Fighting the Right Enemy, part 2 - Romans 7:13-20

Introduction: The greatest pain of growth is self-awareness. In order for me to be a different person, I have to come to grips with the person who currently is. Because of my own pride, that I am constantly working to put to death, this creates a conflict inside me that points me to a need for change. On the one side, I absolutely know I need to change. On the other, I stubbornly stick my head in the ground because I don’t want to come to grips with my own flaws. At some point, one of these two opinions wins out, and I either grow and change, or I do not.

This tension is also very true in spiritual growth as well. There still lives in me an inner conflict, between what I desire and what I do, and even sometimes there are conflicting desires. What is the purpose of this? Why is this the case? Why can’t I just be saved, and be totally sanctified, and then I just live perfectly for Jesus until I am with Him?

This painful experience is, in a very real way, the law at work in the believer’s life. This chapter is all about how the law works. This part of the chapter is one of the most complicated passages to explain and understand in the whole book of Romans, but it is also incredibly important to understand to really grasp Paul’s argument going forward. I think our best bet here is to walk verse by verse through this passage, and as we do we will make four statements that can help us understand the inner conflict we experience, and how that is evidence of the law at work in us.

The question? Romans 7:13

Romans 7:13 (ESV)

Did that which is good, then, bring death to me?

It’s similar to the question asked in verse 7-is the law sin? Paul concludes the passage from last week talking about sin coming alive and him dying so it would naturally follow that people would ask this question. Is Paul really saying that the law kills? Verse 13 is Paul’s answer to this question. Romans 7:13

The law doesn’t kill people; Sin kills people.

Romans 7:13 (ESV)

By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

So Verse 13 serves almost as a bookend for verse 12, to make a final conclusion for us, so we know for sure that the law is not sin, and that the law does not bring death. And he shows this by saying the law doesn’t bring death; sin does.

Now, we can see this at work in the Old Testament, in a way that is helpful, I think. So, think back to Genesis with me. God creates humanity, and gives them a charge, consisting of both a do and a do not. Do be fruitful and multiply, and have dominion over the earth. Do not eat from the one tree. There is law at work even in the garden! And yet, the story we read of Eden is one of man walking shamelessly in the presence of God, with no fear of death.

This changes dramatically, however. For instance, when we get to Exodus we read the Lord Himself saying in Exodus 33:20

Exodus 33:20 ESV

But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”

Why? Because even Moses was a fallen creature, and when sin meets holiness, sin must be consumed. So, the wages of sin is death! But God’s holiness isn’t the problem; sin is! Likewise, the law, which is a reflection of God’s character and holiness, isn’t the problem; sin is! So, Paul once again is reminding us that the law doesn’t bring death, and the law isn’t sin. As we said in verse 12, the law is given by God, and everything given by God must be good! The problem is sin. And then, at the end of verse 13, Paul gives us two statements that help us see more about our depravity.

Romans 7:13 (ESV)

It was sin, producing death in me through what is good,

The pervasiveness of our depravity

First, Paul wants to make sure we see the pervasiveness of sinfulness. What an important statement: sin produces death in us through what is good. How on earth does that work?

Let me give you an example. Ephesians 5 is clear that I am to love my wife, right? By God’s grace, I find myself often longing for ways to do just that. Let’s say I wake up early one morning and decide to do the dishes and clean the kitchen. My heart in this is obedience and love! Say then she wakes up, goes about her business and never says a word about me doing those things. You know what ends up happening? I start to talk to myself, and not in good ways. I say things like “I can’t believe that she hasn’t noticed this yet” or “doesn’t she know how special she should feel that I would take time out of my day to do something good for her?” Now, I hear you; I should be helping with those things anyway. But what is happening in my heart right then? Sin is producing death through what is good.

It’s how when God has blessed someone with intellectual ability, or musical talent, or has called them into ministry, of all things, they can find such a sense of identity in those things that they become arrogant. It’s how the “good kid” we talked about last week can honestly believe they don’t need saving because they have followed all the rules since birth. It’s how the one who has violated God’s law can run from God in shame and believe that they can’t be saved - every one of these is an example of sin producing death through what is good! This is exactly what Isaiah is talking about in Isaiah 64:6

Isaiah 64:6 ESV

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

But wait, there’s more! Paul wants also for us to see the perversity of sin!

Romans 7:13 (ESV)

in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

The perversity of our depravity

We spent a great deal of time on this last week, so by way of reminder - the law shows us the nature of our offense, that it is primarily vertical, and that all of us need saving, even the self-righteous among us!

Remember the good news of the Gospel? You aren’t nearly as bad as you think you are; you are so much worse! This is exactly what Paul is saying here. The law exposes that sin is sinful “beyond measure.” We can’t calculate how sinful sin is. Even our acceptable sins are perverse beyond our wildest imaginations.

So, verse 13 is key. Paul is still helping us to understand how horrible sin is, and that it is sin that distorts, sin that kills, sin that poisons. Not the law! The law is righteous, holy and good!

The law is a means by which I see my need for a savior. It shows me I can never measure up! And now we can get moving. Now, this is important to take note of as we read this passage together - There is a shift that takes place right here, from past tense to present tense, in Paul’s language, where he goes from “I was” to “I am.” What follows is Paul’s further explanation of the role of the law, but this time it is in the life of the believer!

The way Paul is going to do this is by explaining the internal struggle that each Christian feels as they mature. But he has to set up the tension in verse 14:

2. Even though I’m born again, I still sin.

Romans 7:14 ESV

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.

Paul begins with an affirmation that only a believer would make with a good conscience: the law is spiritual. He will make a series of statements just like this in the verses that follows, he will say a little later in verse 16 that the law is good. in verse 22, he will say he delights in the law of God. So, he starts with an affirmation: the law is from God and, as such, in itself is good! God cannot give evil things.

Which is what has made this next little phrase so hard! What exactly does he mean when he says “I am of the flesh, sold under sin?” So, let’s take one part of this at a time.

I am of the flesh - what makes this hard is that Paul uses one word to mean a few different things. In fact, he does this in this chapter. Just a few verses ago he referred to living in the flesh, and telling us that our sinful passions bore fruit for death! So here, he is talking about flesh in terms of being unconverted.

But that isn’t what he is talking about in verse 14. Here, he is using “flesh” to describe the fact that he is still in a human body and, as such, still experiences an inner conflict with sin. We read in Romans 6 that Paul, like all Christians, is raised to walk in new life, but the old man still rears his ugly head from time to time. In other words, I have been made into a new creature, but I still have a sinful nature! So the law is spiritual, and so good, but I have a sinful nature that resides in me that is still bad.

Sold under sin - and because I have a sinful nature, I still fight against the old slave master sin. He no longer owns me, but he wants to. This is precisely why Romans 6:12 is so important!

Romans 6:12 ESV

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.

For Paul to write this verse is a picture that, in a very real way, it is still possible for us to “allow” sin to reign in our bodies for a time. The difference is that when we were unconverted, sin reigned whether we wanted it to or not. But now, the Christian can, and ought, to fight against sin reigning in us! Hence that “wage war” mentality that I keep teaching us!

Ok, we have said a lot in two verses, so let me give you two succinct statements that help us catch up:

The law doesn’t kill people, sin does.

Even though I’m born again, I still sin.

Once you get those two sentences, you can feel the tension that Paul wants you to feel. But I am to consider myself dead to sin! Why would I still sin? I have died to the law! Why would the law serve any purpose in my life?

What Paul wants to do in this chapter, remember, is to help us see the role and function of the law. We saw last week the role and function of the law in the life of the nonbeliever to move them to salvation. Now we can see the role and function of the law in the life of the believer.

3. Even though I’m a new creature, what I want and what I do is often inconsistent

Romans 7:15 ESV

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

This is where things can become awfully familiar to us. Paul says “I do not understand my own actions.” We are at the beginning of 2024, and with the beginning of each new year comes new desires, and new commitments to change. With these commitments can invariably come new plans for eating better and/or exercising more. And for the first couple weeks, we very often excel at this. But then there is a tension that comes into play.

Have you ever walked through the kitchen, and past some type of unhealthy food, and your hand just mindlessly heads that way? I have sworn off sugar for almost a year now, and still to this day, there are times when I find myself just reaching out for something that I just shouldn’t have. I have actually stopped myself at times, with my hand on the bag of cheetos, and said “what on earth am I thinking?” Why am I doing this?

This is precisely what Paul is feeling. He is a new man, born again, with new affections and new desires. And yet, there are these moments in his life when he stops and goes “what on earth am I doing? Why in the world did I do that?” He finds himself, as he says, not doing what he wants; he may want to go eat a boiled egg instead of a bag of doritos, but nooooo. Instead? He does that which he hates, and the next thing you know his fingers are covered with cheetoh dust, and he is frantically trying to wipe it on his blue jeans to get rid of the evidence, which incidentally doesn’t work if you have a dog because they give you away every time.

Paul is hitting on an important principle in understanding the Christian life: my desires and my actions are often inconsistent. Either my desire is to do good, and sin hijacks my actions, or my actions are good, and sin hijacks my desires. What’s hard? Doing the right thing, the right way, and for the right reasons. I’m still a Christian, but because I am made of flesh, because there is still a sinful nature in me, I don’t always behave like one. But now check this out

4. The Law points me to my need for repentance.

Romans 7:16 ESV

Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.

so, how does this work? Somehow, when I sin, I agree with the law? What does that mean? It means that somewhere, maybe 2/3 of the bag in, but somewhere, I am aware of the fact that I shouldn’t be doing this. How did that happen? Well, at some point I made a commitment to the Lord that I wanted to take better care of myself, and I resolved to Him that I would eat better, because my family was depending on me, and I wanted to live for Him. And at some point, sometimes after I put my hand on the bag, sometimes after the first cheetoh, and sometimes after I’m throwing the empty bag away, my conscience bears witness against me. It reminds me that I had made a vow to the Lord, and to break that vow is to bear false witness.

I think “I have sinned and wasted an opportunity,” and I feel the guilt of that. I am aware that there is inner conflict. It is at this point that I am faced with the choice of deciding who is to blame:

I may have made a foolish vow, so the vow is to blame. But that can’t be right; everything I have vowed to do is good!

It may be that the law is to blame. So, I may try to redefine bearing false witness, or using the Lord’s name in vain, but that isn’t right either, because God is perfect, and His law is perfect!

So, what is my option? I am the problem. There is still a nature inside of me that looks at Cheetos and says “you know, no one will know!” But God knows. So, the Spirit in me shows me my transgression, and I agree with the law that it is good. And I wouldn’t have done that before I was a Christian! The law reminds me that my primary problem in this world isn’t outside of me; it’s me! I am the problem!

ok, so let’s hold on to verse 17 for just a second, because it’s the same as verse 20, and that will get us to our conclusion. Look at verse 18

Romans 7:18 ESV

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.

All this has led me to a conclusion: there is nothing good in my flesh! Ok, what does this mean? It means that though my inner man is changed, raised, and I am a new creation, there is still a sinful nature in me that lacks good. There is still a sinful nature that wants to reign, and gladly will if I don’t fight. Left to my own devices, there is nothing good. Augustine said it very well, I think: Lord, the good that is in me, you wrought. The rest is my fault.” Now, how do I see this?

I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. I really do want to live for Him! I really do want to change. I really do want to be free from that addiction. And yet, here I go again, headed off the deep end. This is the very essence of addiction right here. David Sheff wrote a very raw, real book that was turned into a movie about his son’s battle with addiction entitled Beautiful Boy. He asks this question about his son: ““How can both Nics, the loving and considerate and generous one, and the self-obsessed and self-destructive one, be the same person?” He would later describe the paradox of addiction this way: “But here’s the rub of addiction. By its nature, people afflicted are unable to do what, from the outside, appears to be a simple solution—don’t drink. Don’t use drugs. In exchange for that one small sacrifice, you will be given a gift that other terminally ill people would give anything for: life.” This is true of almost any addiction; for instance, I don’t personally know a single person who claims to be a Christian who struggles with drug addiction, alcoholism, or their weight who doesn’t have this internal conflict. It also explains why, for any of us, the three “F’s” of fear, facts or force will never lead to change - all three are inadequate to deal with this inner conflict, and all three are insufficient to deal with desire.

Paul keeps going in Romans 7:19

Romans 7:19 ESV

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

So now he sees his own sin happening two ways:

Sins of omission: I do not do the good I want. Even though I know it is glorifying and honoring to the Lord for me to do this thing, I don’t do it! I know that I should pour myself out for the sake of the Gospel, but the risks are too risky, so I don’t do it. Friend, not doing the things you should do is no less sinful, and you know it. So does Paul.

Sins of commission: the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Even though I know that it is sinful and wrong to blow up at a family member, I still do it! Even though I know that I shouldn’t desire that which God has not given, I still do it!

What is Paul’s conclusion? In both illustrations, it is the same conclusion. Romans 7:20

Romans 7:20 ESV

Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

What does this mean? It means:

The sin in me is neither a product of being born again, or a product of the law. The law is not sin and the law does not bring death. Sin is sin, and sin brings death.

Somehow, Is still go on sinning, even after having been born again! And still, it isn’t because of the law.

Sin is the product of the sinful nature in me. So I continue to do it. But that isn’t because of the law! Instead, the law works to do something, even in my life! And now, we are back to verse 13.

Because of this inner tension in me, sin is shown to be sin! The law is still God’s righteous standard, and I can still never live up to it! I see sin for what it is - a violation of the will of God. What’s different? I can tell that, in me, there is a tension that was not there before. I actually desire to do good now, and it is because I love God, and I love His Word and His law. So, God’s law works, even now, in my heart as a believer to show me that what I am doing is sin! The difference? Well, that’s what Romans 8 is for. When we get to Romans 8, we get to learn all about living by the Spirit!

Because of this inner tension in me, I can see how sinful beyond measure sin is. I can see its power, its deceit, its desire to kill me. I am aware of how awful sin is, but there is a difference. The Spirit makes me aware of the sin in me, using the Law as God’s righteous standard, and it produces a godly grief that leads to repentance!

So, does the law bring death? No! Rather, it exposes the lingering death still in me, so that I can wage war against it! It is used by the Holy Spirit to bring about repentance! It is intended to show me my continual need for grace, to protect me from self-righteousness, and to increase my thankfulness for the mercy of God!

Now this brings up an important point. So far, 7 chapters into Romans, we have seen two key statements. First, we have seen that the law was never intended to justify. The law cannot save! We have really hammered that nail. But now, we see another key principle: the law cannot sanctify either! What do we mean? The power to conform us to the image of Christ can never come from simply obeying the law; it must come from something deeper and more powerful. It must come from the Holy Spirit! How does the Holy Spirit do that? Well, that’s what Romans 8 teaches us!

And with that, Paul has shown us that the law is righteous and holy and good, not only in to bring us to salvation, but to bring the Christian to repentance as well!

What is Romans 7:13-20 Telling me to do?

Press on in your fight against sin!

The whole point of us realizing this tension that lives within us is so that we would get in the fight and use the weapons we have been given in the war against sin. This awareness of sin is tool in the toolbox for us; the law serves as another. But we must apply some holy sweat to the work of Christlikeness so that we are conformed to the image of Christ. Christian maturity is not easy, remember Christianity 101? Look at how the author of Hebrews describes this in Hebrews 12:4

Hebrews 12:4 ESV

In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

how about you? Most of us just aren’t that willing to work that hard. But it isn’t because of lack of available resources. we have all things pertaining to life and godliness. growing up is painful. truly learning in the Christian life involves being exposed to hard realities. May we long for Christian maturity more than we long for comfort.

Non- Christian: you can’t grow up because you aren’t born again. Gospel.

Benediction: Philippians 3:13–14

Philippians 3:13–14 ESV

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.