The Struggle of Sanctification

Introduction

Last week we studied Romans 6 and learned that through our relationship with Jesus we have been set free from slavery to sin. We learned that we have a new identity in Jesus and our new purpose in life is to bring glory to God. I hope that that message was liberating as you recognized that you are a new creation in Christ and you no longer have to live enslaved to sin. However, I acknowledge that there was the danger of last week’s sermon leading you to feel even more defeated. Perhaps as you listened to the incredible truth that you have been set free from slavery to sin through Christ you wondered to yourself, “Then why do I still sin so much?” Maybe as you listened you questioned your salvation and thought that perhaps if you still struggle with sin you might not even be a Christian. If that was the case for you, I hope you will take heart in today’s message as you hear the Apostle Paul struggle with the same state of affairs.

In chapter 6-8 of Romans Paul is talking about our new identity in Christ. In particular he is talking about our sanctification – that is – the process of becoming holy. He started in chapter 6 with the fact that we have been set free from slavery to sin and today in chapter 7 he is going to talk about how we have also been set free from the condemnation of the law. But you will find, as Paul did, that while we have been set free from these things we remain in an in-between stage during our time here on earth. In Christ we are now on the winning side, we are guaranteed victory, but we are currently still fighting the battle. So in chapter 7 Paul describes this battle we fight with indwelling sin and he shows us how we are unable to find victory in our own power to obey the law. But then he goes on to explain in chapter 8 that as we abide and grow in the more powerful indwelling Holy Spirit we can find victory as we press on to become more and more like Christ.

But before we get going I want to issue a warning right off the bat. While we are going to talk about the reality of the ongoing battle between living as we used to (enslaved to sin) and living according to our new identity in Christ, I want to warn you against continuing in a defeatist mentality that tells you that everybody sins and that it’s no big deal. We should not make peace with our sin; we should make war with it! Paul is not saying that Christians live in continual defeat, but that no Christian lives in continual victory over sin.

The heart of what we will be studying today is found in verses 14-25, but I want us to follow Paul’s argument from the beginning of the chapter as he spells out how we have died to the law and also defends the goodness of the law. I love Warren Wiersbe’s outline of this chapter (and I intend to borrow it this morning) as he shows how Paul talks about:

The Authority of the Law (7:1-6)

The Ministry of the Law (7:7-13)

The Inability of the Law (7:14-25)

The Authority of the Law

READ Romans 7:1-6

These verses continue answering the question asked back in chapter 6:15, “Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace?” Just as Paul used the illustration of a servant and his master in 6:16-18 to show that we have been set free from sin and are under new management, Paul uses another analogy in chapter 7. He says that just as our commitment to a marriage relationship ends with death, so does our identity with the law.

When we were unsaved we were under the authority of God’s law. We were condemned by that law. But when we trusted Christ and were united to Him, we died to the law, just as we died to sin. The law didn’t die – we did! But when we trusted Christ, we were united with Him not only in His death, but also His resurrection and now, in our new life, we are united to Christ (rather than the law) so we can live a new kind of life.

Now don’t misunderstand this, to be dead to the law does not mean that we lead lawless lives, it simply means that the pursuit of our lives is no longer trying to obtain righteousness through the law, rather we live lives of worship out of gratitude for God’s grace. So while death results in deliverance from both sin and the law, we recognize that we have not been delivered so that we can live selfishly, rather we have been delivered so that we might serve. The Christian life is not a life of independence and rebellion; it is a life that strives to bring glory to God. The Ministry of the Law

The Ministry of the Law

READ Romans 7:7-13

As Paul made his argument about the law he knew that those listening, especially the Jewish portion of his audience, would want clarification about whether he was saying that the law was good or not. Specifically, he assumes they might ask if the law was sinful since he said in verse 5 that our sinful passions are awakened by the law. Paul ensures them that this is not what he is saying at all – in fact, he teaches them that the law was helpful in many ways.

The first thing the law did for Paul was to reveal his sin.

The first thing the law did for Paul was to reveal his sin. He says in verse 7 that he wouldn’t have known what sin was except through the law. This is like the wet paint analogy I talked about a few weeks ago. Often when you see a wet pain sign you are tempted to touch something that you might’ve otherwise had no desire to touch. There is a rebelliousness within us that we are made aware of when we are faced with rules. The law helped Paul to see this problem within himself.

Secondly, Paul says in verses 8-9 that the law awakened sin within Paul.

Secondly, Paul says in verses 8-9 that the law awakened sin within Paul. When he learned of God’s laws the sin that dwelled within him was awakened and wanted to rebel. We are not taught to behave this way, but it’s clear that this rebelliousness is within us from an early age isn’t it? Instruct a child not to go near the water and where will they go? The water! When we try to live our lives by focusing on the rules we discover that the rules only arouse more sin within us. Therefore we are not to focus on the rules; we are to focus on becoming like Christ. We will talk more about this later.

Third, Paul teaches us that the law kills.

Third, Paul teaches us that the law kills. In verses 10-11 Paul says that the law, which was intended to bring life, actually caused death when it aroused his sinful desires within. We know, as Paul taught in Romans 3:23 that the wages of sin is death and the law leads us to sin because in our own power we are unable to obey it perfectly.

Lastly, Paul explains that law exposes the sinfulness of sin.

Lastly, Paul explains that law exposes the sinfulness of sin. He affirms in verse 12 that the law is holy, righteous, and good, but it is unable to make us good. The law wasn’t given so that we would become righteous; it was given so we would recognize our inability to be righteous in our own power. In this way, Paul explains in verse 13 that “in order that sin might be recognized as sin, (the law) produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.” In other words, the law helps us to become aware of the wickedness of sin. Often we excuse our sins as “mistakes” or “weaknesses,” but God condemns our sins and He wants us to understand how wicked sin truly is so that we can grow in our desire to oppose it and live in victory.

The Inability of the Law

Paul has explained that the law is good, yet it does not make us righteous. In verse 14 Paul explains the reason for this is us! He says, “…the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual.” Verses 14-25 are some of the most debated verses in Scripture. The disagreements lie in discerning whether Paul is describing his Christian or pre-converted Jewish experience. The difficulty of course is that both sides have good evidence to support them. Let’s read this passage and then consider the evidence.

READ Romans 7:14-25

Paul explains his battle with sin here and I think we can all relate to his struggle. But what can seem confusing is that he just got done explaining in chapter 6 that we have been set free from sin, so if we have been set free from sin, why would we still have this struggle? This is what has led many to question what stage of life Paul is describing here. Some think Paul is alluding to his struggle to obey the law (which is the topic of this chapter) before he came to know Christ. That is, as a righteous Jewish man, he wanted to obey the law, but he found that in his own power he was unable to. Here is some of the scriptural evidence for those who believe that Paul was not yet a Christian:

“I am unspiritual” or “I am of flesh” – verse 14 “sold as a slave to sin” “sold into bondage to sin” – verse 14 “nothing good lives in me” – verse 18 “making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members” – verse 23 “What a wretched man I am!” – verse 24

On the other hand, some of what Paul says seems to indicate that he was a believer, such as:

“We know that the law is spiritual” – verse 14 “I agree that the law is good” – verse 16 “For what I do is not the good I want to do – verse 19 “For in my inner being I delight in God’s law” – verse 22 The change of verb tenses from imperfect/aorist in verses 7-13 to the present tense in verses 14-24

So it could be (and has been) argued both ways, but I believe that Paul is talking about his present experience of sanctification. That is the topic of chapter 6-8 and it is the reality that we all experience as we try to live for Christ. When we submit to Jesus He gives us a new heart and new desires, but we still have to fight with the sinful habits that have been formed in our minds and with the sinful reality of the world around us. As believers we are no longer dominated by sin, but we are not yet fully dominated by righteousness either. We are dominated by a conflict.

Indwelling Sin

What we need to understand as we look at this conflict in sanctification is that we are still fighting a battle with our indwelling sin. Even though sin is no longer master of you, you still have to make a choice not to let sin reign. Indwelling sin continues to seek to claim what it considers its property even after one has become a Christian. We have been set free from slavery to sin, but we are still involved in spiritual warfare. Satan doesn’t give up so easily and he does not want us to live lives that glorify God so the fight continues.

Paul explains in these verses what you and I experience every day. We believe that God and His laws are holy and good and in our hearts we want to obey them, but occasionally we find ourselves acting in opposition to what we know to be good. Why do we do this? I believe it’s because we typically try to live life in our own power. Look at what Paul says in verse 18, “…I have the desire to do what is good but I cannot carry it out.” Who cannot carry it out? Me! I don’t have the power, on my own, to live in complete obedience to God.

A powerful illustration of this principle of indwelling sin can be seen in the life of King David. David wrote many of the psalms and in the longest of all the psalms, Psalm 119, we hear David talking about his love for God’s law. Psalm 119 is an incredible psalm, it has 175 verses, and all of them refer to the law of God and David goes on and on about how he loves God’s law. He talks about how he loves the law, he delights in the law, he obeys it, and then he comes to the end of the psalm – after 175 verses affirming his love for the law – and in verse 176 he says, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep.” What?! 175 expressions of loving the law of God, and he ends with, “I’ve gone astray as a lost sheep?!” David lived in Romans 7 too. Same battle, same war, same conflict. But there is another principle, another law at work within us as well and Paul talks about it in verse 22.

A War Within

Please be sure to catch what is going on here. He says in verse 22, “…in my inner being I delight in God’s law but I see another law at work in the members of my body, WAGING WAR against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.” Paul liked God’s law. He agreed with God’s law. He wanted to live in obedience to God’s law. But he recognized that although he had been freed from the domination (or slavery) to the law, there was still sin dwelling within him. Sin is not the master anymore, but it is still present within us and Paul explains that it is WAGING WAR against our new identification with Christ. This is what I want you to catch, even though in Christ you have been freed from the dominion of sin, you still must actively, aggressively fight so that you do not let sin reign in your mortal body and end up obeying its lusts. We must understand that we are in a battle. We are far too relaxed in this regard and this is why we fail so often.

We need to understand that sin does not belong in us now that we are in Christ. In this life it will always be present, but we must fight it. We must view sin as a foreign body, a virus that is attacking us. Sin is a cancer that Satan is using to attempt to ruin us and we must radically fight it. What do we do if when we find out our physical bodies have cancer? We inject poisonous chemicals (chemotherapy) into our bodies that make us lose our hair and get incredibly nauseous because we want to kill the cancer within us before it kills us. We must treat sin in the same radical manner, because it is even more deadly than cancer. Cancer kills the body, but sin kills the soul for eternity.

But there’s something else that is crucial for us to understand. We cannot win this battle in our own power. As Paul said in verse 18, “…I have the desire to do what is good but I cannot carry it out.” He goes on in verse 24 to continue this thought saying, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” Then he immediately answers his own question, “Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Who will rescue us in the midst of this battle? Jesus! But how? How does he rescue us? Paul is going to answer that in large part next week as he teaches on life in the Holy Spirit, but I don’t want to leave you without any answers this morning, so let’s take a look at some of Jesus’ teaching.

Dependence on the Holy Spirit

In John 15:5 Jesus said, “Apart from Me, you can do nothing.” Jesus was explaining to His disciples that without His divine presence living inside of them, they would not be able to accomplish His commands. This means that we cannot overcome sin without His presence. We cannot love others. We cannot win others to Christ. We cannot raise our children. We are like appliances unplugged from the socket. We can do nothing.

Ironically, in the very next chapter Jesus told the disciples that He was about to leave them! How weird is that? “You can do nothing without me…and I’m leaving.” But He went on to tell them that while He was leaving, He was sending the Holy Spirit to be with them in His absence and – get this – the Holy Spirit’s presence would be better than having Him with them. In John 16:7 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” Jesus claimed that having the Holy Spirit in them would be better than having Him beside them. The Holy Spirit wouldn’t simply be God beside us, coaching and inspiring us, but God inside of us, working in us and through us. In fact, the Holy Spirit was so important that Jesus told His disciples in the book of Acts (Acts 1:4) not to lift a finger in pursuit of His mission until the Spirit came. Why was that? Because until He came, they couldn’t do anything of value to the mission.

So here’s what you need to know today in order to begin finding victory in your battle with sin: don’t try to fight sin in your own power, rather, fill your mind with God’s Word and respond in obedience trusting that God is faithful.

In the same way Jesus could tell His followers, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father,” so it would be true for Him to say, “When you hear from the Spirit, you hear from Me.” He told them that His Spirit would bring to their minds all that He had said and taught. In other words, He would make the Word of God come alive in their hearts, applying that Word to their questions and doubts. The Spirit would lead them through the Word of God, and they would gain the ability to obey that Word by His power.

The Spirit makes the living Word of God come alive in us. He brings it to our remembrance in the times we need it. He explains it to us. He gives us spiritual eyes to see God’s beauty and wisdom in it. He empowers us to obey it. He shows us specific ways we are to apply it. But we must remember that the Spirit and the Word work inseparably. We cannot know the Spirit apart from the revealed Word. The Spirit’s work is like that of a floodlight directing you to God’s Word so you must abide in Scripture and in constant communication (prayer) with God in order to receive His power to fight sin. “Apart from Me you can do nothing” He said, but, “If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.” (John 15:5)

Don’t let Satan deceive you into thinking that you are just living life. You are fighting a battle each and every day and you must “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:11-12) Don’t forget that your enemy is “prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) But also remember that “He that is in you is greater than he that is in the world.” (1 John 4:4) Abide in Him and you will find victory.