The Will of Man
Notes
Transcript
Although we have already looked at this passage before us today once already, there is yet more that we ought to glean from it in order that we be fully equipped for every good work, that we must, to understand what the apostle is teaching, turn to it once again:
So now, no longer am I the one working it out, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the working out of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one working it out, but sin which dwells in me.
I must remind you of something I’ve previously said, that the rule for interpreting Romans 7:14-25 is surely to be found in Romans 7:13, “Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by working out my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.” Everything here in these verses is an exposition of that fundamental truth.
In other words, the general thrust of this entire section is that despite the clarity with which a person sees the holy, righteous, good, and spiritual Law of God, in himself or herself they find that even then, they are still unable to meet the requirements of the Law.
And this is, of course, a continuation of the astounding truth of Romans 7:4, “So, my brothers, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.”
And there is a fallacy in jumping ahead in our minds to interpreting this as Paul in the present tense, that the major thrust and emphasis of what the apostle is actually saying can be missed. Now, I will be honest, I realize that I am in disagreement with many popular teachers and preachers in this, whose conclusion inevitably comes down to the idea that an unbeliever simply cannot affirm the holy Law of God in the way describe, that it takes a christian to “delight” in the Law, or “joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man”, as verse 22 says, believing that the unbeliever cannot have a will that is present within him that truly desires and wants to do good.
But the more I have studied this, the more I am convinced that this is the very same attitude delivered by the pre-incarnation, pre-cross Psalmist who likewise affirms and adores the Law in Psalm 19:7–13
“The law of Yahweh is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of Yahweh is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of Yahweh are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of Yahweh is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of Yahweh are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, even more than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your slave is warned; In keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. Also keep back Your slave from presumptuous sins; Let them not rule over me; Then I will be blameless, And I shall be acquitted of great transgression.”
And again in Psalm 119:1–8,
“How blessed are those whose way is blameless, Who walk in the law of Yahweh. How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, They seek Him with all their heart. They also do not work unrighteousness; They walk in His ways. You have commanded us, To keep Your precepts diligently. Oh may my ways be established To keep Your statutes! Then I shall not be ashamed When I look upon all Your commandments. I shall give thanks to You with uprightness of heart, When I learn Your righteous judgments. I shall keep Your statutes; Do not forsake me utterly!” ,
Or the great respect of the Law in Psalm 119:33–40,
“Instruct me, O Yahweh, in the way of Your statutes, That I may observe it to the end. Cause me to understand, that I may observe Your law And keep it with all my heart. Cause me to walk in the path of Your commandments, For I delight in it. Cause my heart to incline to Your testimonies And not to dishonest gain. Cause my eyes to turn away from looking at worthlessness, And revive me in Your ways. Cause Your word to be established for Your slave, As that which produces fear for You. Cause my reproach which I dread to pass away, For Your judgments are good. Behold, I long for Your precepts; Revive me in Your righteousness.”
Even that same delight in Psalm 119:97,
“Oh how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.”
No, this great love, respect, and desire toward the Law in that last half of Romans 7, is in many ways an echo of the Psalmists; the Law has indeed come to both in a similar manner, for even the Psalmist recognizes his great inadequacy before the Law, his great need for salvation in that last octet, Psalm 119:169–176,
“Let my cry of lamentation come near before You, O Yahweh; Give me understanding according to Your word. Let my supplication come before You; Deliver me according to Your word. Let my lips pour forth praise, For You teach me Your statutes. Let my tongue answer with Your word, For all Your commandments are righteous. Let Your hand be ready to help me, For I have chosen Your precepts. I long for Your salvation, O Yahweh, And Your law is my delight. Let my soul live that it may praise You, And let Your judgments help me. I have wandered off like a lost sheep; search for Your slave, For I have not forgotten Your commandments.” ,
For we must ever remember, that though who the “I” is may be our great question, this was not the case with the apostle Paul, for his focus was the place and purpose of the Law, of how it brings conviction of sin, and how the Law only drives us to Jesus Christ. He’s not talking about the gospel yet!
For here in the verses today, we must recognize that despite the desires of this man’s heart, he can ever and only come to the inevitable conclusion that he cannot keep the Law. Even a great and powerful love for the Law of God proves insufficient for the doing of the Law.
And it must not be lost on us, that no one has been more vocal and outspoken than the apostle Paul that salvation is not by works, but by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
And yet this same apostle wrote in Romans 2,
But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who WILL REPAY TO EACH ACCORDING TO HIS WORKS:
to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and anger.
There will be affliction and turmoil for every soul of man who works out evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who works good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
And even Abraham’s faith – which Paul holds up as a model for our own – resulted in later works of righteous obedience, which James 2 rightly points out for us.
And so when we look back to Romans 7:16-20, and read the anguish of a person feeling the full weight of the Law turned against them, saying
But if I do the very thing I do not want, I agree with the Law, that it is good. So now, no longer am I the one working it out, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the working out of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one working it out, but sin which dwells in me.
We must not fail to realize that though this person does indeed love the law, his will is to do what it requires, yet he finds that any pretense he may have of actually meeting its demands fall flat. He simply cannot do it.
And this truly presents a problem for those holding to what is essentially a pagan, humanistic view of human will, the “free will of man” that is so free that we can respond to every voluntary matter through philosophical indifference, that nothing compels us toward one choice or another.
And so, according to that definition of the will of man, this man in Romans 7 would not be faced with this terrible reality of verse 18, that although “the willing is present in me… the working out of the good is not.” He would be able to do the good he wants, and refrain from the very evil he does not want to do.
No, what Paul is declaring here is that even when the eyes of a man are opened by the Holy Spirit and he sees the Law for the holy, righteous, good, and spiritual standard it is, and simultaneously sees himself for what he is, though this is a necessary element of the unveiling of the gospel Paul speaks of in 2 Corinthians 4, it is still only a necessary precursor to the gospel! Knowledge of the Law, even a love of the Law alone cannot save a person!
And here, the understanding of the will of man is one of the great gifts given to us by the English nonconformists rejecting a mere cultural form of Christianity, who were maliciously labeled by their opponents as “puritans”, those who rejected the notion that any version of “Christianity” not founded upon some precept or example in the Word of God was not only void and worthless, but more rightly to be understood as an affront to God and outright rejection of Him.
For they understood that the faculties of the soul or spirit of a man are primarily that of the mind, and secondarily that of the will, consisting of affections and choice. So when a choice is made, that choice is the result of the affections of the will, which are in term shaped and determined by the mind. This is what is called faculty psychology in the puritan mindset, and is the underpinning of all puritan thinking, from William Perkins down to Jonathan Edwards, and is of great use to us as we consider the will of man today.
This faculty psychology realm of affective theology, holds that there are 2 great affections in the hearts of men, love toward that which we deem to be good, and hate toward that which we deem to be bad. When we are absent from that which we love, we experience desire and longing, and when we are present with that which we love we experience delight. Conversely, when we are nearing yet not present with that which we hate we experience fear, and when we are present with that which we hate we experience sorrow and grief.
These affections influence our will, such that we are inclined toward what we love, and disinclined toward what we hate; this inclination and repulsion govern how we make choices in life.
So let’s look at this with a couple of somewhat benign examples: I have determined that I love the MooVille’s Cow Trails ice cream. I am at the moment absent from the object of my desire, and so I experience longing. But they don’t make it any more! They’ve given up that symbol of perfection for the mediocre “moose tracks” with its soft chocolate. Oh, that they would start making it once again instead of the Moose Tracks that is so much lesser an ice cream! But should I find a carton of Cow Trails in the bottom of my freezer, I would then be present with the object of my desire, and I would feel joy and delight!
Conversely, I have determined that I hate pickles, so when I order a burger and realize they may have missed my order’s request for “no pickles”, I feel fear, which at times may materialize as I bite into my hamburger and taste the pickle and possibly gag, at which point I feel grief and sorrow as I try to rid my mouth of the lingering aftertaste.
But in both cases, it has been my mind which has determined what is good, and what is bad, that which I love, and that which I hate. My mind has not been bypassed in this exchange, but has been engaged and impressed those values upon my affections, which determine my choices.
Now to take this out of the benign, and into the eternal: the Puritans take great pains to explain that the mind is to engage with the word of God in an act of understanding and comprehension. The Holy Spirit gives illumination to that basic knowledge, so that the will of God comes to a person, such that the understanding of our hearts beholds the glory of God as revealed in Scripture. This coming of the will of God revealed in Scripture is then impressed upon our affections, gripping and stirring those primary affections of love and hate to their proper objects – a love of God and of holiness, a hatred of sin an rebellion.
And so when we apply this thinking to what the apostle Paul is telling us here in the last half of Romans 7, and especially verses 18 and 19, what we would expect to see is that this person speaking says in effect, “on account of the Law coming to me, and my turning from my darkened, pagan understanding of it, it has changed my mind, my heart is now inclined toward the Law of God, I now love God and His Law, and similarly hate sin or law-breaking, and so my choices and actions reflect that reality of my heart.
And I think we should point out that this notion is in essence the claim of the Arminian theology of free will.
The problem is that that is not what we read here! No! Instead, we read in Romans 7:18–19 the exact opposite!
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the working out of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
Does this mean that faculty psychology and affective theology is all wrong? No, not at all! Instead, it means that at the moment of choice, what I know and affirm to be true in my mind, that the Law is holy and righteous and good, is entirely insufficient to overcome my being set down under the realm and rule of Sin.
For sin dwells in me, verse 17 declares, and verse 18 finishes the thought by explaining that good does not dwell in me. The great power of sin inside me, is so powerful, its control is so absolute, that even the Law coming to me is unable to wrest me away from the power and dominion of sin.
But that’s not all that is involved here. What we read here is that this person is saying “the Law has not merely come to me, but I have in turn responded to it by agreeing with it – that which I do, is fundamentally wrong.”
In other words, what is being described here is a person who once claimed to be in fellowship with God, who has realized that he walks in darkness and has no fellowship with God. This is a person who once felt he had no sin, who has realized he was only deceiving himself and instead has great sin.
This is a person who is in the process of confessing and repenting of his sin, who rightly understands that he stands judged before a holy and righteous and just God who cannot abide sin.
The question, then, is why is it, that there is this great chasm between God’s Law which this man loves, and his doing of the Law?
For if we were to say that my will determines my action, we could easily come to the conclusion that my will is opposed to the Law, that I am speaking out of the side of my mouth, as it were, and am two-faced, that because I violate the Law I am actually rejecting the Law, rejecting not just its ceremony but also its morality.
Because at the moment of action, at the moment of choice, what I know and affirm to be true regarding the Law of God is not governing the affections of my heart, something else governs my affections and my choices, something else controls my will and my mind.
It is the holy, righteous, good, spiritual Law of God which here is indeed working as that παιδαγωγός, the tutor of Galatians 3:24, the servant of the Master, whose only function is to bring us to the point of understanding the lesson, the truth of our need of Jesus Christ so that we may be justified by faith, this Law is at work within us so that we would understand the full and horrid sinfulness of sin which such dominion over us.
Paul is saying that when the Law comes to a person, though their mind desires to do good, it is even then overruled by the sin which works out only death rather than life. Even when the Law has come to a person, even when they have in a sense turned a corner and agree with the Law, even that is insufficient to save a person – something beyond this new attitude and understanding of the Law is required.
For even the Law coming to me does not allow me to bear fruit for God, all I can manage to do is to bear out the truth of Romans 7:5, “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.”
My will, then, is not completely free to choose anything I want; while it is free to chose things like ice cream and pickles, it is completely unable to choose between obedience to God, and rebellion against Him, it is not indifferent toward Him. While I am still in Adam, I remain under condemnation and have great need of God to act favorably toward me, for I am utterly and completely unable to cause my actions to be righteous on my own.
In other words, in the words of psalmist,
I long for Your salvation, O Yahweh, And Your law is my delight.
Or, perhaps it would help us to comprehend this if if we re-arrange it to say that “even though I do delight in the Law of God, I still need salvation to come from Him, to me. I simply cannot do this on my own, for by even when the Law comes to me, proceeding by my will alone can only end in failure.
No, my friends – even the best of mankind need something else; some-one else, to deliver a person from his or her body of death.
Is it no wonder, then, that Paul had made that great statement in verse 4 that has so troubled the world, saying…
So, my brothers, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.
For we will find when we arrive at the end of this chapter, the climactic outcry of relief against the pent-up anguish of the man the Law has come to, having felt the terrible weight of his sin and the corresponding realization he has no way of relief in himself, as he finds his relief only in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So what is our point? What should we learn? That the will of man – even the man the Law has come to, who loves and affirms that holy, righteous, good, and spiritual Law of God – is entirely useless on account of the dominion of sin. But the Law does prove to him, beyond the shadow of doubt, is that he needs a saviour!
Let us Pray!