The Struggle of the Believer

Introduction

Paul has just spent a chapter and a half telling us we are dead to sin and we are dead to the law. Victory is ours in Jesus Christ, but so often, this doesn’t seem to be our experience. Many Christians find themselves struggling with their walk and honestly those who don’t are the carnal Christians who walk as the world does. For any believer who truly loves the Lord there is a keen awareness of how far we fall short of holiness.

I don’t know if you have ever been here or not, but maybe at work you have these goals or things that need to be done and you just feel like you are constantly falling behind. Inwardly, you feel like maybe you aren’t cut out for this and you don’t measure up. You live under the anxiety that some day someone is going to point out how you aren’t up to snuff. This is the type of attitude Paul reveals in this passage.

I want us to read through vs 14-25, and I want you to pay attention to how Paul describes himself in this text.

Just like almost every paragraph in this chapter, the meaning of this passage has been debated back and forth by Christians all the way back to the days of Origin and Augustine. Much of the debate is about whether this is Paul’s preconversion experience or his Christian experience. One side argues this person is too much in bondage to sin to be a believer and the other side argues that they love the law of God too much to be a lost person. I will argue that it is Christian experience but only in view of a believer who is not living according to the Spirit. This is Paul speaking as a believer trying to live out the law in the flesh. My reason for arguing that this is his Christian experience are:

The tenses change from past tense to present tense

Even after mentioning victory in Christ, Paul returns to the struggle with the flesh in vs 25.

The already/ not-yet nature of our salvation is seen in the future tense of the phrase “who shall deliver.”

It is possible for a Christian to experience bondage to sin as seen in Romans 6:16.

The duality of desire versus action point to a Christian experience

Common Christian experience resonates with Paul’s words

When you think of Paul you think of a godly Christian who served God passionately. But does the fact that Paul was often filled with the Spirit mean he was always filled with the Spirit. I want us to just look at one passage where I believe Paul failed.

Acts 15:36–41 “And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do. And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark. But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work. And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus; And Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches.”

Here I believe Paul and Barnabas were both right and yet both were walking in the flesh. James says James 4:1 “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?” There were times in Paul’s life when he was not victorious over the flesh. So we have seen that this is Paul’s Christian experience, but I am also arguing that this is Paul describing those times when he tried to live in the flesh. There was within him a desire to do right, but not the power to do what was right. I have five reason’s for believing this:

Paul describes himself as: (Paul isn’t so much describing himself though he at times is an example of this, but he is describing the believer who in the flesh tries to do right.)

carnal

sold under sin

doing what he wouldn’t

not doing what he should

not knowing how to do what is right

a. carnal- vs 14 Paul has three categories that he lumps mankind into: the natural man who is the lost man, the spiritual those filled with the spirit and the carnal. The carnal Christian is a believer who is saved but lives like the world. 1 Corinthians 3:3 “For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?”

b. sold under sin- vs 14 as we have seen in chapter 6 it is possible for a believer to choose to be under the master of sin.

c. Paul’s experience here is filled with doing things he doesn’t want to do. vs 16 Paul recognizes the voice of the spirit within him saying this isn’t right and yet he still yields. This is for sure a picture of a failing Christian.

d. Paul also experiences the weakness of not doing the things he knows he should be doing. vs 19 (How many of us fall into this category? Give the gospel to that person there, help that homeless person on the side of the street, respond in a gracious way to that person; get up and spend time with the Lord.

e. This description is interesting- Paul says he doesn’t know how to do that which is right. vs 20

This morning I want us to see the conflict we all face, but I also want us to see where the victory actually comes from; so let’s begin by taking a look at the conflict of the believer.

The Conflict of the Believer

vs 14-19

Romans 7:14 “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” This verse transitions from Paul’s description of the law as good. Whose fault is it really that I struggle with sin? Paul says it isn’t the laws fault; rather there is a problem with me. Something about me causes me to sin. When Paul says he is carnal, he is referring to the fleshly sin nature that we all possess. Back in chapter 6, we saw that as believers we have all died to sin, but that does not mean we stop sinning. Paul describes himself as sold under sin. I want you to get this thought; so I am putting it up on the screen:

Believers are no longer in the flesh, in the sense that the flesh is the dominating power over us, but the flesh is still in believers, in such a way that they can choose to live under that bondage.

Romans 7:15 “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.”

The evidence that this is true even for a believer is the fact that we often don’t do what we should and just as often do the things we should not. Inwardly, we know right from wrong. Even at a basic level, people have a conscience; but for the believer, we have the Holy Spirit who pricks our hearts when we do wrong. The believer is in constant conflict between what he knows he should do and what the flesh wants him to do.

Romans, 2nd ed. (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament | BECNT) Exegesis and Exposition

Since sin has a constant, willing (cf. Paul’s use of ἐπιθυμία) ally in the body, the incongruity of Christian existence is experienced as a life of conflict.” “Life in the mortal body for believers in Christ is, therefore, one of permanent and painful incongruity in which life is experienced in the midst of death, and the power of the new age in the midst of the weakness of the old.

This conflict brings a lot of anguish to the man or woman who is seeking to serve the Lord. Paul says he hates doing these things and yet he still does them. I am going to be honest. I hate getting frustrated with people, I hate losing my cool, and I hate hurting others with my words and yet how often do I do those very things. I believe it is a sign of a maturing believer that they do hate these things.

Romans 7:16 “If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.”

The law is not to blame for our sin even though it stir up sin in us, but it also cannot fix our problem. Paul’s main focus in this text is to show the weakness of the law. So why is it that we can’t live up to the laws standards? Why is it that we still sin?

Romans 7:17 “Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.”

The weakness of the law is our indwelling sin nature. Our sin nature did not disappear when we became a Christian. We didn’t magically become perfect all of a sudden. Some people have a mistaken view that the better a Christian you are the less of a battle with sin you will have. This battle does not go away. We could spend a lot of time in Galatians unpacking this truth, but we can’t do that right now. Sin dwells in me. This is the sin nature. The sin nature is the fallen part of our thinking and desires that compel us to sin in rebellion to God. Paul makes a distinction between himself and his sin nature because he recognizes that there is something inside him that doesn’t desire to do the sin. As a believer, I am a new creature.

Romans 7:18 “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.”

Paul affirms that in myself, there is nothing good. Ultimately, we lack power to overcome sin on our own. I may desire to do what is right because God’s spirit lives in me, but on my own, I don’t even know how to do it. Have you ever known you needed to stop doing something, but you felt like you didn’t know where to start? Take for example worry or depression. I don’t think any of us just love living with anxiety or crushing sadness. None of us want to live that way, but we feel like we can’t help ourselves. We don’t know what to do about it. Often we just excuse it as “This is just who I am.” I am an anxious person or I am a depressed person. By defining ourselves by these things we have accepted that we cannot be different. We have given up hope because we don’t know what to do about it.

Romans 7:19 “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.”

In other word’s Paul restates what he said before.

The Two laws at work in the Believer

vs 20-23

Verse 20 is an echo of vs 17. But Paul is going to explain what he means by sin dwelling in me. Before we look at these verses, I want us to notice the word law. It is repeated Five times in these three verses. I want to draw your attention to that word because it doesn’t mean the same thing each time it is used. The Greek word is the same but Paul is using it in different ways. Most of the time in Romans, the law refers to the Mosaic law, but Paul makes a play off of the words here. Notice in vs 21 it says I find a law- by using that word a Paul is speaking of law in a generic sense. Here it means a principle or rule. What is this law? Paul sets forth a principle that whenever he wants to do right, the sinful desire is also there.

Notice in vs 21, it is the law of God. Here he switches back to the Mosaic law. Paul has a desire within him to do what is right.

In vs 23, he speaks of another law- this is a law that is different from the Mosaic law. It wars against the law of my mind. So this other law is another desire seeking to rule over me. It wars against what Paul calls the law of my mind- this is what my mind wants to do namely, follow God’s law. And when this other law wins out, it brings me into captivity to the law of sin or the rule of sin in my life.

So there are two forces at work in the believer: the rule of sin and the law of God. If you are ever to see victory in your life, you must recognize this battle that goes on within you. This is merely one of the reasons it is so dangerous to just follow your heart as a believer.

The Hope of Victory for the Believer

vs 24-25

This picture seems pretty dark and hopeless. Paul expresses the heart of every believer who craves after God: O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? A godly Christian will have this heart cry. We are not happy in our sin. We want deliverance.

This deliverance is a future deliverance. Notice the word shall is future tense. There is coming a day when we will be delivered finally and completely from this struggle. Paul’s usage of the phrase body of this death looks forward to the resurrected body of Romans 8:18-25.

He ends by giving Jesus thanks because the only hope for deliverance from this struggle is found in Jesus Christ. Notice that Paul immediately returns to the struggle. The return to the struggle in the last verse shows that the deliverance in Christ does not eliminate our present struggle. The Christian can experience victory but the battle does not go away. The war is not won yet. There are more victories ahead of us and there is coming a day when we can lay our weapons down, but that day is not today.

Conclusion

We must not forget the context of this passage. This entire chapter is about the believer’s relationship to the law. Paul began by saying that the believer is dead to the law even though the law is good it merely produces more sin and condemns us. The law doesn’t have the power to give us victory. Paul’s experience in chapter 7 is of a Christian trying to do right without the power of the spirit. Notice that the spirit is not mentioned in this section at all. Chapter 7 leads up to Chapter 8 where we are given a view of the victorious christian experience.

I say this because Paul doesn’t paint a victorious picture here. Paul says he is sold under sin and is crying out desperately for deliverance. Sin is the victor in Paul’s experience. While the battle or struggle is the consistent struggle of every believer and especially the mature believer Galatians 5:17 “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” The mature believer does find victory through the spirit. So Paul must be highlighting the weakness of the law in that in the flesh he cannot keep it.

Here is my question for you this morning: who is winning the battle for your mind and heart? I know you are facing a battle; but are you yielding to sin. Are you letting it have the victory? Also are you trying to fight this battle in the flesh? Do you think that brute force will win the day? For the believer there is only one source of victory and that is found in Jesus Christ.