The Struggle

In the beginning of Romans Chapter 7, Paul talks of how Christians are free from the law. We have died to Christ, and just as a marriage ends when the husband dies and the wife is free to remarry, a Christian dies to the law because they died in Christ. We belong now to Christ, and we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Paul’s point is that believers don’t live under the law in the sense that they constantly fear it and are under it as a burden, but instead, we live in the Spirit and therefore should have a natural inclination to want to please God, empowered and encouraged by His Holy Spirit, and we don’t obey because of fear, but in response to his love with an attitude of wanting to serve him well.

Now, Paul again preempts the arguments he can well imagine would come in response to this, and spends the rest of the chapter both defending the law, and using himself as an example of how our whole lives are a constant battle against sin, against the very nature we are born with, that bent towards sin. And finally, near the end of the chapter, after sharing his frustration about having to still fight this battle, he reminds us of the hope we have in Christ, that someday the battle will end, when Christ’s sure victory over sin and death is manifested in our remade heavenly bodies.

You see, you and I, if you are a believer, are suspended, in a sense, between Christ’s death and resurrection. We have died with him, and we look forward to that day when the victory is finally complete, when our sin nature is completely defeated and gone, and we will only have pure desires to live and serve Christ our Savior and God, and to obey his will with gladness and joy.

Romans 7:7–25 ESV

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? 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. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 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. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Big Idea: The Christian life is a constant battle against sin.

What not to do with this passage:

Marginalize Sin

Accept defeat

Lose Hope

Go into Battle alone

this passage could be generally outlined this way:

7-13 1st defense of the law: sin is the real culprit

14-17: second defense of the law: blame is shifted from the law to the self

18-20: an explanation of how sin works through the divided ‘I” (mind vs flesh)

21-23 and through the divided law: The law I delight in, or agree with, and the law of sin that dwells in my members.

So Paul is resisting the idea that because the law incites sin, it is responsible for sin: Wuest: “while the law incites this Christian to more sin, yet the law is not responsible for that sin, but his evil nature, which only can be conquered as the believer cries, ‘who shall deliver me?’ and looks away from himself and self-dependence and to the Lord Jesus”

No, Paul says, the law in not sinful, but holy, and righteous and good. But sin is aroused by that law. You see, when we are told we have restrictions on behavior, we want to react to that. If a business were to put up a sign, “You are forbidden to throw rocks at the window”, How long would it be before someone’s rebellion would take over, and just to prove they didn’t need to obey, throw rocks at the building? I saw a picture of a sign urging men to get medical screenings. It said something along the lines of “Many men will die because they are stubborn”. Underneath was spray-painted graffiti: “No we won’t!”

But no one in this room would do that, would they? No, we are above that kind of behavior. Let’s see if this one hits a little closer to home: What if you are told something privately, and told you are the only one I am sharing this with, so please keep it to yourself. If I had just told you without the restriction, you may or may not have shared it. But when I said to you that you must keep this secret, does it not become even harder not to share?

Or if you are told, as Paul tells us in Philippians 4 to rejoice, to let our reasonableness be known to everyone, to not be anxious, and to think on things that are true, and honorable, and just, and pure, and lovely, and commendable, and excellent, and worthy of praise, think about these things! And yet, how many Christians spend more of their time thinking, (and talking) about things that are not good? Instead of Paul’s good list of things to think about, how many Christians spend their time thinking and talking about problems and criticizing, and worrying, and impure, and ugly?

Now, of course any honest Christian must admit, that indeed, though I know how I ought to think and act, I don’t do it the right way much of the time. And the one who says they are without sin, according to 1 John 1:8, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. No, Christian, if you are to be obedient and believe in God’s Word, and agree with it, you must agree with all of it, and God’s word clearly shows us that, even though we may be saved for eternity, we are not yet released from the ongoing battle against sin our own selves.

In verse 11, he says sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. You see, sin perverts the good law of God in three ways: First, it deceives us, by questioning whether we understood the law correctly: “Did God say?”, then, it makes God a liar by denying the consequences: “You shall not die”. Finally, it misrepresents God’s motives. “He knows that if you eat of the tree you will be like him.” Of course, God’s motives in giving his law, or any commandments to us, is for our good and to bring joy and peace to us, but Satan twists this. He perverts everything. He turns the good things of God into evil.

Now, let’s take a look at the 4 things not to do with this passage: First, we are not to marginalize sin. “well, if Paul had trouble with sin, and struggled, then I guess we should just live with it”. No, this attitude would be clearly wrong, scripture never gives us license to sin, but always tells us to be obedient. Jesus said our love is proved in keeping his commands.

No, we are to take sin seriously at all times, be vigilant in the battle. Our battle against sin, and our continued march forward in righteousness, benefits not only ourselves, but our families, our church, our community. The world around us receives benefit from our obedience.

Now, as Paul writes here about this struggle, those who have studied this passage have had some discussion about who Paul is referring to when he writes about this struggle: “i do not do what I want, but I do the very think I hate” and so on. Who was Paul writing about? Well, there have generally been three schools of thought.

First, some have said Paul must be writing about non-Christian pharisees who are under the law. Next, some have said that Paul is simply speaking about the normal Christian life. and finally, some have said Paul is speaking of a carnal Christian, which I would argue can’t really exist anyway, because a Christian cannot be carnal in the sense that the term is usually referring to.

Let’s look a little closer at these. First, Paul is not talking about Pharisees for at least couple of reasons. Yes, Paul had been a Pharisee, and certainly knew their attitude about sin and the law, but he is no longer, and he is writing not to unsaved Pharisees, but to the church in Rome. It would not make sense for him to put everyone he is writing to into the category of Pharisees.

Next, let’s look at the last one: Carnal Christians. Generally what is meant by this is someone who is a believer, but who still lives very much in a worldly way. I just said that I don’t think there really can be carnal Christians in the way the term is usually meant. First of all, one of the signs of a regenerate person is a desire to be free of sin, even if that person continues to struggle in that area.

So we are left with the second choice, which is what I believe is the case, and that is that Paul is speaking of the normal Christian life. Now, I am not exactly going out on a limb here, and I am in good company for this position, since Augustine, Luther, and Calvin all agreed on this point, that in Romans chapter 7, Paul is speaking of the normal Christian life. In other words, it is normal for a Christian to continue to struggle with sin, and to have failures and disappointments in themselves.

How can we be sure that Paul is writing, not only about the normal Christian struggle, but actually speaking of his own struggle? Well, our first clue is in the grammar. And we all love grammar right? Remember learning grammar? Nouns, tenses, and all that? Back in the day, editors of newspapers made sure the grammar was good, now the editors are more worried about giving opinion. I read most of my news online now, and sometimes I just cringe at the writing that is our there. I think grammar got run over by a reindeer.

Of course, you may be aware that Paul did not write to the Roman church in the first century in modern English. No, this letter was first written in Greek, and not modern greek of today, but the greek language in use 2,000 years ago. So to understand it, many men and women have studied that ancient language to give us the best translations we have today. One thing that it seems no one really disagrees with is this: Paul wrote Romans 7 in the first person singular, and in present tense. Just as if you were asked to write a report on how you are feeling today, you would use personal pronouns such as I and me, and you would use language that indicates your thoughts are in the here and now. That is the grammar.

So the grammar may be the best clue that we have that Paul is speaking of himself in the present tense, and also we have a very big clue in verse 24. “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Now this is a heartfelt cry of frustration. It isn’t despair. Paul is clearly frustrated that he has to keep fighting this battle daily.

Romans 7:15–20 (ESV)

Romans 7:15–20 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. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 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. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Someone wondered if Paul was a golfer. A golfer may know how things should be going, but realize they only work exactly right part of the time, and the rest of the time you are frustrated by your inability to make the magic happen. The golfer may say “I do not hit the fairway, but the rough, which I hate. So I know that golf could be good, but I can’t do it the way I would like. So I agree that I would like to do well, but instead I do all the wrong things.” That’s why one very common golf accessory is one of those poles to get balls out of the water.

To get back to our point, we cannot, however, marginalize sin. We should acknowledge the struggle, and we should fight the fight, we should not marginalize the sin.

the second thing we should not do goes right along with that, we should never accept defeat. Heaven forbid we simply give up in our struggle against sin and say, it’s no use, I may as well just do these bad things. Instead, we need to confess our sin, and ask the Lord’s help, and also ask the help of the church, which is given to us to help us with this. In other words we need to own our sin. Wuest said: “To be saved from sin, a man must at the same time own it and disown it”

This is what is known as a paradox. Two realties that are seemingly at odds with each other. But this really is what Paul is getting at: That I must own my sin (confess it, realize it, acknowledge it, however you want to think about that) and I must disown it (reject it as something I want to own. Send it away.) If someone disowns a family member, they are saying “I want nothing at all to do with you. I don’t want you in my home. More than that, I don’t want to hear your voice. And I don’t want people knowing you belong to me.”

How does this work in our lives? Well, consider if a sin you struggle with was that you always thought negatively about yourself, and others, and the state of affairs generally. To have victory over this sin, you would need to first own it. This means to acknowledge it. To confess it before God. To confess it to another believer who can help you with the struggle. You need to own that it is sin and it is your sin. And then, you need to disown it. Reject it, say I want nothing to do with it, I don’t want this in my life anymore. I want to be completely disassociated with this sin”.

Next, we should not lose hope. How many times have we been like Paul, realizing we have failed again to do what is right, wishing we did not have the burden of being tempted toward sin, at the point of frustration where we cry out, “who will save me from this body of death?”

By the way, some scholars think that what Paul was referring to here by body of death was one of the worst punishments. In some cases, I believe for murder and crimes like it, the punishment was that the guilty person would be tied or chained to a corpse. Now, you can image how terrible this would be. As the corpse was rotting and drawing flies, and stinking, the person attached to it would be completely unable to free themselves of this awful thing. I think we could say that is cruel and unusual punishment. Not something any of us could stomach. If in any way, you are able to consider the horror of being chained or tied to a dead body until you yourself die as well, now you may have some further understanding of what Paul was crying out when he said, “who will deliver me from this body of death?”.

Is this how you see your sin nature? As something so horrid that you just want to be free of it? Do you smell the stench of your own sin in your life? Are you burdened by not being able to do the good you would like because your are chained to the corpse of your sin nature? This is what Paul felt. Yet he did not give up hope. He realized that he could still be thankful God. The next chapter begins with a verse that helps us to breath some clean air of hope into our present situation of still struggling with our sin, and that is that despite all of these struggles, the true believer can say with Paul, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by flesh, could not do.

That will be our next study. We need Romans 7 to show us the struggle we all face. This is the normal Christian struggle. We don’t use the passage to marginalize sin, or to accept defeat, or to lose hope. However, we must own and disown our sin. Satan takes God’s good law and perverts it. We must fight against our flesh and reject the ways of Satan, and pursue peace with God.

The final point is this: We are not to go into this battle alone. First of all, we go into the battle with the Holy Spirit as our encourager and empowerment. The holy Spirit teaches us, guides us, and gives us power.

Acts 1:8 (ESV)

Acts 1:8 ESV

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

God expects us to use those things he gives us to fight this battle. The Holy Spirit is key, but God gives us a physical embodiment. It is the church. The church is the body of Christ, and one of the big reasons for this is so that we can encourage one another, confess our sins to one another, and spur one another on to good works.

James 5:16 (ESV)

James 5:16 ESV

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Hebrews 3:12–14 (ESV)

Hebrews 3:12–14 ESV

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

1 Thessalonians 5:10–11 (ESV)

1 Thessalonians 5:10–11 ESV

who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

Romans 15:1 (ESV)

Romans 15:1 ESV

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

Already, not yet. but soon. “Behold, I am coming soon”

Revelation 19:6–10 (ESV)

Revelation 19:6–10 ESV

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

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