Until a few years ago, the best way I know how to describe my Christian life was like that of a convict. A convict who has been pardoned. The cell door has been opened, but I was still living in a prison. There was no doubt in my mind that I had been pardoned and the door was open, so I was free to go. I just wouldn’t leave. I kept living in the prison, enjoying the food and the fellowship. I should not have been able to live that way, but most of the Christians in my life were living the exact same way. I was in good company. In fact, my cell had been occupied by a man called Paul. He was describing this kind of experience in Romans 7.
Paul had what I had. He had what a lot of Christians today have, post salvation blues. That is the feeling you get after you’ve been saved and the preacher has promised all sort of wonderful things are going to happen to you. You just know that from here on, life is going to be a bed of roses. You discover that the roses are full of thorns.
Post salvation blues is what the Israelites experienced when they told the Lord they would do anything He wanted them to and before the first commandment is written they are dancing around a golden calf. It is what they experienced by the Red Sea. It’s the dark cloud of “What’s the use of trying anymore”, that rises from the ashes of repeated failure. It is something we all experience when we look over our shoulder and see the Egyptians coming. He thought He’d seen the last of them, of the habit, that sin, yet there the old enemy is again.
This is a pretty good description of the average life of the average Christian. No doubt that we’ve been saved. We’ll go to Heaven, but in the meantime, we are falling short. I want to point out some symptoms of post salvation blues and you can judge whether or not you are afflicted.
I. The Symptom of Failure
1. Paul is using a slavery term in verse 14, “sold under sin.” I’m saved but I’m still carnal. I can’t do what I should do.
2. In verse 15-17, this whole passage reeks of failure. Paul was saying, “no matter how hard I try to do right, I constantly fail.”
3. Post salvation blues starts with failure. There is still a sinful nature dwelling inside every believer. God does not do away with the old Adamic nature, verse 18.
4. Paul made two great discoveries in his life. The first helped lead him to salvation. The second to this passage.
5. Paul first discovered that a lost man cannot keep the Law.
a. Philippians 3:4-6, as far as the law he was blameless.
b. He had never killed, stolen, committed adultery, etc.
c. Then he came to the last commandment, “Thou shalt not covet, and it slew him.”
6. While he had never killed, stolen, committed adultery, Jesus spoke of his heart.
7. After his salvation he made another discovery: it is just as impossible for a saved man to keep the law as it is for a lost man. Have you discovered this?
8. You cannot please a righteous God by what you do anyhow. Romans 3:20. Christian life is not lived by sheer power.
9. Many are trying this: I’m going to get the victory over this. Not going to do that anymore, I promise.
10. Listen, we’ve been led to believe we can over-come the Devil by will power, but I want you to know there is a greater power in you than your will power!
a. It is the power of sin, verse 18-23
b. You go by will power and you are going to end in failure.
II. The Symptom of Frustration
1. This grows out of the first. There is failure and then there is frustration. You see, repeated failure leads to frustration.
2. You sin, you confess, you fall again, pick yourself up, after awhile you begin to get frustrated.
3. In verse 15, the word “allow” means to give someone permission to do something. Devil says, “If you are a Christian, you wouldn’t do that.”
4. In verse 18, here is the frustration. Paul says, “I have the desire, but not the power to do what is right.” This is the biggest problem in the Christian life.
5. We have a built-in guilt complex: we know how we ought to live. How to do it is the problem.
a. I know I’m supposed to forgive.
b. I know I’m supposed to witness.
c. I know I’m supposed to be kind.
d. I know I’m supposed to live right.
6. Before your saved, you don’t have the desire to do right. After your saved, you have the desire, but not the power. That is frustrating.
III. The Symptom of Futility
1. After a while you arrive at a fatalistic attitude toward the whole situation. In verses 22-23, he knows when he is attacked, he is going to lose.
2. There was a time when he thought he would win, but no more. I know I’ll always be defeated.
3. I know a lot of Christians who have come to terms with defeat. They’ve come to peace with failure.
4. I couldn’t blame him. Some of you could testify of the same experience, just that the valley gets deeper and darker.
5. Many say, well I guess I’m just not a super-star Christian like others. We come to a place of absolute futility.
6. That’s post salvation blues! Well, I’m glad I don’t have to stop there. There is a way out, a cure, a prescription.
IV. Here is the Answer
1. In verse 24, “Wretched” means to be exhausted through hard labor. Most of us are just worn out trying to live the Christian life.
2. Notice, who. For the first time, Paul gives us the indication that deliverance is going to have to come from somebody else.
3. Until now it has been Paul trying to do the best he can. Striving, will power, but totally frustrated. He cries out in desperation for help.
4. You’ll always find the answer in desperation. When he reaches the end of himself God will always answer.
5. If you haven’t received the answer to your cry yet, know it is because your not desperate enough yet. You still have a trick or two up your sleeve.
6. Someone said, “When we come to the end of our rope we just get another rope.” We need to come to the end of ourselves.
7. In verse 25, Thank God! it has been done through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Already done! Not future, right now.
8. Everything you need in the Christian life has already been accomplished. Let me tell you the difference between a defeated Christian and an undefeated Christian.
9. A defeated Christian is trying to get something from Christianity. An undefeated Christian realizes he already has all things.
10. Do you know what physical growth is? Simply discovering what God gave us at birth and learning to use it.
11. When I got saved, God gave me everything I would need to live my Christian life and function spiritually.
a. Romans 8:32, Ephesians 1:3
b. 2 Peter 1:3, Romans 8:17, Colossians 2:9-10
12. Why do I keep looking for something else? He has already given it all to me. He bankrupted Heaven when he gave Jesus.
13. Do you know what spiritual growth is? Discovering what God gave you and learning to use it.
14. Every truth of God is absolute.
15. It has already been done, but you and I can still live a prison type of life if we do not realize it. 1 John 1:7
16. Romans 8:1, no reason to stay in prison any longer. Come to the end of yourself. God will send the answer and you can walk out of your prison cell.
