Struggle

God Delivers Me From & Through My Struggle

7.9.23 [Romans 7:15-25] River of Life (6th Sunday after Pentecost)

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the one he sent to deliver us, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The struggle is real. For the young adult striking out on their own for the first time, trying to live like a real live adult, the struggle is real. For someone looking to shed a few pounds smelling fresh baked donuts, the struggle is real. For the person walking barefoot on the scorching hot deck so they can jump in the pool, the struggle is real. For someone who isn’t excited about having the latest and greatest gadget, having to change phones or update software, the struggle is real. For so many, life in this world is full of real struggles.

The struggle is real is a tongue-in-cheek complaint. On the one hand, you’re acknowledging that your struggle is actually the result of being blessed. It’s a blessing to be able to spread your wings, choose what foods you’re not going to eat, enjoy yourself at a pool, or even get a new gadget. But the blessing is not without its frustrations and annoyances. That’s the struggle-part.

Today, in Romans 7, the Apostle Paul lays out for us the real struggle that Christians face every single day in the battle against our sinful nature. It is a blessing to be made a child of God through the waters of Baptism. It is a blessing to be brought to faith in God’s Son as the way, the truth, and the life. But the struggle of sanctification, living like a faithful child of God, is real.

Paul, in a moment of transparency & genuine vulnerability, confesses: (Rom. 7:15) I don’t understand what I am actually accomplishing. I want one thing, but I do the other. I detest something else, and yet there I am doing the very things I loathe.

What Paul is describing in himself in a very present problem in our lives, isn’t it? We have good intentions but we don’t follow through. We are disgusted when we see people behave gluttonously or selfishly or lose their temper or deceive their fellow man. But then, after we take a long hard look in the mirror, we see the ugliness that we said disgusts us. We are just as selfish. We habitually lose our cool. We tell lies just so that we can avoid conflict. We are what we hate. So what are we to do about it?

When we look to the world for advice, they are quick to tell us that our problem isn’t us—it’s the social constructs around us.

They’ll sound very spiritual, too. They’ll say we just need to give ourselves a little grace. We are being too hard on ourselves. No one is perfect. Your selfishness is just because you had a hard childhood where you felt threatened, or because you’re under a lot of stress right now with everything going on. You lose your cool because you haven’t found the right way to process and express your emotions. You tell lies because you love people too much and you’re afraid of hurting their feelings and losing a relationship. Nobody’s perfect and, as long as no one got hurt, it’s no big deal.

That view sounds good. It’s appealing to people who are struggling to be the good people they know they ought to be. The problem is that that advice is dead wrong. Deep down, we know it, too.

The struggle is real. That’s what Paul says. (Rom. 7:22) In my inner being, I delight in God’s law. When we want to do what is good and righteous and don’t do it, we get disappointed & discouraged, because we know that we’ve been disobedient to a good law. When we think and say that something is bad and wrong and then do it when we think no one will notice, we feel ashamed and guilty, because we know we’ve rebelled against God’s good and loving order for our lives. When we feel this kind of godly disappointment and shame, we are agreeing that (Rom. 7:16) the law is good.

While our world may be quick to dismiss our disappointment and downplay our shame and tell us it’s no big deal, the devil takes another tack. Instead of telling us our sins of omission—not doing the good we want to do—and our sins of commission—doing the bad thing we hate—are no big deal, he points the accusing finger and says no, these are a big dealbreaker to God. He won’t love you anymore. Not after you’ve messed up like this. You keep making promises. You keep telling him you’re going to do better next time. But you keep failing. You keep breaking your Word. You don’t even believe you anymore—why would God? Why would God keep putting up with you? Would you, if you were him?

As Christians, we face a spiritual battle on three fronts. One is against the sinful world—the collective might and force of a group of people who do not delight in God’s Law. The second is against the Devil—the tempter and the accuser. He baits the hook of temptation with all the things we think we must have and then, when we take the bait, he sets the hook and drags us away from God. The third front is within—the sinful nature.

This is what Paul hones in on here. He calls it (Rom. 7:17) sin living in me, (Rom. 7:17) evil, and the law of sin at work within me. He doesn’t dismiss it as no big deal, but he also doesn’t buy into the devil’s lie that this struggle is a dealbreaker to God. He knows he is a wretched man in need of rescuing. But he also knows where to look, to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who alone can deliver.

God recognized mankind’s wretchedness far before we did and promised to deliver us from sin, death, and the devil. There was a time, the battle against temptation was only on one front. There was no sinful world—everyone in the world delighted in God and his law. There was no sinful nature—man and woman were made in God’s perfect image and only had good itself dwelling in them. There was only the Devil. And he only had one trick—to tempt.

Of course, you know how that played out. The Tempter baited his hook with the fact that Adam and Eve weren’t on God’s level, they didn’t know good AND evil. They became convinced they had to have this wisdom and they took the bait. Then, when the hook was set, and they had both eaten from the one tree they were told not to, the Devil disappeared from sight because the damage was done. Adam and Eve felt shame. Their eyes were opened and they now had sin living in them. They tried to run and hide from God because they recognized their wretchedness. But God came looking for them.

When God found them, he asked Adam and Eve pointed questions about what they had done. He refused to let them pass the buck. He reminded them of the consequences they would face because of their rebelliousness. Their bodies would be subject to death and their lives would be filled with struggles. God did not tell them their sin was no big deal. But it was also not the big dealbreaker Satan conspired. God promised to send someone who would deliver them from death and redeem them from their unrighteousness.

The rest of the Old Testament is a record of the real struggle that Paul pulls back the curtain on here. Again and again, we witness admirable and faithful children of God not doing the good they are called to do and even committing unconscionable acts of evil. Noah, after seeing God’s righteous wrath, got so drunk he couldn’t keep his clothes on. Abraham, after hearing God’s promise to bless him and curse those who curse him, lied about Sarah being his wife twice. Jacob was a liar. Moses was a murderer. David was an adulterer and a murderer. Solomon, the wisest man ever, was a foolish idol-worshipper.

Yet, what does God do for them? When they are faithless and selfish and deceitful and foolish, God is wise and loving, truthful and faithful. God redeemed these wretched men and us, through our Lord Jesus.

You see, their hope and ours was never in our own righteousness. Our hope has always been in God’s grace and mercy, his faithfulness and forbearance. So God took on flesh and blood and lived among the wretched sinners he came to save. He knew firsthand what it was like to face temptation, but he never gave in. He always and only did the good God called him to do. He never once did the wretched things God despises. He always delighted in God’s good law.

Jesus is the only man who ever faced temptation, stared down Satan, and never blinked, never gave in, never lost a single battle. He subjected himself to this struggle so that he might deliver us from our sin. And in order to accomplish this, Jesus was made sin in our place. He was treated like a wretched man. He suffered for the sin that lives in you and me so that we might be rescued from eternal death. He died so that we might live. He rose from the grave so that we might be certain we will never face condemnation for our sins. (Rom. 7:25) Thanks be to God! God did all this because he desires to see (1 Tim. 2:4) all wretched people saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.

So why do we still struggle? If we are really delivered, if God is really loving and faithful and powerful, if he has really worked in us a desire to be and do good, why do struggle like we do?

In some ways, that question is too wonderful for me to answer. Only God knows precisely why he allows this real struggle to continue in us. But God has told us two important things in this struggle.

One is that, one day, this struggle will end. Though we inherit a sinful nature from our earthly parents, our Heavenly Father will eternally eradicate it when we leave this earth. In heaven we will live in perfection and delight in everything of God.

Two is that, here and now, this struggle has a way of humbling us. It reminds us that the good we desire and accomplish isn’t from within us but comes from God. He works in us to will and to act according to his good purpose. And when we fail and fall short, we are prompted to seek out our deliverer again. Our struggles in sanctification move us to repent and trust in God’s Word. We see sin in ourselves that we never would have recognized without God working in us.

This is good for us and good for those who struggle around us. Because it’s not just you and me and Paul who need deliverance. If God were to eradicate our sinful nature while we were here on earth, we might struggle to be kind or patient with struggling wretches. We might think people just need to figure it out for themselves or exercise a little more self-discipline. But because we struggle, because our struggle is real, we know there is only one real solution. (Rom. 7:25) Deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thanks be to God.