The Sin Problem

Series on Romans

IX The Gospel and Indwelling Sin

C Rescued without the Law

Text: 7:14-25

Introduction

In this portion of Romans 7 we have an introduction to what follows in Romans 8. Specifically we have a sin problem which does not go away because we become Christians, but Romans 8 does help us to understand what we must do about it. In a sense this begs the question which has dominated much debate about this passage. People of a perfectionistic inclination wish to confine the experience of Romans 7:14-25 to Paul’s earlier life before he was converted. I think this is quite short-sighted. Didn’t Paul say in Philippians, before he was converted, that he was “blameless” or “faultless” with respect to legalistic righteousness? That does not sound to me like the same person that says here in verse 18, 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. Paul was not troubled by such things before his conversion. He was sure he was OK. Paul says here in verse 14 that he is unspiritual. In the Greek this is the word “carnal” or fleshly. The same word is used in Romans 8:6-8 where the Apostle declares that the carnal mind is at war with God, The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. Whether it is translated as unspiritual or sinful, the Greek word means “of the flesh” as for example when Jesus says in John 3:6, Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. The word always refers to unredeemed, un-regenerated human nature. So we shall look with Paul at three truths abut our struggle with indwelling sin: the condition, the conflict, and the conquest.

I The Condition

Frustration might be a good word to describe our condition as Paul sets it forth in verses 14 and 15, We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. Everyone feels, to some degree, this frustration of failing to live up to the standard. Unfortunately, the response of unbelief is to change the standard. In the first temptation in the garden of Eden after God forbid Adam and Eve from partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil we read that, The woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom. With all these wonderful attributes, how could God forbid it? In her mind the standard was wrong, and she unwittingly claimed she was wiser than God. Thus, down through history every culture that has known the truth has gradually abandoned it because of their determination to change the standards. Today, we abandon capitol punishment, permit divorce, abort babies, glorify gossip, encourage homosexual marriage, demean and pervert the God-given design for womankind, pollute the sabbath, cheapen worship, take God’s name in vain and indulge in many other practices clearly forbidden in God’s word. We do all this to excuse and justify our conduct by changing the standards, and we will not admit that we are slaves to sin. We are confident that we can master our problems by our knowledge and technology because we are wiser than God, and all we do is fail. We need to accept the fact that the law of God was not given to punish us but to guide us in ways that would bless us. As Paul says, the law is spiritual. However because we fail to acknowledge our true condition, we end up believing that the law is bad and we are good. The Christian, like Paul, realizes his condition and therefore is immersed in a desperate conflict.

II The Conflict

The Apostle continues to dwell on the conflict in verses 16-21, 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 it is sin living in me. 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 it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. This conflict proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Paul is talking here about his experience as a believer, because it is clear that unbelievers do not experience this conflict. They do not have conflicting principles at work in them so that they are simultaneously slaves to God’s law and slaves to their sinful natures. The Apostle speaks again of this very same thing in writing to the Galatian believers in 5:16-17, So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. Here we realize that we shall never be freed from this conflict until we die or are resurrected at Jesus’ coming. Many people make the mistake of analyzing their acts as either sins or righteous deeds. In point of fact no deed or work we ever do as believers is 100% sin or 100% righteous. The Westminster Confession, Chapter 16, section 5, describes our good works as incapable of pleasing God, “When we have done all we can, we have done but our duty, and are unprofitable servants: and because, as they are good, they proceed from His Spirit; and as they are wrought by us, they are defiled, and mixed with so much weakness and imperfection, that they cannot endure the severity of God’s judgment.” This should alert us to the need for alertness and a continual dependence upon the means of grace. Paul describes this battle in Ephesians 6:10-18, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. What a struggle we are in. It is one which demands unending vigilance.

III The Conquest

Paul will have much to say about the conquest of the law of sin and death in us, in the next chapter. For now he concludes with reinforcing our understanding of the laws that are operating in us in verses 22-25, 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? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. We cannot win the battle unless we understand the enemy, and it is us. In the end we cannot say the Devil made me do it, and we cannot say the world pressured me into it. There is something deep inside of us, so deep, in fact that we call it radical or root depravity, and it is part of us. We were born with it and grew up with it and are very familiar with it. Now we are asked to kill it. We should not get hung up on Paul’s use of terminology here. He uses the word “mind” to describe the inner believer. This is the part of us which believes. A new principle has been created in the believer that recognizes the truth and validity of God’s law and makes us realize we need to keep it. However, this new principle has come into existence in a person who was already sold into sin. And so we are charged with fighting the good fight of faith and putting on the whole armor of God so that we may conquer and overcome. I have stood in many airports looking out at the mammoth jetliners on the tarmac and wondered how in the world that giant 747, that huge piece of metal, could get off the ground. In the same way we may wonder how we can rise above the indwelling sin that drags us down. Through the grace of God, and the work of the Holly Spirit, we can. I have also stood in 1966 in the castle at Glen Eyrie, near Colorado Springs, a masterpiece of engineering built originally by Colonel Palmer, a railroad magnate. It is the headquarters of the Navigators and a Christian retreat center. One curious engineering feature is that all the fireplaces in Glen Eyrie are vented, not through individual chimneys, but through giant smokestacks up on a hill. The noxious fumes are removed by a giant ventilating fan. The staff member explaining the system to us pointed out that it was a great idea, but if the fan failed, then the smoke in the pipes carrying the noxious fumes would back up into all the rooms. I thought this was a parable on our struggles as Christians. The smoke of sin is lying there in the pipes, and we need to keep the fan running as long as we are in this body of death, or else it backs up into our lives. Paul ends with the triumphant promise that we shall be delivered from this body of death by Jesus Christ at the day of resurrection, but until then, we must keep the fan going. Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.