Inner Turmoil That Praises God
Notes
Transcript
I don’t know if some of the things Paul has been teaching us in Romans has surprised you,
but it would certainly have raised some challenges to the Roman Christians he is writing to originally - especially the Jewish Christians in Rome.
Paul has said some surprising things about the law of God - given in the OT:
Follow me through a few verse, flick back to:
Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
Or
It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.
God’s OT law cannot save us - in fact - it makes us aware of our sin!
Only faith - which is to believe the promises of God for salvation can save.
Which made chapter 5 such good news for us - if we can’t save ourselevs:
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
Perhaps it would have been better not to have the law at all then?
The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
SO the law increases sin - but that also increases grace.
Which led us to the question of chapter 6 - Well if sin increases grace - why don’t we sin all the more!?
By no means, says Paul,
through grace you are no longer salves to sin,
but you are now slaves to righteousness - to God who has bought you at a price.
Chapter 7 then continues that theme a little,
And asks:
Is the law of God then a bad thing (if it reveals sin) and what do we do with it now (keep it or bin it)?
That is a very important question for us.
Are we free from the law to ignore it, today?
or are we just free from the law in the sense of it’s ability to save us?
Well - we’re going to find out.
1 - Released from the law, to serve in the Spirit, v1-6.
1 - Released from the law, to serve in the Spirit, v1-6.
In these first 7 verse, Paul uses the biblical teaching about marriage to explain this change in status that Christians experience when they come to faith in Christ, by grace.
Without Christ, we are under the law.
For the sake of clarity - this simply means that we will be judged justly by God almighty, for failing to obey his holy law, in the OT.
You can read the 10 commandments in Ex 20v2-17,
and all the detailed laws of in Leviticus.
or Jesus summarises all of this simply by saying:
Jesus replied: ‘ “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’
Now - if we haven’t obeyed this perfectly - and let me assure you as Romans 3 said, no-one has
- then we will face the just and right wrath of God as we discussed in Romans 2.
But wonderfully - we have died to the law and been made alive now to our new master: God.
And So Paul gives the illustration of marriage - to reinforce this point.
For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.
It’s worth saying that we should have a right understanding of marriage in the bible to understand this correctly.
If you are married, or even if you get divorced - then you are not free to remarry, to have sexual relations.
You have been made-one before God to your first spouse, even if you are then separated.
If you do remarry, you are actually committing adultery.
There are some exceptions where divorce might be permitted biblically,
in cases of adultery or dissertion by an unbeliever, or abuse.
But we should not be quick to assume we are free to remarry, without being guilty of adultery.
This may have affected or be very relevant to some people here.
It might be that there is repentance required, if unbiblical discission have been made,
or if it’s not too late,
then I would seriously encourage you to consider God’s Word above your own desires.
But becasue each case is personal, and complicated, and this
passage is not relly teaching about marriage,
please do talk to me, or one of the pastoral care team. (Bob and Dorothy,Gilly, Anna, Tim or Myself)
But back to Paul’s illustration principle:
If your spouse dies - your contract - before God, is ended - and you are free to entre a new marriage.
And so it is with the law of God for those who are saved by grace alone, by faith alone, by Christ alone.
You, in Christ have died to the law.
So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.
We have died to the judgement that the law brings upon us - and instead of bearing fruit for death, v5
inexplicably - we now bear fruit for God v4.
We are not free in Christ to do whatever we want - but we are now free from the law in Christ to serve God - not ourselves.
Paul calls this new belonging to God - the way of the Spirit:
But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
We’ll discover what this way of the Spirit is shortly, and much more next week in chapter 8.
SO, we are
1 - Released from the law, to serve in the Spirit, v1-7.
2 - The Law Reveals Sin, Sin Revels in The Law, v7-13
2 - The Law Reveals Sin, Sin Revels in The Law, v7-13
Paul now moves to show that while he’s said some surprising things about the law of God,
he does not in anyway consider Gods law to be bad, or sinful.
IN fact - it is very, very good. For several reasons.
What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’
We’ve already thought about this - but the law - acting like a mirror towards our behaviour - shows us what sin is.
As we read it - we now know we have commited sin before God.
- The lie we tell,
- the worship of worldly things rather than God alone.
- Coveting - is the example Paul gives.
The law tells us these are sin.
and that is actually a good thing - becasue it shows us our need for a saviour.
But more than that - sin actually revels in the law.
Not in a positive way - but in a dark way.
But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.
Without Christ - when we hear God’s law - it arouses our sinful nature to sin all the more.
We can’t help but break what we now know leads to death - it’s too tempting.
It’s the no entry sign on a store room that just makes you want to know what’s in there.
The one tree you can’t eat from in the garden of eden.
The law isn’t sinful, Sin is sinful - and uses the law to only enjoy itself!
Such is the depravity of man.
Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.
Such is our sinful nature,
that in ignorance, without the law, we were alive
(at least in the sense of not fully understanding the judgement that was to come
- although we know from Rm 1-2 we would still be guilty of denying God who makes himself made known in creation.)
But once the Israelites, and even we today become exposed to God’s law
- rather than it bringing life - which is what is could bring if we weren’t sinful,
it brings a new depth of desire to sin against God.
This incidentally is why we must use God’s word in evangelism - becasue any some point every believer must have been convicted of their sin, but God’s word.
The law then is wonderful - it reveals our sin that points us to Jesus,
The problem is our sinful nature - but fortunately we have died to that in Christ,
so the law no longer condemns us.
So then,
So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
So, the big question for any believers here today?
Is the law now dead to us - do we bin it?
That’s what Paul asks in v13
Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognised as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
3 - An Inner Turmoil That Praises God, v13-25
3 - An Inner Turmoil That Praises God, v13-25
If the law is not dead to us,
And we are dead to the law - what do we do with it now as Christians?
What is going on in our experience of life, where we still sin, but we’re being told we a dead to sin - but the law is not dead to us.
What is this new way of the Spirit?
This slavery to righteousness, to God, rather than sin?
Well all is ready to be drawn together:
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
When we come to faith in Christ, by grace
- there is a coming together of God’s good and spiritual law - and our unspiritual, fleshly, sinful selves.
or as Paul puts it v22-23
For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.
When we come to faith - we now see the spiritual law of God - that is intended to bring life,
and so we delight in it, because now we love righteousness,
But,
it has been put into the heart of humans who are prisoners to sin, the unspirutal flesh.
So what is our experience of the Christian life..
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
I hope this is you.
Becasue this ought to be, while in some ways sad, it ought to be massively encouraging!
Don’t we, if we’re saved by grace,
want to please God, to live according to his laws and ways - which is to live by the Spirit?
I hope we do!
But what is our experience
- well we can’t shed our flesh, our sinful nature
- and so we so often find ourselves doing the very things we genuinely hate!
This is why we feel regret when we sin!
Someone who doesn’t want to please God does not feel bad when they put their own desires before God’s - they have no care or concept for him!
But those of us who have faith - we feel such remorse and lament for our sin
- for we want to do the will of God,
to live by the way of the Spirit, to obey his law,
but we so often don’t.
Now of course - often we will obey God - we will bear fruit for him,
but until Christ returns and bring us home to glory with him, we have 2 laws at work within us.
And we must live with both.
end of v25
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
The way of the Spirit has made us see how good the law is - in fact
- this inner turmoil between what we want in our mind
and what we find ourselevs doing
is proof that the law of God is so good:
And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
If we recognise that we sin,
and we don’t want to do it,
but find we do anyway
- it is proof that we love and desire to obey God’s law. It’s good.
If we didn’t think God’s law is good - then we wouldn’t care that we didn’t do it!
But the miracle of faith in Jesus - is not that we now live a ‘perfect life’ according to the law
- even though that is genuinely what we desire and seek,
but the miracle is that we are no longer condemned by the law, becasue we have died to it in Christ Jesus.
As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
The good law of God, has begun it’s conquest to conquer us
- The battle is won, but it is not yet complete.
So we live with this struggle between what we know to be good and desire to do,
and the indwelling sin of our nature that has not yet been fully removed.
But - we are dead to it.
Meaning it no longer controls our destiny - even if it often controls our behaviour
So Paul is able to say - not to excuse his sin and actions, but to demonstrate that we live in this state of tension:
It is not me who does it (For I am a slave to righteousness, living the way of the Spirit)
it is my sinful nature (which is condemned to death - but has died already in Christ).
It’s both a very sad endightement on us as Christians - who belong by faith to God,
desiring to obey God’s good law and commandments and ways,
and yet find we cannot do it.
But it is also a great relief to those of us who fear we are not good enough for what we claim to be in Christ.
BEcasue the truth of the matter is - you and I as a person are not good enough
- we are condemened to death becasue of our sinful nature,
There is nothing worthy or lovely in us that God might save us.
but in Christ, through grace, by faith in the pormises of God,
We are not condemened in anyway!
Such is His love, to His glory! Praise God.
So , We live with this inner turmoil going on!
And so Paul concludes:
So I find this law at work: although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.
For the unbeliever, 1 law is at work - God’s law that condemns us rightly to eternal judgement.
But for the believer.
2 laws are at work - the law of God that is now written on our hearts and at a deep level we really do ‘delight in it’
And the law of sin, still in us.
The Christian experience is one of war.
If you do not feel this fight within you
- if we do not have a ongoing, wretched experince of fighting sin
- then we must question if we have received Christ at all.
If we think we are sin free, even as Christians -
then our sinful nature seems to have fooled us and won the battle over the law of God that ought to by His Spirit, be always revealing our sinful natures.
OR
if we have no desire to obey God’s law, then the Spirit would not seem be in our hearts showing us how good it is.
Beware so called Christians who deny they sin anymore,
And beware so called Christians who say we do not need to obey God -and so have no inner turmoil or wretchedness.
All true Christians will battle sin (literally and mentally) until the end of our lives or Christ returns in glory - which ever comes first:
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
But this struggle, battle, our ongoing sin that brings us wretchedness,
does not lead us to dispair, or death as it deserves,
It leads us back daily to God in humble daily repentance.
Who will deliver us, who will rescue us?
Who will Forgive us our sins?
Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
More on that next week:
Pray
HIS MERCY IS MORE
