The Conflict Within (Romans 7:1-25)

Introduction: John Newton

John Newton is well known as the author of Amazing Grace, perhaps the most famous hymn ever written. In it, of course, Newton says, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.”

But what was it that caused Newton to see himself as a “wretch” who was found by God’s grace? What would bring any person to consider himself or herself as “sunk in deep distress, sorrow, misfortune, or poverty; a miserable, unhappy, or unfortunate person; a poor or hapless being”? (The Oxford English Dictionary).

John Newton’s pre-Christian life certainly would qualify. Following his sea-captain father to a sailor’s life, he was tossed out of the British Royal Navy for his rebellious ways. Ending up in West Africa, he worked for a slave trader where he himself was basically enslaved and vilely mistreated. One historian described him as “a wretched looking man toiling in a plantation of lemon trees in the Island of Plaintains … clothes had become rags, no shelter and begging for unhealthy roots to allay his hunger.” Escaping the island in 1747, Newton was washed overboard while drunk in a violent storm. He was saved only when another sailor harpooned him and pulled him back aboard! It was that near-death experience, and the lingering message of Thomas à Kempis’s The Imitation of Christ, that turned him to God.

Though a Christian, he continued for six more years as the captain of a slave ship, a practice he then gave up and ultimately crusaded against. He went back to England and entered the pastoral ministry, becoming well-known for his preaching and his hymns. There is much fodder for the mill of wretchedness in John Newton’s life. Rebel, drunkard, slave trader—enough wretchedness is there for many a hymn about the grace of God. But interestingly, there is a part of John Newton’s story that aligns him with the apostle Paul’s sense of wretchedness—that inner conflict that goes on in the life of every person who “knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it” (Jas. 4:17).

John Newton had a Christian mother who dreamed and prayed that one day her son would become a preacher of the Word of God. Because she died when John was a child, she did not live to see her dreams realized or her prayers answered. But one has to believe that, in the years she had with him, this godly woman instilled in her son a sense of “the way he should go” (Prov. 22:6). Surely, throughout all the years of Newton’s ungodly activities, a conflict was raging within him. As he compared his behavior with his mother’s teachings, how many of Paul’s words in Romans 7 could have been Newton’s: “I do not understand what I do” (v. 15). “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out” (v. 18). “The evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing” (v. 19).

As we will see, Paul wrote his words describing his life as a believer in Christ (though as a persecutor of Christians in his preconversion days, Paul, like John Newton, had things in his past to bewail). In Newton’s case, we tend to think of him as writing only about his slave trading days. But he was undoubtedly cognizant in his later years that his preconversion wretchedness did not disappear upon the exercise of his faith in Christ. The awareness of the utter sinfulness of sin is a mark of maturity in the Christian believer, while the denial of sin’s pervasiveness is a sign of immaturity.

Romans 7 is a wake-up call to those who think that the Christian life is all sweetness and light. It is, as both John Newton and the apostle Paul can testify, a life of victory; but it is a victory won out of conflict.

We have been released from the law so that we can bear fruit for God (7:1-6)

an illustration from marriage (1-3): Paul uses another down-to-earth analogy to make his point: marriage. When a spouse has died, the other is free to marry. In the same way, since we have died to the law and to sin, we are free to "marry" — be united with — Christ Jesus. This analogy should also speak a negative truth: when we unite with the law and/or sin, we are unfaithful to Jesus: adulterers/adulteresses. Marriage is more than a contract. In fact, I can't remember the last time I looked at our marriage license. Maybe we should have it framed and hung on a focal wall, but we don't. Why? Because our marriage is a relationship, built on love, intimacy, trust and fidelity. God's grace not only sets us free from the law and sin, it marries us to Jesus. We can fully unite with Him, even in more intimate ways than we do our spouses. It's a relationship built on love, intimacy, trust and fidelity. And just like human marriage, that structure must be maintained and kept alive with intentional love, intimacy, trust and fidelity. God has opened His heart to us. He has proposed a life-long and eternal relationship. What a miracle!

the application (4-6): Now I belong to Jesus. That reminds me of the hymn. Now that I belong to Him, my life bears the fruit of my relationship with Him. No longer are sinful passions bearing the fruit of death in my life. Now, in Christ, released from the law, I bear fruit for God. Now, belonging to Jesus, I serve in the power of the Spirit. This echoes last week's theme of a "great exchange" that takes place in our lives because of God's grace.

The law, though given for good, provokes people to sin (7:7-13)

The law makes me aware of sin.

Then sin, using the law, seizes opportunities to produce sin (Genesis 3)

Although, the law reveals our sin; and although sin takes advantage of the law to produce its fruit in me, the law is holy, good and just. It is good that the law reveals sin to me. I see God's law, and I know what sin is, because the law is holy, reflecting the holiness of God. But when I forget that I am holy, when I am walking by the flesh instead of the Spirit, sin seizes the opportunity to produce lawlessness in me, to deceive me, and finally kill me. "For the wages of sin is death." The law is an act of God's grace and mercy. It's commandments show that sin is sinful beyond measure. But then, God's grace is graceful beyond measure.

As a result, there is an intense conflict waging a battle within us (7:14-20)

VERSES 14-20: Who is the man Paul is referencing in these verses? Is it a saved man backsliding and stumbling and falling on his face? Or is it an unsaved man recognizing that there is no hope or power to create holiness and righteousness in his own strength? Or is it a saved man, looking back at his life before Christ, and seeing the miracle of salvation and the utter dependence on the grace of God to live in victory? To argue these points is to miss Paul’s point. We are saved by grace, and united to Christ. We have the indwelling Spirit who empowers us to live a holy life. However, we still live in a body of flesh that has yet to be resurrected, and we are in the process of sanctification; that is, becoming like Jesus. But that is not yet. We live in the tension of the now and the not yet. And that places us in conflict between our spirit that desires to do right, and the flesh that has worldly desires. And that can be an intense conflict.

It is a conflict betwen what is spiritual and what is flesh (14). The law is spiritual, but the flesh is a slave to sin.The law reveals God's standards for living, but in the flesh I can't conceive or perceive it.

It’s a conflict between what I want to do and what I hate (15). We want to live up to God's standard, but the flesh continues to do what we hate.

It’s a conflict between my desire and my ability. Deep down, we desire to obey Jesus, but sometimes we let the flesh take over; and we don’t have the spiritual power in ourselves to do it. (16-18)

Therefore, I keep losing the battle (19-20). In the flesh we feel the guilt and shame of sin, but the flesh has no ability to change.

Attempting to live up to the law instead of living under grace makes us miserable people (7:21-24)

We continue to make the wrong choice (21). There is an ever-present conflict that is soul deep. Whether lost or found in Jesus, people have a natural desire to do good. Yet, the flesh and the power of sin is a mighty force that wages war in the very core of who we are, what we value, and how we live.

We have a deep desire but we cannot act on it (22). The power of sin is relentlessly working against "our best angels", as Lincoln put it.

We feel like prisoners of war (23). In our own strength, we are fighting a losing battle. We are prisoners of war, unable to do the good we know and want to do.

We reckon ourselves as miserable (24a) Paul makes a profound assessment of our attempts to live under the pressure of keeping the law. Here is where John Newton drew the inspiration for his greatest hymn. When we try to live by the law rather than grace, we are wretched, miserable.

We live with a haunting question (24b). Who will rescue us from this conflict?

Our only hope is to remember that we are set free from the law by the grace of God (7:25)

This assessment and question reveal the hopeless state of of those who try to live by the law rather than grace. Verse 25 gives a glorious solution: Jesus! By grace through the power of the Spirit, He rescues from the conflict and makes me victorious over the flesh and sin.

But what about the last sentence in verse 25: "… with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin." Do we have split personalities? No, I think not. What Paul is saying here reflects the need for sanctification. In the process of sanctification — being made holy in Christ Jesus — the core of who I am belongs to Jesus, loves and worship Jesus, desires to listen to and obey Jesus. But my core being is still housed in a body of flesh that has not been resurrected. I am tempted by sin. When I am living in the flesh, I will serve sin. So I must continue to live and walk in the Spirit. I must daily die to self, take up the cross, and follow Jesus. Grace immediately changes my allegiance, my passions, my purpose and my eternal destination. Yet, death to the flesh seems to be a slow death. It doesn't seem to be instantaneous. It has to be daily and consistent. There must be a sober awareness that sin working in my flesh, is always trying to rule me, always trying to seize any opportunity it can to produce sinful actions and thoughts, to deceive me and destroy me. That's the devil's weapons against me.

I have in mind God's word to Cain in Genesis 4:7. "… sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

How in the world can we rule over sin? Paul makes it apparent: only God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! He rules over sin. Grace multiplies when sin is present. "Walk in the Spirit, and you will not carry out the deeds of the flesh."

Application

Jesus saved us to live under grace, not under the law.

Legalism — living under the mastery of the law — is adultery, as well as a dead end.

Living under grace requires faith, promotes hope, and inspires love.

Let’s Get Practical

Luke 9:23 “Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.”

Set you heart on following Jesus: think relationship!

Deny your self-focused pursuits: think humility!

Keep the cross in view: think grace!

Isaiah 26:3 “You will keep the mind that is dependent on you in perfect peace, for it is trusting in you.”

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now I am found;

Was blind, but now I see.

Let’s live in that amazing grace of God.