I don’t want to do wrong but…? (Romans 7:1-25)
Billy Milton - March 20, 2005
Over the past couple of months we’ve been trying to follow Paul’s fascinating outline of what it really means to be a Christian. If you’ve missed the recent sermons and want to get a handle on the book of Romans then memorise vv16-17 of ch1 where Paul says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”’
There it is – that’s Paul’s message in a nutshell: The Gospel is the hope for this world. Let me read to you a little paragraph from this book by Brother Andrew which I’ve been reading this week. Incidentally, Simon Gillebaud also quotes from this book in his latest newsletter. READ p85 of Light Force. We in KRC have in our hands the hope for this world! Do you believe it? We have the hope for this world – not Tony Blair or Gordon Brown or even George Bush. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the hope for this world. That’s why we want to employ a children’s worker, because there are so many children in this town who, even in their tender years, need the hope that the gospel brings; that’s why we want to expand our buildings – to be able to more effectively reach out to our community and provide beautiful surroundings for them to come into; that’s why we want to plant a church in Pitstone. The gospel is the hope for this world.
How can I be so sure of that claim? Well, I look at Paul’s words in ch 3 and my experience of life tells me that they’re true: “There is no-one righteous, not even one; there is no-one who understands, no-one who seeks God. ……There is no fear of God before their eyes.” I’d say that that is a pretty fair summation of where the world is today. It’s in need of a grace overdose.
And even after coming to faith in Christ, Paul can still see that we struggle… in fact its worse than just a struggle. Having been set free from the power of sin and from the slavery that it brings, in ch 6 Paul says that we often choose to go back to the old slave chains instead of living in the freedom that Christ brings. You’ll probably remember Mark Thursz’s illustration from last week about George Best’s struggle with alcohol abuse and the stupid choices he made, even after receiving a new liver?
And so, when we reach ch 7 Paul returns to his well-rehearsed theme of describing how helpless we are and yet at the same time how full of hope we should be because the old Law no longer has jurisdiction over us. He uses the illustration of a marriage to emphasis his point. His aim here is not to open up a big discussion on the rights or wrongs of divorce and remarriage. What he is trying to say is how ludicrous it would be for someone who had lost their husband through death to live as though they were still married to them and obligated to them in some way. Death frees the woman from her marriage vows and allows her to marry another man without being accused of being an adulteress. In the same way, our old partner, the law, to whom we were bound in a type of marriage, is now dead. We should not feel obligated to it anymore but rather we should embrace our new husband – Jesus Christ. We have exchanged a cold obedience to the law for a warm relationship with Christ. ‘Enjoy it’, is what Paul is saying in v6.
But then a strange thing happens. No sooner have we embarked on this new relationship than a crazy struggle begins within us. When the struggle, as described by Paul here, becomes obvious many Christians instantly say things like, “Oh, I’m under satanic attack” and they blame Satan for all their woes. To some degree this is true, Satan does stand behind all that is evil in this world, but I think that there is an equally powerful enemy at work within us and that’s what the Bible refers to as ‘the flesh’.
Let me illustrate the struggle this way. Think of the latest Gulf War. Is the war over? Well the U.N. forces have declared victory; Saddam Hussein has been arrested and his regime removed; elections have taken place; occupation troops are beginning to withdraw. But, is the war over? Well technically yes, but people are still being killed every day! Not by external forces anymore, but by internal acts of terrorism. Every day more and more people are killed ….and yet victory has been declared.
That’s where we are today as Christians. Christ has won the victory and the result is assured. But until Christ returns the internal struggle goes on… and there will be casualties. Inside of every Christian lives two natures – the flesh and the Spirit. And they don’t get along too well. In fact they’re at war. The flesh still wants to gratify its desires, while the Spirit wants to draw close to God. Its civil war! It’s this battle that Paul focuses on in Romans 7.
What we read in vv 7-24 is possibly the most soul bearing writing in the whole of the NT. Which of us doesn’t empathise with Paul’s struggle? Paul’s saying, “This is hard! I don’t always get it right!” And haven’t we all been there? “For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate I do.” Do these words strike a chord with you?
Do you ever think to yourself when you’re, say, in the car – something is wrong, what should I do? I hear something knocking slightly, or squeaking, or just a wee change in the tone of the engine – just a minor thing. I become aware that something is not quite right and my natural reaction is to hope it’ll go away. What do you do? A friend of mine once gave me this advice – just turn up the car radio loud enough and you won’t be able to hear the noise! Many of us do that with our life’s. We sense something is wrong but as long as we can turn up the volume and keep busy we don’t need to face up to whatever is going wrong in our life. After a while though, in cars and in life, you need to do something.
Here’s an even more important question - what do you do when you sense that there’s something wrong with your soul? These times when God is asking you to do something, and you want to do it. But you don’t. What is the problem? There must be something wrong with my soul. Today, we’re going to actually face up to the feelings within us and visit a spiritual doctor, the Apostle Paul. He’s going to help us better understand what is wrong with our souls - what are the symptoms, and what is the cure.
There are two basic symptoms that all of us struggle with. Symptom # 1, is that we don’t do what we want. This is sometimes called a sin of omission. Verse 15: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do.” Same thing in verse 18: “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” Deep down inside, there are certain things we want to do. We want to hear God’s Word and pray and show kindness toward others. We have that desire, but we can’t carry it out.
When I was a boy my dad had a bizarre accident with his car. He was approaching the traffic lights at a busy intersection in Glasgow and he put his foot on the brake. But instead of slowing down his car just kept on accelerating. It turned out that something had gone wrong with the accelerator peddle and it remained jammed down even when he took his foot off it. The result was that he went straight through a set of red lights, bumped over the pavement and bumped into the wall of the police station. He wanted to stop, he knew he was in danger but the car would not respond. The result was a crash. That’s how it is for us spiritually - there’s something wrong with our souls – we want to do the right thing, but we can’t. Its like the fleshly accelerator has jammed on and, even although we know it is going to cause damage, we can’t seem to stop. However, thankfully, this is not always true as Mim’s testimony bears out. She was accelerating towards sin last Sunday but she pulled on the handbreak because she knew that her flesh was going to win a victory if she didn’t stop. So that’s symptom #1 that warns us that there’s something wrong with our soul. We don’t do what we want to do.
And then there’s symptom #2 – we do the bad things that we don’t want to do. That’s called a sin of commission. Verse 15: “What I hate, I do.” The Apostle Paul hated to sin, but apparently he sometimes gave in. Verse 19: “For what I do is not the good I want to do. No, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing.” I keep doing evil, even though I don’t want to. I had a relative who was addicted to gambling. He knew that gambling was making him poor. He knew that gambling was costing him his marriage. He knew that gambling was costing him his job. He knew that his addiction to gambling was evil, but he kept on doing it – he’s addicted. He can’t stop.
This is symptom #2 – you and I are addicted to sinning, and we can’t stop. Those are the two symptoms that tell us that something is wrong with our souls. 1st, we don’t do the good things we want. And 2nd, we do the bad things that we don’t want to do. Something is wrong with our souls.
And the cause, as we’ve mentioned before, is our flesh. vv17 and 18 say: “It is sin living in me.” “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.” Verse 21: “When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.” When God takes an x-ray of our souls, he sees that there’s something living inside of us that’s causing us problems. Sin is living inside us, otherwise known as the flesh. Every time you want to do something good, the flesh gets in the way.
Andy’s cartoon outside is quite provocative isn’t it? The good angel and the bad angel competing with each other to get you to do certain things. The cartoon is humorous, but the real thing isn’t. There actually is a live creature living inside of you called your sinful nature, and it has damaged your soul. It causes you to do the good things you want, and to keep doing the bad things you hate.
Well Paul ends with a heart rending cry of despair: “What a wretched man I am? Who will rescue me from this body of death?” In Paul’s time there was a common punishment meted out to those who were guilty of murder. The body of the one they had killed would be tied to the back of the murderer and then they would be forced to march through the streets of the town with this ‘body of death’ strapped to their back. Awful! Humiliating! Shameful! You would just be longing to be released from this ‘body of death’. And Paul likens this to the shame that he feels in his failure to live the life he would like to live. It’s like having a body of death strapped to me.
But notice this in closing – it’s a person that will release you – not a technique. “Who will rescue me…?” Paul asks. And the answer is supplied right away – “Jesus Christ our Lord.” The one who died at Calvary to buy our freedom will one day soon be the one who releases us completely from this body of death – the flesh.
Until that day comes, live every day as close to Christ as you can. Rejoice that your sins have been forgiven in Christ. Enjoy the freedom you do have and let’s get ready to celebrate Easter next week!