Our Ongoing Struggle With Sin

Show Notes

Romans 7:7–25 (Listen)

The Law and Sin

7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 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. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

(ESV)

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Joel Brooks: 00:00

If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Romans chapter 7. Sorry for those of you who are having to sit in our overflow or to in our welcome room. I'm glad you are here. We've had a lot of obstacles just to get here today. I've heard there's races.

Joel Brooks: 00:17

Our 8 o'clock service power kept going on and off and alarms going off. It was it was a lot of fun. Let me tell you where we're going to be, for the next few weeks or months. We're gonna finish Romans 7 today. And then next week, we begin our Advent series.

Joel Brooks: 00:36

One of those weeks, my friend, Elton Hardy, he's gonna come and he's gonna preach to us. Come the New Year in January, we'll be back in Romans and we get to look at Romans 8, which is what I consider the most glorious chapter in all the Bible. We're gonna spend 5, 6 weeks there. Then come February, we're gonna hit Romans 9, talk about predestination and split as a church. And so I just want you to know where we're going.

Joel Brooks: 01:06

So this Sunday though, we're going to be in Romans 7, and we're gonna look at what Paul has to say about our ongoing struggle with sin. And I find his words to be incredibly encouraging. And, if you struggle with sin, which I hope you do, you will find these words to be encouraging as well. I will say this. It's a very complex argument that Paul is about to lay out for us.

Joel Brooks: 01:36

Every word matters. Every word is precise and also nuanced. Paul's gonna split some theological hairs for us as we read through this. But but don't worry, What we're gonna do this morning is we're gonna kinda zoom back and look a little bit more big picture here because that's where I think we can spend the best use of our time. Romans 7, I'm gonna read half of this section now, and then I'll read the other half later.

Joel Brooks: 02:03

Beginning in verse 7. What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means. Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.

Joel Brooks: 02:17

For I would have not known what it is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet. But sin seizing an opportunity through the commandment produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.

Joel Brooks: 02:45

For sin seizing an opportunity through the commandment deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means. It was sin producing death in me through what is good.

Joel Brooks: 03:05

In order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. This is the word of the lord. Amen. Would you pray with me? Father, we pray that through your spirit, we would be able to hear and to understand the words that we have just read.

Joel Brooks: 03:28

Because these words are from you, and they are our very life. And so I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.

Joel Brooks: 03:48

So Paul begins this section with once again talking about the law of God, raising a question about it, basically anticipates this question. Paul has been seemingly so down on the law in these last couple of chapters. People are beginning to wonder, Paul, do you even think the law is good? You certainly talk about the law as if the law was evil. To which Paul responds, absolutely not.

Joel Brooks: 04:17

He says, I needed the law. I needed the law and the in in my life in order to reveal to me sin. That was one of the purposes of the law. It was like a a flashlight exposing the darkness of my hearts, and that's what the law does for us. He says in verse 9 that he was alive apart from the law.

Joel Brooks: 04:39

Meaning that before he ever read the law, he actually felt pretty good about his life. He was alive. He thought he was a good, moral, decent person. But then the law came, and it revealed the ugliness that was in there that Paul had been unaware of up to that point. Suddenly, this this sin in him came alive, and he died.

Joel Brooks: 05:04

Alright. So clear as day, isn't it? Paul's argument. Right? Let let me give you an illustration that I I hope helps with this, and I've actually got a prop for this one.

Joel Brooks: 05:15

I've never really used a sermon prop, but, it's it's the end of the year budgeting time. They said, if I don't spend it, I can't have it next year. So, so I blew the entire budget on this. I want one of you to put this sign out on your front yard tonight. Okay?

Joel Brooks: 05:32

I want one of you to just go and just to set it up there and to put it out there in your front yard tonight. What do you think would happen if you did this? That's right. People are gonna throw rocks under if if I, you know, I've lived in the same house for over 20 years. If I were to put this sign out in my front yard tonight, even though for 20 years I have never once had anyone throw a rock on top of my roof, I guarantee you about 2 or 3 in the morning, I'm gonna wake up hearing rocks hitting my roof.

Joel Brooks: 06:04

Why? Why? Well, tell me, what do you want to do when you see this? You you know why? Because you're evil.

Joel Brooks: 06:19

I mean, it is. You're you're evil person, and and so you see this, and you're like, nobody tells me what to do. I mean, that's their first thought. You're mad at me about that. And then the second thought is this, that sounds like fun.

Joel Brooks: 06:32

I mean, like, you never once before in your entire life have thought about it, But the law came and it woke something up in you. Do you now want to do it? Now is this is this a bad commandment? The answer is no. This is this is this is a really good commandment here.

Joel Brooks: 06:51

Nobody's disagreeing with that and thinking, oh, that's just a bad law. No. It's a good law. But what did the law do? It stirred up this desire in you to break it.

Joel Brooks: 07:04

Now it did not create that desire in you. It didn't create that sin. You already had that sin. It was lying hidden. It was lying dormant like you couldn't really see it.

Joel Brooks: 07:14

The law of God came, and all of a sudden it came to life, and you could finally see sin for what it is. The law of God exposes the depravity of your heart, But the law itself is perfect. Now for Paul, he this was particularly true in the 10th commandment here, thou shalt not covet. He never even knew that coveting was wrong. And then he gets this commandment, thou shalt not covet.

Joel Brooks: 07:38

And now all of a sudden, all he could think about is coveting. It's like it came alive in him. It shed a light on his darkness of his heart. Now up to this point, I believe that Paul has been talking about his life before he came to know Jesus, pre conversion. And one of the reasons I think about I think this is because up to this point, verses 7 through 13, all of his verbs are in the past tense.

Joel Brooks: 08:10

But now, as we move forward in the next section beginning in verse 14, he's gonna begin speaking in the present tense. So in the past tense, the law was there. It exposed sin came alive in him. But now he's gonna talk about his struggles after he was converted, his struggles with sin. So look at verse 14.

Joel Brooks: 08:34

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good. So now is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh.

Joel Brooks: 09:05

For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of god in my inner being, 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.

Joel Brooks: 09:45

Wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our lord. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin. Alright.

Joel Brooks: 10:02

So once again, Paul is pretty clear here, isn't he? I mean, it's it's a really hard argument to follow. If if you want to have the cliff notes to what we just read, just go to Galatians 5 17. Paul summarizes all of Romans 7 in one verse. And let me just read that one verse to you.

Joel Brooks: 10:22

He says, for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. So there he summarizes all of Romans 7 and and just one verse which is why Galatians is so much shorter than Romans. It's almost like Paul wrote Romans, and somebody said, you really should flesh that out a little read Galatians, like you really should flesh that out more, and so he wrote all of Romans chapter 7 to kinda flesh that out for us. But these are obviously words written by someone who is deeply conflicted within himself.

Joel Brooks: 11:05

Someone who deep down loves God's law and can't figure out why he doesn't obey it. He loves it, but he has such a hard time keeping it. About a month ago when I was, really beginning to study for the sermon, I pulled out an old book I've read several times before. It's Robert Louis Stevenson's, Jekyll and Hyde, Doctor. Jekyll and Mr.

Joel Brooks: 11:29

Hyde. It's a classic. It's one of those books that, most people know about and hardly anyone has ever read. I would encourage you to read it. For one, it's a classic, and it's only 70 pages long.

Joel Brooks: 11:42

And so it's a really easy read, and you just said you just read a classic. So read that. But in that book, Robert Louis Stevenson is writing about Romans 7. And Romans 7 is the inspiration for that book. The book, the the plot is this.

Joel Brooks: 11:59

There's a scientist named doctor Jekyll, who is really frustrated with his life, because he feels like there's a that are, like, constantly bumping heads. There's there's a side of him that really wants to do good. And then there's this side of him that actually delights in doing evil. And they're battling it out with one another all the time. Now as a result of having those those 2 different people inside of him, he says, well, you know, the the good news is he's never entirely bad.

Joel Brooks: 12:32

He's never entirely evil, but at the same time, he's not ever entirely good. And so he decided to, as a scientist, come up with some potion to split the 2 so he could be purely good, and then he can also have this purely evil side. And so he does. But the evil side of him surprised him. The evil side was far more evil than he ever imagined and a lot stronger.

Joel Brooks: 12:58

That evil side was called mister Hyde, short for hideous, and and he had no control over that that evil nature, that evil person there. And, that person even went on to go and kill someone. But that duality of persons there, doesn't that feel very Romans 7? When you read Romans 7, I mean, doesn't that imagery like doesn't that help you make sense of it? There's this there's this doctor Jekyll and mister Hyde inside of us, 2 natures, if you will, just kinda duking it out.

Joel Brooks: 13:33

But let me ask you, is that an accurate picture of a Christian? Now that we've been made a new person in Christ, now that we have had the spirit of God inside of us changing our hearts, is there still this powerful, old, sinful person or flesh, if you will, that's in us that's just evil and hard to control. I mentioned that I believe verses 7 through 13 are talking about Paul's life pre Christ. And beginning in verse 14, he's talking about his struggles with sin as a believer. But you need to know that this has been hotly debated pretty much ever since Paul wrote this.

Joel Brooks: 14:15

I mean, before the ink was even dry, the church was already debating the meaning of these words. And there were some that would argue that, woah, there's way too much bondage to sin for Paul to be describing a Christian. And another would argue, well, there is way too much desire for good for Paul to be describing a non Christian. And I've actually gone back and forth with this over the years. And, ultimately, I've landed on this not only being, the description of a Christian, but being the description of a very mature and growing Christian.

Joel Brooks: 14:52

Besides the the change of tense that we have in which Paul switches a moving, describing everything in present tense, I also see a change of language there and how Paul talks about the law. I mean, now he wants to do what is right. In in verse 22, it says, he delights in the law of God. I've never found anywhere else in scripture a unbeliever delighting in the law of God. Delighting comes from being given a new heart, being given a new spirit.

Joel Brooks: 15:25

And then I think the strongest argument for Paul here describing his life as a Christian is that he ends this section in verse 25, with the words, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Kinda hard to say that if you're not a believer. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And then he gives a summary statement. I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin.

Joel Brooks: 15:54

So why does any of this really matter? Well, you need to know that when you became a Christian, your struggles with sin just began. They didn't end. They just began. Yes.

Joel Brooks: 16:11

You have a new heart. You've been given this this new spirit. You've been freed from sin. And now for the very first time in your entire life, you can obey God. You're a child of God.

Joel Brooks: 16:22

And this is the real you. This is the new creation. This is the one that you identify with at your deepest level of being that you are his child. However, that old you is still lingering around. There's a battle on.

Joel Brooks: 16:41

There's this war waging within you. I mean, you feel that, don't you? Think at times you just feel that battle, that that tug of war between what seems like 2 people with inside of you. You didn't used to have a tug of war because when you were enslaved to sin, all you could do was sin. It wasn't a struggle.

Joel Brooks: 17:02

There's no struggle because there's only one side of you. You freely gave into sin, you were enslaved to it. Now that you have been free, well you can obey God for the first time and you are now struggling with sin, you are fighting it. And now when you sin, you hate it. You didn't hate when you sinned earlier, but now you sin and you absolutely hate it.

Joel Brooks: 17:30

This is what Paul means when he says that you do the very thing you hate. You no longer delight in sinning like you used to before you came to know Christ. Now when you sin, you're like, dang it. That's not me. I mean, at the deepest level of your being, you're like, that's not me.

Joel Brooks: 17:49

Why did I do that? Who will set me free? Personal confession here. I I I thought by this point in my life that I would be far more advanced. I'd I'd have far less struggles than I do now.

Joel Brooks: 18:10

I thought there would be far less woe is me's. I I I can still say the most hurtful things to people at this stage in my life. And I've been a Christian for over For almost 40 years now. But I still say hurtful things. I still get jealous.

Joel Brooks: 18:29

I could be jealous over another pastor's giftings. Sometimes I could be envious when another pastor receives praise. I'm like, where did that come from? Sometimes I could doubt, how God's gonna provide for me in my in the future, financially even. How are you gonna provide for me, God?

Joel Brooks: 18:48

And I don't look in the past, He's provided for me for 48 years. Sometimes even when I'm in a grocery store and you're going through the checkout line, it's hard for my eyes not to wander and to look at, you know, all the different magazine covers there with all the women who are dressed in such a way. I thought I'd been over that by now. I'm not. I found myself, this is how bad it gets, getting angry the other week with somebody because of their lack of joy.

Joel Brooks: 19:23

Angry over their lack of joy. I mean, come on. Any of you struggle like this, please tell me I'm not alone. Any any of you struggle? Hear me.

Joel Brooks: 19:33

If you struggle like this, this is actually a sign that you are a mature and growing Christian. Because the more you grow in Christ, the more you have these woe is me moments. Because the closer you get to Jesus, the more you see your sin. It's like closer to a light, and the closer you get to the light and the light, the more and more it begins to expose. You don't become more sinful, you can just see your sin more clearly, and you start to have more of these woe is me moments.

Joel Brooks: 20:07

I mean, the apostle Paul here in 1st Timothy chapter 1, when he's talking to Timothy, he called himself the chief of all sinners. Present tense. He doesn't say he was the chief of all sinners. Describing his life as a child of God, as a believer, he says, I am the chief of all sinners. Why?

Joel Brooks: 20:33

Because as he's gotten closer to Jesus, he has become so aware of his sin. So aware of it, and it bothers him. When you read Romans 7, what you should think of it as is Paul's lament over sin. If you had time, you could go through there's there's a series of about 3 different laments that he has over his sin. Now, when Paul says in verse 18 here, for I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

Joel Brooks: 21:07

For the good I wish I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. I realize that's probably not what is in there. I anytime I just quote a scripture, it's it's, it's like King James, NIV, New American Standard, and ESV combined. Don't don't try to find the Joel Brooks version there. And I've always just, the good I wish I do not do, but I practice the very evil I do not wish.

Joel Brooks: 21:32

When Paul says that, I don't think he's actually talking about one particular sin that he keeps going to over and over and over, although I'm sure that was true in parts of his life. I don't think that's what he's talking about here, that he just keeps going back to this one sin over and over. I think what he's saying is this, in light of his entire argument in Romans 7. When he became a believer, the spirit of God came inside him, gave him a new heart. And now for the first time, he looks at the law of God.

Joel Brooks: 22:05

He delights in it. He looks at it. He's like, wow, it's beautiful. I want to do that. I mean, I want to do all of it.

Joel Brooks: 22:15

I wanna, I wanna like do all of the, the ways I could be just, all the ways I could serve the poor, all the ways I could be kind, all all of the ways I could speak truth, all the ways I could be encouraging. I wanna do all of this. Then he falls short. I mean, he sees such a beautiful picture of what it means to be human, how God created us, presented to us in the law and he's like, I want it all. But I'm I'm not doing very well.

Joel Brooks: 22:46

Woe is me. Who will set me free from this body? The best way I could describe it is this, I grew up in a household of musicians. Everyone in my household plays, an instrument or 2 or 3. And, old reference, we were like the Partridge family.

Joel Brooks: 23:06

Okay? We're always like around just playing songs together. So I grew up, you know, my mom was a piano teacher, so I had to take lots of piano. Grew up playing drums, piano, enough guitar to play praise songs. You know, you only have to know 4 chords.

Joel Brooks: 23:22

Four chords and the truth. And so, I I grew up, you know, able to do all that. And so I do love playing, but I also I enjoy writing songs. I still do today some. I enjoy writing.

Joel Brooks: 23:36

And occasionally, this is how writing a song hits you. You could be doing whatever. Rarely is it when you sit down like I'm gonna write a song. You're you're doing whatever and all of a sudden, it just hits you, this new melody. You you just hear it.

Joel Brooks: 23:49

And it's it's this gorgeous melody. You're like, oh my gosh. And and you hear all the complexities of it, the beauty, the chorus, like, the song is all there. And then I just begin to, like, you know, chicken peck the keys. And and I'm I'm trying trying to recreate this melody, and I just I can't.

Joel Brooks: 24:16

I'm just chicken pecking it. And finally, I'm like, ah, woe is me. Woe is me. Like, this doesn't even come close to communicating the beauty that that I've just heard. I have fallen short of the glory of the song.

Joel Brooks: 24:37

I have sinned. Do you get that? I have fallen short of the glory of the song. I mean, when I heard the song, it's like I came alive in my head. I came alive.

Joel Brooks: 24:47

It's like, oh, that's so beautiful. I was filled with joy. I'm like and now I want to play it and I fall short. Oh wretched man that I am. I wish I could play it.

Joel Brooks: 25:01

That's what Paul is saying here. That's what he means here. He he doesn't wanna fall short of the glory, but he does. So he says, who will deliver me from this body of death? The answer is Jesus.

Joel Brooks: 25:17

Jesus. This is our hope, our confident hope, that someday, all of the beauty that you see and you hear in your lord and savior Jesus Christ, all of that beauty will someday be true of you. You won't just fail. I know right now you see Jesus and you're like, you see the glory and you're like, I want it all. I want to be as kind as Him, as forgiving as Him, as compassionate as Him, as powerful as him.

Joel Brooks: 25:50

I want to be as generous as him. Like, you're like, I want it all. Like I fail, but someday you won't fail. It's the glory of the gospel. Jesus says that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Joel Brooks: 26:08

That's what Paul says about Jesus. Jesus who began a good work in us will perfect it. Someday, we will be like him. Until then, we will struggle. There's glory in the struggle, but we will struggle.

Joel Brooks: 26:23

And through the Holy Spirit, as day after day goes by, hopefully, we begin to look a little more and a little more like our savior. But we anxiously long our prayer is always maranatha. Lord Jesus, will you come? Pray with me. Jesus, I thank you that we do have the ability now to struggle with sin.

Joel Brooks: 26:52

We're no longer enslaved to it. We're no longer dead because of it. You've given us a new life, and we can fight it. And I pray that you through your spirit, we would fight that sin well. Lord, we know that till until we are with you, we will always fall short of your glory.

Joel Brooks: 27:12

But I pray that we would relish your glory. We would constantly behold your glory. As a result, as every day that passes by, we might become more and more like it. We pray this all in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.