As I began to hone in my skill on my instrument, I began to play mostly right notes and sometimes people would even hire me to come in and play for them.  As I improved, I became more consistent and reliable.  I even began to teach others how to play.  However, the more I learned about playing an instrument, the more I discovered how much more I needed to learn before I would be able to play like the people who I admired.

I could play simple music fairly well, but the musicians I looked up to where playing complicated music in unique and innovative ways.  They were really skillful.  When I compared my skills to theirs, I paled in comparison.

I’ve had the opportunity to run into a quite a few professional musicians over the years and the very best musicians I’ve ever met were also some of the humblest. Here’s why:  The more they knew about their instrument, the more they understood how much further they needed to improve before they could play as skillfully as the people who they admired.

The same principle is true for most professions, as well as for our spiritual growth.  When I first became a believer, I could do some good works in the power of the Holy Spirit, but I had a lot of rough edges, I made a lot of mistakes and I had quite a few sin issues to work out.

As I began to grow in my faith, I was able to be entrusted with some simple jobs within the context of the church.  Sometimes I even taught other people about the faith and eventually, I was hired to teach at the church.  As I began to grow, I was more consistent in my walk, but I became even more aware of sin issues in my life. The Christian leaders I admired the most where still miles ahead of me and the Holy Spirit was constantly convicting me of sin that I needed to deal with.

I’ve had the opportunity to meet quite a few people who are more mature in their faith than I am.  The people who are the most mature in their faith are also the ones who I find to be the humblest.  When mature believers study God’s Word and compare their lives to Jesus, they realize how far they fall short and how much more they need to grow.  The mature believers I know are also the ones who are the most aware of their sin and who intentionally struggle against sin the most.

Interpreting Romans 7

There are conservative, trustworthy Biblical experts who take a number of different views on this morning’s passage.  (Perhaps in small group I’ll present 4 or 5 different ways to interpret this passage.)  This morning, every point I make will not be coming from this passage alone, but is more widely supported throughout the rest of the Bible.

 After studying this week, I think that this passage is referring to the struggle with sin that is faced by a mature believer.  The mature believers I know are the people who battle against sin the most.  When they honestly measure themselves against God’s standards of perfect righteousness, they fall tragically short.  Sin just seems to be coming at them from all directions and it does not ever seem to stop.

The language in this section has moved to present tense.  Paul seems to be describing the conflict with sin he’s having while he was writing the letter.  His soul has been saved and redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, but he is having to function in a very fallen world.  Three weeks ago, we explained this conflict as “living between two worlds.”

The Christian lives between 2 worlds: We are alive in this present age where we are struggling with sin and the flesh, and we also are alive in another world yet to come.  We called God’s eternal Kingdom “the real world.”  This world is temporary and will soon pass away.  But “The Real World,” God’s Kingdom, will never pass away.

·        It is a place where there is no more pain or sin or death.

·        It is a world where we will be able to enjoy the riches of Christ our King perfectly forever.

We are fully alive in the Spirit right now, yet still living in a mortal body of flesh.  We are between two worlds and that creates some struggles.

We want to be living on the higher, eternal plain of the world to come, but the more we mature spiritually, the more we become aware of the reality that sin keeps pulling us down to a lower, secular plane.  In this present life, sin will always be a powerful and influential force that the Christian will need to wrestle with.

For a believer, sin is no longer master of their lives.  It is no longer Lord.  We no longer need to obey its wishes and desires, but it sure puts up a good fight.  Sin is constantly trying to tempt us and to drag us into its depths.  The closer we get to God, the more we see our own sin.

Legalistic people don’t see their own sin quite as clearly.  People who believe that they are saved by their good works are under an illusion that God will look past some of their sins and focus only on their good deeds.  A mature disciple, who has the indwelling, convicting presence of the Holy Spirit, would never assume that even a single sin is acceptable to a Holy God.  Mature believers are at war with sin constantly.

In Chapter 7, we see a man who is not consumed by his own legalistic piety, but a man under the deep conviction of the Holy Spirit.  The man described in Chapter 7 would not dare to trust in his own good works.  He displays a level of spiritual insight and brokenness and humility that characterizes a very mature believer.

I believe that in chapter 7, Paul is speaking about himself.  He is speaking about the deep struggle of the heart and mind and conscience experienced by an Apostle (the ultimate mature believer).  It is clear that the more Paul saw God’s holiness and goodness, the more he was grieved over his own sinfulness.

·        Paul’s own sinfulness was so disturbing to him that he confessed in 1 Corinthians 15:9, “⁹ For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”

·        To the Ephesian church Paul said, “⁸ To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ…”

·        Then to his young disciple, Timothy, Paul writes, “¹⁵ The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”

A person who is a new creation in Jesus is constantly living with the tension that they are between two worlds.  Paul describes that tension at the end of our passage in verse 22-23, “²² For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, ²³ 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.”

Paul is experiencing a continual battle between the Law of God and the pleasure of sin.  For the present time, a Christian’s body is a battleground.  Our conflict is summarized in Galatians 5:17, “ ¹⁷ For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” 

Mature believers desperately want to please Jesus, but they keep falling prey to sin’s attacks.  No matter how spiritual a person becomes, everyone still struggles with sin.

All believers struggle with sin

In our passage today, Paul makes his point in verses 14-18 and then repeats it again in verse 18-24.  For the sake of time, we’ll be looking at verses 14-24 as one complete unit rather than teaching through the same set of truths two times.

With a humble attitude and with an awareness of his sinful condition, Paul writes these words about himself.  Look at verse 14-15

“¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. ¹⁵ For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”

Christ has completely taken over command of Paul’s life and the Holy Spirit is rooting out the remaining pockets of resistance.  Every well-taught and honest Christian is aware that his life falls short of God’s standard of perfection.  Mature believers often find themselves falling back into sin with disturbing frequency. 

The apostle John wrote that if we deny that sin is present in our lives, we are deceiving ourselves,  1 John 1:8 says, “⁸ If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

In Romans 7, Paul is painting a picture of a person who is fully aware that there are still areas of darkness in his life where he is still allowing sin to traffic.  He is totally free from the utter control of sin, Satan and his own flesh, but sin is still provocative and deceitful. 

·        Sin is a formidable foe and extremely tempting. 

·        Satan is still the Father of lies (John 8:44) and will stop at nothing to wrap a chain of sin around a believer. 

·        He describes it is verse 14 as being “sold under sin”(ESV) or “sold into bondage to sin.” (NASB)

(Show a Greek NT: The translations that interpret the passage “sold into slavery to sin” add the image of slave ownership – rather than bondage – to the original text. Those translations can be confusing since Paul just declared that the believer is no longer a slave to sin and sin can no long be the master over a believer)

The soul of a believer is no longer a slave to sin.  Ephesians 1:13 says that our salvation is sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.  We are no longer slaves to sin… but… our bodies can still fall into one of Satan’s traps or can be chained to one of Satan’s lies.  Our body can be “sold under sin.”  Sin can still have a dreadful amount of power in a Christian’s life and it is nothing to be experimented with.  A believer’s battle with sin in his flesh is strenuous and life-long. 

Our battle with our own flesh drives Paul to say in verse 18, “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, but not the ability to carry it out.”

Paul finds himself in a constant struggle to honor God’s commands and to stand firm against sin.  He also finds that he falls short in the struggle more often that he should.  He hated it when he fell into sin’s traps and he knows that indwelling sin grieves the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30).

Sin is destructive, even in a redeemed person.  Sin hangs on and contaminates.  In all believers, sin creates a competing desire for ungodly things that often serves as a distraction from godly pursuits. 

Although the soul is redeemed, sin can dwell in our bodies

Paul says in verse 15, “¹⁵ For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”  Paul had an ardent desire to follow hard after the law of God and back in verse 12, he just called the Law holy and righteous and good.  But… his desire to obey God’s law is met with just as powerful of a desire to disregard it.  Just like us, he was often more inclined to sin than he was to obey God’s commands.

We always choose on the basis of our strongest inclination.  Choices don’t happen in a vacuum.  There are very real forces at work in our lives that are hugely influential over the choices we make.  We are said to be creatures with a free will. What does that mean?

Having a free will means that we have the ability to make our own choices.  We are not a robot or a puppet.  We are living, breathing, thinking people who are making choices all the time.  The choices we make are dependent on what we find desirable at the time of making that choice.  We are always inclined to make one choice over another. 

If we didn’t have inclinations or preferences, we would never be able to decide anything at all.  We live in a world with a multitude of options.  We don’t just have two flavors of Ice Cream to choose from, we have 51 flavors to choose from.  How do we keep from being paralyzed in the choices between all those options?  We choose according to the flavor that appeals to us the most.  When given a choice, we always will choose what we desire the most. 

We always choose according to our strongest inclination at the time of the choice. We have never chosen to do something that we did not desire to do.  That reality makes the fact of sin so much uglier. 

As a believer, we choose to sin because we want to sin.  The Devil may have tempted us, but He didn’t make us do it.  When we were given the choice between righteousness and depravity, every time we choose sin, that choice stems from a deeper desire for sinful things rather than a desire for holiness.

You may be thinking, “there are a lot of thing I do that I did not choose to do, but I did them anyway.”  I think you’d be hard pressed to find an example of a single time when you did not choose the most appealing option.  Unless someone has a mental illness, people will always choose the thing they desire the most or they’ll take the option that is the least painful. 

For example, consider a student who is being forced to write a term paper.  The student does not want to write the paper and they would rather be playing video games at home than going to school.  Writing a paper is undesirable. 

However, the student knows that if they get a bad grade in the class, they will be in big trouble from their parents and will probably have many of their privileges taken away.  That is really undesirable.

So given the choice between doing the paper and keeping privileges and not doing the paper and losing privileges the student chooses to write the paper.  He chose the most desirable option.  We always will choose the option we desire the most. 

Writing the paper kept more in line with the student’s strong internal desire to keep their privileges.  Every choice we have ever made on our own, even if we chose something unpleasant, was chosen according to our greatest desires.

Spiritually, we have an abundance of options.  Some choices will move us forward in righteousness and others do not.  God’s Word is drawing you to the ones that are righteous and holy.  Satan is lying to you and drawing you to choices that will sound good while they hurt you (or that feel good while they slap you in the back).  In verse 19-20, Paul describes this conflict that we face between choices in this fallen world.

“¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.”

The new man in Christ wants to please God and do the things that honor Him as our King.  BUT… sin is used to being in control and is at war with the Spirit in our bodies.  Indwelling sin will often battle against the directives of the Holy Spirit.   Verse 18 says, “¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.”  

Every time we decide it is more desirable to sin than to obey the Holy Spirit, it reveals that we have some hard work ahead of us to drive out sin and surrender control once again to the Holy Spirit.

It’s like when I change my diet and make some new resolutions about my health. Every time I’m presented with a piece of cheesecake, I’m presented with a choice. That cheesecake sure looks good, but if I really want to lose weight, I probably shouldn’t eat it.  But… then I begin to negotiate with myself: it’s just one piece….  It probably won’t hurt me….  At that moment I’m faced with a real choice:  what do I desire more – losing weight or a piece of cheesecake.

But those choices become even more serious when considering these decisions: What do I desire more,

·        a deeper relationship with Christ or another episode of a television program

·        a new outfit or giving to the work of the ministry

·        Bible study or going out to dinner

I had a boss who had a plaque on his wall with this anonymous quote, “You can say no and smile only when there’s a bigger yes burning inside you.” When a desire for righteousness is burning inside of you, then saying no to sin is much easier to do.  You can smile and say, “no thank Satan.  I’d rather have more of Jesus than your dirty tricks!”

Mature Christians only get that way after a long series of good decisions that spring from a deep desire for the work of the Spirit to dominate their lives.  On the other hand, those who are in bondage to sin only get that way after a series of bad decisions that prefer the work of the flesh over the work of the Spirit.

Indwelling sin can take us captive and distract us from spiritual growth

The child of God is no longer a slave to sin, but still has a free will.  The indwelling Holy Spirit will always choose holiness and righteousness and God’s glory.  The Holy Spirit within us is constantly testifying to the fact that the law is good and sin destroys. 

If we choose sin, that’s not the law’s fault.  It’s our fault.  The law was pointing out what was good, but we had a greater desire for sin’s temptations.  That is the essence of verse 16 when Paul says, “¹⁶ Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.”

If we don’t root out the sin, sin can take us captive.  Sin can’t touch your soul, but it can put you into bondage.  When we find ourselves choosing sin over the Spirit, it is evidence that sin is still dwelling in our bodies.  That is why verse 20 says, “²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want…”  or if I find myself not living according to my new life in Christ… “…it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.”

Paul is not trying to escape personal responsibility for his sin.  He is saying that evidence of sin in our lives means it’s time to go to war if we want to grow spiritually. After salvation, sin is like a defeated king.  It no longer rules, but it manages to survive.  It is no longer is in control of our inmost self, but it still has a lingering dwelling place in our flesh.

Our flesh itself is not in itself sinful, but our flesh gives sin a base of operations.  It is like a petri dish.  A petri dish does not in itself produce bacteria, but it is a good environment for bacteria to grow.  Our flesh is not bad in itself, but it is a base of operations where sin can dwell and traffic and grow and fester if we are not diligent about driving it out. 

Life Application

The continuing presence of evil in the life of a believer is universal.  Lingering sin does battle with every good thing a believer tries to do.  Verse 21 says, “²¹ So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.”  In Genesis, Moses explains that sin is crouching at the door and ready to pounce on us at any time.

Verse 22 says, “²² For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being…”

Paul could not delight in the law of God if he was not a mature believer.   When Paul became a new creation in Christ, he began to have an appetite for righteousness. But, he is constantly at war with sin that is trying to take him captive…

 ²³ 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.”

This war inside Paul leads him to utter frustration and anguish.  Verse 24 he cries out,“²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”  As God began to reveal more and more of His holiness to Paul, it drove Paul to see more and more of his sinfulness.  Deep humility is a characteristic of a growing, mature disciple of Christ.  Paul, in his brokenness and humility, cries out for God to deliver him from his conflicted life.  

So who is able to rescue Paul from these struggles?

Jesus is the answer for the conflicted life

Verse 25 says, “²⁵ 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.”  But remember that the chapter designations were put in later.  Paul continues to describe that basis for his hope in Jesus in Chapter 8.  Let’s read the first few verses of chapter 8 as we wrap up our study in the book of Romans.

Sin brings with it death, destruction and condemnation.  Not so for those who trust in Jesus.  Romans 8:1-2 proclaims, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ² For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”

There is no way we can battle with sin in our own power.  Paul said in verse 18b, “…For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.”  We can’t wage this war on our own.  Not even Paul had the resolve to gain victory over sin in his life.  We need something greater than ourselves. 

Indwelling sin can only be eliminated through the power of the Holy Spirit

Romans 8:3-4 says, “³ For God has done what the law, weakened 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, ⁴ 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.”

Let me end with a final illustration:

In this life, Christians are like an unskilled artist.  The artist sees a beautiful scene that he wants to capture on a canvas, but his lack of skill keeps him from doing the scene justice.  The fault is not the scene.  The scene is incredible!  The fault does not lie in the canvas, the brushes or the paints.  All the tools are totally adequate.  The problem lies in the painter.  The painter is unable to produce the scene in his own power.

In moments when we find ourselves insufficient (unable to perform in our own power), it is time for to turn to the master painter, Jesus Christ, to place His hand over ours in order to paint the strokes that, independent of Him, we could never produce on our own. 

Jesus said in John 15:5b, “…apart from me you can do nothing.” 

The only way we can live victoriously in this life is to walk according to Christ’s own Spirit and in His power, wage an ongoing battle against the “desires of the flesh.”