Sin: the Struggle, the Revelation
Our scripture today is Romans 7:14-8:4. I am breaking it in half, for in the first half Paul writes like a frustrated man, but in the second half Paul reveals a wonderful revelation. Listen to how disturbed Paul is in this first half, Romans 7:14-24. "14 For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. 15 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 that the law is good. 17 But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
Attention getter: Romans 3:23, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Even the Apostle Paul was one of the “all have sinned.” Only Christ was without sin. Paul sometimes disappointed people, sometimes made mistakes, and sometimes just plain messed up. Even when we have the best of intentions, we, too, sometime find ourselves in a mess. For example: It was Mother’s Day and Mary, who was both a nurse and the mother of a ten month old, had to leave home at 6 a.m. to work a twelve-hour shift. Her husband John was not about to let Mary miss her first Mother’s Day. So about nine that morning, unbeknownst to Mary, John dressed Jack in his best little suit, put him in a baby carrier, and loaded Jack, a box of candy, some flowers, a nice card and some balloons in their little car and off to the hospital they went.
When John showed up at the hospital unexpected, the other nurses quickly realized the importance of the event and let Mary go for a few minutes to be with her husband and baby. Mary was both surprised and happy. The three had a little party.
When Mary had to go back to work, John somehow was able to lug Jack, the candy, flowers, card and balloons back to the little car. He then carefully placed the card under the candy box and on the seat were it would not slid off, the flowers in the floor where they would not get crushed or turn over and he put the balloons in the back seat so in such a way that they would not obstruct his view out the back window. As he drove off, several cars honked their horns and blinked their lights. John was wondering why when suddenly John heard the sound of something sliding on the roof followed by a thump on the trunk. He looked in terror out the rearview mirror to see the baby carrier sliding down the highway behind him. He slammed on the breaks and ran to Jack; praise God, the baby was safe. With traffic stopped, John quickly put the baby in the car and pull over to side of the road where he broke down in tears overwhelmed by the horror of his carelessness, he cried, “What kind of a father am I!”
There is enough John in each of us that we too have been guilty of carelessness. We have all have had times when rushing around or being annoyed or distracted has caused us to overlook important things, to make mistakes. We all have done the dumb things; it is part of being human.
Need: I. These kinds of incidents cause to understand Paul’s words, “Wretched man that I am! … I do not understand my own actions.” Chapter 7 is one of the most powerful statements about struggling with mistakes in the history of all literature. What makes it so powerful; Paul provides us a glimpse into his own struggle, a struggle we all share.
A. Often when we think of the Apostle Paul, we think of somebody who is bigger than life. We see him standing up and defending his faith in front of the Roman governors and even the emperor. We remember him on his great missionary journeys all over the Roman Empire. We have all read his instructions to the churches to be faithful, and as he encourages Timothy and Titus to remain true to their calling.
1. However, when we come to the Seventh Chapter of Romans, we get a peek behind an Apostle’s struggle, and he is a lot more human than we might have first thought. Romans 7:14-15, 18-19, "14 For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. 15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ... 18 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it." Did you notice what is going on here? Paul recognizes within himself the stranglehold of sin. Paul talking about the way he used to be sinful before he became a Christian. He is a Christian sharing his struggles. This is Paul saying, "Just this morning, I gave in again.”
2. It happens to us all. Earlier in his letter he has proclaimed "No one is righteous, not even one." Now he states it even more personally, "I, an Apostle, also struggle with sin, and sometimes I lose."
B. The frustration of losing seems to break through to the surface as Paul proclaims in 7:22-24, "22 For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?"
1. How often we just kick ourselves for failing. We try to be patient with our kids, our spouse, our parents, but in a flash, we strike out but the words we have said have said done their damage before we even knew it. We thought we had broken the grip of that nasty habit, but there was that one weak moment, and now we feel like a failure.
2. We knew we should have steered clear, but we thought we could handle it. Before we knew it, we had found out the hard way that we were weaker than we thought.
3. A thousand times, in a thousand different ways you have tried to live by the standards that you know are right. Yet, like John in my opening story, even though you knew better, you were preoccupied you did a stupid thing. You feel foolish, filthy, wretched to use Paul’s language
C. He says, 7:24-8:2, "24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.
II. Now for the wonderful revelation in the second half of our scripture, Romans 7:25-8:4, 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin. 1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."
A. The Eighth Chapter of Romans begins with one of the greatest promises in the Bible. "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." The significance of the fact that in spite of our sin, God does not condemn us.
B. Paul admits that there is a struggle going on within every human being, and when we try to win on our own strength, we often are pinned to the mat.
1. The greatness of the promise of God’s grace is that, as long as we keep trying, even when we fail again and again, if we are in Christ, we do not need to wonder if God is angry with us, "There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
2. When God looks at you, He does not see a wretch; your Father sees a son or daughter who is doing their best to grow in their Christina walk. He wants you to keep trying so your Father walks with you.
B. The challenge that we face is not to just say that we believe it, but to live like it. Do not let anything that you have ever done, or will ever do separate you from God. Later in Romans 8, Paul asks an important question that at one time or another is on the mind of every Christian. Romans 8:35-39, "35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, 'For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.' 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." You see, none of those things can separate us from Him. When we are foolish and fail, our tendency is to turn away in shame.
C. You remember the story of the prodigal son. The boy disregarded his father, and then disgraced himself in every way possible. Being as low as he could go, he said to himself, ’I will arise and go to my father.’" When that dirty, stinking boy came within eyesight of home, his dad was there to clean him up and throw him a party. Paul wants to make sure that you understand that God is just as anxious to throw His arms around you, "There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
1. Why this is so important to understand, because there is sometimes we feel condemnation, but it never comes from God; it comes from Satan. The word "Satan" in Hebrew means: Accuser. Satan is the one told the righteous Job that he had failed.
2. Satan loves to fool us into believing that we are condemned. He wants to trap us into believing that we are so wretched that God does not want anything to do with us.
3. He does not want us to be like Adam and Eve in the garden after they sinned, they wanted to do was hide from God.
4. We have all been there. We have failed, kicked ourselves and felt condemned. We have hidden ourselves from God, and turned away, not because we do not love Him, but because we are ashamed. We have felt like a wretch, and we have listened to Satan tell us that God condemned us for our sin.
Visualization: A little while back I read a story about a girl who was the daughter of one of the royal families of Europe. She had a big, round nose that destroyed her beauty in the eyes of others and in her own eyes. She grew up with this terrible image of herself as an ugly person. Her family hired a plastic surgeon to change the contour of her nose. He did his work, and then came the moment when they took the bandages off and the girl could see what happened.
A. When the doctor removed the bandages, he saw that the operation had been a total success. All the ugly contours were gone. Her nose was different. When the incisions healed and the redness disappeared, she would be a beautiful girl. He held a mirror up for the girl to see. However, so deeply embedded was this girl’s ugly image of herself that when she saw herself in the mirror, she broke into tears and cried out, "Oh, I knew it wouldn’t work!" Only after months did she would finally accept that she was indeed different. The moment she accepted fact that she really was different, her behavior improved.
B. Paul recognizes an important truth: we are deceived into thinking that we are not what God says we are, and then we are going to keep on acting that way. That is why the way to break the power of the most vicious and evil habit is to see yourself as God sees you. He is your Father and He loves you. Accept that.
C. This does not make sin okay; we are to do our best not to sin. Paul obviously was trying hard to obey the law of God. Paul is not saying to go sin; he is saying that when you try to do good and fail, get up, brush yourself off and try, try again.
D. I am preaching from the Good News because nothing could be more important than knowing, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." There is never a time when you will turn toward God and not find His arms extended, waiting for your return. Why would we ever want to turn away?
Action: A final note, the Hebrew word translated into the English "Amen" means "That’s the truth!" In a few seconds, I am going to read that promise from God’s Word, and if you believe the truth of that promise, I want you to respond saying, “Amen. That’s the truth.” Here is the promise, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Do you believe it? Say “Amen! That’s the truth.”
