Romans 7

Intro

Paul in Ch 7 doesn’t sound like an apostle! He sounds familiar. Like you and me! To anyone who battles sin, this message is for you! (all of us)

Romans 7:14–20 “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.”

Prayer

Story: Wanting to ride ebike on non- ebike trails.. Why? Because I wasn’t supposed to!!

Transition: I immediately struggled with wanting to break the law.. Like I did with the bike, we can all identify with Paul in this struggle with sin!

We will go back and look at what leads into this text, establish 2 realities together then deal with this tension we all deal with when it comes to sin in our lives…

God’s LAW: GOOD

— He is talking to the Jews in his Roman audience who would’ve had a strong affiliation and reverence for the Mosaic Law

— He says in Romans 7:7 “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means!..”

— The law was good!

— The Jews had to follow over 600 laws.. And one time Jesus was asked what was the most important, and Jesus actually answers the question..

Matthew 22:35–39 “And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

— So, the whole law is summed up in those two commands.. That’s the whole point. God wants us to having loving communion with Him and loving communion with others.

— CS Lewis noted in his book “Mere Christianity” and one of the reasons he ended up coming to Christ. There seems to be universal acceptance across cultures of a moral code. Laws come up in each culture independently “don’t murder” Don’t steal etc. It’s taboo to sleep with your neighbors wife etc.

— He reasoned that had to come from somewhere.. He even thought about evolution. The world view that everything just happened. But why would people across the board have a desire to be generous to others at their own expense? That doesn’t jive with the evolutionary process “survival of the fittest”..

— We can all look at the 10 commandments even if you’re not a Christian you will largely agree with them (Save the first 4)

1 You shall have no other gods before Me

2 You shall not make for yourself an idol

3 You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain

4 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy

5. Honor your father and your mother

6. You shall not murder

7. You shall not commit adultery

8. You shall not steal

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor

10. You shall not covet

— So, we can agree that the Law is GOOD!

— Everyone at the end of the day will acknowledge that God is the perfect Judge! He makes the rules!

Psalm 98:9 “before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.”

our ability to follow it? BAD

— Why? Because we have a fallen nature since Adam and Eve

— We have this nature, called the sin nature..

— And the whole purpose of the law was to show how broken we really are..

— The Jews had the written Words of God. They didn’t have to trust their own moral compass. They had it written in stone!

— They had close to 1500 years to the time of Christ to show that as a people they could not keep the law, they failed over and over again.

— So, Paul says that the law actually made things worse..

— Romans 7:7–8 “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.”

— In other words, when we know something is wrong.. Our rebellion is woken up!! That’s why I wanted to ride my ebike on the the “non-motorized” trails..

— Story about not being allowed to drink at temporary worship leader job

— I think it might be necessary to broaden out the concept of sin. It’s not just obvious things like stealing or sexual things.. It’s things like not trusting God, getting all fearful and being in a place of not actively exercising faith.. Or not obeying God.. Not listening to those tiny nudges He gives us to pray.. Thinking what God says to do is too big for us (always is)..

— So, we would think that when we become a Christian we just don’t struggle with sin anymore. That would be wrong!

— that leads me to this tension that we all deal with..

why am I hitting myself

— Why do we do these things that actually end up hurting us in the long run?

— You would think Paul would’ve figured it out by now.

— He is not sounding like a very good Christian..

— Some people try to make it like Paul is not actually talking about his current state.. But that’s not what the text is saying..

— He still struggles! He still hits himself, shoots himself in the foot.

— Now, I doubt he had some kind of disqualifying sin in his life..

— The closer you get to the light. The more you are close to the Glory of God and His holiness.. The more you realize your own flaws!

— Like the moral equivalent of the Dunning-Kruger effect, a cognitive bias where individuals with low ability at a task overestimate their competence. As one gains knowledge, they also become more aware of the vastness of the unknown, leading to a perceived increase in what they don't know.

— The more we know about what God’s heart is, the more we should recognize that we fall short!

— Why can’t we do what we want, or not do what we don’t want?

— Paul says we have two natures.. We have our flesh nature. We have a new nature in Christ..

— You are a new Creature in Christ, so you have these new desires. But you have this other nature that still gets in the way!

— It is like Dr Jeckel and Mr Hyde!

— Dr. Henry Jekyll, comes up with a potion to separate his good and evil natures, resulting in the creation of the monstrous Mr. Hyde, his evil alter ego.

— The author came up with Hyde meaning “hideous and hidden” isn’t that just like our sin nature?

— At first he can kind of keep them separated.. But he still realizes he has this bad nature that takes over, so he tries to make up for it! Jekyll goes and gives to the poor out of his fortune etc. but it just makes it worse! It was in that very moment of reflecting on how good he was that Hyde took over..

— Isn’t that what we do? Maybe we paste on religion.. We try and prove to ourselves and everyone else that we aren’t so bad.. But then it just gets worse.

— Pretty soon, it gets to a point where Hyde takes over at random.. And they basically become the same person..

— That is kind of like the person who really really tries to do good! Really bear down and become a good person..

— So, what’s the point of being a Christian if I can’t get it together with my dual nature? I spiral out of control like Dr. Jekyll?

Conclusion: here’s your hope!

Romans 7:24–25 “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 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.”

— Wretched man that I am . That simply means that Paul understood that he himself is powerless when it comes to overcoming his sin nature.

— I want to speak to someone today who is battling addictive behavior. I want to speak to someone today who feels loads of guilt and shame when it comes to how you parent, or areas you are checked out of..

— when you try harder it can get worse! Your help comes when you come to the same conclusion as Paul. Wretched man that I am. I need help. I need rescue.

— Who will deliver me from this body of death?

— Answer? “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

— Jesus lived the perfect life. He was tempted like you and like me but was able to overcome the flesh! He had a flesh side as well, but He overcame it. He died on a cross, fulfilling all the requirements of the Law.

— So, how do we overcome sin? Thank Him for what He already did on your behalf. You will still feel tempted. You will have that flesh come up and want to rebel.. But when you praise Him. When you thank Him for what He already did you begin to walk by the Spirit, you begin to walk by faith. Galatians 5:16 “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”