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One of my favorite parts of scripture to teach people in part because it ought to serve to bring you peace, trust and comprehension to your life as a believer.
Romans 7.24
May 30th 2021
I am very excited to present this part of scripture to you all today.
Most scripture is exciting to teach as most of it contains SOMETHING interesting and applicable to our lives.
But in light of ALLLLLLLLL we have talked about, in light of EVERYTHING Paul has said about the Law, about sin, about salvation, and faith, and grace, and the nation of Israel . . . in building a case for Christianity – what it is, and how it is supposed to be applied to individuals, today is just an amazingly applicable and a truly glorious day for information.
There is a warning however because if we walk into most Christian churches and I am certain we would NEVER hear the message we are going to hear today.
Why?
It may be because that to the natural mind what we are about to learn does not seem . . . right. It does not seem real or possible. And standing alone the message appears, from the way I see it, to go against much of what is said and taught elsewhere in the word of God.
Interestingly, the message is actually in complete harmony with all that the scripture . . . but it is not always seen this way.
Eight years or so back I was asked to host a video series being produced that was reaching out to the LDS. I agreed and was so behind the series I refused the pay set aside for the host so they could apply the funds to marketing.
At the same time, I released a paper (of sorts) on this chapter and these verses of Romans and when the religious board who oversaw the production of the video series got a hold of the paper, they called me and essentially “let me go.”
In the middle of the speech they were giving me, I asked (with a laugh)
“Am I being fired?”
There was a moment of hesitation and essentially, after some hemming and hawing, the spokesman said, “yes.”
I asked why and I was told that it was in light of my doctrinal views and saif (“you know Shawn, on things like Romans seven”) “we feel it would be better to distance ourselves from you and approach the project from another direction using other people.”
I couldn’t have been more pleased.
So, understand, what we are going to read and talk about today, and my take on it, is not readily accepted by many Christian denominations. But it is accepted by some . . . the insightful ones. ? YOU test the heck out of it and see what you think.
Finally, and before we get into our study, it’s important to know that chapter eight is an essential follow-up to understanding what we are going to read and study today in the rest of chapter seven.
Chapter eight rounds it out and makes it all more palatable so look forward to our study of that. But just know
. . to truly get the gist of the passages we are going to read here in Romans chapter 7 (verses 14 through 25) all of the chapters previous to it have to have been studied (and understood – which we have done) AND . . . AND . . . And Romans chapter 8 must be then taken into account as well – which we’ll begin next week.
Alright then. Recall:
Paul has made it perfectly clear that believers must:
Die to the Law in their lives but at the same time he reminds us that the Law of God is perfect.
Then, last week we read where Paul said that there was a time when he was alive without the law (and I taught that this referred to a time after he came to know Christ where he re-embraced elements of the Law as a Christian – which many Jewish converts were accustomed to doing then and today) and that when he did this, he says that he “died.”
Why did Paul die?
Because the law, which scripture says “was given unto life,” when placed in the presence of fallen man, actually creates the opposite effect, death.
And so, Paul said that in his own life, when he found himself without the law and alive, but then he re-embraced law, that it “slew him” and or killed his ability to fulfill the law of love which is the Christian command.
So let’s continue reading at verse 14 through the end of the chapter, remembering that Paul here is speaking and referring to himself and his own experience.
And after referring to the fact that the Law is good but that it served to slay him, he says:
Romans 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Now, as stated, the remainder of this chapter has been the subject of no small degree of controversy.
Again, the question has been whether it describes the state of Paul before his conversion to Christ as a Jew or afterwards.
And as stated, I am convinced it describes Paul’s state and the operation of his mind and body subsequent to (or after) his conversion to Christ.
Admittedly, verse 9 from last week may or may not have referred to Paul after being saved. I taught that it refers to him after, but there is enough insight to prove that this notion could be just as wrong as it could be right.
But from verse 14 on, Paul is certainly addressing the “state of tension” that exists in each and every true believer including himself between the flesh and spirit.
And for this very reason what he writes what is an invaluable message to all who are members of the Body.
Now I support the idea that beginning at verse 14 (through the end of the chapter and into chapter 8) Paul is describing the state of believers for the following reasons:
First, because it agrees with Paul’s aims to show that the law cannot produce sanctification and peace within human kind and he has shown that whether in the life of an unbeliever OR a believer, the Law operates in the very same manner – it produces a propensity for sin to abound
Secondly, due to some of the expressions Paul uses I think we can see that they are NOT what a non-believer would say (take verse 22 as an example):
“For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.”
That is a statement from the mouth of a believer who understands the inward man or woman operating by God on their heart.
Additionally, these verses perfectly describe what we experience as believers and because it describes the Christian condition so well, it only makes sense it was written to our condition (and situation) and not those who do not know God through the indwelling of the Spirit.
Fourth, there are “changes in tense” of chapter seven that show Paul’s audience changes.
Bible scholar Dr. J.P. Wilson describes these tense changes, saying:
“In the fourth verse, Paul changes to the first person plural, because he was speaking of the former experience of Jews who were now Christians.
Then in verse seven he uses the first person singular, but speaks in the past tense, because there he describes his own experience when he was an unconverted Pharisee.
But by the fourteenth verse (to the end of the chapter) he uses the first person singular, and the present tense because he is describing his own experience since he became a Christian and an apostle.”
Understanding this is of vital importance to us even today because by appealing to his own experience we can see that even Paul the chosen apostle was at war but we can also see how he himself explains the realities of that war.
Praise God! I mean Praise God because what he writes here is so bloody amazing that, to me, it turns the whole of “perceived Christianity” on its head and gives us some hopeful perspectives.
So begins in verse 14 and says:
Romans 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
At this point in the game we all know that the Law is good, it is spiritual, it is from God and it is perfect.
And again, Paul declares that the evils which men do are not the fault of the law.
That’s not the laws nature. Being spiritual, it is anything but sensual, corrupt, earthly, or carnal.
But Paul says that while the Law is spiritual, he (himself) is “carnal, sold under sin.”
The word Paul uses to describe his flesh (“but I am carnal”) is SARKEEKOS in the Greek) and it means “pertaining to flesh, which by extension is bodily, temporal, and by implication, animalistic or unregenerate.”
We usually think of “carnal” as being related to sex or sexual appetites or perversions but carnal speaks of anything and everything present in the flesh (listen) whether a person is born again or not.
As long as a human being is covered in flesh we will be confronted (almost constantly) by its desire to rule every minute of our existence.
Before being born again, our perspective was from the flesh, and in those years we allowed it to create strongholds.
Afterward coming to know the Lord, it continues to strive to retain the turf it once owned.
So, Paul here delineates for us the fact that the flesh is “the source of evil passions and desires” and the spirit is the “source of Godly purity” (or that which is in harmony with the Holy Spirit and God’s perfect law of love).
What Paul actually paints here for us is a dualistic picture of the Christian condition.
One presence is the flesh and the other is the Spirit – and here he eloquently describes the tension, the war, and then the differences between the two.
Now, in earlier verses Paul told us plainly that the Old man (or flesh) needed to be buried with Christ and that the new man (our spirit) needed to rise and live just as Christ rose from the grave.
We called this our new identity, and Paul’s advice served as a tremendous picture for us, doesn’t it?
But the trouble with illustrations is they are only illustrations and rarely can they be permanently or completely applied – especially when we take all things into consideration like the reality that as long as we are breathing our flesh will never go away. Ever. We are in flesh and the flesh is never going to change its nature.
So here, Paul gets more personal – more real, if you will – and describes for us the reality of the battle that rages (even in him) between “the flesh and the spirit.”
And he expresses himself in what I see as are some extreme terms of duality. And the way Paul articulates himself in the next twelve verses actually makes it sound like his flesh is “an entity that has a life and will and persona of its own – with its own life, so to speak, AND that his new man is a wholly different AND separate being that also has its own life, and that the two are not only alive in him, but they are at war with each other as each are making and taking action to dominate.
Is this true? As Christians, are we living somewhat schizophrenically, which is seen in this dualistic nature?
Do we possess two polarized personas that war with each other?
Detractors from the idea say, “No, there is no dualistic identity in a believer. The spirit and flesh are so enmeshed that what the one does is reflective of the strength of the other. And when we die, all of us will be judged according to the works done in our flesh – whether they be good or evil – and rewarded or punished accordingly.”
But I would suggest something radical in response to this proposition relative to what Paul writes here.
The radicalness begins by inquiring into the make-up of our King?
Because of Trinitarian rhetoric we often hear Jesus described as 100% God and 100% Man – not half and half but all God and all man but 100%.
This is stated as a means to support the idea that Jesus the person of Spirit (fully God) came down and became flesh (fully man)
I suggest that Jesus was a little less that God due to the presence of His flesh surrounding him and a little less than man due to the fulness of God in Him.
I would then suggest that all true believers born from above are composed the very same way as Christ – a little less than human because of God in us but a lot less than God because of our flesh from birth.
See, the difference between Jesus and those who follow Him is He was born without an inherited fallen state in His flesh plus He also had God as His literal Father by virtue of the Holy Spirit overshadowing His mother Mary.
We have no such history. We are all from the dust with fathers of flesh. So stay with me now . . .
Adam, was created without “an inherited sin nature” too AND he was given life directly by the breath of God Himself, right?
But Jesus, as the “second Adam,” overcame the very same temptations that Adam and Eve faced but relinquishing His entire will over to the Father, redeeming everything the first Adam gave up and over to Satan – listen – including all who believe on Him.
This means we have been redeemed, forgiven, and are waiting to inherit what God has for us based on faith.
The trouble is, and the difference between us and our King is even though we have received Him and have been given new life as a result, we remain – REMAIN – in bodies that continue to contain all the sinful elements of this fallen world within.
And this is a dreadful condition. Remember, a believer’s flesh does not get better or stronger because they have become believers. A believer’s flesh becomes weaker and anemic and wasted by virtue of strengthening the spirit but the flesh is strong and bullheaded and forever present as long as we breath air.
Paul’s teaching here confirms what I am saying though many people believe that a Christian, in their flesh, gets better because of the Holy Spirit. I challenge that outright and use these verses to support my stance.
So, when Paul writes, “but I am carnal, sold under sin,” even as an apostle, we should believe it.
Where he adds
“Sold under sin” he is referring to the act of Adam, selling the entire human race out and placing our flesh in bondage so long as we are in it.
This leaves ALL of us – popes, prophets, man-whores, and Saints inhabiting a corrupt house – a house subject to disease, sin, and death because THAT is the fleshes destiny.
And so it is in this habitation that Paul now begins to personally address himself EVEN AS A CHRISTIAN APOSTLE and he admits, in verse 15, saying:
15 For that which I do, I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
Where Paul says in the King James,
“For that which I do, I allow not “it is the same as saying, “the evil which I do I do not wish to do it.”
Then in the next line he presents the reverse, and then its opposite again (as if in total frustration!) saying
“for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.”
Ever feel this way? I do. We all do. Even Paul felt this way. And the fact of the matter is Christians cannot escape it entirely. Until we do what puts and end to the fleshes strength – die.
And I am not talking about theoretical death here, I am talking about actually dying in our flesh and it going to the grave once and for all.
Here Paul admits what we all must admit (if we are honest before God) that as Christians, our Spirit is willing (to do good) but our flesh is so weak (it runs to evil like a dog after a bone).
In our renewed minds, in our regenerated spirits, by God in us, we certainly long to please, serve and love God and others in His cause but in our flesh we act in opposition to these holy aspirations – and we “HATE THE FACT THAT WE DO!
I suggest that from this singular and remarkable passage we can observe a number of things:
First, any and every born-again Christian longs (from their mind) to do well; to please God, and to love as He loved.
This is the prevailing propensity within us by the Spirit – to do right. And born-again Christians (whether they are successful or not) desires this. This is the first point that truly distinguishes a holy individual from the unregenerated sinner. Holy individuals desire holiness.
But secondly, the evil which we do as believers disappoints us and this desire along the way, creating a source of tremendous grief. This also distinguishes the Christian from the non because all true Christians possess a fixed abhorrence of evil . . . (beat) . . . and yet we are wholly conscious of our own imperfections, errors, sins, and drives to dabble and even embrace it!
These facts create a tension of which every Christian is aware – the fact that we are all fully capable, if our natural selves were to rise up and take over, of evil.
So while we ARE – ARE – ARE absolutely new creations in Christ, and while we HAVE BEEN empowered by and through Him in the Spirit, our flesh continues to retain ALL that we were (and are) as a result of the fall, and all habits, former lifestyles, fleshly propensities, desires, and perversions, and weaknesses, are to some extent or another alive and striving to operate.
This condition creates a conflict, a war, or at least as tension between our new man and the former.
So, in verse 15 Paul wrote:
15 For that which I do, I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
And he goes on saying at 16:
16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
Or in other words, “If I do things I don’t want to do, I can see that the Law is good.”
Meaning that the very “struggle” believers have with evil within proves to us that we don’t love the evil and therefore we know that the law of God is good. We want holiness even if we don’t embrace it fully.
Again, and in other words, the very fact that we find ourselves hating the evil we do (and possess a desire to be free from it and to overcome it) is an evidence that we do not love evil but that we are friends of God and His holiness.
That’s pretty amazing, huh?
So, taking the fact that Paul “does not like the sin he commits” confirms to him that his heart is in the right place with God. But then he goes a step further and says something so totally radical people often overlook it entirely.
Ready? (verse 17) He says:
17 Now then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Look out! Do you agree with what Paul has said? (beat) From what I can tell there are two ways to understand this statement.
We could say that Paul is saying that it is not the intentions of his heart to commit sin, but that his flesh takes over and wins . . . but it’s not what he wants . . .
OR
We could take it more literally and think he is saying that it is literally NOT the real Paul that does things (that he doesn’t want to do) but it’s merely the flesh he inhabits and the sin that dwells in that flesh that is acting and it’s where the evil is coming from and not from the “new real Paul who has a new identity in Christ and not in the flesh.”
Take a minute and ask yourself, “What do you think? Are YOU, a born-again Christian, a believer in the finished work of our King for and on our behalf then what is it that rises up and acts or does “what you don’t want to do?
Is it your former woman and flesh or is it the inner you redeemed by Christ to God?
(beat)
How you answer this single question speaks volumes on the way you will perceive salvation, what it looks like for you to be a Christian, and how you will embark on your Christian walk.
In light of a number of biblical tenets we have discussed (like our identity in Christ) and other things we are about to discuss, I want to strongly suggest that we take what the scripture says here and believe it . . .
that is, when “we do” remember that which we do not want to do, that it is not the real you or I who does it, not the you that will go to God, but it is the flesh and the sin that lives therein . . . .
Yes, you will face the consequences of your fleshly acts but listen to me clearly, Paul himself maintains that YOU ARE not your sinful flesh, your shell, your bones and hair and teeth and skin.
ALL of that will die and disappear forevermore.
You are a new creature in Christ. All that other stuff will die and erode to dust. But not your new creation.
So when you do “that which you would not want to do” it is no more the New Man or New Woman that does it but it is the former, who ought to be dead now and buried with Christ.
Let me approach this position another way.
All of our bodies, respectively, come with limitations, diseases, faults, and factors that we cannot do much about as a result of the Fall and our DNA and nurture.
This stuff all exists in our flesh but those things are not the new us since Christ has joined the team.
In the Old Testament, and as a picture of the perfect Law of God amidst imperfect people, God told Moses that men with imperfect bodies could not do the work of the priest in offering up bread.
What existed in their fleshly bodies disqualified them from doing God’s work.
Leviticus 21:16-21 says:
“And the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, None of your descendants throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God. For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, or a hunch-back, or a dwarf, or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles; no man of the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer the LORD’s offerings by fire.”
This was a type of the fleshly deformed sin nature in all of us, described in the outward physical deformities of a person in the face of the perfection God required under the law.
Again, by way of the Fall, these faults and deformities (and others like them) exist in
Us as characteristics. But Christ has “reconciled us” and our “qualifications for service” is that of a “broken heart and a contrite spirit” and have nothing to do with the tents of flesh, its actions or the DNA which we all continue to be surrounded by.
Add in the fact that in addition to these outward physical deformities found in the flesh, humankind also inherits, carries, and in many cases cannot overcome other disfigurements to their physical person –
Odd and difficult temperaments, personality traits that can annoy the paint off a wall, mental illnesses, sexual proclivities and desires and fifty thousand other things may reside in the flesh of each individual – but again, these things ARE NOT the Christian – they are just part of his or her fleshly human house and they will all die at death leaving only – the traits and strengths of the new creation.
Would we ever tell someone that they could not be a pastor if he or she was missing an arm?
Could we ever tell a homosexual that they cannot be a Christian because they were born that way?
Would we ever exclude a woman from full fellowship who was covered in a rash, was rude in temperament, or who had an abortions?
Never! Why?
Because those things are no more her than a man with a flat nose, a dwarf, or is mentally inhibited.
Because we become a Christian, because the Holy Spirit moves into our corrupted houses, does not mean the house becomes perfect – and listen – the fact of the matter is our houses, in most ways, remain the same!
But we are not our house!
We are not what inhabits our flesh because our flesh from the get go is both temporary, self-willed and fallen.
Christians are what we are by faith! We are what we are by His indwelling spirit. We are what we are in Him – for without Him we are nothing (but sin) nor can we do anything (but sin).
Remember, a true Christian will not love or even like what lives in the house he or she inhabits, and when that flesh acts up it is no more them than a physically deformed believer is them in Spirit.
This is why Paul writes what he writes here.
He does not approve his actions but he admits that they are the result of his native propensities and passions.
In his heart, and conscience as a believer, he would never choose to commit sin and that is the only identity that will go to God.
Listen to what he goes on and says now at verse 18:
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing . . .
“In my fleshly tabernacle there is nothing good at all. But this is not me – which is why I am going to become a new model someday. But until that time, this flesh will continue to act up. But my REAL heart is far from its behaviors,” and then listen to what he adds now – ready?
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing . . .
“. . . for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.”
The real me, the New me has the desire to do well! It has the best intensions to turn the other cheek, she has the notion that she should forgive and love, but in the flesh they do not find it in their power!
(Verse 19 which essentially echoes what he wrote in verse 15)
19 For the good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Get ready folks for another repetition of this troubling fact:
20 Now if I do what I don’t want to do, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Do you hear him? Do you believe it? It’s not an excuse for bad behavior. It’s a sad, condemning, brutal fact of the human existence for a Christian: we do what we don’t want but it is no more us but is instead the sin that dwells in us!
Paul is presenting a fact he has discovered, a confirmed law, it seems, which appears to be part and parcel of living as believers in these sinful bodies of flesh. He proves this at verse 21, saying:
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
How often do we set out, with the best of Christian intension, to love, and serve, and forgive, and to be selfless ONLY to return at the end of the day having proven the exact opposite! That instead of love we are all the more convicted of hating, selfishness, and extreme anti-Christian attitudes!
We WANT, we yearn! to do His will, to be in line with all the teachings we hear and read and study, but when we go to apply them, we find an inability to know how to be successful! Paul says that the desire is there! The will is even there. But that he fails miserably in the application!
Listen to Paul’s heart for it reflects the heart of every person who loves the Lord:
22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
The word Paul uses for “delight” is not found anywhere else in the New Testament – “sunhdomahee.”
It means more that to just appreciate something, or to consent to it, it means to “literally ADORE” it as it brings great pleasure to the soul. It is both an intellectual assent AND an emotional one.
There are many who delight intellectually in the Law of God after the inward man, or regenerated man.
And there are many who delight in the Law of God emotionally after the inward woman.
But this Greek word includes both resonations – and the combination simply leaves the bearer “basking in Him and His Goodness.
Oh, does this not picture our inward heart love and gratitude for the Lord? The joy and freedom and deliverance we experience in and through being recipients of His Good News.
We delight, rejoice from the heart over His goodness.
22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
“But!” Paul adds . . . (verse 22)
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Simply put, “I delight in the goodness of God but in my flesh, in my physical makeup, in the shell of my former man, there is corrupt and sinful propensities, warring and fighting against the law of my mind.”
Then he adds, honestly and realistically,
“bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”
Paul then says what we will cover next week:
Romans 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
And listen to this response and summary:
Roman 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
We will cover these and some of chapter 8 next week.
Questions/Comments/Insights
Let’s pray.
