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amen biblically speaking what is man a theologian might respond that man is the image of God thereby adding mud to the water and making it even
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clearer because we do not really know what the image of God means so going in that direction doesn't necessarily help us understand what man man is other
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biblical comments would say that man is flesh and blood man is body and soul or perhaps man is Body Soul and Spirit this
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been debated throughout time by Jewish theologians Christian theologians what is man from Genesis 2: 7 we might come up with the equation that if you take body and you
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add Spirit you get a living Soul so body plus spirit Spirit equals Soul that's that's what man is but let's add to
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the difficulty in understanding there is no definitive answer it's been debated for Millennia but then what is regenerate man what what do we become when we are
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born again we know that we must be born again we know that in being born again we as Paul says in first 2 Corinthians 5 we become a new creature old things have
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passed away behold new things have come and so the the regenerate man is a new man he's a new creation but as
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hopefully most of us have experienced in regeneration we still have the same body we still have the same Soul sadly we
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often still have the same personality we really walk away from the experience of experience of regeneration much the same as we were
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before radically changed inside No Doubt but in terms of our of our understanding of what's going on inside of us what we
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have become we really don't know it is the new man old man dilemma and many of you have encountered that in
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teaching and and preaching the idea that that as Believers we are in a sense we are people with split personalities and I'm sure you've heard
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someone at some time talk about um the struggle for the throne of your heart and that the new man has to keep the old man off of the Throne of one's heart
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that there are two men that are battling within the believer or two women that are battling within the believer as to what to do right or wrong it really comes from the cartoon of the of the
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angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other and that's that's many people's idea of what the normal Christian Life is Like That the old man is still in
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there now they might tell you that yeah he's cruci being he's being crucified and they'll point out the crucifixion was a very slow death well not that
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slow it doesn't take a whole lifetime to die on a cross Paul's view is completely different and yet this whole concept of what are we in Christ as as human beings
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regenerated by the spirit of God what does that make us really comes into play in these verses in Romans chapter 7 because he keeps using the first person pronoun
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I he keeps speaking of himself and and I think we understand that when he speaks of himself he speaks of of us as well that we are in the same experience in
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Christ that Paul is expressing here but he says things that seem to be almost schizophrenic split schizophrenic split personality and here in verse 22 he does
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speak of the inner man he says for I joyfully concur with the law of God in the Inner Man well is that the true me the inner man well that's where a lot of
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people go with this passage this is talking about the the the true you in Christ versus the no longer true old man who is inside of you struggling against
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the new the new man well that's not the struggle that Paul uses at all in fact the only struggle that he is speaking of In this
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passage and elsewhere in his letters is between the Flesh and the spirit not between The Old Man and the new man he says in Galatians Chapter 2 and I
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think this verse is an undeniable parallel in one verse to what Romans 7 is saying in many verses Paul writes I have been crucified with
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Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live wait a
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minute Paul you just said I no longer live you you follow his logic a little bit I no longer live and yet the life that I now Live In the
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Flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me there is the man in Christ the woman
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in Christ crucified dead and buried in Christ and yet rising to walk and live
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in newness of Life In Christ so that I no longer live I have died and have been buried with Christ in baptism yet the
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life that I live in the flesh which is my physical life I live how I live by the works of
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the law through the flesh no I live by faith in the Son of God Galatians 2:20 is the verse right before Paul says
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you foolish Galatians having begun in the spirit are you now working it out in the flesh so this is the rubric under which that that condemnation comes that that
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pmic where he says what are you doing you have died in Christ and yet you live in the flesh and
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this is where Paul has been going I think throughout the whole section here in Romans 7 it's a new dichotomy not the new man old man that we so often
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here because there is only one person one soul that is dealt with in regeneration that soul is dead in
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trespass and sin Paul teaches that clearly in Ephesians chapter 2 and in regeneration that Soul dies to the law to sin and to death in
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Christ and that one Soul Rises to walk in newness of life it's not that you exchanged your personhood for some other person you're still still the same
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individual so we shouldn't be looking in outside ourselves for little angels and Little Devils or old men and new men it's one man and the dichotomy is
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whether that one man is walking according to the flesh or according to the spirit that's the dichotomy that Paul sets out and we'll see this even more powerfully in chapter 8 where he
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says for the Mind Set On the flesh is death but the Mind Set On the spirit is life and peace and then in Galatians 5 he says but I say walk by the spirit and
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you will not carry out the desires of the flesh so let's do a little recap of what Paul has said really since the beginning of chapter 7 but primarily since verse
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five when he begins to talk about himself the ey the law has become the weapon of sin against obedience and righteousness in the new man the
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Battleground is the flesh the believer has been set free from sin as well as the law but the flesh
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remains as does the prospect of physical death you see regeneration didn't finish everything and when we when we read Paul
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we need to try to read Paul comprehens hensively he doesn't repeat here what he says in 1 Corinthians 15 that there is still an enemy to be made to be brought under the
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Dominion of Christ and that is death that's the final enemy but that time will come and that's the same time at which our flesh and blood will be
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resurrected Incorruptible because Flesh and Blood he says there cannot inherit the Kingdom so his his logic is consistent throughout even though it's often difficult in one
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part or the other so read Galatians read Corinthians and read Romans and and listen for the words that he's using when he says flesh
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he's not saying something that is inherently bad but rather something that is inherently weak inherently vulnerable when he says law he is
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usually talking about law as the instrument of sin to bring about my death but he makes it clear elsewhere that that same law is holy and righteous
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and good because what he's trying to point out and again this is a recap is that sin shows itself to be utterly sinful not by exploiting my weakness but
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exploiting a strength by taking something that is good and holy and righteous and using that to bring about my Disobedience condemnation and death
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so that so sin being utterly sinful may be known for what it is and he has no other word other word sin and and really you can't escape the
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odium of that word in Paul's writings the enemy to his people in these churches is churches is sin and the enemy to us is sin the
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instrument of that enemy is the law the Battleground is the flesh until the resurrection when we are set free as he
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says here from the body of this death who will set Who Shall Set Me Free from the body of this death some of your translations may say this body of death
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um that's permissible by the Greek I don't think it's permissible by the logic of Paul because all of this is taking place inside our physical bodies
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this is a body not a body of death it's the body of this death death caused by the law condemnation through the weakness of the flesh who will set me
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free see that's the only time Paul uses the future tense in talking about Liberty Christ has set me free from sin
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he has Set Me Free from the law who will set me set me free from the body of this death because of that many believe that between verse
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24 and 25 you have the event of Salvation that up up to this point he has been talking about an unbeliever and Beyond this point and on
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into chapter 8 he's talking about a Believer I do not think that's right I do not think that that is accurate I do not think Paul would spend so much time in doing theology on an
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unbeliever and I think it comes from again that Lutheran position from Martin Luther that Paul was himself a frustrated Jew trying as hard as he could to please God through the law and
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just knowing every time that he was failing the way Luther tried as hard as he could through the sacraments of the church through pilgrimage through personal abuse through confession and
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all the things he could do to please God and every time realizing that it wasn't working Paul Luther superimposing his own struggles on Paul has actually taken
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Paul and made him into something he was not Paul himself says that he was he was ahead of his Brethren and according to the righteousness of the law he was perfect and there is no indication in
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Paul's own autobiog biographical statements that he was a man filled with angst and angst and worry he was fully convinced that he was of the people of
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God and he kept the law out of obedience to The God Who had delivered him delivered him it was when he found
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Christ and realized that Israel's Messiah had come and conquered death and then on his Ascension poured out his holy spirit the two markers of the
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eschatological Messianic age in the Old Testament are now here in Christ that Paul was able to rethink the law in terms of the Messiah having
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come and so he's he's not this this agonizing Jew and so I don't think that the transition here from 24 to
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25 has anything to do with our Salvation because his point here is not that chronological event but rather that
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the law has always been made Weak by the flesh whether in an unbeliever or a Believer now the argument that is used
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here focuses on what Paul says and they'll point out a verse here or there and say well an unbeliever could never say that for example I joyfully concur with the law in the Inner Man an
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unbeliever could not say that well actually a Jew could say that and they did say that and Paul said that before he was a Believer he joyfully concurred
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with the law in the Inner Man and so that applies as much to a Believer as an unbeliever so there are a number of verses that are taken as is one or the other the the common denominator is
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flesh the unbeliever is flesh the believer is in the flesh so that that is what connects Paul's verses rather than
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divides them and we're moving not from the unbeliever to the believer but we're already in Christ because he's already established at the beginning of chapter
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7 that we have died to the law in chapter 6 we have died to sin this is the believer but it's also the believer who sees a law at work in his members
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contrary to the law that he Delights on in in his mind this is the normal Christian Life it's life between the
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ages it's life between our regeneration and conversion and between that and our Resurrection one author says the eye
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of Paul the first person pronoun the eye is split primarily as a result of redemption the eye is split because the
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eye of the believer belongs to is stretched between the old Epoch of sin and death represented by the law and the
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new Epoch of Grace and life and the spirit we live in a time in between we have not yet attained Perfection Paul
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says in Philippians we have not yet reached the consummation of the age we have not yet exchanged our vile corruptible bodies for The Incorruptible bodies that we we receive and during
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this time we are in the flesh so when Paul says back in verse 14 and this convinces so many people that Paul cannot be talking about a
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Believer he said says I am of Flesh sold into bondage to sin now I should have pointed out this out when we went through that passage
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but the question comes up what is sold into bondage to sin am I sold into bondage to sin because that would contradict what Paul just said about my
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freedom from sin and definitely he would be talking about an unbeliever but I don't think you know the commas are not in the Greek Greek did not have any punct situation whatsoever so when we
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read a comma it may or may not belong there I don't think it belongs here because what is sold into bondage to sin as he proceeds and talks about the
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weakness of the law or the law because of the weakness of Flesh it's the flesh that is sold into bondage to sin and it
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still remains that's where the battle is fought that's where we see this this
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conundrum of one law versus another law so that may we may not do what we wish but in this passage that we're looking at this morning how many laws are there of which Paul
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speaks the conventional answer is two in fact the verse the version I read The New American Standard in verse 21 they've already trans trans at the word for you maybe your Bibles have as well I
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find then the principle that evil is present in me the principle the word is Nas law same word
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that occurs five times in these three verses 21 22 and 23 five times same word Nas but it it occurs on the one hand the
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law of God which which is equivalent in Paul's logic here to the law of my mind later in chapter 8 he'll call it the law of the spirit of life in Christ
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Jesus so there's there's this one portrayal of the law that is the law of God it's a good law I Delight I I joyfully concur with it oh there's this other law there's
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another law in my members oh the law of sin it's also in my members okay later he calls it the law of sin and death well it does seem to us that this cannot
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be the same law can it one of them is is God's law it's holy it's righteous it's good I Delight in it I joyfully concur with it the other is in my members it takes me
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captive it brings me nothing but sin and death how can that be the same law well Paul has not mentioned but one law so far throughout this chapter so a
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priori if he introduces a second law here in chapter in verse 21 and he means to call it a principle maybe he could have used a different
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word he's now introducing confusion into the logic because he's already said I once was alive apart from the law but then the law came sin revived and I died so
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he's not talking about two different laws he's talking about two different impacts of the same law there's the law that was supposed to bring me life he says has instead
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brought me death it's the same law okay the law of God is something that we Delight in in our minds but is powerless in our flesh to overcome sin
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it's the same law we talk about God as being an all-consuming fire and over the years of of contemplated what what is hell we think
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it's a separate Place away from the presence of God but God is omnipresent what if hell is the presence of an allc consuming fire without
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intervening Grace that's hell but it's the same God it's the same fire and here by analogy this is the same law it's not
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some different law that somehow came up God did not make a different law and the S and Satan does not have the authority to make law so there's no law inside of
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us that is opposing God's law it's the same law in our flesh that is still weak and incapable
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obeying so I think to introduce that second law which again is most of the commentators but by no means all many see that Paul's logic demands that this must be the same holy and
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righteous and good law but its impact in my flesh is entirely different than its impact in my
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mind so the difference is not in the law but in the
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flesh one author writes the point is that the two-sidedness of the law reinforces and interacts with the eye in its own two dimensional character as to
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the law of God reinforcing my desire for good as the law used by sin precipitating my action for
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evil outside the realm of willing the law is still too much sin's tool to be able to overcome sin in the flesh the best we are able to do is to
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want to do good does anybody feel that sometimes that seems like the best we can do well actually it is the best that we can
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do and that is what we are to do that is walking by the spirit and not the flesh it's when we try to work out what we wish to do through the power of the
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flesh or the reintervention of the law and that's really his point here if you bring the law back in you are now putting your faith not in God and in
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Christ Jesus who loved us and gave his life up for us you are not living the life that you now live in the flesh by faith you are now living it back under the law and he says to the Galatians if
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you do that you have fallen from Grace you have gone back into the shadows and what you have actually done as you have rejected the gracious gift of God who has condemned sin in the
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flesh so the dichotomy is not between a Believer and an unbeliever it's not between an old man who's still trying to get the throne back back and the new man who's beating him off inside of us no
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that's not it at all it's a new man living in an old body it's a new man who is still in the
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flesh and flesh and so he is challenged by Paul we are challenged by Paul and this again comes out in chapter 8
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explicitly but also in Galatians that we are not to walk by the flesh and what we try to do is we try to turn Galatians 5:116 around he says walk by
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the spirit and we you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh what we do in religion including religion including Christianity is we try to teach how to not desire the Deeds of the flesh don't do
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this or don't do that stop doing this do this do this 12 times you know do this for 30 days do this at least two hours a day okay that's what we do that's what's all those books in the Bookshop that's
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what they'll tell you what to do stop by the flesh the Deeds of the Flesh and then the spirit will come in no it will not work that way you will
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never defeat the flesh through the flesh you will never attain sanctification through the law that by the flesh could only condemn and kill
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you and so that's what Paul is saying and and recognizing what is going on inside because of the flesh he cannot help but really cry out
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Wretched Man that I am and have you ever noticed that the more that you are in Christ and in his word sometimes the more wretched you
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feel that's actually a good thing or it can be a good thing if you understand what Paul is saying because he's not complacent with the situation here he's not giving giving us here in verse 25 an
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excuse for excuse for sinning he's not saying on the one hand I rejoice in my mind and on the other hand in my body I do whatever I want
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that is not he's not accepting that he's saying that's the way it is but that is not the way it is going to be it's as if he he reiterates the question from chapter 6 are we to
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continue in sin that Grace might increase may it never be I think no one can hear Paul with the ears of Grace and then come away wanting
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to sin and yet Paul himself understood that the grace that he was teaching could lead someone to that conclusion let us sin more that Grace might abound may it never
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be rather we are reminded that while we have said been set free from sin and from the law we have not yet been set free from the body of this de death and
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Christians need to understand understand that especially within the charismatic and Pentecostal movement there's this idea that comes into the church through pism
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and has come in chronically throughout the church that somehow we can attain to sinless perfection in this body that somehow we can be freed from this body the body of this
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death no we can't do that either that awaits our physical death and ultimately our resurrection and if we don't have our
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sight on that then we again have put our faith in something other than Jesus Christ and his finished work and so in this body this is what's going to happen
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and our cry is with Paul Wretched Man that I am wretched woman that I am wretched child that I am who will set me free from the body of this death thanks
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be to Christ Jesus our Lord that's where it all heads that's where Paul takes us the Battle Ground is in the flesh the war has been
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won but the battle continues the flesh is the power of the body and this side of our death and
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ultimate Resurrection the flesh for us again is not something that we need to view as evil in and of itself but rather corrupt and weak that is is our flesh that is
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how Paul describes it everywhere in the members the law continues to take us prisoner to sin that's the word he uses
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here in um verse 23 making me a prisoner I don't think that's quite the right Force the literal is taking
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captive okay I think you lose the the the military the battlefield element here when you just say making me a prisoner no it's taking me
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captive the law of sin the law of God in my members in my flesh is taking me captive and that's what's happening in our members but in our mind the spirit
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of life in Christ Jesus sets us free to bear fruit to God through faith he said that back in verse six in the flesh all the fruit that we can bear is to death
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that's it it that's the seed that's the plant that's the fruit but in Christ and faith we can bear fruit to God not through the Flesh in our mind the spirit
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of life in Christ Jesus sets us free to please God through faith how with unwavering trust that he who began a good work in you will bring it to
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Perfection unto the day of Christ Jesus that is that that is is how we fight the battle through faith that he has
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condemned sin in the flesh that he has provided salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ there is therefore no condemnation Paul moves so smoothly into
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that glorious verse at the beginning of chapter 8 that perhaps there shouldn't even be a chapter division there at all Christ Jesus has set us free from
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sin and death and yet we still are in the flesh and so we see the battle raging and it continues the more we fight the more we see oursel to be wretched yet at the same
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time the more fervently we Rejoice both in God's law which he has written in our hearts and the Redemption that he has brought to us through Jesus
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Christ The Struggle that we have should never lead to despair because we have Jesus Christ who has defeated death he has defeated the certificate of death that was was
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written against us nailing it to the tree he has defeated the powers and PR principalities that stand against the human race he has defeated death through
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death and his resurrection and he has promised all of that to his own so yes in our members we see a law at work that keeps us from from obeying
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the law of God but that is not the way it must be and certainly not the way it will be so we have a battle to fight and
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I I love the way I mean if you if you if you just see the words from 2 Corinthians 10 Paul uses the same word that he's
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used here taking captive and listen to what he says for the weapons of our Warfare are not of the flesh it's almost as like he's
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writing a commentary on his own commentary okay he's writing a commentary on Romans 7 the weapons of our Warfare are not of the flesh but divinely powerful for the destruction of
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fortresses we are destroying speculation and every lofty thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God and we are taking captive taking captive every thought to
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The Obedience of Christ we think the battle is in our flesh that we need to stop doing bad things and start doing good things
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the battle is in our mind and where we're ultimately heading though we're going to have a little bit of a a a detour of sorts in Romans 910 and 11 but we're ultimately heading to
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Romans 12 where all of Paul's teaching is going to come down in a laser focus of application where he says I urge you therefore Brethren by
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the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to god notice he doesn't say present your present your flesh he will not accept continuing sin
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in a in a Believer but he will not accept any attempt to overcome that sin through the Flesh and the law the only means of overcoming the
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Deeds of the flesh is walking by the spirit and the most powerful manifestation that we are indeed walking in the spirit is not speaking in tongues
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it's an unwavering faith in Jesus Christ regardless of anything in us that seems to point the other direction I
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know My Savior Lives and in that day I will In the Flesh see him in my body I will stand before him that's walking in
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the spirit and so Paul goes on he says we take every thought excuse me Romans 12 I urge you to present a sacrifice acceptable to God which is
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your spiritual service of worship and do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your
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mind I know that sounds too intellectual perhaps but that's not what he's getting at he's not talking about dogma and Doctrine and making sure you dot all your eyes and cross all your tees in the
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right way that's not what he's talking about he's not talking about I urge you Brethren by the mercies of God to be
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no in your mind to be fully and firmly and even more fully and firmly convinced that he who began a good work in you will bring it to Perfection when Paul prays to the for
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the Thessalon Thessalonians that they would preserve Body Soul and Spirit he says Faithful is he who called you and he also will bring it to pass that
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is walking by the spirit Andrew nigran said through Christ the victory is already won through him we may look forward with full confidence to to the
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day of Final Redemption going back to Galatians 2:20 this is the faith of the Son of God by which Paul and every believer now lives
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the life that we live in the flesh let us pray father we do ask that you would increase our faith that you would fix it
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firmly and fully on Jesus Christ and the cross and the empty tomb and him seated at your right hand the victory that he has won on our behalf we know that sin
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has been defeated that death has been destroyed and yet we know that we are still Still In the Flesh and that in all likelihood unless he returns we will also physically die
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yet though we die Jesus says we shall live and therein lies our faith and our hope because of your love help us to stand firm in that and
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thereby walk in the spirit that we might not fulfill the Deeds of the flesh For Your Glory for the exaltation of Jesus Christ in our lives we ask in his name
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amen please stand for the benediction from 2 Thessalonians now may the Lord of Peace himself continually Grant you peace in
