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pray father we do ask that you would give us insight and understanding to this passage especially as we know it must apply to apply to us we ask that your spirit would shed
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light both to the passage and to our minds that we might have a greater understanding of what Paul is saying and what it means means to each one of us as
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your children we ask that we might be built up by this message instructed strengthened in our faith and we ask this in Jesus name
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amen some of you are familiar with the um children's animated series The Avatar The Last The Last Airbender and there is a character in this um uh cute little series of of
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stories Prince Zuko who for the most of the first part is a bad guy and then decides to be a good guy and to join the the Avatar and his friends in trying to
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overthrow his own father the fire lord there's one scene though where he has he has turned he's come he's going to help out and and he just keeps stumbling and there's one scene where
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he's lying on his back in the grass shouting up to the heavens why am I so bad at being good well unfortunately no one showed up with a copy of Romans 7 okay because
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that that is basically what we're reading here why are we so bad at being good and that's what Paul is dealing with and this passage here one of the
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reasons why it has been so controversial and the subject of so much debate is that we almost always read it self analytically with the question in our
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mind finds is this me is Paul talking about me because it seems like Paul's talking about me although he's using the first person singular here he's using
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the i in fact we're going to see that he uses it quite emphatically in a couple of these of these verses so controversial has this been that modern commentators have just kind
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of given up and they've concluded that this is not Paul talking about himself at all but rather it's Paul talking about in the garden or Paul talking
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about Israel I've read through those I'm sure you've probably encountered some of those thoughts they just don't seem to fit the text they seem too too uh too
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subtle by half Paul very much sounds like he's talking about himself all the way through this passage we've we've seen him almost autobiographically
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discuss um okay discuss himself in his own relationship with the commandment and with sin even mentions a particular sin that we looked at last week might have been his as they say besetting sin that
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of covetousness but if it is Paul if we accept that Paul is talking about himself here's where here's where the real uh Crux of the matter comes is it before his conversion or
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after and the reason that this is so difficult is because of what we're going to get into in Romans chapter 8 but the fundamental concern that most people have had as they read this
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passage is Paul describing what is known as the normal Christian Life For example verse 19 for the good that I
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wish I do not do but the I practice the very evil that I do not wish well the reason we want this to mean that this is a normal Christian
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Life is because we we can identify with verse 19 can we not that we want to do good but we find out that we're rather bad at doing good and that we continue
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to do what we know is bad not wanting to do it but obviously somehow wanting to and then Paul seems to give us this great um door of Escape in fact he
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mentions it twice in verse 17 and in verse 20 it's no longer I that is doing this thing but sin which dwells in me but if I am doing the very
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thing I do not wish I am no longer the one doing it but sin which dwells in me that sounds good sounds like we can blame something other than ourself we
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can blame this this Force this power that is in us that is causing us to sin well Paul's not going to let us do
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that especially in chapter 8 he's he's going to he's going to kind of take that option away that we can go ahead and sin he's already said shall we sin that Grace might abound and then he's may it
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never be and then I think in chapter 8 he's going to show us that continuing in the pattern of sin leads to death so maybe we're looking at this the wrong
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way you see Paul was not seeking to comfort Believers in their ongoing sin he wasn't trying to make us feel okay about without continuing to sin nor was
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he condemning us for our ongoing sins what Paul was doing was presenting his gospel to a church from whom he
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hoped to receive both fellowship and support remember that this book is his presentation his his resume as it were this is the gospel that I preach you have not heard it yet because
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I haven't been to Rome you're a church I didn't plant but you're a notable church and I'm kind of wanting to go to Spain and so this is who I am I want you to know who I am before I get there this is
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my gospel we shouldn't lose sight of that and and turn this as we turn so many things into therapeutic self-analysis this is this is about the gospel and
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what Paul has been talking about here is about the death and the life of Jesus Christ and the death and the life of those who are in him and our death to sin our death to the law our death to
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death but he has introduced in chapter 7 another factor and that is the Flesh and as I mentioned last week the law is the
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instrument law is the weapon of sin flesh is the Battleground but the enemy is sin and we should not lose sight of that he's he's treating sin as a power as a force that
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has infected the Earth and all who inhabit it and that corruption is with us in the flesh so in every section of
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Romans and I think this is something we need to keep in mind especially Lord willing if we get to that passage chapters 9 10 and 11 so often view
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viewed prophetically especially by dispensationalists so often seen as a parenthesis not really part of his letter no every single part of Romans is presenting the Gospel of Jesus
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Christ okay the The Heading of Romans could be that verse in chapter one I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God into salvation so that is
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that is the lens by which we should look at each of these passages not to say that that will make them simple or easy or even or even clear but hopefully remembering that
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this is the gospel will keep us from going astray in our analysis and our interpretation of what Paul is saying so what he is presenting to us
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here I think in chapter 7 is what I call the anthropology of sin he's already talked in chapter 3 about Sin in the sense that all are condemmed under the
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righteousness of God none have reached the glory of God none are even willing to do so and he points out in chapter three starting in Chapter 2 that in this the Jew is no way distinguished from the
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Gentile that God has shut up all under condemnation because of sin that's kind of the the Theology of sin but now he's getting into sin as it works inside each
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one of us he's already done that when he says I was once alive apart from the Commandment but then the Commandment came sin revived and I died that is the
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normal condition of every human being and so he's now dealing with sin as it works within each one of us us and where it works and that is in the
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flesh so the debate over when each statement that Paul makes here was effective in Paul's life it it arises because of the
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Apostles tendency to switch from present to past tense he goes back and forth for example we saw in verses 5 and six verse 5 for while we were in the flesh the
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sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in the members of our body to bring to bear fruit for death but now we have been released from the law having died to that by which we
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were bound so that we serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter while we were in the flesh verse 14 but I am of the
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flesh different preposition used there different case to the noun actually is there a significance in that was there a time when I was in the flesh is there a
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time that I am still of the flesh that's really what he's getting at here is not so much a chronology as it is an anthropology and within that that doctrine of who I
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am what is it inside of me that is enabling me either to be able or not able to do what I wish his distinction
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is actually not between non-Christian and Christian his distinction as we see as he moves into chapter 8 is between the Flesh and the spirit and I think that's a very
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important thing we need to realize because it sounds like in these verses that I've read this morning starting in verse 14 it sounds like my death to sin really
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didn't happen because he says in verse 14 I am of the flesh sold into bondage to sin wait a minute Paul you just said I've been freed from that bondage you said
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that I'm dead to sin if I am in Christ so clearly that cannot be talking about me as a Christian see this is where the argument goes back and forth but then he
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says in verse 17 so no longer am I the one doing it but sin which indwells me but that can't be said of an unbeliever so it the argument there are good arguments to say this is this is
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Paul as an unbeliever there are good arguments to say that this is Paul as a believer in fact there are powerful arguments both ways which probably means that's not the question he's
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answering and if we can defend both answers maybe we're asking the passage the wrong the wrong question maybe we're approaching it the wrong way and that this really doesn't
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have anything to do with whether or not I am a believer or not a Believer but rather has more to do with that which motivates me that which um energizes me
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to do either do what I wish to do or not do do what I wish to do so here I think in verse in chapter S he's bringing together two strands of teaching already
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found in the book The First the total depravity of man Jew or Gentile that's what Romans 3 teaches that we are we are not as bad as we could be that's not
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what total depravity means what total depravity means and it's also known as total inability but it means that sin has corrupted every faculty and every aspect of our life and that we are
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unable to restore our relationship with God in fact we don't really desire to do that unless we can do it on our terms which are unacceptable to God so total
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depravity in in in Romans 3 but here again the anthropology of sin in Romans 7 this is how sin Works in Fallen man but it's also how sin Works in
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regener man now I hope you can follow me with this because we are so accustomed to thinking of of Salvation as if it were a light
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switch and there is an aspect in which salvation regeneration is indeed a light switch Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 makes it clear that we have become a new creation
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old things have passed away we have become a new creation through the Regeneration of the Holy Spirit our Stony heart has been removed a heart of Flesh has been added and in that sense a
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soft heart on which God can inscribe his law but there's another sense in which salvation is not a black and white
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situation and we know this personally individually experientially that after we confess Jesus Christ is our Lord we do not then walk forth in glory and sinless
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Perfection we rather keep asking why am I so bad at being good and that becomes often times a torment to a Believer the the
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realization that we are not what we ought to be that we do not do what we know to be right and what we desire to do so this is a van of this is a view uh
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from Romans 3 it's a view of man broadly considered in in Romans 3 Paul is casting a very wide net by saying Jew and Gentile he is he is
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capturing everybody in that net and condemning them all together as Sinners before God but here in Romans 7 especially starting in verse 14 this is
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this is a view of man inwardly considered one author says the point he is pressing is that what indwells someone is what gives them power to
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perform that which other other wise they would want to do but remain incapable of and this will become even clearer in chapter 8 what Paul is getting at he
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also teaches in Galatians and that is what is it that moves you what is it that motivates you is it the flesh or is
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it the it the spirit and so he's going to make that very clear as I said in this next chapter so the realm of discussion is not pre-christian
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not pre-christian or as a Christian the realm of discussion is flesh or spirit and these are not clearly divisible between the two previous
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States non-Christian and Christian it is certain that an unbeliever does not have the spirit of God do we all accept that Paul's going to make that even clear in
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chapter 8 where he says if you do not have the spirit of Christ you are none of his so that's that's clear okay the unbeliever does not have the spirit of God but is it not equally certain that
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the believer still has the flesh see that's what we'd like we'd like God to have done that we'd like to have said give us the spirit and take away our
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away our flesh he didn't do that he gave us the spirit but we are still in the flesh and the whole point here is that
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flesh is the battleground of sin okay and spirit is the power to
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Victory so why do we want the ey in this chapter to be to be Christians well it seems to exonerate us
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it seems to let us off the hook and that is often how it has been preached that we need not worry about our sin it is often preached in modern
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evangelicalism that all you need worry about is that at some point in your life you've made a decision for Jesus you've walked the aisle you've signed a card
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you raised your hand you were baptized that's it you're fine don't worry about it you're it you're in and so you don't have to worry about your sins now this has come about
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largely because of our modern therapeutic Society we're all anxious about ourselves about ourselves and so much of preaching much of of
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church life has become counseling and much of counseling what is much of counseling is just trying to make everyone else feel better either by what I say or what I want to prescribe
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for you to take at the end of this you're going to feel better that's what what feel better about yourself and and we can employ Paul and say see Paul's saying it's it's not you it's the sin
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that dwells in you some of you might remember Flip Wilson it's the devil making you do it right it's not you the devil made me do it no Paul's not saying
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that okay he's going to make it very clear that he is not letting us off the hook what he's actually doing here he says even more boldly to the Galatians
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primarily because those were churches that he had planted he had evangelized he said are you so foolish having begun by the spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh you
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see there that dichotomy of spirit and flesh Paul acknowledges to still be with Believers and the question is which one are you are you following later in Galatians Paul says
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if you walk by the spirit you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh so we have to keep in mind that Paul's not changing his theology or his anthropology here in Romans he's simply
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writing to a church that he had not founded and so he's writing more theoretically and philosophically whereas to the Galatians he's writing very polemically very pointedly you
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foolish Galatians who has Bewitched you you have started in the spirit are you going to now work it all out in the flesh but Paul is not removing the
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responsibility of Sin from us we're not going to be able to stand before the Judgment seat of Christ which we will and say well it wasn't me Paul said it wasn't me it was the sin that was in
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me Paul makes it clear again in 2 Corinthians he says for we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ that each one may be recompensed for his deeds done in the body according
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to what he has done whether good or bad he's talking to Believers we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ and so he's not exonerating us
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he's not saying don't worry about your sin he would not disagree with John who says when we sin we confess our sins and God is righteous and just to forgive us
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our sins when we sin we have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous we we are not in a situation here when we can just simply ignore sin
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what Paul is doing he's locating the sphere of operating sin within man and that is the flesh sin operates In the Flesh under the law bringing
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condemnation and death to unbelievers and Believers alike now what is at issue here
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within Christianity especially since the Reformation now I mentioned how the reformers dealt with the law by doing away with two of their three categories
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the ceremonial law and the civil law they say they they have been abrogated we don't have to worry about them but the moral law is still there as a guide to behavior for Christians now what's
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behind this is that salvation is by faith sanctification is by
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works now that's often very subtle but that is underlying all of most of modern Evangelical preaching is that oh yes you're only saved by faith not by works
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yep you're saved by faith but sanctification is a different matter you got to work that out and you know what the moral all the Ten Commandments that's what God has given us that we
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might be Sanctified may it never be we are not Sanctified by The Works of the law we are no more Sanctified by the law
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than we were saved by it because wherever there is law there is condemnation and death that's what Paul's saying here so we as we are still
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in the flesh if we are trying to work out our Salvation through the power of the flesh through the law we will find ourselves approaching death we will not
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find ourselves approaching light and life unless we walk by the spirit and that's ultimately that is what he is saying here the law one author says is the
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means by which sin brings man to death but man and this is where God is going with all of this especially one particular man man is the me means
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through the law by which God brings sin to death so here's sin working with the good law killing men and undoubtedly
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thinking very proudly of its achievements but it's all heading toward Romans 8:3 that what the law could not do weak as it is in the flesh God did sending
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his only son in the form of sinful flesh God condemned sin in the flesh this is this is a master strategy that Paul is laying out he's saying this is how God
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defeated the enemies this looked like it was his waterl but it wasn't he turned it around and it was his astounding victory that God defeated sin in the
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flesh but when he presents flesh Paul never gives it any strength or ability flesh is always vulnerable and weak so
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when he says you will not desire do the desires of the flesh he is saying that is not the realm in which your sanctification is going to take place and if you try to work out what you
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began in the spirit through workings of the law in the flesh you are at best foolish because the fundamental principle is the flesh is weak and to
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bring the law into the flesh Even in our sanctification is to invite sin back in and to invite condemnation and death
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back into our life this is God's war with sin which is really the essence of Paul's gospel this is the power of God unto salvation but it's also the power of God
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to the defeat of sin and of death and the law used as an instrument by sin was actually the device by which God first
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concentrates sin through the law onto a people the rest of the world goes their way in way in darkness they are what Paul says in Acts
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for or yeah he says in Acts 14 they're basically ignored but God gives Israel the law and he says because of transgression that transgression might increase the law came in and so it's
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like I'm taking sin and I'm going to con Con in this people by giving them the law and then I'm going to continue to concentrate it and I'm going to continue to concentrate it until it comes down on
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one person the Israelite par Excellence the Messiah who becomes sin and in that sin is condemned because it brings to
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death an innocent victim so you can you can see Paul is just laying out this this this eternal strategy whereby God will turn the
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strength of his enemy against him and will defeat him through the Messiah
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Christ so with regard to us as individuals this is God's Cosmic plan this is what what God is doing in the gospel through Jesus Christ but regard to us as individuals
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what he is saying is our flesh even regenerate is powerless against sin and that's not just simply Paul's teaching but Paul is consistent
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throughout that we will not be delivered from this body of death or the body of this death more literally until the
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resurrection when we lay aside this body in death we will be freed from the flesh but we will not be whole we will not be
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united we will not be in our right form until the until the resurrection that body that is Incorruptible that body for which flesh cannot even be mentioned and he says in
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1 Corinthians 15 flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God whatever we will be like flesh will no longer describe it we will be in
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strength not in weakness so what Paul is laying out to consider those terms what Paul is laying out in in front of us if we think about it in
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terms of terms of sanctification if we seek to be Sanctified through the works of the law then we are not going from strength to
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strength but rather from strength to weakness but if we walk by the spirit as Paul says in Galatians and here in Romans 8 if we walk by the spirit and
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not by the flesh then we will walk from strength to strength from glory to glory there is the distinction there is the dichotomy that God or that Paul is
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making and so what does this mean verse 14 this is where I think a lot of people struggle sold in bondage to sin all
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sin all right let's think of this the way Paul is try to summarize what's Paul's saying here if we have been freed from
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sin through Jesus Christ Christ and our Union to him and that's clearly what Paul says in chapter 6 then why isn't the law now good for
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us I've never really thought about it this way but there is that question especially among reformed theologians what what is the use of the law to a Believer Andrew nigran points out in his
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comment the way we might think about it now he goes on to say this is not the way Paul thinks about it but he says if in the hand of sin the law becomes an instrument of death it ought to be a
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means of life when it is in God's hand if in the unconverted man under the bondage of sin the law has the power to
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call forth the evil then in The Believer who is thereby freed from sin it ought to have the power to call forth good well there's a certain logic to
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this remember I said there there are certain logical conclusions that we could follow that would be wrong but if we think that okay the law
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was bad because of sin but now I am dead to sin free to sin the law must now be good and honestly that's pretty much
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what the reformers came up with okay but not the sacrific you not the sacrificial law we know that's no longer and the ceremonial law that doesn't work because the king won't allow it so we're not
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going to do that anymore there's still people who want to do that theonomous okay now we're talking about the moral law the ten command we can still Follow The Ten Commandments that's that's our mean the law is now good for us in fact
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Paul says that the law is lawful if you use it or it's good if you use it lawfully so how do we use the law
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lawfully do we use it for our sanctification do we use it for for the discipline of the body of Christ is the law still written on tablets of stone
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that we use legalistically to sanctify oursel we know the law cannot save but can it can it sanctify Paul says no and the reason isn't because of our relationship to sin
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that we have been freed from through the death of Jesus Christ the reason is because of the continuing existence and reality of the Flesh and Paul does not kill the
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flesh the flesh remains in fact he tells us do not fulfill the Deeds of the flesh because they are evident in Galatians 5 and if you walk in the flesh in Romans 8 then
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you are walking in the path of death and so the relationship between the law and the flesh remains for the believer so he is he has brought out at at least three
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things here in Romans 56 and 7 sin the law and the Flesh and the relationship of those is such that we have died to
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sin and because we are dead in Christ Romans 7 chapter verse one and onward we are dead to the law because the law has no jurisdiction over a dead person one
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thing he never says however is that we died to the flesh by God's wisdom by his design we have been regenerated
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and born again we are a new creation in the old body now he doesn't say body here he's talking about the flesh but the flesh unfortunately goes with this
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body as I've already noted the body that we receive in the resurrection will have no reference to flesh at all that word will not in any way describe it but it does describe this one okay and so we we
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shouldn't look at the relationship between me and sin it's the relationship between the Flesh and the law that hasn't changed and when we bring
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legalism when we bring legal prescription in to sanctify us we are actually feeding the flesh with
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flesh with poison so it is very consistent with what Paul says elsewhere that we are not to walk by the flesh it all really points to again I
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think every week I've read this verse what the law could not do weak as it was through the flesh there's there's the logic of it
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there that's what unravels verses 14- 20 weak as it was in the flesh it's still weak in the flesh
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our flesh continues with us through our regeneration we still have what Paul calls the body of this death and that
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body is characterized by carnality or fleshiness and so he says but I say walk by the spirit and you will not carry out
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the desires of the flesh verse 6 of chapter 8 well verse 5 for those who are according to the flesh set their mind on the things of the flesh but those who
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are according to the spirit the things of the spirit for the Mind Set On the flesh is death but the Mind Set On the spirit is life and
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peace there's nothing to be looked for from our from our flesh and because Paul has laid out the fact that the law is made weak through
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the flesh then the logic of working out our salvation through the law falls apart we are just as weak or the law is just as weak to us now as it was before
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we were saved but the power of God to do his will is in the spirit and that's what we need to try to figure out to walk in the spirit and
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there thereby not fulfill the desires of the flesh so to understand Paul's view of the law one must understand Paul's view of the spirit when he says in verse 8
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chapter 8: 1 and 2 there is therefore now condem no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus he brings up the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus
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has set you free from the law of sin and of death the law of sin and of death that is the principle that works within the flesh but the law of life in the spirit
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of Christ Jesus is that is the principle that works now in the heart and should work in Our Minds when Paul considered what God was
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doing and we've made mention of this many times he was a devout Jew and a Pharisee when he realized what God had
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done through Jesus Christ he remained a devout Jew and a fulfilled Pharisee because he understood from the Prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel that
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the New Covenant was not coming in through the through the law but by the spirit so he reads in Ezekiel chapter 36
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this is Paul's gospel in the Old Testament I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you so the law would not thereby be
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abolished but rather it would be written in the hearts of God's people so when we talk about well what what role does the law law now play we must remember that
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in Jesus Christ the old Covenant is fulfilled in the New Covenant and so continuing in Ezekiel 36 and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to
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walk in my statutes and you shall be careful to observe my ordinances I will cause you to walk there's that motivation it is not the law written on
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tablets through which we try to obey In the Flesh it's the spirit writing the law on the heart of the new regenerate believer causing us to obey his statutes
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this is why Paul can say walk by the spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh this has all been fulfilled in Jesus Christ yet we remain
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in the in the flesh until our death or until the Lord's return Paul is going to going to call it the body of this death and because of the flesh that is the
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struggle that we continue to have and will continue to have but to think that we could somehow sanctify or be Sanctified by the same law that is unable to save
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us because of the weakness of the flesh is pure Folly for the Mind Set On the flesh is death but the Mind Set On the spirit is life and
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peace the battle has been won Christ on the cross has not only defeated the powers and principalities
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but he has taken the certificate of death that existed against each one of us and he removes it having nailed it to the tree that battle is won but we
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continue to fight in the flesh the battle continues but our weapons have
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weapons have changed Paul says to the Corinthians the weapons of our Warfare are not fleshly it's the same word slightly
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different that we find here in verse 14 the weapons of our Warfare are not of the flesh but are divinely powerful for
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the destruction of fortresses we take every thought captive to The Obedience of Christ not through the power of the flesh but by the divine power of the
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holy spirit let us pray father we do pray that you would teach us and guide
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us as to how we can walk by the spirit and not fulfill the desires of the Flesh and father I do pray that any thought that we might have that the law
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remains and exists for our San s ification we would understand that Paul would not have us think that but rather that our sanctification is as our
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salvation by the spirit and while we may not fully understand and do not fully understand what that means or how it looks we pray that by Your Word you would transform Us
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in the renewing of our minds that we might be conformed to Jesus Christ in whom was the spirit without measure guide us by your spirit we ask
