in the fight.
Paul was not describing this struggle with his head low. Paul was realistic about the Christian life. But I think we also need to be realistic about the Christian life with one another. It shouldn't be, beloved, that we can't talk to each other about sin and the struggle against sin. It shouldn't be that we're just coming to church to show how well we have it together. You should be able to talk to your friends, your elders, your pastor, about your struggles and your need for prayer and grace. You don't have to hide. You don't have to say everything's great. Maybe it is. But if you tell me you're really struggling against sin, and we together look to Christ, well, I'm reminded of that pastor who said, "Hearts that are empty are ready to be filled by Him." I'd be encouraged today that the Romans 7 struggle, as real as it is, is something that as we look to Christ, He wants to encourage you together as the people of God. The victory is ours. It is not lost. He will keep you. As we come to him and are on our knees, Psalm 51, Psalm 32, remember the great truth of it. Blessed is he, as we considered a few weeks ago, whose transgressions are forgiven. Blessed is the one to whom the Lord does not, Romans 4, impute iniquity. Praise God for the gospel of his grace.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your Word to us tonight. Thank you for forgiving our sins. We're sick with sin. We're tired of it, Lord. We're weary of it. Would you help us? And we are so encouraged to know that in Romans 8, there is great help for you. Give us your Holy Spirit, who helps us by the strength of the Spirit to put to death the deeds of the body, that we might live. Thank you that we're not left alone in this, but that the triune God has given us all that we need. May we trust you. May we engage in the fight. May we also believe, oh Lord, that you've forgiven us and love us. And as we struggle, cover our shame, cover our sin. Let us be a repentant, humble people. "Who will rescue us from this body of death? Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory in Jesus Christ our Lord, in whose name we pray, amen."