Transcription
[Music] Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 7. Where else? And actually, I just want to commend you because after today, you'll be through Romans 7. And so, you know, you've survived it. As you leave today, there will be a certificate that says, "I survived Romans 6 and Romans 7 with Pastor John." And you'll be able to proudly display that in your home that you made it, that you've come through what is arguably some of the deepest water in the New Testament. And hopefully, you're learning, you're growing in your faith.
For those who are new, we're in a series on Romans, a powerful, powerful epistle that is helping us to grow in our understanding of what Jesus did for us and what it means to walk in grace. So we come to Romans chapter 7 again, just by way of reminder. This is probably one of the most profound analyses of sin found anywhere in the scripture. As Romans 7 gives us an understanding of the psychology of sin, how sin works, what sin does, especially as it relates to the law, how sin, as Paul says, seizes the opportunity that the law presents to entice, to ruin people, to in many ways exacerbate sin. And so we've been learning as we've been making our way through Romans 7 that it is a very dangerous thing to look to rules or to look to the law to either make us right with God or to make us holy in God's sight. The law is designed to do neither.
The law does have limits. The problem with law, and when we're talking about law, we could be talking about the Mosaic law, the Old Testament law, we could be talking about the moral law written on our hearts, we could be talking about the commandments and instructions to righteousness in scripture. The problem is the law can only tell you what is wrong. It cannot help you do what is right. It cannot make you right with God. The only way to be right with God by way of the law is to obey all of the law and never break any of it. And no one can do that. As well, for believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, the law cannot make a person holy. It can show us what holiness looks like, but it cannot produce in us holiness. As well, one of the things we've learned in Romans 7 is that sin, not just an act we did in the past, but sin, sin is a dynamic force. It is it is the power of evil that uses the law as a base of operations. We saw that last time, Romans chapter 7 and verse 8, but sin seizing the opportunity, how? Through the commandment. In other words, the idea is sin setting up a base of operations like a military expedition. Sin uses it as a stronghold, the commandment, to produce sin, to entice to sin in the believer. We saw it again in Romans 7 and verse 11, for sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it, killed me.
This is why, as we saw, and this is very important for us to remember and to understand, a rules-based approach to godliness will fail every time. The way to tell somebody to be godly is not to tell them, "Don't do this, don't do this, do this, do this, do this." Because the rules-based approach to godliness will result in ungodliness. This is what Paul is showing us regarding the psychology of sin. So the question becomes then, how does a believer live a godly life? Here's what happens in many circles, not just in churches that have a holiness background, like the Wesleyans or the Nazarene or the Assemblies of God or other groups, but I would suggest even in what we might call churches that are formed from a reformed theological tradition. What happens invariably is the pastor will get up and teach on grace, and then out of concern that either he's gone too far or that people will have misunderstood, not realizing the reign of grace, not realizing the power that is operative in a person's life, will understand grace, lives in grace, in barrel. A pastor comes back and presents a message that is tantamount, really, to works righteousness. "Do this, do this, do this, do this," and almost totally negates the message of grace.
And when you come to Romans chapter 7, in verses 14 through 25, Paul is trying to show us the futility of trying to live out the law, to try of trying to live a sanctified, a holy life by means of the law. As we look at this passage, I want to make a few comments, and especially because as you talk about this in your life groups, if you're in a life group, and I hope that you are, and if you're not, that you jump in one, because it can certainly be very helpful for you. My concern is though, that as the discussion takes place, that if I've not helped a little bit. And so, actually, most of what I'm going to say here is not really in my notes. It's simply things that this morning, as I'm praying over the message, I have great concern over concerning what people, well-meaning people, might do.
This passage has been a subject of much debate, and the question really hinges on, is the person Paul is describing in Romans chapter 7, verses 14 through 25, is it a Christian or is it an unregenerate person? In Christian, more specifically, is it Paul? Is Paul giving a testimony on these verses, and we're learning about how Paul struggles? I want to, at the start of giving you my observation on this, just briefly to say that there are tremendous theologians on both sides of the issue. So, in that sense, there's certainly a place for grace. However, that being said, I'm going to tell you what I think, and I'm not going to spend a lot of time on what they think, okay? Because you don't have time to hear everything that could be said about the passage.
Essentially, what happens is, for the sake of time, people will say, "Well, because starting in verse 14, Paul moves into a first-person present. 'I, I am this, I am I, this is how it works, I, I, I.'" They say, "Well, this is the Apostle Paul, and Paul is simply telling us about his struggle." I want to suggest to you that that would not be the correct way to look at chapter 7 in verses 14 through 25. This is not Paul at a 12-step recovery meeting saying, "Hi, I'm Paul, a recovering Pharisee, and here's my struggles." I'm not making fun. I'm just simply saying, if you think it's Paul, you almost have to conclude that's what Paul is doing. But for a variety of reasons, this cannot be Paul. What Paul is doing is he's speaking in the first person because he's answering the question regarding the law. He's talking about, "Is the law sin?" He's been answering that because, as he says, "We're dead to the law." Then somebody says, "Well, are you saying the law is of no use? Are you saying the law is sinful?" And Paul is saying, "Absolutely not." And then what Paul is using is he's using a literary device as he speaks in the first person of what it's like for a person without Christ who is trying to fulfill the law.
That being said, let me say this. When you read these statements, these cannot be true of a Christian. For example, when you look at Romans 7 and verse 14, "But I am of the flesh, sold under sin." "I'm a slave to sin." That is not a, that is not a statement of a Christian. In fact, all those who say this is Paul have to do some serious gymnastics with that statement, and they all admit that's a real problem to work through. There it is. Can a Christian say, "I'm sold under sin"? Paul's already said in chapter 6, "Don't you're a sin, whoever you submit yourself to serve, whether unto sin or unto righteousness." Here, though, this person, "sold under sin," this person, it's not a matter of what they voluntarily did, it's a matter of they had no choice. Verse 15, "For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate."
Now, let me say this. As we look at some of these statements, a thoughtful person is gonna say, "Well, man, who hasn't had that experience, John? Are you telling me you've never done something you're like, 'Oh, I wish I hadn't done that,' or 'Why, why don't I live with more straight hate?'" We all can identify experientially with some of these statements. But the fact we have an experience that reflects some of those statements is not the same as saying that is our life. So, it's a big difference between having times where you say, "I've failed," and in some ways that failure is summed up that way. But when you read this, it comes across as virtually continual. "For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." Verse 16, "Now if I do, if what I do, I do not want to do, next verse, for I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out." Seriously, is this really the Apostle Paul? I mean, this doesn't sound anything like, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Verse 19, "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing." How can Paul say, "Follow me as I follow Christ," if all he keeps on doing is the evil? It makes absolutely no sense. There is nothing in the entire New Testament that will cooperate this as being the experience, the life, or the lifestyle of the Apostle Paul. Verse 23, "making me a captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members." That, that is a very picturesque Greek construction. It's holding me at the edge of a spear. I'm a captive. It's the idea of somebody who is defeated in battle. Now the spear is under their chin, and the person holding the spear is saying, "Move a muscle, and you're dead." Does that sound like a Christian? Not at all. "Wretched man that I am! I mean, but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin." So he is serving, you're saying, "I'm using my body to serve the law of sin."
Listen, as I said, nothing in all of Paul's writing is comparable to this. You wouldn't see this anywhere else. In fact, let me suggest to you that Paul on multiple occasions talks about his conscience. He says, "Brothers, I've lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this." He says, "I serve God with a clear conscience." Verse 16, "So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man." In 1 Corinthians 4:4, "I'm not aware of anything against myself," he says, "my conscience is clear." As the way the NIV says it, he says, "In chapter one of 2 Timothy, I thank God whom I serve, as I did with my ancestors, with a clear conscience." I mean, how can you be a slave of sin, do what you don't want to do, and not do what you want to do, and have a clear conscience? Impossible.
Furthermore, people say, "Well, you know, there is one place," and I'm not going to take a lot of time with it, but Galatians 5. And people say, "Well, you know, it talks about a battle there in Galatians 5," and it does, between the Spirit and the flesh. That there is this, there is this battle that goes on. But Paul prefaces that by saying, "So I say, walk by the Spirit." Galatians 5:16. "And you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh." Then he goes on and he says this, he says, "These are the works of the flesh," and he says, "And the people who do them won't inherit eternal life." All that to say, you say, "John, why are you taking time with this?" Because I think it's really important that we understand this isn't the Apostle Paul. Because if you think it's the Apostle Paul, what you have to conclude then is the Christian life is just one big, frustrating experience of defeat, which is tragic, which is not the teaching of scripture, which is certainly consistent with trying to live out the law, but not consistent with the victory we have in Christ Jesus, which when you get to chapter 8, none of that would be reflected in chapter 8. And so what happens is you have Christians who feel like, "You know, what's the use? I mean, I I can't do what I hey, there's Paul, he couldn't do it. So what hope do I have?" All of it making Christians think that somehow you just muddle your way through life. And this would be the thing. And I'm not saying all reformed theologians are here, but I would say this, having spent time with some deep thinkers, one individual then spent quite a bit of time listening to would constantly make this statement, "Life is hard, and after that, you die." I was like, "Wow, you know, what happened to the joy? 'The Lord is my strength.' What happened to 'Rejoice in the Lord always,' and I'll say it again, 'Rejoice'? What happened to the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy?" Who's saying there's not difficulty in life? But the idea that somehow we just go through life unable to to please God at all and to experience His joy is a massive disservice to the teaching of the New Testament and to what our Lord Jesus Christ died to accomplish.
Now that I've gotten that off my chest, Paul's trying to show us some things here about the law. Number one, he's trying to show us that we cannot depend on our will to do what we know is right. Your will will never be strong enough if you're depending on your will to please God. It'll never be strong enough to do what you know is right. We saw that. We saw that when a person lives by the law, what happens is if they don't end up breaking the law at the point that they're trying to keep it, then they end up breaking the law in another way, through pride, judgmentalism, comparison, competition, by saying, "I kept that law, and you didn't. I kept that law, and I just wish the rest of the people in this place could be as holy as I am because, you know, I got a strong will, I can keep the law." The problem is, nobody on their own, the human will is not strong enough. And especially if you're not a Christian, you cannot by sheer willpower do what you know is right continually. And here's the reason why. First of all, you're a slave to sin. And in that sense, sin reigns, as we saw in Romans chapter 5. Until you come to Christ, you're a slave to sin.
Now, look at it, Romans 7 and verse 14. "For we know that the law is spiritual." So the law is good. The law is spiritual. Watch the contrast. "But I am of the flesh." In other words, I'm a, my human body. And we saw this, we died spiritually to sin with Christ, but sin is not dead. It is alive in the members of our body, our physical flesh. Your battle with sin ends the minute you die. Until our body is redeemed, there is still that battle. But here he's saying, "I'm sold under sin." In other words, he's not yet been redeemed by the power of Christ. He is a slave to sin. Second, an unbeliever doesn't understand spiritual truth. Look at this. "I do not understand my own actions." An unbeliever doesn't understand spiritual truth. They don't understand that there is a spiritual world and the IMP, or if they do, they don't understand the impact of it. They don't understand how things work. Paul gives us an insight to this in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14. "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned." An unbeliever has trouble understanding much of what God is doing, how God is working, and how God's work, word works in the life of the believer. They don't understand the spiritual battle that we battle, not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. They don't understand all of that. Part of the reason is because the god of this world, 2 Corinthians 4:4, we won't bring it on the screen, but you can just write it down, says the god of this world has blinded the the hearts and minds of unbelievers. Satan has blinded them.
Now, verse 16, Paul says, "Those from Shep said, 'Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good.'" The fact that this person doesn't want to do evil indicates that he agrees with the law that you shouldn't do evil. That's what he's saying. "I don't want to do evil because I really agree with the law that doing evil is not good." But even if he agrees that he shouldn't do something, he still doesn't. It's the power of sin. It's it's how, as we've seen last week, it it seizes the opportunity through the commandment to cause us, in the example Paul used, to covet. The law says, "Don't covet," and all of a sudden, it arouses covetousness. And we looked extensively at that.
A third thing I want you to notice about your willpower: your willpower is not enough because you need a spiritual power greater than the power of sin to defeat sin. Romans 7 and verse 17 says, "So now it's no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me." Paul's saying, "You know, when a person is under the law, the power of sin dominates them. The power of sin motivates them. The power of sin compels them. The person's inability to do what he wants to do demonstrates that there's a force besides himself that is a factor, and that force is sin that dwells inside a person." Listen, this would be certainly one of the great motivators for coming to Christ. You're either under grace or you're under sin. You either have been set free and you're serving Christ, or you are a slave to sin, and sin is dominating. There are only two kinds of people: those who've met Jesus and been set free from sin, and those who have not yet met Him and who are dominated by sin and by sinfulness. That doesn't mean everybody is evil as evil as they could be, but it does mean that sin reigns in everyone's life to one degree or another who does not know Christ, and motivates them in their thinking, in their actions, and in their values. It can be as simple as, "You know what? I do what I want to do. I don't agree with that. I don't think I, this." It could be this whole idea of just the pride, the sin of pride, that's, "You know what? I make my own opinion. I decide my own truth. I, I, I'm not a religious person, I'm a very spiritual person." And they create their own understanding of God rather than humbly submitting to the Word of God as the final truth on truth. And all of that, examples of sinfulness.
Look at it, Romans chapter 7 and verse 18. "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right." Now again, "nothing good dwells in me." Listen, if you're a believer, what do we know about a believer? No, you're not that you're the temple of the living God who lives in you, who dwells in you. Christ dwells in our hearts. Ephesians chapter 4. Again, this is this is an unbeliever. "For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out." There's no, you know, sin is too strong for an unbeliever to withstand. Sin would be too strong for a, a believer to withstand were not for the Spirit of God living in us. He says, "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 it's sin that dwells within me." He's not saying it's not my fault. He's just simply saying what's motivating me, what's dominating me, what's propelling me forward when I'm not thinking about it, when I'm just kind of on cruise control, or sometimes even when you are thinking about it, is the force and the power of sin.
All of that to say, your willpower is not as strong as sin's power in your life. You need more than that. Second, not only can we not depend on our will to do what we know is right, but second, we can't depend on the law to do what we know is right. There's some reasons why. Paul says, "There's another law at work." This is very interesting because again, this then Paul saying, "This is an axiom. This is a principle. This is true, and it has, it has several layers of application or life." So I find it to be a law. Now, we've been talking about the law, but now this is a law. This is a principle. "But when I want to do right, or do good, evil lies close at hand." The NIV says, "Evil's right there with me." What happens is, as soon as we get the command, sin shows up. Evil shows up. I mean, you think about it, way back in Genesis 3, God puts man and woman in the garden and says, "Hey, listen, here's the garden, tend it, enjoy it, it's awesome, eat anything you want. I'm your king of the earth, you can do whatever you want. But I want you to acknowledge me as God. And so I'm gonna ask you to obey me in just one area, and by that, you'll be saying, 'Listen, I realize I'm under God and I'm accountable to God.'" And I'm gonna make it real easy on you. It shouldn't be really difficult. There's all these trees, they're all beautiful, they all got great fruit, you're gonna love this place. But there's a one tree I'm putting over here, and don't eat it. And the day you eat it is the day you will what? Surely die. What does sin do at that point? Sin shows up. Sin comes, and sin says, "What? You mean you can't eat that? So a little bit narrow on God's part? Like, like, you know, really, you can't eat that? Look at it, look how beautiful it is. I'll bet you that fruit tastes better than the other fruit. I know, you know, I know he said it's all good, but hey, yeah, I never tasted anything like that." And sin starts to cause a person, it draws a person, it works on a person. And as soon as you purposed it or good, and you say, "I'm gonna serve you with all of my heart," right away there's gonna be a battle. That's true for the Christian, that's true for the non-Christian. The difference is the Christian has a power to win the battle. The non-Christian doesn't. The Christian has the ability to discern on a spiritual level what is happening. The non-Christian doesn't. They're flying in the dark. It's as if they're flying in the fog, and they don't know if the plane is right side up or upside down. They can't tell. Their instrument panel's not working. Paul says, "I find this law at work." The moment he acts with his mind, and again, this is not Paul. He's talking about a person who is under the law. He says, "I'm gonna do this good thing. I'm gonna live out this command." And right away, evil's there. It's the second day. Notice about this, even if you love God's law, this principle, this other law of sin, defeat. Look at it. "For I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my members so." And the person says, "You know, I love the law. I'm all about the law." You can go over to the Land of Israel and you can see people who love the law. You read Psalm 119. "I love the law." You can love the law with all of your heart and still not live it. Why? Because the power of sin. Another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me a captive, holding me at the end of a spear to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Law waging war. It's strategizing. We get a word strategy. There's there's another law that strategizes. Listen, don't think of sin as just something you did that was wrong. Understand that sin, because Paul in Romans 5, Romans 6, Romans 7, personalizes sin as a force. And so when you give in to sin, it's not just that you miss God's mark, but you've opened your life to the power of evil, the power of darkness, which permeates, which drives, which inflames passion, which works against everything good and godly. So here he is, and he says, "Man, I'm, I'm in my mind, I'm a captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members." You say, "Well, sounds really desperate." It is. Look at it, verse 24. Look what he says. "Wretched man that I am! What in the world am I going to do? Who will deliver me from this body of death?" As Paul thinks about it in verse 25, and you'll see it in verse 25a, he says, "But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord." In other words, the psychic, just for a minute, he's like, "Wow, when when a person's in the law, they are a mess, and life is really, really difficult. How Jesus, thank you, I'm not there." That's what he's saying. Then he goes on in verse 25 to say this, "So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin." Again, he's just saying, "That's how it plays for a person who's trying to love the law." Unless an application primarily would be for a person who's unredeemed, trying to either live the own moral on their heart or what they perceive to be the righteous standard of God. But all of these things give us insight as believers into the danger of creating, as a means of pleasing God, and not only having right standing with God, but cultivating holiness. The danger of having a rules-based Christianity. You can, you you cannot grow in holiness by means of a dogged determination to fulfill the law. You you will never do it by loving the law. You only do it by loving the Lord. And the more you realize what He did, the moment you were saved, the more you realize the enormity of the fact that He gave you faith to believe, the enormity of the fact that He's forgiving all of your sin, the enormity of the fact that you're clothed in righteousness, and you begin to tap into the power of the Spirit of God now residing in you, instantly you begin to live life on a different plane. But a lot of people have misunderstood that somehow what I need to do is, I'm gonna make this list of commitments, and these are things I'm not gonna do, and these are things I'm gonna do, and they get caught up in that. And pretty soon, as we've said over and over again, the tools of discipleship become the rules of discipleship. And sin loves it. So sin begins to twist it. It begins to deceive the person until finally, what happens is they're back into a works-righteousness system of trying to live for God. And it will not work. And it is the reason a number of believers are, truth be told, miserable, because you're basing your approach to Christ in your walk with God on the basis of rules and how well you do in keeping those rules. And nobody's gonna do good enough. Whereas if we fall in love with Christ and begin to celebrate His goodness in our life, and we give ourselves not to fulfilling a law, but to pleasing Him, because love is the fulfillment of the law, Galatians chapter 5, and we just start saying, "I'm gonna love Him," and I'm gonna love Him with all of my heart. What happens when you love the Lord with all of your heart, and you say, "I'm gonna love Him, and I'm gonna lie, I'm gonna, I'm gonna try to love people around me as well." When you do that, you've fulfilled everything. So the law has limits, and sin has power, and we cannot depend on our will, we cannot depend on our law, on the law to do what is right. Third, we can only depend on Christ to do what is right. "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame." You know what that's saying? Saying, "Don't trust the moment you feel the most spiritual, and your mind fills the most spiritual, you think your most spiritual thoughts, and you're really thinking, 'Okay, now I'm in that right frame of mind.'" The writer says, "Don't trust that either." "I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but fully trusts in Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand." All other ground is sinking sand.
And that really becomes then simply a lead-in to Romans chapter 8 and verses 1 through 4. "When we read this, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ from the law of sin and death. You're no longer a slave to that law. You're no longer under that power. For God has done what the law, weak by the flesh, could not do by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." So you keep in step with the Spirit. You're not trying to do the law, you're trying to love God, and the Spirit of God energizes you to fulfill the law as Christ, through His procreated power working in you, He produces the fruit of holiness. Romans 6:22. Isn't that exciting? Now, we don't have time to talk about all that. I only have time to read it to you. If I come back next week, and we'll wrap up this discourse on the law with the triumph that we have in Christ. You don't want to miss it.
Let me sum it up. Four statements. We'll close. Number one, Christians are not under law, they're under grace. Christ died to the law, we died with Him, so we're not under the law. The law cannot condemn. The law has no jurisdiction over a dead person. You and I died to the law. We're dead in terms of the law. It has no jurisdiction over us. We're under grace. We're not under law, we're under grace. We're under the rule and the reign of grace. We're not under the reign of sin, that dominating, despotic, corrosive, corruptive force that ruins everything.
Number two, the law is good. It's righteous, it's holy, but it cannot save. It was never designed to, and it cannot sanctify. It is powerless to do that, not because the law is bad, but because sin had weakened our flesh. You'll never grow in holiness by committing yourself to the law. You will only grow in holiness by loving Jesus. Love Him. Find your joy in Him. A few years ago, we had a speaker named Terry Virgo. Terry came and, you remember, spoke a powerful message on grace at the Men's Conference. Did it again on Sunday morning. Kyra's on Romans 7. It was powerful. I was talking to Terry, and I said to Terry, because Terry's 20 years older than I am, I said, "Terry, what would you say to yourself of 20 years ago?" Terry said, "That's a good question." Thought for a moment, and he said, "I would say, Terry, keep your joy in Jesus. Whatever you have to do, don't lose your joy in Jesus." I have thought about that over and over and over again. And I'm telling you, there is a power in that, and in celebrating the grace of God, that takes you to a whole other level of living in the joy of Jesus. The law is good, but it can't sanctify. You can't save you.
Number three, sin seizes an opportunity to attack us or the law. Listen, a rules-based approach to godliness produces ungodliness. Some of you, the reason why you have struggled to live a godly life is because you've either been taught or you have embraced a "do this, don't do that" approach to serving God. And sin, seizing the opportunity, has set up a base of operations at that point and said, "Oh yeah." Whereas if you would take hold in a bigger way of what Christ has done for you and walk closer to Him, you would experience His power in a whole new way. For every, here's the thing. For everyone, look at yourself. Take ten of Christ. Keeping our eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Quit looking at yourself. Quit grading your card every day. Some of you, honestly, you spend too much time on personal autopsy. And I worked at a funeral home, I can tell you, an autopsy is deadly. You can't do it. It's not God's will for you.
Number four, the power of sin is so great, only the power of the Holy Spirit can help us overcome in this life. And here's the good news: it does, and it will, and it's a whole new way of life.