By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our study today, we are going to look at verses
14-25 of chapter 7.
1.1.1. We noted in
our last study the fact that in chapter 7 of Romans that Paul teaches about how
that men, redeemed and unredeemed alike, are unable in their own flesh and by
their own will power to meet the righteousness of God and please God.
1.1.2. We saw that
there are two different ways to interpret chapter 7:
1.1.2.1. That Paul is
speaking about his life before coming to know Jesus Christ as his Lord and
Savior and thus he as a Jew living under the Law was constantly learning of his
own inability in and of himself to keep the Law.
1.1.2.2. That Paul is
speaking about his life after coming to know Jesus Christ as his Lord and
Savior and the failure he constantly experienced when trying to obey God and
His Law in the power of his flesh rather than being filled with and dependent
upon the Holy Spirit.
1.1.2.2.1.
We saw that though both viewpoints can be seen in the
chapter that this view made the most sense for three main reasons:
1.1.2.2.1.1.
The context of chapter 7 being right in between
chapters 6 and chapter 8.
1.1.2.2.1.2.
Paul speaks of himself all throughout chapter 7 in the
present tense, of his present failures to obey God and His Law.
1.1.2.2.1.3.
Chapter 8 next begins to speak of the victorious life
that Paul experienced as he walked in the power of the Holy Spirit.
1.1.3. Also, we noted that through attempting to keep the law
no man could ever be acceptable to God or accepted by God, because we are
sinners but now having come to Christ a Christian can never have victory over
sin and do the works God would have him/her to do by trying to keep the law in
the power of his/her own flesh and will power.
It is a futile attempt for the flesh to try to fulfill the law of
God.
1.1.4. We saw that man in his flesh may agree with the law
and see its spirituality, righteousness and importance however the flesh cannot
give him the ability to keep that law or please God.
1.1.5. Chapter 7 and chapter 8 are opposites and describe two
different kinds of living, living under the power and dominion of the flesh vs living under the power and dominion of the Holy Spirit,
walking in defeat vs walking victorious. The righteous requirement of the Law is
fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the
Spirit.
1.1.6. We saw in
the last study that it was the Law that God used to bring Paul to the end of
himself. The Law of Moses made Paul
realize his sinfulness as well as his inability to keep the Law in his own
strength and will power of his flesh.
This was the purpose of the Law.
1.1.7. Having been
born again and given new regenerated hearts, minds, wills, and spirits, we
Christians do love to serve, honor and worship God. We agree with God’s Laws and see them to be
holy, righteous, and just. We understand
the spirituality and importance of the Law of God and in our minds and hearts
we want to have our lives match the holiness of God. However, we find in our experience that there
is evidence of an evil sinful nature that is within us and that we are in a
constant battle with sin and often succumb to temptations. We desire to serve God through the Holy
Spirit but we often take refuge in the flesh and deal with situations in our
flesh. The outcome we are not proud of
and we end up again asking for forgiveness and repenting of the sin we have
committed.
1.1.8. It is
comforting for us to realize that the one who is telling us in Romans 7 about
his own failures so that we might learn from them is the apostle Paul because
he was a man who was greatly used by God and even called by many, “the most
successful Christian to ever live.”
If Paul failed often in his Christian walk to obey God and do God’s will
then we must expect that there will also be times that we do the same.
1.1.9. Preaching on
Rom. 7:22-23, the great English preacher Spurgeon said, “The passage before
us tells a portion of the experience of the Apostle Paul. We all of us concede
that he was a most eminent saint. Indeed, we place him in the front rank. For
this reason his experience is the more valuable to us. If thy greatest saints
have their inward struggles, how much more should we expect to have them who
have not attained the same degree of grace the apostle did. If he who was not a
whit behind very chief of the apostles yet had to say, “When I would do
good evil is present with me,” then you and I, who can only take the
position of babes in grace, or of ordinary disciples of Jesus Christ, must not
be surprised if we have to bear assaults that surprise us and enter into
struggles that distress us, and often are fain by stress of emotion to cry out,
“O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?”
1.1.10.
Paul will speak to us today in a graphic and frank way
of the great struggle that he had daily within himself, the Spirit waging war
with his flesh and of the fact that at times the flesh won the battle for he
failed in those testings and temptations put before
him.
1.1.11.
Paul will tell us finally that he has come to realize
that within him, that is in his flesh (sinful nature), that there dwells no
good thing, and that he was an enigma to himself many times for the good things
that he wanted to do he wouldn’t do and the things that he did not want to do
that he would do.
1.1.12.
Paul will then tell us that he thanked God for the
victory over his flesh that he could and did also have which was always
available to him through Jesus Christ.
2. VS 7:14 - “14 For we know that the Law is
spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.” - Paul tells us that it is a known fact that
the Law is spiritual but that we people are made of flesh and sold into bondage
to sin
2.1.
As we enter this next and last section of chapter 7 of
Romans, it becomes completely obvious to me that the apostle Paul must be
talking about his experience as a Christian, not his pre-conversion
experience. Paul speaks of himself
throughout in this section using the present tense. Paul speaks openly and honestly of where he
is in his experience right at the moment of writing the letter.
2.2.
Those who believe that all of chapter 7 relates only
to Paul’s experience prior to becoming a Christian, object to it as referring
to him as a Christian because of the depth to which he struggles against sin
and fails.
2.3.
Those who believe that all of chapter 7 relates only
to Paul’s experience as a Christian, object to it referring to his
non-Christian experience because Paul refers to himself as agreeing with the Law
in his inner man (or mind), something that a non-Christian wouldn’t do. I believe that one has to see that at least
from verse 14 to the end of the chapter Paul has to be talking about his
experience as a Christian.
2.4.
Those who believe that this chapter speaks of Paul’s
pre-conversion days would say of this verse that Paul could not be talking
about himself as a Christian since he says of himself that he is ‘of flesh,
sold into bondage to sin.’ Paul
says of the Law that ‘it is spiritual,’ however of himself he says that
he is ‘of flesh,’ or as the KJV translates it ‘carnal.’ However, we have to see also that Paul speaks
of himself in this verse in the present tense, meaning that this is his state
at the time of his writing. Paul is
honestly assessing what the problems are in his life in those times when he
kicked Christ off of the throne and began to disobey God.
2.5.
Paul is really referring to the two natures that were
in residence in his life as a Christian.
He had been renewed in his mind, heart, will, and spirit, however he was
a prisoner in a body of flesh that had not been redeemed. This resident body of flesh has desires which
are sinful and have to be denied and controlled, or the whole person is caused
to come under the dominion and slavery of sin.
2.6.
Paul speaks often of the battle that exists between
the Spirit and the flesh in the life of a Christian. In Galatians 5:16-17, Paul writes, “16 But
I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the
flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the
things that you please.”
2.7.
Paul in his New Testament epistles wrote about there
being only three different kinds of people in this world:
2.7.1. First, there
are “non-Christians.”
2.7.2. Second,
there are “spiritual” (or “Spirit-filled”) Christians.
2.7.3. Third, there
are “carnal” Christians.
2.7.3.1. The “carnal”
Christian is one who has been saved, however he has taken back the throne in
his life, kicking off Christ whom he had enthroned at the moment of
salvation. Actually whenever a person
sins, he has first kicked Christ off of the throne in his life, making himself
“carnal” at that moment, and then he has committed sins.
2.7.3.2. This
propensity for taking the throne in his life, something which he did sometimes,
is what caused Paul to write in this verse ‘I am carnal.’
2.8.
The Corinthian church had many “carnal” Christians
and thus Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 3:1 that they were not “spiritual,”
but were walking as men of flesh (or “carnal” as the KJV translates it), as
babes in Christ, “3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to
spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ.”
2.9.
Paul’s referring to himself as being presently ‘carnal’
is what has caused some to take the position that Paul must not be writing
about his life and experience as a Christian.
Those who take that view would say that Paul was not ‘carnal’ in
his present experience, but rather “Spirit-filled.” They are right in saying this, however we
have to realize that Paul was taking an honest appraisal of his life in writing
what he writes in this verse. Paul was
painfully aware of how often he sinned, plus he knew that in those times when
he sinned that sin reigned in his flesh.
Paul was painfully aware of his sin, and the frequency of it. He in other books writes of himself as being
‘chief of sinners,’ ‘least of all the apostles,’ etc., and in
reality what he was doing is the same thing that David wrote in the Psalms
concerning his own failings. David was
aware that he was constantly falling short of God’s perfect holiness in his
life, and he wrote about this often in the Psalms.
2.10.
Paul’s sensitivity to sin and his failures that he
reveals in this chapter is actually not a testimony to his carnality as a
Christian, but rather of his maturity.
The more one matures as a Christian, the more he/she is aware of how
many ways that he/she sin in their experience.
So, it was then a testimony to Paul’s great commitment to Christ and to
holiness and his maturity that caused him to recognize and write about these
things concerning himself in this chapter.
2.11.
In this verse, when Paul speaks of himself being ‘sold
into bondage to sin,’ he is speaking of himself as being in the same state
of bondage with regard to his flesh as he was before coming to Christ. In Gal. 4:3, he writes about all believer’s
pre-conversion state, “3 So also we, while we were children, were held in
bondage under the elemental things of the world.” Sinning causes a believer in Christ to again
go and become temporarily under the bondage of sin.
3. VS 7:15 - “15 For that which I am doing, I
do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am
doing the very thing I hate.” - Paul tells
us here that he is an enigma to himself because he does not do the things he
would like to do and instead does things that he hates
3.1.
In this verse, Paul writes about the inner conflict
within himself when he finds himself sinning against God in his body. He says of himself that he does ‘not
understand’ himself sometimes when he is doing some of the things that he
does. He is not really wanting to do
what he does when he is sinning, in fact he is actually doing some of the
things that he hates because of the sinfulness of that kind of behavior.
3.2.
Again in this verse we see how that Paul is using the
present tense in referring to his experience.
He knew that he failed in his daily walk sometimes, and he was very
concerned about his failures.
3.3.
Each of us as Christians should be very concerned
about our own failures and the frequent tendency which we have to sin. We must never minimize our sins or think that
for any reason that we do not have to be very careful not to fall into
sins. Sin is a very serious thing. It is no laughing matter. Our sins sent Jesus to the cross and caused
Him to suffer horribly. We must be
remorseful and mourn over the sins which we commit in our life. James wrote in Ja.
4:8-10, “8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your
hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable
and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy to
gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.”
4. VS 7:16 - “16 But if I do the very thing I
do not wish to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good.” - Paul tells us that if he is doing the very
thing that he does not wish to do that he is agreeing with the Law that it is
good
4.1.
Being convicted of one’s sins is a good thing and in
the life of a Christian it is a testimony that a person really has come to
salvation, that is, as long as you are willing to confess and repent of sin
when the Lord reveals it to you.
4.2.
In this verse, Paul says that the proof that he really
agrees with the Law in his inner man, knowing that it is good in every way, is the
fact that when he sins he actually does ‘the very thing’ that does not
want to do.
4.3.
One of the evidences that a person is really saved is
that he will not feel comfortable in sin.
Inwardly he knows that what he is doing is wrong. Christians make lousy sinners.
5. VS 7:17 - “17 So now, no longer am I the
one doing it, but sin which indwells me.” -
Paul tells us that he is not the one who is doing the things that he
does not wish to do but rather that it is sin which indwells him
5.1.
It is interesting in this verse that Paul says that
since when he sins he is doing that which he does not want to do, the things
that in his mind and heart he knows are wrong, that in fact it is not he (his
real or inner self) which is doing the sinful act, but rather it is sin which
is controlling him and acting through him.
5.2.
Notice that Paul the Christian is stating it as fact
that though he is born again that sin ‘indwells’ him.
6. VS 7:18 - “18 For I know that nothing good
dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the
doing of the good is not.” - Paul tells
us that he knows that there is nothing good that dwells in his flesh
6.1.
Paul speaks realistically of himself in this verse,
saying that he knows from God’s Word revealed to him that in his flesh, as
opposed to his inner self which has been renewed, that there is no good
thing. His fleshly nature is utterly
sinful. Further, even when his mind and
heart want to do that which is deemed good and acceptable in God’s sight, in
his flesh he has not the ability to do the good.
6.2.
The new nature that is within a Christian is created
in holiness and when a Christian sins it is not his new nature (or inner self)
that sins but rather his flesh, the old sinful nature that is still resident
within him which has taken over control.
6.3.
Without the Holy Spirit giving him victory as he
reckoned himself dead to sin and alive to God, Paul realized that he had not
the ability to do anything that the Lord wanted him to do.
6.4.
If we think that we can be righteous in and of
ourselves as Christians, we have suddenly placed ourselves way ahead of where
the apostle Paul placed himself. Paul
has been described as “the most successful Christian” by many, yet he
himself said of his flesh that nothing good dwelt in it. We Christians must get a realistic view of
ourselves, because only in that way we will see our real need for Christ. Without Christ, there is no good within us,
and no hope for us. Speaking of a
Christian’s inability in our own flesh to please God and be used by Him, Jesus
said to His disciples, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.”
7. VS
7:19-20 - “19 For the good
that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. 20
But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing
it, but sin which dwells in me.” - Paul repeats
what he has been saying that he does not do good that he wishes to do and that
he does that which he does not want to do and this all occurs because sin
dwells in him
7.1.
Paul in these two verses just reiterates what he has
been saying in the last few verses. He
says that sometimes he wants to do something that he knows that God wants him
to do, something that is good, but instead he doesn’t do it. He states again that if he is doing something
that he does not want to do, that it is not him (his real inner self) that is
doing it, but rather it is sin.
8. VS 7:21 - “21 I find then the principle
that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good.” - Paul tells us that he has found a principle
and this is that evil dwelt within him
8.1.
Paul reveals a fact in this verse which he calls a ‘principle,’
and that is that within him as a Christian there dwelt evil. Even though in his mind he wished to do the things
that pleased the Lord, instead he often found himself failing and doing evil.
8.2.
The KJV translates this Greek word ‘principle’
as ‘law,’ and the word itself is the word that is normally used for
law. However, in order to distinguish between
the Law of Moses, the principle of law itself, and simply an unchanging
principle, the NASB here translates the word as ‘principle.’ Sin dwelling within the believer is an
important spiritual ‘principle’ to recognize.
8.3.
It is important for us as Christians when we read
God’s word to extract principles or concepts from it that we may live by, hang
our hat on, or whatever. Many times when
people read the scriptures they do not see how it applies to themselves and
they fail to extract principles from God’s word for themselves. But this is exactly what Paul is doing
here. He is saying that he has learned a
‘principle’ and that is that though he is a Christian that he is indwelt
with evil, or has an evil sinful nature which he must combat.
8.4.
There are church groups around who believe that once
you become a Christian that you no longer have a sin nature or that at a
certain point as a Christian that you can become sinless, reach a state called
“sinless perfection,” or whatever.
But the man who was the most eminent of the apostles, the most
successful Christian who ever lived did not believe this about himself. Instead, Paul seeks to communicate to us as
Christians that we have this ‘principle’ of having a sinful nature
within ourselves. As a result we Christians
must not just do whatever we want to do in this life. We need instead to be making combat with that
evil force that dwells within us and resist indwelling sin by reckoning
ourselves dead to sin moment by moment as we also believe that we have been
raised up with Christ to walk in victorious resurrection life.
9. VS
7:22-23 - “22 For I joyfully
concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in
the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner
of the law of sin which is in my members.” – Paul tells us that in his inner man
that he joyfully concurred with God’s law but there was a different law waging
war within his body, waging war against the law of his mind
9.1.
Paul reveals in this verse the fact that in his
redeemed mind, heart, and spirit (which he calls his inner man) he would ‘joyfully
concur with the law of God,’ delighting in it and all that is revealed in
God’s Law. However, Paul reveals in this
verse that even though he agreed with the law in his inner man, there was a
civil war going on within him. His
flesh, and the ‘members’ (limbs, organs, etc.) of his body, were ‘waging
war against the law of’ or within his mind, and when he failed and gave in
to sin, he then became ‘a prisoner of the law of sin which’ dwelt within
the members of his flesh.
9.2.
In 2 Cor. 4:16,
Paul wrote about Christians as having an inner man as well as an outer
man. Paul wrote that this inner man
within him, God was continually renewing, “16 Therefore we do not lose
heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed
day by day.” The outer man would
then be the sin nature.
9.3.
Likewise, in Eph. 3:16, Paul talked about the fact
that it was the inner man of a Christian whom God was empowering with His
Spirit, “16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory,
to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.”
9.4.
We as Christians must be vigilant in fighting against
the lusts of our flesh which are in our members and wanting to take control of
our lives. Peter wrote about this in 1
Pet. 2:11, “11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from
fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.”
9.5.
We Christians need to realize that when there is quarreling
and conflicts in the body of Christ, that this occurs because someone is giving
over to the lusts of his/her flesh. This
is exactly what James wrote about in Ja. 4:1, “4:1 What
is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your
pleasures that wage war in your members?”
10.
VS 7:24 - “24
Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” - Paul calls himself a wretched man and asks
the rhetorical question of who shall be able to set him free from his body of
sin
10.1.
In this verse, Paul calls himself a ‘wretched man.’ He was so convicted of the sin which he
sometimes let control his life, and he felt of himself that he was nothing but
a wretch. Paul knew that the Lord was
the only answer to his failure to be able to live as God wanted him to live,
however he asks the rhetorical question, which he also knew the answer to, as
to whom there was who could deliver him and set him free from his flesh, which
he describes with the graphic representation, ‘the body of this death.’
10.2.
In Paul’s time if a person murdered someone and was
caught, they would sometimes tie the person to the dead body, and he would have
to stay next to the dead corpse until he himself died from bacteria and stench
from the dead body of the one whom he murdered.
It has been conjectured that Paul was referring to that analogy here,
using it to illustrate the fact that although he knew that he was redeemed in
his heart, mind, and spirit, that he still was carrying around with him
everywhere he went a dying corpse which was rotten throughout by the ravages of
sin. This reminds me of that movie “Weekend
With Bernie” where the guy dies and his friends drag his body around with
them all weekend.
11.
VS 7:25 - “25
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I
myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh
the law of sin.” - Paul tells
us that thanks be to God that it is through Jesus Christ that the victory over
the flesh is achieved
11.1.
Here we are finally presented with the good news. It would be tragic if all there ever was of
the Christian life was the Romans 7 experience of failure. However, as we will study in depth next and
chapter 8 details for us, there is also the victorious walk in the power and
control of the Holy Spirit which the Christian was created to walk in.
11.2.
The answer to Paul’s question in verse 24 as to whom
would be able to deliver him from the body of death of his flesh which was
filled with sin, he answers in this verse, it is ‘Jesus Christ our Lord.’ Paul knew that he was identified with Jesus
in His death and resurrection, and therefore the answer to his failure to live
according to God’s will and holiness was to reckon himself as being dead to sin
and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Living
like this would cause Paul to live in that new dynamic we have talked about,
that life of God which for its quality and duration is referred to as “eternal
life.” In Galatians 5:22-23 Paul
wrote about the fruit that is produced in the person’s life who lives in this
new dynamic, “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness,
self-control; against such things there is no law.”
11.3.
Paul says here in this verse that in his mind which
had been renewed by God, that he was serving God’s law (having already said
that in his mind he joyfully concurred with God’s law), however, being bound to
his unredeemed body of flesh, Paul also knew that in his ‘flesh’ that he
was serving the ‘law of sin.’
Either the flesh or the Spirit are in control at any given time in a
Christian’s life.
12.
CONCLUSIONS:
12.1.
As we consider this study and how to apply it to our
life, I want to again refer to the quote I had in my previous study from
Watchman Nee. Concerning the believer experiencing the Romans 7 experience, Nee wrote,
“Because of such self-deceit the Spirit of God must lead him over the
most shameful path in order to make him know his flesh and attain God's view.
God allows that soul to fall, to weaken, and even to sin, that he may
understand whether or not any good resides in the flesh. This usually happens to the one who thinks he
is progressing spiritually. The Lord tries him in order that he may know
himself. Often the Lord so reveals His holiness to such a one that the believer
cannot but judge his flesh as defiled.
Sometimes He permits Satan to attack him so that, out of his suffering,
he may perceive himself. It is
altogether a most difficult lesson, and is not learned within a day or
night. Only after many years does one
gradually come to realize how untrustworthy is his flesh. There is uncleanness even in his best effort. God consequently lets him experience Romans 7
deeply until he is ready to acknowledge with Paul: I know that nothing good
dwells within me, that is, in my flesh" (v.18). How hard to learn to say this genuinely! If it were not for countless experiences of
painful defeat the believer would continue to trust himself and consider
himself able. Those hundreds and
thousands of defeats bring him to concede that all self-righteousness is
totally undependable, that no good abides in his flesh.”
12.2.
Don’t let your failures discourage you from again
seeking the Lord and serving Him. If the
apostle Paul found himself continually failing in his Christian walk don’t you
be discouraged when you also often fail the Lord. In these times just confess your sin and
repent of it and again commit your way to the Lord.
12.3.
Do not put any confidence in your flesh, your
abilities, your will power, your commitment, etc., etc. Look to the Lord for His strength and help
and trust Him to provide all that you need as you continue to moment by moment
reckon yourself dead to win but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12.4.
We Christians need to realize that there is an evil
heart of unbelief in departing from the living God which dwells within us and
needs to be fought off and subdued.