Not Under the Law (pt 2)

The Law and the Carnal Man (7:14-25)

If the spiritual man is delivered from the law and the natural man is doomed by the law, by the same token the carnal man is defeated by the law.

Pretty crazy to think that the man who penned these next several verses was the apostle Paul

Between what the law demands and what the flesh can produce, there is a great divide or great gulf.

"For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin" (v. 14).

The word "carnal" is not used to describe an unsaved person, but a Christian who though saved, is still in bondage to the power of the flesh.

The carnal Christian cannot behave the way God expects for the simple reason he is, to use language borrowed from the slave market, "sold under sin."

Again it amazes me that Paul is the one writing this.

We must remember that just because another christian struggles doesn’t mean it is ok.

The fact that a preacher condones something doesn’t give us the go ahead to break Bible precepts.

I don’t believe Pastor would let this happen but sometimes people are unpredictable. But let’s just say a preacher was invited to preach and in the middle of his sermon he started going off an a tangent saying that it is perfectly ok to drink alcohol, get tattoos, go to the club, music is amoral, etc.

Even if this was a preacher you respected and up till that point seemed to be correct on all his major doctrine, doesn’t give you an out. You can’t with good conscience say, “well he says it is alright.” Or “he must have done ample study to come to that conclusion.”

Now most of us would not do that on such outlandish claims of any given preacher.

But we may be more inclined to do when we see a preacher or missionary or pastor maybe slip up with their words or joke a certain or make a certain movie reference.

We may think to ourselves, “see, if he watches that movie it must be alright. If he can joke around like that, then I am fine.”

A spiritual leader’s wrongdoing or struggles don’t make those wrongdoings right

So even though this Paul writing these words, avoid the inclination to excuse your own deficiencies because Paul had some as well.

We will see that is the opposite side of the spectrum of Paul’s attitude towards his deficiencies

The next thing to observe is (2) how carefully this gulf has been surveyed.

"For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me" (vv. 15-17).

Every true believer has two natures.

He has an old nature, an Adamic nature, a nature with which he was born, which can do nothing right

(see v. 18) For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

And he also has a new nature, the nature of God, which can do nothing wrong (1 John 3:9).

These two natures are in constant conflict (Gal. 5:17 ), for the simple reason they are incompatible and irreconcilable.

The gulf exists moreover in terms of conflicting purposes.

"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me" (vv. 18-20).

In an earlier section of the epistle, Paul has already driven home the fact that "there is none that doeth good, no not one."

What man applauds as being "good" is not good at all, for nothing can be truly good that springs from a life out of touch with God.

The carnal believer finds himself at cross purposes, desiring two different qualities of life at the same time.

The gulf exists, furthermore, in terms of conflicting principles.

"I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (vv. 21-24).

Paul sees two spiritual laws or authorities at work here.

There is what can be called (1) the law of Sinai, the law of God.

This law is holy, just and good; it points him heavenward. It demands absolute perfection as a standard of behavior, for perfection is God’s minimum requirement consistent with His own holiness.

Then there is an opposite law which Paul calls (2) the law of sin.

When Adam fell in the garden of Eden, he placed the whole human race under this law.

Paul also calls it "the law of sin and death" ( 8:2).

Any science of human behavior which ignores the law of sin must ultimately wander hopelessly astray from the truth.

Yet our schools and universities teach every law known to science, except the law of sin.

Our schools and universities, in fact, teach the converse of the law of sin.

They say that we are inherently good. It is only our environment that makes us bad.

Why don’t do some science experiments then.

Maybe an orphanage full of kids from birth in an environment that psychologists would deem good and see if these kids will never do wrong or bad and just let the goodness that is inherently in them flow out without restraint

The fact remains, however, that it is the law of sin that really explains why people do what they do.

It is at the very root of all behavioral problems.

Paul finds that while the law of Sinai points him heavenward, the law of sin pulls him hellward.

It acts in the moral realm exactly as the law of gravity operates in the physical realm. It exerts a downward pull.

Paul next describes two principles he sees at work within himself (goes in tandem with the two laws we just discussed

There is what he calls the law of my mind.

This law seems to be practically identical with the law of God in verse 22.

It takes sides with the law of God, for Paul confesses that "with the mind I myself serve the law of God" (v. 25).

In other words, his inner man delights in God’s law.

Every true believer knows what Paul is talking about here.

We give intellectual assent to God’s laws.

We read the Sermon on the Mount and say, "Yes, I should like to live like that."

We study the life of Jesus and say, "Yes, I would like to be like Jesus."

Mentally every believer sides with God on the question of conduct.

But there is an opposite principle which Paul defines as (2) the law in my members (v. 23).

This law seems to be identical with the law of sin.

In fact, Paul says that it is "the law of sin in my members" (v. 23).

It is the law of sin asserting itself in the members of the believer’s body so that often involuntarily the eyes look with lust, the tongue wags in gossip, the ears strain to hear that which is improper and impure.

The gulf between what the law demands and what the flesh can produce is vast indeed. With all these conflicting purposes, and principles the believer is well-nigh pulled apart.

Paul cries, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

Some believe Paul is drawing an analogy here.

Certain types of criminals were executed by the Romans with special brutality.

Sometimes if the man had committed a murder, he was bound hand to hand, face to face with the corpse of his victim and then thrown out into the heat of the Mediterranean sun. As the corpse decayed, it ate death into the living man and became to him, in the strictest literal sense, "a body of death." Paul sees the carnal believer thus bound to the old nature and truly a wretched man.

Illustration

Suppose a biologist were to perform an experiment by grafting at a given stage of development a butterfly to a spider and do so in such a way that the two creatures were fused into one and thus grew to maturity.

What a clash of instincts there would be in a monstrosity like this.

One part of the creature’s nature would long for the clear vault of heaven, while the other part would crave a web in a dark corner and a diet of blood.

What could be done with such a creature? Nothing, except put it to death.

There is a sense in which, in the garden of Eden, Satan performed just such diabolical surgery on the human race.

Part of his own personality, so to speak, was grafted onto the human personality and the product of this union is the "flesh."

There is only one thing God can do to the flesh and that is to put it to death.

This is exactly what He has done by identifying us with Christ in His death.

The flesh is hopelessly corrupt and can produce nothing acceptable to God. Our hope is to escape from it in the way that God has appointed. That way, of course, is the great theme of Romans 6 and 8.

The final thing then to observe is (3) how completely this gulf has been spanned.

What is Paul’s final answer? Brought at last to a complete end of himself, he sees the way of escape. "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (v. 25).

Just as eternal life is "through Jesus Christ our Lord," so escape from the flesh is through Him.

On the cross the Lord Jesus dealt effectively not only with the problem of sin and with the problem of Satan, but with the problem of self as well.

In the next chapter Paul shows how this victory, explained at such length in chapters 6 and 7, can be experienced.