External show or Internal Change?

Recap where the Law Lacks

We continue on in our series on the early church. Last week we looked at why believers are saved by the law, but instead through the blood of Jesus. When we come to belief, we die to our sin, and we are raised back up to walk with Jesus. We are essentially betrothed to another. It is Jesus that saves us because He is the One that can take away our sins and trespasses. He is the One that can create a clean heart in us. Jesus is the only One that can do it.

We looked at the curious case of Hosea, one of the minor prophets. He was told by God to marry a woman of promiscuity. They have some children, all of whom are named to forewarn what is about to happen to Israel. After a while, Hosea’s wife Gomer leaves him for another man and then God tells Hosea to and buy her back from the guy she is currently with. The fact is that Hosea and Gomer were married, they had taken vows to one another, but she was not upholding her end of the bargain. But God does not tell Hosea to just let her go, He sends Hosea to get her back. This is to represent what God does for us. In the Exodus, God promised that if the people would act a certain way, then He would be their God and they would be His people. In Leviticus 26, God promises the people that if they will reject idolatry and they do the things that He has commanded them, then He will give rain at the right time. He will remove the harmful beasts from them and protect them. Leviticus 26:12 “I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.”

This is one of those conditional covenants that we have talked about before. God will do certain things for them, if they maintain proper behavior and follow His statutes and ordnances. After God makes that promise, He then promises that if they turn from Him, He will send them all kinds of problems and destitution. God will punish them severely for their rejection. At the end of it all, though, He promises that if they repent, then He will restore them. We see through the history of the Israelites that God delivered on those promises. He sent them away on the exile because they were not trusting in God, they were trusting in themselves and alliances with other nations. The promise of punishment for sin has always been there. The promise of restoration if there is repentance has been there from the beginning too. That is one of those things that is mind blowing for me. Before God even laid the foundations of this earth, He already had the plan of salvation worked out. It was not that God went in and we surprised Him by messing up. Instead, He already knew how messed up we were going to be and He already had the cross in mind. That was always in the plan of salvation.

Last week, we looked briefly at the Law. Paul explains that the Law is both holy and good. It is good for instruction because it shows us what is right and what is wrong. However, we did not touch on some other points about the law, so this morning, we are going to look at Romans 7:7–25

Romans 7:7–25 CSB

What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! But, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet. And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life again and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. Therefore, did what is good become death to me? Absolutely not! But, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold as a slave under sin. For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me. So I discover this law: When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me. For in my inner self I delight in God’s law, but I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.

Paul revisits this idea that apart from the law sin is dead. He is essentially saying that if the law did not exist, then sin would not be a thing. We talked last week about my old ministry mentor that had to have his own house rules established. Before the rules were applied, the kids could argue that they were not expressly told they could not do something. As sinners, we could make the same argument. “I didn’t know that it was wrong, so how can I be punished?” Which is why the law was established, to identify sin. Paul is warning here of sin springing up and resulting in death. That has always been the problem. So this leaves us with an obvious question, if the law identifies sin and makes people guilty, why wouldn’t God just leave the law out of it and forgive willingly because of people’s ignorance of the Law. It is a fair question, but it is a question from our human and finite existence. As humans, we are all fallible. We are all guilty. Since we are all guilty of sin, we should have grace for others. From a human perspective, it would not be fair to hold someone accountable for doing something wrong since they didn’t know better. However, that is not how God works. God is just, He is fair. God is the God of order, not chaos. God is the God of discipline, not revelry. We know that God likes good order and discipline because of how He set the world up. The mathematical equations required for the earth to spin as fast as it does and rotate around the sun the way that it does was not some haphazard accident. There are a series of universal truths in mathematics that allowed all of this to be built.

God has order in everything. We see that in His creation. I know that there are some out there that want to discredit God’s creation and say that it was all put together by accident. One interesting thing about that is, though, that if we look at the fossil record, we see that life came about on the earth in the same order that Genesis records it. Imagine that, right, God’s account of how He put it together matches up with the physical evidence we have. Weird. Since God is all about good order and discipline, He installed His rules to maintain that order. We have already looked at how messy the world can be when we stop enforcing certain rules. See, the enemy is all about chaos and disorder. No wonder the world has been doing what it can to negate God’s commands. Though the interesting thing about the world is that it wants to have Christian values, but without Christ. We can’t have Christian values without Christ. We can try, but we are going to fail.

The Law exists so that we have limits. The Law exists because God loves us and wants us to thrive. Parents that love their children give their kids rules and punish them when they break those rules. Proverbs 13:24 “The one who will not use the rod hates his son, but the one who loves him disciplines him diligently.” God does loves us and so He disciplines us diligently.

Paul then goes on in this chapter to discuss his problems with sin. Paul, the guy that wrote the majority of the New Testament, has a sin problem. I hope that brings everyone else as much comfort as it brings me. Paul goes so far as to call himself a wretch. He recognizes that there is a war going on inside of him. There is the fleshy side that is not concerned about the holy stuff. Instead, it is consumed with sinfulness and selfishness. So Paul does not do the the things he wants to, but does the things de doesn’t want to. He wants to do the good stuff, the spiritual stuff, but his flesh keeps him mired down in sin. We don’t know what that sin is. It could partly be the sin of covetousness. Jealousy can really be a problem for some folks, even in the Christian community. We look at what other people have and then get upset that we don’t have it too. Of course, the irony here is that there are others that are looking at us and wishing that they had what we do.

I do think we should take a look at Paul’s emotional maturity and honesty. Here he is, a person that has never met these people, but he is willing to trust them by sharing his struggles. He does not put on airs and make himself out to be superior. Instead, he is honest and frank about the fact that he is a wretch. How would the church look today if everyone was willing to come to each other humbly, not with an air of superiority, but humility and trust one another to share our struggles.

That’s not how the world operates, though, is it? We get on social media and we see most people on their presenting the very best versions of themselves. We want to hide the ugly, we want to hide that fleshy side. It’s human nature. That’s why it is so powerful that Paul would so open and honest about his struggles. The church needs less presentation of our perfection and more honesty about where we struggle. The law is good for giving us the rules we need to follow to present a proper outward appearance, but that’s the problem, it is just the outward side that is changed. It is there for show. It doesn’t change the heart, Jesus does. The heart is the source of our sin. Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?” Only Jesus can understand the heart. We will lie to our family, friends, and even ourselves to make ourselves think we are better than we are. The fact is it’s a lot easier to cast judgment on others than it is to accept personal responsibility. Am I wrong? As Christians we have a problem when we think that we are doing okay as far as the things of God are concerned. We have a problem when we think, you know, God has to be pretty happy with what I’m doing here. Those thoughts are from the devil. Yes, we want to serve God and please Him, but if we get to the point that we are looking at other people as if they are not towing the line before we look at ourselves, then that is that ugly pride bubbling up inside of us. Rather than focus on others and their shortcomings and what they should or should not be doing, we should be more like Paul here and look at ourselves.

The spirit is more willing than the flesh, but the flesh will overcome the spirit and make us do what we don’t want to do. As believers, it is not just about honoring God with our spirit, but with our bodies as well. We spoke last week about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane praying. He told the disciples with Him to stand watch while He went into the garden to pray. Each time He comes out, He finds them asleep. Matthew 26:41 “Stay awake and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”” The spirit was willing to follow God’s instructions. I am sure that those men did not tell God that they would do what He said to with the intention of going to sleep. I am sure that they started the watch with every good intention of staying awake. I’ve been there. Having the mid watch is no fun. I used to stand a lot of 2200-0200 watches in my naval career. After a long day on the ship doing work, the last thing we wanted to do was stand another four hours of watch, but we did because it had to be done. If it had not been for the fact that we had to stand on the weatherdeck the entire time and the air was so cold coming off the Elizabeth river, the three people on watch would probably have bundled up, sat down, and fallen asleep. I’m sure that’s what happened with the disciples that night. It had been a long day, they had just eaten, and who doesn’t love a good nap after a nice meal? So they are standing there at first, but they get tired of standing, so they have a seat up against an olive tree and keep watch, but then as they stop chatting with one another, their eyes get heavy, and they drift off to sleep. The spirit was willing, but the flesh overcame the spirit, and these guys went against God’s commands. Our goal as Christians should be to be willing in the spirit and in the flesh. But to get right, we have to really be honest about our struggles. If we want our flesh to be fixed, we have to let Jesus change our hearts.

C.S. Lewis, in the Chronicles of Narnia, tells the story of a boy that winds up turning himself into a dragon because of his selfishness and sinfulness. Aslan, the character representing Christ, tells the boy that he needs to bath in the cooling waters of a pond nearby. However, before he can get in, he has to lose his dragon exterior. So the boy tries several times to get the suit off, it’s painful, but tolerable. Then when he sheds a layer, he finds that he is still covered in the hard scales. He does this about three times before Aslan says that the only one that can get the dragon scales off of the boy is Aslan himself. So he asks the boy if it is okay, warning that if he does, then it is going to hurt. The boy agrees and Aslan the lion, takes his razor sharp claws and begins peeling the scaly dragon exterior off of the boy. The boy complains at first that it hurts, but after a while, he does not mind it so much, and when he is in the pool nearby, he is absolutely giddy and happy about the transformation.

That’s what true transformation looks like, not a life that is dependent on the flesh and works, but on God and His forgiveness. The only way we can lose that hardened exterior is to let Jesus in and have him change us. I think the problem that a lot of us suffer from is that we don’t want to be open and honest about our issues. We try to hide it. We don’t just try to hide it from each other, but we try to hide it from God as well. When Adam and Eve realize they are naked, they don’t immediately jump to confess their sin. Instead, they try to cover their shame. When Cain kills Abel, he tries to hide it. God asks Cain where Abel is and he gives that coy little, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Then God informs Cain that his brother’s blood is crying out to Him. These people thought they could hide their sin, but they could not. Even if other people were fooled, God was not. God knows us. He loves us. He knows us better than we know ourselves. If we want to be truly forgiven and start living lives that show we belong to Him, we need to break down our defenses and be honest with ourselves and with God. It’s not going to be fun. It’s not going to be pleasant, but if we want out flesh to obey the spirit, then this is a practice we all need to follow.

Some might think that they have too much sin in their lives for Jesus to forgive. I promise you this, we are not that powerful. We are not powerful enough that our sin could defeat God. God can forgive anything. The only thing that He can’t forgive is when we refuse Him. Mark 3:29 “But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—” If we spend our lives on earth, not wanting God, then when it comes time for eternity, He is not going to force us to spend time with Him. God has given us this wonderful free will. We can either choose Him, repent of our sins, and let Him change us from the inside out or we can deny Him and continue in our sinful ways. Hosea 14:1–2 “Israel, return to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled in your iniquity. Take words of repentance with you and return to the Lord. Say to him, “Forgive all our iniquity and accept what is good, so that we may repay you with praise from our lips.” We read last week about Hosea having to go and buy Gomer back. He tells her not to be promiscuous anymore and he will treat her the same. The book ends with God telling Israel that they need to repent. Repentance happens regularly. We won’t always get it right, so we need to continue daily asking for that forgiveness.

God has given us these wonderful bodies and these wonderful emotions, not so that we can deny them, not so that we can abuse them, but so that we can take care of them and glorify Him. Are we using our bodies to glorify God? Are we using our emotions to glorify God? Or are we using them for something else. My brothers and sisters, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. The challenge today and every day wake up every day and pray that God would give us guidance and show us where we are failing and that He would remove that problem from our lives. We can’t do it, only God can.