Romans 7:13-25 "Who Will Deliver Me?"

Good Morning, Calvary Chapel Lake City!

This Thursday… we are sending two of our Children’s Ministry leaders to California for the Calvary Curriculum Children’s Ministry Conference held at Jack Hibb’s church.

Parents… it was an easy decision for the elders and I… and Trish and Debbie… to say “yes” to this conference… as we ALL want to see your kids discipled in Christ.

Please be praying for safe travel… and that through the conference…

… they will come back with some great ideas that line up with God’s will for this church and our community…

This will also be Trish’s first time to the Pacific Coast… and Debbie will be able to take Trish down the coast and to In-and-Out Burger… should be an AMAZING TIME. What a blessing.

Well… let’s partake now of our blessing… to be in the word of God. Please open your Bibles to Romans 7. Romans 7:13-25 today.

We are in the thick of the doctrinal section of Romans and I’m proud of you all for hanging in there as we go through this epistle.

Romans is an important teaching…

John Calvin said, “… understanding Romans opens a pathway to understanding the whole Bible.”

But, in the days in which we live… enduring sound doctrine is a rarity according to 2 Timothy 4:3 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine...”

In the end times people will no longer listen to or tolerate sound and wholesome teaching through Scripture.

I’m proud of you… who love to go through the word… chapter by chapter… and verse by verse… teaching straight through the Bible!

You love the word of God… you desire the meat of the word… it says something about your spiritual maturity.

It’s NOT my witty words… or charisma… or the free coffee…

NO… you’re here for the word of God.

Many people look for teachers who tickle their ears because of… as the word says… they have an “insatiable curiosity to hear something new.”

They ‘reject truth and chase after myths.’

That’s NOT you, but such are the times in which we live.

When we first began Romans… I introduced several outlines… and the easiest to remember is to simply divide Romans into two sections…

The first 11 chapters of Romans are doctrinal and the final five chapters (12-16) are application.

We are in the doctrinal section… and this prepares you for the application section…

If you skip doctrine and jump right into application… the application doesn’t make sense…

The very first verse in the application section is: Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service."

Without 11 chapters of doctrine explaining condemnation, justification and sanctification…

We wouldn’t understand why it is reasonable to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God.

Because devoid of context and doctrine… Rom 12:1 doesn’t seem reasonable.

So, Paul is taking us on a journey… and I encourage you NOT to give up… continue to endure sound doctrine and be sanctified by the word of truth.

Today… we finish Chapter 7 of Romans.

Last week I explained that Chapter 6 explains WHAT sanctification looks like in our lives… and Romans 8 tells us HOW to live a victorious Christian life.

But Chapter 7 takes a needed detour to address an error many Christians make…

… where they get stuck in sanctification because they try to achieve sanctification by works… by keeping some set of rules to become holy.

This chapter is designed to expose the error of what you could call “Romans 7 Christianity”… which is NOT how you want to live your Christian life.

When you trusted Jesus… you were justified by faith in Christ… NOT by works…

And in Romans 7 & 8, Paul makes it clear that sanctification is not by works either.

God gave us His Son… and His word… and the Holy Spirit… all of which are Sanctifying us.

Thus far in Romans 7, Paul explained that we are dead to the law.

The law is not our means to salvation, but points us to have faith in Christ… and once that work has been accomplished… we are delivered from the law.

Now… being married to Christ… we serve in newness through living in the Spirit.

The last segment we read… in vv 7-12… Paul addressed the law… his personal experience with the law… and his testimony and struggles from vv 7-25.

NOT prior to Christ, as some suppose… but while a Christian.

Paul discussed how in reading the Tenth Commandment forbidding coveting… his sin nature woke up… and ‘produced in him all manner of evil desire.’

And, this happens to us. You know you’re not supposed to, but you do.

Adam and Eve… in the midst of paradise… with one restriction… don’t eat from one tree. And they failed.

We’re drawn to sin… like a moth to a flame.

But, none of that is a failure of the law. Paul established the law is holy and it’s commands are holy, just and good.

Our struggle comes from within. From our sin nature.

Sin is deceptive… and destructive… and as we will read today… after great wrestling with all of this… Paul will comes to the conclusion…

Even as a Christian… he needs deliverance.

Deliverance which comes not from a WHAT, but a WHO… “Who Will Deliver Me?” … which is our message title today.

Let’s Pray!

In reverence for Scripture, please stand as I read our passage.

Romans 7:13-25 “Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”

Praise God for His word, please be seated.

This is one of the most poetically written segments of scripture by Paul… especially from vv 15-20 with Paul’s repeated use of the words “will” and “I” and “do.”

I remember hearing this passage for the first time… from an early mentor of mine…

He read the words of this passage with such passion and was awe struck by what Paul wrote. It was rather inspiring to me.

Paul continues his thought in V13 from the preceding verses about his sin nature interacting with the law which is holy… asking this question in V13 “Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not!

The first question easy… he asks “Has then what is good [referring to the law and it’s commands… which in V12 he just described as “holy, just, and good”]…

“Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not!”

The law did not bring death to Paul. The law did not cause Paul to die.

No law has the power to doom or condemn any of us to death.

A law is just a law… it’s a communicator of what is right and wrong… but it is not responsible for bringing death.

I’m not anxious that there is a law prohibiting murder in our legal system. It’s a good law. It preserves life.

There’s no way that the death penalty can touch me… unless… I grievously break that law.

Sin “brings forth death”… (James 1:15)… which is where Paul leads to next in V13 “But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.”

Paul had to have been next level brilliant, because WHO talks like this?

I have to muddle through this word by word just to have it make sense to me.

I feel like I’m reading Dr. Seuss. … Red fish. Blue fish.

Let’s try to make sense of this…

It was NOT the law that caused Paul’s death… it was sin… so that it may appear sin… so that sin may be recognizable for what and how terrible it really is…

Sin was “producing death” in Paul. Interesting phrasing.

Not necessarily instantaneous death…

Paul referenced his issue with coveting (V7)… and left unchecked… that sin grows… producing death inward…

And, if still left unchecked… as one’s desire grows for the things of the world… all kinds of destructive manifestations can result… lying, stealing, cheating… even murder.

And sin will tell you just how rotten you are. It will use the law (what is good) for it’s own evil purposes.

At the end of V13… interesting phraseology… Paul writes that ‘sin… “might become exceedingly sinful”…

I appreciate this insight from Charles Spurgeon… he wrote, “Paul here calls sin “exceeding sinful.” Why didn’t he say, “exceeding black” or “exceeding horrible” or “exceeding deadly”? Because there is nothing in the world so bad as sin. When he wanted to use the very worst word he could find to call sin by, he called it by its own name, and reiterated it: “Sin … exceeding sinful.”

How appropriate to declare sin is exceedingly sinful? I

t’s darker than “black”… more atrocious than “horrible”… it aims to kill and destroy, but the word “deadly” falls short.

And, yet… we fall in the error of downplaying “sin”… perhaps because we are under grace… perhaps because we simply have to confess our sins and God is faithful to forgive and cleanse us.

We need to repent of this thinking if we truly want to walk in a victorious Christian life.

Sin is not to be played with… we teach our children NOT to drink poison… not to touch hot stoves… and wise are you if you treat sin in the same way and more… because it’s exceedingly sinful.

Sin seeks to destroy your life… and to distance you from God. It’s a deliverer of all kinds of death… from physical death… to spiritual death… it produces death.

We have a fallen nature… and that nature is rebellious… there is an instinct to do that which is forbidden…

And, the sinful nature deceives you beforehand telling you ‘it won’t be that bad to sin’… it will justify sin… it will encourage sin…

And, then once you cross the line… it condemns you… yelling loudly, “You broke God’s command… you dirty rotten sinner.”

Parents… our children need to understand this as clearly as they understand looking both ways before crossing the street.

We guard them from life and death situations. And, sin is a life and death situation. It’s a fire NOT to be played with… and yet we do. And yet we do.

Our fallen nature is at war with our spiritual nature. There is constant conflict between these two natures.

In Gal 5:17 Paul wrote, “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”

God could have removed our sin nature upon conversion, but He didn’t.

That’s no mistake by God. God didn’t look back and say, “Oops… I guess I should have done that differently. Let me re-think this.”

No… God’s ways are perfect… And even in allowing us to retain our sin nature… it causes a daily dependence on God.

But He didn’t leave us powerless in Christian living… He gave us His indwelling Holy Spirit to help us be sanctified…

In fact, the verses right before and after Gal 5:17… the verse we just read… point to the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 5:16 “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”

Galatians 5:18 “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

At the end of this chapter Paul will thank Jesus Christ our Lord for deliverance.

We have a great High Priest… an intercessor who’s always praying for us (Heb 7:25)

And, God gave us His written word that we would be sanctified by it as well.

John 17:17 Jesus prayed to the Father, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”

None of us can be victorious against sin in this Christian life on our own… BUT… NONE of us are doing it on our own.

You have Jesus praying for you… you have the Holy Spirit inside of you… God is saving you from the power of sin…

And do your part… be daily in the word of God.… and be washed by it.

I wanted to establish all of that ahead of time before we get deep in this chapter and you start feeling like you’re in a hopeless situation… because you’re not.

None of us are. God saved us in the past from the penalty of sin… He is saving us presently from the power of sin… and in Heaven… He will save us from the presence of sin.

Sin will be altogether eradicated in glory, but for now… it keeps us humble… and should cause us to cry out to God.

Alright… one bite down in this passage today… let’s take another bite… can you stomach it?

It’s not milk… it’s meat… we have to chew on it, before we swallow.

And, I’m confident you can digest it.

You’re not spiritual babies… only needing milk… so let’s keep taking in solid food.

V14 “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.”

Paul now draws a contrast… the law is spiritual… we are carnal.

The law is holy… it’s spiritual… it’s good… it’s given from God… perfect in it’s standard…

Back in V7… Paul referenced that he “would not have known sin except through the law”… but he read “You shall not covet”…

Which is a law that points right into the center of man.

Paul upon meditating about covetousness knew the law was spiritual because coveting is a matter of the heart.

The law was not just about outside observable actions… it looks into the spiritual heart of man.

Which Jesus did a perfect job of explaining in the Sermon on the Mount.

It’s so easy to miss in this passage, but the very fact that Paul was reading the law… tells us Paul spent time in the Scriptures.

Paul was not just out and about telling people… “I love Jesus”… “I’m a Christian man!!”

Paul was in the word. He was abiding in the vine… to produce fruit.

When he was first called into ministry Paul reflected that he knew his calling was to preach to the Gentiles, but he went into the desert… to Arabia for three years.

Galatians 1:16–17 “I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.”

We don’t know exactly what Paul was doing but the majority view is this was a season Paul spent with the Lord… in relative solitude… pouring over the word… finding Messiah in the OT…

At the end of his life… while imprisoned and just prior to martyrdom… he wrote this in his swan song…

In 2 Tim 4:13 Paul instructed Timothy to bring “the books [or scrolls], especially the parchments.”

Paul wanted to keep busy with writing and reading.

He especially wanted the parchments which were likely scrolls or codices… Bible manuscripts of the OT.

So, from beginning of calling to his final moments… and here in Romans… Paul was reading scripture.

And Paul testified… it challenged him to the core.

We NEED this in our daily walk. The word was central to Paul’s life… and it needs to be central in each and every one of our lives.

It’s not enough to just get the word Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings… it’s not enough…

We’ve got to be in the word because were bombarded by the world.

I sure hope you’re filling your heart and your mind with Scripture… because social media… and newscasts… and television…

It brings a message into our minds. How much do we need the word in daily doses as well?

Reading your Bible is also one of the greatest expressions that you truly love Jesus… that you want to know Him… that you want to be in His will… that you are truly abiding in Him.

Jesus said, John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”

And if you are abiding… you will ask according to His will… and a prayer aligned with His will is a powerful prayer.

I noticed on one of my daughter’s bibles… she wrote on the side, “This is how I fight my battles.”

I love that. Because there is a battle… between the spirit and the flesh… and Paul reflected this at the end of V14.

Paul declared he is “carnal, sold under sin.”

Carnal… by def. means “pertaining to the flesh”…

Because Paul realizes his lack of victory over the power of indwelling sin.

This is NOT suggesting that Paul is NOT a Christian… just that there was a struggle in his sanctification…

He is displeased with his present state… it’s transparent… it’s vulnerable… it’s honest.

Thus, he declares he is “sold under sin”… he draws a picture of being a slave sold in the slave market.

And Paul feels like sin is his master… he is under it’s power… he is in bondage.

Which is wild… because do you remember in Chapter 6… Paul wrote about slavery and being “set free from sin”… no longer is the believer a slave of sin, but a slave of righteousness and a slave of God.

Is Paul contradicting himself? Absolutely not. We have been set free… but when we don’t walk in the Spirit…

In-dwelling sin seeks to reclaim what it considers its property.

Remember what we read earlier in Galatians… “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”

And the opposite is true as well… Walk in the flesh… and you shall fulfill the lust of the flesh.

How’s your walk Christian? How’s your abiding?

And don’t be prideful… Paul in humility and desperation cries out that this is his present struggle.

And, you and I are NO Apostle Paul.

The very fact that Paul can declare these things about himself proves he is a wise spiritual man.

Had he declared that he was fine where he was… that he was under grace with NO sense of displeasure… Paul would have been a foolish carnal man.

Recognizing one’s struggle is an act of humility… what does God do with that?

God gives grace to the humble. (Pro 3:34, James 4:6, 1 Pet 5:5)

Notice also in this verse to the end of the chapter… that Paul shifts from speaking in the past tense to the present tense…

Several verbs in the previous verses are in the Aorist tense… which is a “snapshot” event typically in the past tense.

Which is an interesting shift… because it tells us the wrestling Paul experienced was after he was born again.

Preachers and Teachers for years have been divided over this… but the fact that Paul speaks in the present tense is a strong support that this wrestling occurred after Paul’s Damascus Road experience.

As a believer he wrestled with two natures… a spiritual and a carnal nature.

There was a present conflict between his two natures… and he felt powerlessness to defeat in-dwelling sin by his own strength.

Which leads us to my favorite section of Chapter 7…

Where starting in V15 Paul declares, “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.”

Paul stood baffled by his own actions. He knew the right thing to do and yet he wasn’t doing it.

And it’s not that Paul stands here on an island as the ONLY Christian who has ever felt this way!

How many of us can feel sin rising up from within… we all have triggers… and something trips your trigger… and there’s that old man or old woman…

The person you don’t want to be… the person you have tried to hard to get away from… the person you pray to God to change you from being.

You’re driving down the road and you get cut off…

You begin to feel that old man rising up within crying out… “Injustice!”

You enter a Buffet… well intentioned to eat no more than seconds.

But, there you are four plates later.

We are 47 days into this New Year…

How’s that New Year’s Resolution going? Is it time to cancel the gym membership yet?

You set your alarm to wake early and be in the word… and the alarm goes off… but, the bed is cozy and warm.

Alan Redpath used to talk about the importance of “blanket victory.”

To get out of bed at a reasonable time and pursue the day. And, on a cold day… it’s a real struggle.

Paul says, “I don’t understand myself. I want to do the right thing… but I don’t do it.”

Can we not relate to this declaration?

The agony of this outcry stems from the frustration that comes from numerous attempts to do right and failing…

… to honor God’s holy word… and then back sliding…

… to flee from sin… and once again ensnared in it…

… and this is a frustration experienced so often by that Christian stuck in Romans 7 Christianity… who tries to be holy… set apart… sanctified… by their own strength.

And, understand this about Paul. Paul was not living FOR the flesh. Paul was living BY the flesh.

It’s a big difference. Paul was not living for the lustful sinful desires of the flesh.

But, Paul was trying to live by the POWER of the flesh to do the things he knew were right to do.

But, he wasn’t doing the right thing… and found himself doing wrong… and he agonized over this.

BECAUSE he was living by his own power… by his own strength… and NOT by the Spirit.

Paul is NOT teaching us here… what the normal Christian life is supposed to look like.

This frustration and wrestling is NOT God’s design for your Christian life.

Paul is teaching us what our Christian life is NOT supposed to look like.

He continues in V16 “If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.”

Paul recognizes that the evil he struggles with is from within… and that there is NO issue with the law. The law is good. Paul confesses this.

If Paul were in our American society today, and thought as many Americans do, he might recognize that he wasn’t doing the right thing… and then cast blame on the law.

That’s backward thinking. Paul is honest that the struggle is real… and the struggle is within.

As Paul attempts to exercise HIS WILL… he fails.

And, admirably… doesn’t try to justify himself… he doesn’t dismiss Scripture… or question Scripture… or twist Scripture…

He YIELDS to Scripture. “The word of God is good. I’m the problem.” Paul says.

The Bible is good. We yield to it. It doesn’t yield to us… or our culture.

Our culture has been on steady decline… taking inch-by-inch of moral ground… especially since the 1960’s to today.

And, if we allow our culture to define spiritual truth… and our culture to define what is good…

The target will be constantly moving… truth constantly redefined is found out a liar.

And good constantly slipping is no good at all.

Paul recognized the law… to him “Thou shall not covet”… this was a good law…

And, while Paul had the knowledge of the law… he didn’t have the power to keep the law…

And, the law was not purposed to give power… only to communicate the rules.

And, so Paul realizes his issue… which was coveting… was NOT to be blamed on the law…

The issue came from within… he was in the wrong… NOT the law.

V17 “But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”

Greek scholar Dr. Kenneth Wuest (who hailed from Chicago) called this verse a “practical paradox”…

He wrote, “To be saved from sin, a man must at the same time own it and disown it; it is this practical paradox which is reflected in this verse."

And this paradox is further seen through the word “dwells.”

Paul says in V17 “sin that dwells in me”… dwells means “to inhabit.”

Sin is in us. It dwells in us as though we are it’s home.

The paradox is that there is Another who also dwells in us.

Paul declares in 1 Cor 3:16 “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”

In one more Chapter… Paul will write “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.” Rom 8:9

What a profound reality… that dwelling in us is both a nature that is drawn to sin… and the Holy Spirit of God… simultaneously!

And in this there is a war… there is a wrestling between our flesh and the Spirit.

Without the Holy Spirit, we wouldn’t have the power to have victory over sin.

The Holy Spirit guides us… sanctifies us… is saving us from the power of sin…

But until we are glorified… we still have that sin nature dwelling in us.

Paul’s new man… his spiritual man… justified by faith in Christ… was not the offender… “But now, it is no longer I who do it...”

It was sin in him… it was the corrupt nature that is in all of us…

This is not Paul excusing his sin… or circumventing responsibility…

Paul is recognizing the source of his sinful behavior.

And then in V18, Paul learns something tremendously valuable… something we all must learn if we desire to progress in our journey of sanctification…

vv 18-19 “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.”

Paul writes that he “knows”… he has come to a place of intuitive knowledge of his nature…

That nothing about his nature is good. People are not inherently good. We are descendants of Adam.

This is evidenced by Paul’s will saying keep the law, but his flesh rebels and for Paul… he coveted.

Might be something else for you.

He willed to do good, but didn’t. Instead he practiced evil.

The problem he and anyone stuck in Romans 7 faces is not a lack of knowledge… it’s a lack of power.

His heart was in the right place, but in his own strength he lacked the power to prevail.

He was willing, but he wasn’t doing.

And, this many feel like a depressing statement by Paul, but TRULY… these are liberating verses. You should be able to have a smile on your face and say, “I’m a no good dirty rotten sinner.”

And the reason you can smile is because you’re in Christ.

It’s no surprise to God when you sin… and that you’re going to sin again in the future.

God doesn’t look down from heaven and think, “Did he just…? I can’t believe he just did that! I didn’t expect that from him.”

You don’t surprise God when you sin.

God knows you have a sin nature… that’s why He sent His Son…

… Jesus Christ… to die for your sin… and my sin… and the sin of the whole world… for all time…

He paid the price for sin.

… and through faith in Him… we are not condemned.

If you are in Christ… you have been liberated. And, this should cause you to smile…

You can’t escape your sin nature, but you do have a Savior… and a Redeemer… and an Intercessor.

And, this is cause to rejoice… this should make you smile and praise Him.

As we continue in these verses… it may sound like Paul is repeating himself, but his emphasis changes…

In vv 15-19 Paul’s main focus was describing his sinful nature and his helplessness over it.

Now in vv 20-23 Paul describes that warfare within… focusing on the battle between the two natures…

And, we’re going to move quickly through these four verses…

vv 20-21 “Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.”

In V20, Paul highlights the two natures…

“Now if I” (the old nature) do what I (the new nature) will not to do, it is no longer I (Paul as a person) who do it, but sin (the sin nature) that dwells in me.”

And, then in V21… Paul describes a law… not the Mosaic law… some translations read a “principle” of life…

One drawn from experience… and Paul again describes the war within…

It’s like a game of chess Paul is playing… and with every move… he’s in checkmate… outmaneuvered by his sin nature.

It’s a very frustrating way to live the Christian life… feeling like you’re always one step behind your sin.

vv22-23 “For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”

Paul knows his spiritual self delights in the law of God with all of his heart. He’s in agreement with the law.

A good proof verse that this wrestling reflects Paul’s Christian experience… NOT Paul pre-conversion.

He loves scripture… He recognizes the law is from God… it’s a delight to him… a joy.

Reminiscent of Psalm 1:2 “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night.”

But, Paul identifies a contrary principle in the members of his body… and it wages war against the principles of his mind…

It’s like when an addict walk into a bar and the whole time their mind is screaming “stop.”

Paul appropriately uses the word “warring”… your translation may read “waging war” or “battles”…

Oh when our flesh and our spirit war… when our body and our mind war… the conflict paralyzes us…

And, Paul say it brought him “into captivity”… it made him a “prisoner of the law of sin” in his body.

And… if you’ve ever been there… trying NOT to sin… agreeing with the principles of the Bible… but your sin nature rears up…

And, you find yourself asking, “Why did I say that!?!”

“Why did I think look at that?!” … “Why did I waste my money on that thing?”

I’m being a little vague… so you can fill in the blank to whatever is true in your own mind… and in your own experience.

We ALL can fill in the blanks.

And, when we get to this place… there is only one place to look for victory…

As Paul cries out in desperation in V24 “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

This is not just some poetic flow, but Paul’s honest outcry that he is a wretched… a miserable man…

Crying out for rescue from the ‘body of death’… may be an allusion to the dreadful punishment of the Romans…

… where they chained the body of a murdered person to their murderer.

The murderer could not free the body or suffer death… and they were tortured by the decay of the dead body.

It’s stench was overwhelming… and it’s rot would spread infection often leading to death…

Truly a horrible form of punishment and Paul likens this to the Christian experience when we are chained to a body of sinful flesh…

Thus he accurately cries out… WHO will free me from this body of death… this life dominated by sin?

You should circle “WHO” in V24 because it’s the key to rising above a Romans 7 Christianity.

Paul knows it’s NOT a WHAT… not a seminar… or a program… or the next self-help book… or looking to the world and ALL of it’s wisdom.

It’s not about reforming the flesh… the Bible says put to death the flesh.

It’s NOT me / your Pastor and it’s not the person in the mirror.

Paul clearly could not find the answer in his own strength.

You can’t look AROUND… you can’t look WITHIN… you HAVE to look UP.

Who can deliver me from this body of death???

V25 “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”

There’s only ONE WHO… ONE NAME… and HIS is the NAME ABOVE ALL NAMES… He’s the KING of kings and LORD of lords… Jesus Christ.

As long as you look for how to live a sanctified Christian life… in a WHAT and not in WHO… you will never find victory.

Paul thanks God that he can look outside himself… and in V25 Paul looks to Jesus Christ for deliverance.

In V1 of Chapter 8 (and there were no chapter breaks)… Paul writes about walking according to the Spirit… and 19x in Chapter 8 he mentions the Spirit.

Do you think the Holy Spirit is involved in sanctification… in helping you to live a victorious Christian life… saving you from the power of sin???

I would say so.

Wanting to live a victorious life… and the power to live that life WITHOUT the Holy Spirit stand in tension.

Let’s not forget we also have the word of God.

As we read earlier and as Jesus’ prayed in John 17:17 “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”

We have the word of God to also guide us and sanctify us.

And, as Jesus prayed… and as Paul cried out “Who will deliver me?”

Appropriately… we need to be people of prayer to serve God… and not sin.

In the context of the spiritual war, Paul wrote in 2 Cor 10:4 “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds...”

And, as we employ the ALL THE SPIRITUAL resources of God… the believer’s renewed mind and new nature can serve God… and not sin.

And, then with the turn of the page… Paul takes us into what we call Chapter 8… where we learn HOW to live our Christian life victoriously.

Being sanctified BY GOD… and NOT by our own best efforts.

Read ahead.

Let’s Pray!

Chapter 7 was not the easiest Chapter, but it’s quite the liberating Chapter.

If you’ve been beating yourself up for failing in your walk… apply the principles of this chapter…

Abide in Christ and His word… pray… and trust in the Holy Spirit… not yourself to do the good work in you.

If you need prayer for anything… perhaps a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit… or whatever your prayer needs.

Our prayer team will be up front as we sing this last song.

I pray you are empowered with the Holy Spirit for this week ahead.

God bless you as you go.