The Problem

Romans 7:14–25 NIV

14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 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. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Series Recap

We began this month a sermon series called “No Costumes Allowed”. It is traditional in the month of October in holiday celebrations for many of us to put on costumes, especially our children, and pretend to be something that we are not. But in “real” lives, I am making the Biblical case that we should put aside the pretense of wearing costumes in our spiritual lives. Even if we are Christians, we are not without flaw and I think we should abandon the idea that Christians never have problems, that we have it all together, and that we never sin. The pressure we feel to maintain this illusion is destructive not only to ourselves but also to others as we bear a false witness of Jesus Christ. My goal through these series of messages is to move us towards embracing honesty about our weakness and vulnerability. I believe it will result not only in building up our community but it also puts the focus of praise where it rightly belongs, on God. By practicing a community expectation where there are “no costumes allowed” we can foster a community built on loving and encouraging each other in much more powerful ways.

Last week we looked at Colossians and used the image of jars of clay to describe our lives. Like jars are made to be filled so we are filled by the power of God. And like jars of clay, we find that we are actually, quite fragile. And it is this fragility, this vulnerability that I want to be honest about this morning

Introduction to the PRO Model

There is an old preacher illustration told about Calvin Coolidge that I suspect is apocryphal but it goes like this: Calvin Coolidge went to church as his wife was indisposed. Coming home after the service, she asked him what the sermon was about.“Sin,” he answered. “But what did he say about it?” she asked. “He was against it.”

Well, this morning, I’m going to preach about sin. And just so we are clear, I want to go on record and say, “I’m against it.”

It is the subject that Paul is writing about this morning’s passage. Paul is addressing a serious problem that he is facing. That problem is the problem of two natures. And the struggle between these two natures is what I want to confront this morning as we adopt that policy of “no costumes allowed” as we seek to build a transparent and honest community that seeks to build each other up.

But the way that I want to approach the subject of sin this morning is to use a counseling technique that is called the PRO model. P, R, O. The “P” in the PRO model stands for “problem”. We identify the problem if we intend to correct it. The “R” stands for “remedy”. More often than not people rush to the remedy without understanding the problem. And then they want to remain on the remedy while the PRO model urges us to consider a third step the “O”. “O”, in this case, means “outcome”. What is the desired outcome from our problem?

Problem

Slide: Our problem is sin.

So what then, is our problem? Well, without mincing words, Our problem is _sin_.

I don’t know if this is a surprise for anyone but even if you have given your life to Jesus Christ, you will struggle with sin. This is a truth that we need to acknowledge in our own lives. So many of us have fallen for the myth that we were sinners and then we gave our life to Jesus Christ who took away our sin and we don’t have to worry about sin anymore.

1 John 1:8 reminds us:

1 John 1:8 NIV

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

No less than the great Christian Paul struggled with sin. He says in verse 15:

Romans 7:15 NIV

15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

As I’ve said about Paul’s writing, he writes in a way that is very dense. There is a lot of heavy stuff in his writing. And one of the difficulties I’ve expressed about preaching form the book of Romans is, like the book of Hebrews, it’s a letter written in such a way that each chapter is built upon the previous chapter. So it’s very difficult to pull out a “part” of the letter and be able to full explain its meaning.

But in the preceding verses of our passage this morning, Romans 7:1-13, Paul explains how the law alerts us as to what sin is but the law did not have the power to help us over come it. So sin took hold and produced death for us. But in Jesus Christ, we have been freed from the slavery of sin. In Christ we have new life.

So, through Christ, we have the gift of grace. Remember the gift of grace is free, we can either cooperate or reject it.

While we still have physical bodies, we are going to struggle with accepting God’s grace in our life. Listen to how Paul describes his troubles with these two natures.

Romans 7:19–21 NIV

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. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

Leading Paul to say in Romans 7:24

Romans 7:24 NIV

24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

And in the very next verse, Paul explains the remedy:

Romans 7:25 NIV

25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Remedy

Jesus Christ is the remedy for the problem of sin.

Remember earlier when I said that so many people want to rush to the remedy of the problem without understanding the problem itself. But then having arrived at the remedy, having insufficiently considered what the problem is, people want to stay at the step of remedy without considering the third step. And that is I fear, what a lot of Christians want to do. They want to gloss over the problem, which is sin. They revel that the remedy is Jesus and decide that all their problems are over. And they never move to the very important third step of our PRO model. And that is to consider what the preferred outcome is.

Outcome

When I define outcome in the PRO model, I define it this way. I have a problem and I have identified what the remedy is, now this is outcome that I wish to experience having applied the remedy to the problem. And if the problem of sin is our sinful nature. And Christ is our remedy. Then our outcome should be that our sinful nature has changed and now we have taken on the nature of Christ.

We Wesleyans understand this as sanctifying grace. And that is the on-going activity of the Holy Spirit in our lives in which God changes and transforms us so that we might become like him. This is the goal of our faith. Our goal isn’t to punch a ticket to heaven. It isn’t just to be declared righteous. Our goal is to become like Jesus Christ.

Putting aside all pretense. Being transparent about who we are. We struggle with our natures. O Wretched people that we are. Thanks be to God that Jesus Christ delivers us! And we pray that Christ’s renewal will affect a change in our lives.