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Romans Lesson 13 (2008)

NEW LIFE OF THE JUSTIFIED – IV
(Struggling With Sin)
Romans 7:7-25
Key Verse: 7:21, 24-25a.

“So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me… What a wretched man I am? Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

In Romans chapter 4-5, we learn from Paul the grace of justification, how we who are sinners are saved from the punishment of sin. In chapters 6-8, we learn the grace of sanctification, how those who are justified can overcome the power of sin. In chapter 6, we learned that through union with Christ, we are no longer slaves to sin and can live a new life as instruments of righteousness. In 7:1-6, Paul explained that we are no longer under law but under God’s grace. This does not mean that we live a lawless life, instead, it means that we live up to God’s high standard in the new way of the Spirit, not in the old way of the written code. A Christian life is the life lived by the Spirit. Before Paul explains this further in chapter 8, Paul explains once again in today’s passage, why Christians need to live by the Spirit of Christ.

In today’s passage, Paul expresses his deep frustration by saying “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (24) Scholars haven’t decided whether the struggle of Paul in this passage occurred before or after his conversion. But we all agree that no one, including believers in Christ, is perfect and completely free from the power of sin until they get to heaven. However, we who have been justified by God’s grace are expected to live perfect and exemplary lives. Some might even think that after conversion our problems are over. Contrary to these expectations, we often find that we are far from perfection and our problems are far from being over. Some of us have trouble controlling anger, overcoming lust, selfishness, pride and even managing finances properly. We all struggle with sin in one way or the other, feeling guilty for not being able to live up to God’s high standard. Why are we still powerless? When we fail, we even wonder if our salvation was real in the first place. We ask, “Am I truly saved?” Believe it or not, this was Paul’s struggle as well. He said that he didn’t understand what he did. I believe that it’s perfectly normal for a serious Christian to struggle with sin. In Paul himself we see a genuine Christian who struggles with sin honestly and sincerely before God.

When we review Paul’s remarks concerning the law of God in the previous chapters, there is a strong impression that Paul’s view of the law was negative. Law is not able to save us from the power of sins. Many orthodox Jews accused Paul for his negative view of the law. Many believers, especially Jewish believers, had wondered if Paul really thought that the law was the problem when he said that we are no longer under law but under grace. In verses 7-13, Paul explains very clear his view of the law of God, particularly its positive value.

Look at verse 7. “What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘Do not covet.’” Although the law cannot save us from the power of sin, God gave us the law to help us to be aware of sin. The law is like a mirror or an X-ray machine that reveals a tumor. The law tells us what we should do and what we shouldn’t do. By doing so, it exposes our sin. We cannot say the X-ray machine is bad simply because it reveals that something is wrong with us.

The law not only exposes sin but also provokes sin in us. Look at verse 8. “But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead.” One person said, “I was ready to serve God wholeheartedly. But because you said that I should, I just don’t want to do it any more.” We find ourselves like this person. We are often not encouraged but offended when we are told to do or not to do certain things. The law is always right. But when we are told to do right things, we are not automatically encouraged but provoked to do the opposite. If someone says to us, “You can do everything tomorrow, except one thing. Don’t think about pink elephants”, it would be very hard not to resist picturing a pink elephant in our mind. Why are we like this? It’s because by nature we are rebellious. The law provokes us to be more sinful. It does not mean that law creates sin in us. Law is not the origin of sin. If we try to overcome the power of sin by the virtue of keeping the law of God, we are doomed to fail. The relationship between sin and the law is very interesting. The more we are restricted, the more we become rebellious inwardly because of sinful nature in us.

In verses 9-11. Look at verses 9-11. “Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.” When we think about this kind of immediate and negative effect of the law in us, we might think that the law is no good. Then we wonder why God made many strict laws which make us more rebellious and sinful. Verses 12-13 clear point out the ultimate role of the law in our lives. It was never meant to make us more holy or righteous by keeping the law. Instead, it was because He wanted us to see how sinful we actually are, so that we can come to God for His mercy.

Look at verses 12-13. “So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.” It is true that unless we know how sinful we are, we don’t really come to God with humility and contrite heart. Unless we know how sinful we are, we remain in our self–righteousness. Self-righteousness is not true righteousness at all. It’s a kind of delusion. It’s spiritual blindness. In fact, this kind of delusion is a very dangerous and serious problem, which is very common among religious people, including some Christians. Luke 18:9-14 is the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, which Jesus spoke to those who were confident of their own righteousness and looked own on everybody else. The Pharisee stood and up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tithe of all I get.” But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” The Pharisee in the parable was supposed to know much better about the law of God. He should have been deeply convicted of his sinfulness and repented like the tax collector. Yet, he was in delusion. What was wrong with this man? Was the law sinful and not clear enough?

No, It was not the law, but his own sinfulness, that was the problem. Look at verse 14. “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.” As he mentioned in verses 7-13, the law is good, righteous and holy. Paul says that the law is spiritual but we are unspiritual. What does it mean that we are unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin? It means that we are still in the flesh, the body of sin and death. What is really sinful is not just outward behavior. It is sinful thoughts and ideas behind sinful behaviors. Some sinful thoughts are very sneaky and subtle that we can hardly detect them as sinful. Unless, we really examine ourselves with highly effective spiritual devices, like the Scriptures and the supervision of the Holy Spirit, we overlook really serious problems and think that we are fine. We often compare ourselves with others and think that we are fine or even better, just like the self-righteous Pharisee who compared himself with the tax collector. Without the illumination of the Spirit, it’s hard to truly come before God humbly and with broken heart.

Therefore, it seems that the description of Paul in verses 15-25, in which Paul turns his attention to his fierce battle with sin, is a very important work of the Holy Spirit in Christian life.

Look at verses 15-17. “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but is sin living in me.” He repeats almost the same thing but more in detail in verses 18-20. Look at verses 18-20. “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but is sin living in me that does it.” What did Paul do for him to confess like this? In John Steinbeck’s famous novel “the Grapes of Wrath”, Jim Casy who was a former evangelist stepped down from his ministry because he felt so guilty about his hypocritical life. He would baptize many people and preach beautiful sermons. Then he would commit adultery. Apparently, Paul wasn’t living such a hypocritical life, like Jim Casy. But Paul was aware that in his sinful nature, he was not different from any other Christians who struggle with sin. He was a very devout man of God, who struggled hard to live up to God’s high standard. But he found that the more he struggled, the more he realized that in his sinful nature, he could not truly satisfy the high demand of God’s standard.

It may be hard for some people to accept Paul’s describing a struggling sinner as a normal Christian, who is truly saved by the grace of God. It rather seems that the person described here was not the one who is unsaved. Some scholars think that what Paul described here is his pre-conversion condition and experience. But Paul didn’t use the past tense, saying “I did not understand what I did. For what I wanted to do I did not do, but what I hated I did.” Instead, he used the present tense in the entire passage, verses 14-25. In verse 24, he cried out, “What a wretched man I am!” not “What a wretched man I used to be! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” Here Paul isn’t talking about just making some mistakes. He is actually making a serious confession of the total depravity of his sinful nature. If we consider Paul’s confession as his condition after the conversion, it’s very shocking. But at least we can say that he was a very honest person. Yet, wouldn’t this kind of statement damage his credibility as an apostle and the credibility of the gospel he preached? But why was Paul so honest, brutally honest, about his inner struggle with sin?

. Verse 17 reads, “As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.” Verse 20 also reads, “Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” Was Paul trying escape his responsibility. No. It was his honest confession that sin had completely corrupted his nature. Even though he was a Christian he was still a totally depraved sinner in his sinful nature. I believe that any serious Christian who sincerely want to follow and obey God’s will can also have the same dilemma. In fact, it was the work of the Holy Spirit that Paul realized the total depravity of his sinful nature before God, so that he could ask and depend on God’s mercy day-to-day.

Look at verses 21-23. “So I find this law at work: When 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 the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? But thanks to be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, bu tin the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.”

What is Paul trying to tell us through today’s passage? Probably the most important lesson we should learn from here is that we are not the only ones who struggle with sin in our day-to-day life. We don’t want to do bad things, but sin is at work within us. Everybody struggles. My struggle may be different from other’s struggle, but we all struggle with sin. Although we shouldn’t be saying that it is okay for Christian to sin, we should acknowledge that Christians are not perfect people. Living under grace of God does not mean to take sin lightly. Having faith in Jesus is not being self-righteous, comparing ourselves with others. Living by God’s grace means to struggle with our sinful nature by the help of the Scripture and the Holy Spirit. God does not make us perfect in a day. Instead, we come to know who we actually are through our day-to-day struggle with sin. We are no longer under the condemnation of sin because of what Jesus had done for us. But without deeply acknowledging our wretchedness before God, we do not turn to God for his mercy and love. Unless we struggle with our sinful nature, the true sanctification and transformation are not possible. We know that when we want to do good, sin is right there. We must come to God with honesty and sincerity every day through repentance. Although we are wretched, God does not see us as wretched. He not only forgave all our sins but also is also willing to dwell in us through His Spirit and complete His work of redemption. Paul was one of the best and perfect models for all Christians throughout history. But he himself confessed that in his sinful nature, nothing good lived in him. How honest and sincere man he was! It’s not only okay to struggle with sin but also greatly encouraged to do so because in the midst of that struggle we can find that we cannot control our sinful nature, turn to God and let Him take charge over us. Praise God who send His one and only Son Jesus Christ as our Savior.

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