Romans VII

The Age Old Battle

Psalm 27:1–6 “The Lord is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident. One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock. Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the Lord.”

Romans 7:4–6 “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. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 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.”

As we work our way through Paul’s letter to the Romans we see some repetition. Most commentators consider Chapters 5 through 8 to be a section that is presented as a whole and thus accounts for some overlap. Last week I suggested that in the old order we are slaves to sin. We are bound and cannot free ourselves. We cannot earn our salvation, but Jesus has set us free from sin, he has paid for our redemption with his blood. Now we are servants of Jesus, we serve freely, we have a choice. Let’s look at Jesus’ own words in John 15:15 “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” We closed with the verse that “the wages of sin is death, but the Gift of God is eternal life.” Praise God, Thank you Jesus for saving us.

Paul makes the point that the Law told us what was sin, prior to the giving of the law we could claim ignorance of what was right and what was wrong. When we know that God has forbidden something. We find ourselves attracted to that which is forbidden. Remember Adam and Eve, the fruit was attractive because it was forbidden. Have you ever watched a small child acting upon something that was forbidden? They will approach then turn away, come back later and really study the object. Once again they will leave, but return later and reach out to touch the thing that was forbidden. Paul uses the act of coveting. because we know that we are not to do it. Coveting becomes attractive to us. Because we know the law we now know sin. Paul once again says that we are slaves to sin we cannot escape. He uses the illustration of the husband and wife. while the husband is still living the wife is bound to him. If she consorts with another it is adultery. However if her husband dies she is no longer bound, but is now free to remarry. Following that same line of thinking, if we are married to sin or shall we say slaves to sin. When we die to sin we are set free to be with another. Jesus died, but rose again conquering death. When we believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. He has paid the price for our sin, we are no longer bound to sin, or are slaves of sin. Using the illustration of marriage, we are now married to Jesus. We are not accountable to the law because we have died to the law. In the old covenant we were slaves to the law and sin, but in the new covenant we can be willing servants to the law. Stated another way;

1. When one does not know the law or God, they are not accountable. I would argue that God is revealed in nature. When we look around us, at all the glories of God’s creation, how can we say that there is no God or that we don’t know God.

2. When a person knows the law, they are committed to it and subject to its punishment. The wages of sin are death. 3. We have been set free from the law, by Jesus’ death and resurrection. We are now married to Jesus and we follow him in spirit, in love, and with love. Someone has asked if this is the case, is the law bad? No the law is good, it is Holy. it defines sin. Think of a little child or someone who has not heard about Jesus. They can be considered innocent. Once you have heard the law, once you have heard the gospel message. Now you are responsible. Paul wrote that sin seduced him. It has done the same to each one of us.

3. We are deluded by sin, it is attractive to us and we look for satisfaction in it. That is a false promise. Sin is empty and hollow leaving the person disappointed. I would use the account of Amnon and Tamar that is recorded in 2 Samuel 13:15 “Then Amnon hated her with intense hatred. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her. Amnon said to her, “Get up and get out!””

Amnon had been fantasizing about his half sister and convinced himself that he loved her. His feelings were so great that he raped her. After the fact his love, I would call it lust, turned to hate. Love would not act that way. That which we long for so intensely when received, is hollow and disappointing.

4. We are deluded in thinking that sin can be excused. We try to justify our actions. Everybody does it, its was only a little white lie, nobody was hurt. Isaiah 64:6 “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” Tells us that our self justification is like filthy rags.

5. We are deluded in thinking that we can escape punishment. Sin has to be defined as sin. We don’t want to speak out about sin, we don’t want to argue so we stay quiet. Sin can take something good and twist it to something evil and disappointing. Think of the relationship between a man and woman. God created it to be something beautiful and fulfilling to be expressed in marriage. It can be perverted outside of what was intended and has the ability to destroy and cause pain. As is illustrated in the story of Amnon and Tamar.

As we continue in this chapter we come to the place where Paul confesses his own weakness and his inability to do what is right. Romans 7:19 “For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” Paul does what he doesn’t want to do. How many more of us can say the same thing? Probably all of us.

Jewish teaching has a term for this; Yetser hatob which is a good impulse that is within everyone and Yetser hara which is a bad impulse that is in everyone. Two of the early philosophers addressed this.

Seneca a Roman who wrote; about the helplessness in necessary things. “Man hates sin and loves it at the same time.”

Ovid, a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus wrote; I see better things, and I approve them, but I follow the worse. The conflict between the will and the mind. We are haunted by both goodness and sin.

I am sure that at some time you have seen cartoon characters with a little devil on one side and an angel on the other side trying to gain influence over the person. Most of us here today can remember the comedian, Flip Wilson whose schtick was; “the devil made me do it.”

Let’s look at three situations; 1. The inadequacy of human knowledge. Morality is a code that we live by. Religion is the knowledge of a person or a formal way of living and worshiping.

2. The inadequacy of human resolution. We may determine that we should do a particular thing, but we do not follow through with it. Think of Matthew 26:35 “But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same.” We know how that played out. They all deserted Jesus. Peter even denied him three times.

3. Paul was able to diagnose the problem, but was unable to effect a cure. We are unable to make the change in our own strength. The only answer, the cure is Jesus. He alone was able to set us free by his sacrifice on the cross. His blood was and is capable of paying the price for our sin. We are slaves to sin as revealed to us in the law, but we have been set free from the bondage by Jesus. Set free to worship, praise, and serve him, no longer servants, but friends. Hallelujah, amen!