Romans 7:7-25 LAW, SIN, STRUGGLE, VICTORY

 

The letter to the Romans was written by Paul to explain how sinners can be made right with their Creator - a holy God.  

To be right with God! This is the most important matter anyone will ever have to consider in this life- more than a career choice, choice of a marriage partner or choice of a pension plan. 

From the letter to the Romans, we learn that being right with God does not happen through self - effort, but through an act of God’s free, sovereign Grace alone.  All that we must do is look to Christ. 

Look to Jesus and believe!  

Look to Jesus and live! This is the gospel!  When this happens, we are finally alive- dead to sin, now truly alive to God (Rom. 6).

We are now dealing with a weighty text. If you have been a Christian for a time, what you find here will correspond to your experience. 

In our text we find four important words: Law, sin, struggle, victory. You will recognize these concepts interwoven into this passage. Here Paul reflects on his personal struggle with the reality of his sinful nature. It is the reflection of a mature believer, and if you will accept this – this is a description of your and my struggle; your victory and my victory. 

1.      LAW 

In Romans 7 Paul addresses the matter of the law of God and our relationship to it.   What is the purpose of God’s law? Some reflection is needed.    

God has created human beings in His image. Therefore, they must reflect is His holy nature. Sin has made mankind unholy.  

Sin makes us drifters away from God. 

Our desires are inclined away from God and contrary to God’s nature.  

We lose our sense of purpose and finally it becomes ‘each to his own’. 

The final result is chaos and anarchy. Were it not for the common grace of God, there would be no telling what would have happened to us long ago. If God did not restrain sin in this world    who knows where we would have landed by now.  This common grace is found in Romans 2:15. There we learn that the law (of God) is written on their (gentile hearts while their conscience also bears witness.  

Under Moses God presented special revelation, special grace. He gave the people of Israel a written code, embodied in the 10 commandments. This law carries over into the New Testament. Jews and Christians are indeed a privileged people, because we are in possession of God’s thoughts.  

BUT sadly, we find that we rarely ever obey the law. 

We do not desire to be godly or holy. 

On the contrary, the saga of Genesis 3 continues:  forbidden fruit (the standard set by God in Genesis 2) are often seen by us as a challenge to test God. Our sinful nature rebels against prohibition and perversely it seems to be even stimulated by prohibition - hence 7:5 : our sinful passions, aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.  

Did you read that?  Here it is suggested that the law tempts me to sin. 

Question:  Is the law then evil? This is precisely the question that 7:7 asks:  "What then shall we say? That the   Law is sin?" And the answer is an emphatic No!  

What then is the purpose of the law? The purpose of law is to give definition to sin– hence 7:7b- "For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet”. How do I know that coveting someone else’s possessions is wrong?  The LAW tells me so!   

7:8 “But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment produced in me all kinds of covetousness.” The mere knowledge of the law is no barrier to sin. In fact, Paul says that knowledge of a particular sin actually makes it worse, because our sinful nature now not only knows that it is wrong to covet, BUT NOW it actually wants to taste that forbidden fruit of covetousness- i.e.  by letting our hearts roam freely to covet our neighbour’s possessions, and even our neighbour’s wife, as did David when he saw, coveted and took Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, his trusted soldier (2 Samuel 11).  Covetousness is dangerous, because it is a sin of the heart which precedes the next step – taking what is not yours.  The law gave definition to that sin – and so we read, apart from the law covetousness lies dead. If he had not known that covetousness was sin, it could not be sin (7:8b).

In 7:9 Paul reflects on a time when he was not aware of the implications of the law: “I once was alive apart from the law…”   meaning that he lived, but he had no convicting knowledge of the law. 

When he was a Pharisee, he gave the command to have Stephen killed (Acts 7:54ff). You shall not murder (Ex 20:13). In his blind zeal he did not only desire to kill Christians. He had them actually murdered.   

BUT WHEN the commandment (the law) came alive to him in Acts 9, he became another man! 

He died to the old Saul, and he became Paul. 

Sin now became a reality for Paul, so that he could truthfully speak of himself as chief of sinners (1 Tim 1:15).  And so, sin, the very thing that the law judges, has ironically become the means by which Paul has  learnt the terrible holiness of God and righteousness of the law.

When the holy law truly finds you, it kills you.  This shows the holiness, righteousness and goodness of the law (7:12).   

[ NB. 7: 7-12 is written in the past tense]

SIN

In 7:13-25 Paul now speaks in the present tense as he relates to the reality of his experience of sin. 

Some have held that Paul is speaking here as an unconverted man. 

Others think that he was thinking here of his conviction of sin, prior to his conversion.  

Others suggest that he is speaking here as an immature believer at the beginning of his Christian experience. 

People generally find it hard to believe that Paul could confess to having a struggle with sin. But we have every reason to believe that this refers to Paul’s experience as a mature believer.  The truth is this: the closer we get to Jesus the more we begin to understand the sinfulness of sin.    

Let’s see how he does this:

7:13 Is the law then bad? And does it really kill me? No, NEVER! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good (i.e. the law)  in order that sin might shown to be sin, and through the commandment (law) might become sinful beyond measure.  If anything, the knowledge of the law actually heightens the sense of sin. 

 7:14 “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold under sin. The law of God is spiritual, meaning that the law is of divine origin.  It is a reflection of God’s character.  By way of contrast, “I am of the flesh, sold under sin“.  

Paul is not speaking here out of his pre- converted state. 

He wasn’t talking as an immature believer. 

He was stating a fact about Christian experience.  Two things are true about Paul and every believer :  

(i) We have died to sin and we have been raised to newness in Christ (Rom 6:4). We are justified.  

(ii)  But  we  do still struggle with sin. This is a part of our reality. We still have a sinful nature,  which is being sanctified progressively. 

STRUGGLE

7:15:  "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I am doing the very things that I hate."  He struggles to understand himself. His actions are not always in accordance with his new nature  (6:4). And he hates it.

7:16  "Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good."  His conscience tells him that every time he sins, he agrees with the law. The law is good. It is always right.  

7:17 "So now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.”   Paul is not making excuses.  He is not saying,” the devil made me do it."   What is he saying?  He is simply owning up to the fact that he is capable of sinning. Remember the position from which he speaks – he is a new creation in Jesus Christ - Rom 6.   His   sinful nature does not define him. It is not His identity.  But the fact that he still sins does exist.

7: 18,19 : "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that I, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do that which is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good that I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing."  Again, an affirmation of what he has said before.  

He knows what he is by nature- raised with Christ from the dead. 

He knows what he does not want to be. 

He hates sin! 

He is deeply sensitive to it.   

That is the difference between a Christian and a non- Christian.

7:20  is  a repetition of 7:17. "Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin  that dwells within me."  Sin for a Christian is a powerful reality  and  it is quite overwhelming at times, and while it may  overwhelm him at time, notice that  he  does not condone it. He does not say, “I am a victim”. He takes responsibility.  

And so he elaborates on this in 7: 21-23.   He delights in the law of God in his inner being; but he struggles with sin.  Here is a spiritual man wrestling. 

He has come face to face with the holiness of God in the face of the law. 

And he knows he has no human  answer  to his problem.

VICTORY

7:24.  All this leads him to an agonized cry, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?"

He wants to be free from the presence of sin. 

The fact is that while we live in this broken sinful  body and in this broken, fallen, sinful  world we will never be free from the presence of sin.  This will only happen when we finally get to glory! 

And so, Paul cries out, "Wretched man that I am… who is going to help me". 

Is the law going to help me?  

No! The law, which is holy, righteous and good has no power to save! 

The knowledge of the law actually makes it worse. 

Who then will  deliver me from this  dilemma?  

The FINAL  answer is found in 7:25: "Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord."  

The final answer to our salvation and our assurance is not found in law keeping and despairing ; it  is found  by resting completely  in  God’s grace through the finished  work of our Lord Jesus  on the cross.  

CONCLUSION

1.      Paul has been dealing with the subject of “freedom from the law” (7:1-6). 

2.      He has shown us that each believer has an ongoing struggle with remaining sin. Believers, including mature believers, still struggle with sin.

3.      If our freedom and our salvation and our assurance  depended upon the law, it would all end with “wretched man that I am”. The law is not the answer to the believer’s struggle with assurance.  Believers trapped in legalism always struggle with assurance, because they never know whether they are good enough!  A  believer needs  something  other than  the law in order to find assurance. 

Our text shows us VERY clearly that our only hope and assurance are found in Christ ALONE. 

We must rest on the work of Christ from first to last. 

When we rest in Him, there is true peace, true victory 

This text is so very valuable, because it helps us to understand   the nature of the gospel: It is free and it is  freeing! It is victorious !

The law cannot free us. Law, sin and struggle are a reality, but this is not where we end. We end  in victory when  we own  Christ's  merits  won  for us on the cross. 

Thank God for Christ in whose righteousness and merits I stand, and in whose perfect righteousness I shall be presented   before the Father in the day of His appearing.  This is the ultimate victory  I  need ! 

Amen