Who Are We? (Romans 7:21-25)

intro:

As a young Christian I remember my walk with the Lord being categorized by many ups and many downs. I would share my faith with anyone who would listen but then over time the spiritual high would leave and i’d find myself in a struggle with sin. One of those sins being anger, i remember playing one of my final Basketball games of my High school career and the game wasn’t going our way. i began to push shove and say some pretty awful things. in the end the conviction and guilt hit me so hard i went to the parking lot to cry and repent before God.

i was frustrated that i couldn't seem to control myself. i felt like such a hypocrite and i was moving from conviction to disrepair. that was when God brought this passage to me. it explained exactly how I felt. let’s read our text.

Romans 7:21–25 ESV

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 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. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 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.

Over the course of my life I’ve heard a lot of Interpretations of this passage. I’ve heard arguments that say that this is an excuse to allow sin in our live. I’ve been told that once we have christ as our savior we can now be perfect in this life. But when I look at this text I believe the answer is somewhere in the middle. This text dose NOT teach that we can have a free for all with sin and it dose NOT say that we are now able to live a perfect life on this side of eternity. I believe this text serves two main purposes.

1 John 1:8–9 ESV

8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.