So, we've been continuing our study through Romans, which has been a great joy and a challenge so far.
Last week, I talked to you a bit about Paul's case that he's been building for us, justification by faith alone, and he's talked to us quite a bit about the law up to this point.
But mostly about what the law cannot do. The law cannot save us, he said in chapters 3 through 5. It cannot sanctify us, he said in chapter 6.
It can no longer condemn us, the first six verses of chapter 7.
We are justified through grace alone, by faith alone, in Christ alone, forever. Praise God.
That our right standing before him is conditioned only on our belief in him.
And that belief is a gift from him.
Jesus sought me when a stranger.
We are now bound up with Jesus Christ.
Last week, we talked about what the law can and does do.
The purpose that it does in fact serve.
And we saw from the text that it exposes, arouses, and reveals the magnitude of our sin.
Those verses 7 through 13.
And now we get back to what the law cannot do.
We get back to the fact that the law cannot sanctify us.
So, we were saved by faith.
We're not now being perfected by the law.
We were saved by faith and we shall be perfected by faith.
That's the major point of the text that's before us.
But I think for us to really properly understand this, to wrap our minds around it, to find the value in the text for us,
we must first understand the vantage point that Paul is speaking from.
We have to know what it is that he means.
There's varying opinions.
Commentators say different things about who Paul is, what he's referring to as he says this.
I do what I want, I don't do what I want.
Here's what's going on in me, this battle that's waging within me.
There are those who think that Paul is giving us an account of him prior to conversion,
before he places faith in Christ.
There are those, the majority, church history would agree, I agree,
that this is Paul as he sat down to write this letter.
This is Paul, this is his present day experience that he's penning for us.
I want to show you why I believe that to be true before we continue our study together.
Number one reason I believe this to be true,
Paul's use of first person, present pronouns.
Not just first person, but first person, present pronouns.
He uses I or me or my in the present tense 39 times in these verses.
I hope I counted them right.
I did it this morning at 530, so I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure I counted that right.
It's a lot.
A lot of times he uses these personal, present pronouns to speak of himself.
Second reason, Paul speaks of the law as only a Christian can.
Verse 22, he says,
For I delight in the law of God.
I find great joy in the holiness of God.
That's what he's saying.
And not just that he has a mental assent to it,
not just that he says,
Yeah, that seems good to me.
But he delights in it in his inner being.
He has an abiding delight in the law of God.
An internal joy that only a Christian can have.
Third reason I believe he's speaking of his present condition
is that Paul speaks of himself as only a Christian can.
Look at verse 18.
He says,
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh.
That is a man that has been broken over who he is.
That is a man that understands his fallen state,
who knows that he was created in the image of God,
but that it was completely destroyed by sin.
He gets that weight.
He's broken of spirit.
But lest we misunderstand who he is,
he clarifies,
that is in my flesh.
My body has fallen.
My spirit has been renewed.
Paul gives us another example of a matured Christian
also living in this way,
having this present day struggle with sin.
in Galatians chapter 2,
verse 11 through 13.
I ask you to turn there with me.
Galatians 2,
verse 11.
This event happens at the Council of Jerusalem.
And Paul starts verse 11 by saying,
but when Cephas,
now Cephas is the Greek word for rock,
so it would have been the equivalent,
the Greek equivalent of Peter's Hebrew name.
And you'll understand why in a second,
why he calls him Cephas.
But when Cephas came to Antioch,
I opposed him to his face
because he stood condemned.
For before certain men came from James,
he was eating with the Gentiles.
But when they came,
he drew back and separated himself,
fearing the circumcision party.
And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically,
hypocritically,
excuse me,
hypocritically,
okay, reset,
hypocritically, thank you,
along with him,
so that even Barnabas was led astray
by their hypocrisy.
You remember the life of Peter?
Some of the first real account
of his sinfulness
was his denial of Jesus Christ.
What was the sin that motivated that?
A man who believed,
who had professed
that Jesus Christ was the Son of God.
Fear,
which was hypocrisy.
He feared who?
He feared the Jews.
He feared those who were
putting to death Jesus Christ.
So here we see then
the same sin cycling back up
in the life of Peter.
This is present day experience.
This is the life of every Christian.
Paul now,
at this point of writing Romans,
has been a Christian for 20 years.
And yet still he wages war
against sin.
We all experience that.
You've placed your faith in Christ.
You experience this.
You battle with your old self.
It still exists.
And that's why we must understand
this text properly
to wring the value out of it
for our living.
The opposite view,
the opposition that says
this was pre-regeneration for Paul,
primarily pulls that from verse 14
where he says,
but I am of the flesh
sold under sin.
The idea of bond servanthood
to sin.
But he clarifies that
in verse 23.
He says,
the sin that dwells
in his members,
in that old self.
So I think it's a very simple
understanding of that
that we can get around that with.
J.I. Packer,
in an article
defending the view
that I'm presenting to you
on this text,
wrote this,
Paul is not telling us
that the life
of the wretched man
is as bad as it could be,
only that it is not as good
as it should be.
And that because the man
delights the law
and longs to keep it
perfectly,
his continued inability
to do so
troubles him acutely.
The wretched man
is Paul himself,
spontaneously voicing
his distress
at not being a better Christian
than he is.
So you see that?
Part of the fear
that comes from
the opposing view
that this is Paul
pre-regeneration,
pre-conversion,
is that this gives us
some sort of license.
Gives us an air
of defeatism.
Well,
I can't have victory
over sin.
Look at Paul.
This is Paul.
He's been a Christian
for 20 years.
Amazing man of faith.
And yet,
he still struggles.
How can I possibly
have victory
in all of this?
He gives us
the answer
so clearly
at the end
of this text
about how we will
have victory
in this.
And we'll certainly
get there together.
So what is it
that Paul desires
us to learn?
We have a proper
perspective of it.
What is it that Paul
desires to teach us,
at least in part,
today?
Firstly,
he's arguing
for the goodness
and spirituality
of the law of God.
Verse 13,
he says,
Did that which is good
then bring death
to me?
By no means.
Verse 12,
So the law is holy
and the commandment
is holy and righteous
and good.
He's continuing
that argument.
So, firstly,
he's arguing
for the goodness
and spirituality
of the law of God.
Secondly,
he's arguing
for the reality
of what he calls
indwelling sin.
Indwelling sin.
To explain
why Christians
are not perfect
and don't measure up
to our own
high standards.
is presenting
this idea
of indwelling sin.
And I want to show
you these two things.
The affirmation
of the law,
his esteem
for the law,
and his acknowledgement
of indwelling sin
in four pairs
of statements
here in our text.
Okay?
So,
pair number one,
Romans 7,
14a,
the first part of it,
his esteem
for the law,
for we know
that the law
is spiritual.
The law is from God.
The second part
of 14,
acknowledgement
of indwelling sin.
But I,
am of flesh,
sold under sin.
Second pair,
Romans 7,
16,
his esteem
for the law.
Now,
if I do
what I do not want,
I agree with the law
that it is good.
His acknowledgement
of indwelling sin,
Romans 7, 17.
So,
now it is no longer
I who do it,
but sin
that dwells
within me.
And this is where
we get that phrase.
Here's that
indwelling sin
term.
You can see it again
in verse 20.
And if I do
what I do not want,
it is no longer
I who do it,
but sin
that dwells
within me.
Same phrasing there.
Pair number three
is the theme
for the law.
Verse 22,
For I delight
in the law of God
and my inner being.
Verse 23,
his acknowledgement
of indwelling sin,
but I see in my members
another law
waging war
against the law
of my mind
and making me
captive to the law
of sin
that dwells
in my members.
Pair number four,
the middle part
of verse 25,
his esteem
for the law,
so that I myself
serve the law
of God
with my mind
and in his
acknowledgement
of indwelling sin,
the last part
of verse 25,
but with my flesh
I serve the law
of sin.
So you can see
this battle
going on
within him.
Now I'm just going
to take a quick
aside here
just in case
your mind
is going this way.
I am not
a dualist.
No one who is
a member of
Christ's family
church here
is a dualist
and dualism
is the idea
of the little devil
and the little angel
on your shoulder
debating it out
with you
and you don't know
who's going to win.
We know
who's going to win.
I am not
a dualist
but yet
there's still
a war
going on
within us.
You see that
in verse 22,
the law
of sin
versus the law
of the mind
or our new being
is this war
that I'm referring to.
So there's
two practical points
for this morning.
We see that
this is the experience
of all of us.
Those of us
who are in Christ
still deal
with the burden
of our flesh.
Paul says,
Wretched man
that I am,
who will deliver me
from this
body
of death?
Where Paul was from
there was an ancient
tribe that used
to strap
dead people
onto people's backs
if they committed
murder.
The person they murdered
would be strapped
onto their back
and the punishment
would be that
this person
rotted
and their rot
spread to the
living person
and killed them.
This could be
what Paul had in mind.
He used this
phrasing.
Wretched man
that I am,
who will deliver me
from this body
of death?
It's killing me.
Praise be
to Jesus Christ,
our Lord.
Point one is,
we must fight.
There is a war.
We must fight.
If you are a Christian,
you must wage war
against your sin.
Clay shared with me
a great analogy,
which I am making my own,
but I want to give him
credit for it.
I had a friend
in high school
named Josh
that I used to
slap box with.
Most of the guys
in here will probably
get this, ladies.
I will try to explain
how this goes down.
We would slap box
and the idea
is that you don't
hurt each other.
It's not quite like
close-fisted boxing,
but it still hurts.
And I'm not
saying that I'm
a good slap boxer,
but I usually won.
So probably that means
that Josh was
a poor slap boxer,
but occasionally
I'd get a really
good shot in on him
and it would make
him very mad at me.
And guys,
you've all experienced
this,
that moment where
you took it
just a little too far,
my handprint
would be left
on his cheek
and he'd get mad.
And he would come
after me.
He was ready
to kill me.
He was mad.
What was my response?
We were playing a game,
so I continued
to have fun with him.
I continued to
bob and weave
and slap him
and knock him down
and do those things
until he would
calm down.
That's how we are
with our sin
as Christians often.
We're very
goofy with it.
We have fun.
We're cavalier
even with it.
Your sin
is trying
to kill you.
It should be
taken seriously.
If I actually
thought Joshua
was trying to
kill me,
I would have
acted much
differently.
We must
make war
against our sin.
A lot of us
complain about it.
A lot of us
are unhappy.
We lament
the sin in our life.
But we do
nothing
about it.
We must
make war.
I started
reading a book
this week
by J.C.
Ryle
called
Holiness.
It's
Nature,
Hindrances,
Difficulties,
and Roots.
It's been a
fantastic read
so far.
He said this
in that book.
The true
Christian is
called to be
a soldier
and must
behave as such
from the day
of his conversion
to the day
of his death.
He is not
meant to live
a life of
religious ease,
indolence,
and security.
He must
never imagine
for a moment
that he can
sleep and
doze along
away to
heaven,
like one
traveling in
an easy
carriage.
If he takes
his standard
of Christianity
from the
children of
this world,
he may be
content with
such notions,
but he will
find no
countenance for
them in the
word of God.
If the Bible
is the rule
of his faith
and practice,
he will find
his course
laid down
very plainly
in this
matter.
He must
fight.
Number two,
our victory
is sure.
I love
that we
serve the
sovereign God.
I love
that I have
come to
understand him
in that way.
I know
that our
God is
totally in
control.
Our victory
is sure.
We have
been bought.
That is
finished.
What a
motivation to
fight.
I don't
have to be
put down
by these
temporary
setbacks
and my
failures.
I can
continue to
wage war
even when I
lose a
battle.
Paul wrote
to Timothy
in 1 Timothy
6.12,
Fight the
good fight
of the
faith.
The article
in front of
faith that's
in the ESV
doesn't actually
exist in the
original text.
The fight
of faith
is what
Paul is
saying.
It's a
fight that we
fight in
light of
this victory.
It's a
fight that we
fight out of
dependency on
Christ.
Our
salvation, our
justification was
bought by
faith.
So is our
sanctification.
In believing in
the promises of
God, he will
get us
through.
But isn't it
interesting in
that verse
that we're
told Paul's
commanding
Timothy, it's
the imperative
form, fight.
Be active.
Right?
Nobody who's
ever fought in a
war just sat
in the trenches
and it was
said of them
that they
fought.
You've got to
be active.
You've got to
be advancing
to fight.
So we see
that we play
a part.
There's a
responsibility
on our
part to
fight.
Isn't it
interesting?
All throughout
scripture that
happens.
You see those
two truths
taught.
That we are
to work
ourselves, but
yet it's God
who provides
the ability to
do so.
What does that
mean for us?
If you're a
Christian who
doesn't wage war
against sin,
what do you
do?
Do you sit
around and
wait for the
motivation for
it to happen?
You suddenly
find that you
get up off
the couch
and you
walk to
your desk
and you
open your
Bible and
you say,
what is
happening to
me?
I don't
know.
God must
be providing
you with
power to
do so.
You'll find
in the very
recognition the
things that you
should be doing
to wage war
against sin,
the hand of
God moving
in your life.
Be obedient.
Do what
you're told
to do.
And when you
do, you
will see the
hand of God
in your life.
God pushing
you on to
where you
must go.
I love
having a
toddler now.
I am
continually
understanding
God's grace
to me with
a one and a
half year
old.
Because when
I want
Cade to go
someplace,
Cade is
utterly sinful
right now.
And however
he feels,
he acts
out on it.
We tend
to mask
the way we
feel.
We logic it
away.
We come up
with excuses.
Cade does
exactly what
he's thinking.
So I want
him to
come.
He doesn't
want to.
He just
doesn't
come.
He ignores
me.
He'll lay
down on
the ground,
throw temper
tantrums.
What I do
is his
father.
I go and
I get him
and I pick
him up and
I hold him
by the hand
and I walk
him to where
I want him
to go.
So is
Cade
walking?
Yes.
Is there
an external
force taking
him to where
he should be?
Yes.
Absolutely.
The very
end of the
text,
verse 25,
Paul says,
Thanks be to
God through
Jesus Christ
our Lord,
who will
deliver me
from this
body of
flesh.
Thanks be
to God
through Jesus
Christ our
Lord.
And here's
the model he
gives us
of repentance
and belief
our salvation
began that
way,
turning from
our sin
and turning
toward God.
But the
Christian life
is a life
of repentance
and belief,
turning from
sin and
turning toward
God,
turning from
sin and
turning toward
moment by
moment,
day by
day,
turning from
our sin
and turning
toward God.
This is the
model of
repentance
that Paul
gives us
here.
Number one,
I love the
law of God.
Verse 22,
I love
the law
of God.
Verse 2,
I hate
what I just
did.
Sorry,
not verse 2,
number 2.
Verse 15,
I hate
what I just
did.
Number 3,
verse 24,
wretched man
that I am
who will set
me free
from this
body of
death.
Number 4,
thanks be
to God,
the victory
will come
through Jesus
Christ my
Lord.
That is this
model set
for us
of repentance
and faith
in Jesus
Christ.
We just
sang a
wonderful song
that I love
and it's
such an
encouragement
to me.
I know
you guys
weren't
singing for
me,
but it
served me
this morning.
Oh,
that day
when freed
from sinning,
I shall
see his
lovely face
clothed
then in
blood
washed
of linen,
how I'll
sing his
sovereign
grace.
That is
what we
look forward
to as
Christians
when we
can be
unfettered
by our
flesh.
When it's
no longer
an object
of obstacle
in our
lives to
praising
Christ
our
Lord.
Our
victory
in that
is sure
and therefore
we must
fight.
Let's pray
together.