Rom 7:13-25 "The Struggle is Real"

An intriguing shift is about to take place in about 3 weeks. Thousands of students are about to become graduates. What happens to the student/teacher relationship upon commencement? What happens to the principal/student relationship when that paper slips into the graduate’s hand?

The authority to place demands morphs into a peer-based respect for a fellow adult. The person of the educator does not disappear, but the power of authority melts away.

Likewise, just as a co-parent must learn to live within the realm of his or her ex, the Christian must learn to cope with the presence of powerless (but previously powerful) human desires.

A few years ago, I got the opportunity to tour my former High School. Flooring and paint had been changed, a couple of additions had been made to the building, but there was no mistake that this is the same place where I spent 5 years of my formation. [For those who may be wondering why High School was 5 years instead of 4, my High School was grade 8-12!]

The same edifice had a different affect. It was no longer the place of obligation and requirement; it was a place of emotional memories.

Similarly, just as the person who has experienced the new birth, still must acknowledge the physical limitations of a mortal human body, the believer who has been spiritually transferred out of darkness into His marvelous light, must still concede that he or she still occupies a body with mind, will and emotion that has a history.

TRANSITION: today’s text admits the perplexity of the presence of powerless desires and points to a resolution.

Deadly Dwellers (Ro 7:13-17)

Because of Paul’s other comments about dying to sin (Ro 6:6 & Ro 8:2), multiple commentators claim that Paul is describing his pre-conversion experience. Others admit the pronoun “I” and present tense of all the verbs so they claim he is adopting a fictional persona as a rhetorical device. I choose to believe Paul is literally describing his present situation (and that of all born-again Christians) that although he is saved, his “BC” life continues to frustrate him. I’m not the only one to take this interpretation because Dr. Witmer writes, “He was describing his present conflict as a Christian with indwelling sin and its continuing efforts to control his daily life.”[i]

I reconcile all these passages with the idea that Christ HAS cancelled the Penalty of sin, the Spirit IS conquering the Powerof sin, and the believer looks forward to a glorified day when the Presenceof sin will be but a memory.

Sin produces death (Gen 2:17)

Ro 7:5 told us last week that sinful passions were present in humanity before the written code came along to arouse [to expose or magnify] those passions.

Some genuine, born-again believers see the word “law” here and conclude this is talking about Moses’ list of rules in Exodus-Deuteronomy. But rules can, but is not limited to, mean a code of expectations. We also have unwritten laws like the laws of nature such as the law of gravity, laws of physics like motion and entropy, the law of diminishing returns, the law of lex taliones – and eye for an eye, etc.

We are told as early as Gen 2:17 that if Adam decided to sin, death would be the consequence. I’m convinced that the law of sin is that “wherever sin (disobedience) exists, death occurs”. This law pronounced guilt on Eve, Adam, Cain, and everyone who perished in the universal flood. As I read Scripture, it appears the law of sin was in place at least 2500 years before Moses met with God on Sinai.

Using the numbering of years of the Hebrew Calendar (the very youngest numbering system) of 3760 BC and roughly 1400-1525 BC dating of Moses’ life, the math says that the truth that sin causes deathhad been in place 2260 years before the commandments were spelled out.

It is this law that declares God just in kicking Adam and Eve out of the Garden. It is this law that renders God just in destroying the world with a flood. It is this law that supports God being just as Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed. This law was in place all the way from Gen 2 until Exodus 20 and continues to undergird all subsequent forms of law.

And it is this law, this principle, this rule – [humans choose to disobey even though there are consequences] that Paul (and me, and you) finds so frustrating.

Flesh [sinful human and sinless One]

Whether you think law refers to Mosaic regulation or human inclination to disobey God, both of these realities find their expression in human bodies.

Every human is a soul that occupies a body, and each body bears the curse of sin (with one, and only one, exception).

It is because Jesus was supernaturally conceived of the Holy Spirit in the virgin Mary that his flesh and bones, his mind, will and emotions did not inherit the sin nature that we received at conception.

There are times that we like to blame the Devil, or we excuse with peer pressure, but the reality is that deep within each of us, in the inner man that resides in our human bodies, we are inclined to disobey God and seek individual interests.

Holy Law exposes the contrast (Ro 7:14, compare Ro 7:12)

There is a part of you that can be imaged with sound or x-rays. This is one way that Scripture uses flesh—the material part of us that goes in the ground at death.

There is another part of you that no scan can reveal. The immaterial part of you thought process, your moral choices, your personality preferences. This is a second way that Scripture uses flesh.

Paul is not frustrated with his body image here, it isn’t his height, weight or strength that bothers him. It is how God’s evaluation of him targets his values and decisions.

This use of God’s law (v.14) is what the Psalmist describes in Ps. 19.

Psalm 19:7–9 ESV:2016

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.

5. Eph 6 speaks of the Word of God that pierces like a double-edged sword.

6.  Heb 4:12 describes the Word of God as dividing the most internal parts of humanity.

7. The Word of God, the Mind of God is what knows each of us intimately and lays bare our sin and our intent.

Real conflict (Ro 7:17)

Part of me really, really, really wants to do what I like.

Part of me really, really, really desires to please the one who redeemed me.

Too often I give into the part of me that is opposed to the One who loved me and gave Himself for me. I’m not proud of this, but as I read Ro 7:17, I don’t think I am alone in this practice.

Desire is not Enough (Ro 7:18-20)

I have new desire (Ro 7:18b)

1. To the unsaved person, he thinks I am lying when I say that I truly enjoy being in a church meeting with the people of God.

2. The unregenerate person does not want the things that I want. He is not inclined to things like church music, sorrowful prayer, painful confession, or long explanations about a book that he thinks is ancient history.

I do not have the ability (Ro 7:18-19)

1. No matter how hard I try or how much I want it, I will never be the perfect husband or the perfect father.

2. No matter how hard you want it, you will never be a perfect Christian as long as you have a physical body on this earth.

Sin has no authority, but keeps up the lie

Just as slaves in Texas were emancipated, but their owners continued to act as if they were in charge until Juneteenth, just as Asian Pacific island guards continued to imprison POWs after their side had surrendered in WW2, just as the playground bully or the social media mean girl continues to claim power, our human sin nature maintains the lie that we are helpless to resist.

Delight and Deliverance (Ro 7:21-25)

Delight is the key to appetite (v.22)

1. Have you heard the phrase, “it’s an acquired taste”?

2. I’m told that people usually gag or cough at their first cigarette or whiskey? But if they do it often enough it becomes part of their cravings.

3. It is similar to the things of the Spirit. At first they will seem strange to the natural man, but the more you delight (choose to find pleasure) in them, the stronger your appetite will be for such things.

Difference between defeat and delight is renewing of the mind (Rom 12:2)

1. We must replace old habits and logic with new reasoning.

2. Wrong actions come from wrong feelings come from wrong thinking. If we think differently, we will feel different, which means we will act differently.

A renewed mind grants victory over flesh (Ro 7:25b).

Even though the struggle is real, to the extent that we surrender to God’s grace through Jesus Christ our Lord, we can be filled with the Spirit and serve the law of God, even though the law of sin remains in our bodies until human death occurs.

Conclusion:

A young Native American warrior spoke with a wise chief of his tribe. The young warrior inquired how the chief had become so wise. The chief spoke of a conflict within. He described both a black dog and white dog fighting each other within his mind. The brave asked, “Which dog wins the battle?” The wise chief replied, “Whichever one I feed the most”.

Light & Lamp Application:

Light for my Path

Feed the right dog!

Lamps for my Steps

New thinking requires repetition to replace old habits – Scripture meditation works!

When you feel powerless and defeated, recall grace that liberates.

While never replacing Scripture, listening to Biblical Truth in music can reinforce in our busy lives. From the 500-year-old “A Mighty Fortress” to the 90-year-old “Victory in Jesus” to the hymn written within the last 10 years “His Mercy Is More”, pick whatever style ministers to your heart and renew that old mind!

Response Song #486................................................... “Faith is the Victory”

Benediction: (reference) - text

[i] Witmer, John A. 1985. “Romans.” In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, 2:467. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.