The Struggle is Real, the Savior is Real-er

The Summit of Our Salvation

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church

Sept. 15, 2024

The Struggle is Real, the Savior is Real-er

Let’s turn together to Rom. 7. The first part of this chapter is closely related to what Paul said in chapter 6 so I’m going to take less time with it. In chapter 6 Paul points out that death frees a person from sin. Someone who struggled with alcoholism will no longer have any desire for alcohol. Someone who loved to gossip about others will find their lips sealed. Every sinful impulse we have is taken away at death. Sin’s hold on us is broken when we die.

In chapter 7 Paul will make that same point only about the hold the law of God has on us.

7 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? ² For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage…

⁴ Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. ⁵ For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. ⁶ But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. Rom. 7:1-2, 4-6 (Pray)

Now Paul is talking about the binding power of the law of God over our lives and he uses the analogy of marriage. A woman is bound by her marriage to a man while he lives (aside: there are other biblical allowances for divorce but Paul’s point here isn’t marriage and divorce), but when he dies, she is free.

Paul makes the case the same is true of the binding power of the law over our lives only he flips the script. In the analogy the husband dies leaving the wife free to remarry, but the husband represents the law and we represent the wife and it’s not the law that dies, it’s us, the wife who dies and now is free to belong to another (Christ) because we have been raised from the dead in Christ.

The law, which is good, had a bad effect on us. It aroused our desire to do wrong. There is something about the forbidden fruit that we find alluring! But we are released from the law because we died with Christ and now are free to serve God not by being bound to the law but by the Spirit at work in us.

⁷ What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” ⁸ But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. Vv. 7-8

Paul asserts that the law is good, the problem isn’t with the law, the problem is with us. This thing called sin. The law just showed us what sin is, but notice that Paul uses the 10^th commandment to illustrate this: I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet”. The tenth commandment is different from the other nine in that the other nine are outward actions: don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t lie, etc.

I can keep those. I don’t murder – check! I don’t steal – check! I honor my mother and father – check! But coveting isn’t an outward action, it’s an inward attitude. It’s wanting something that belongs to someone else. It’s wanting something I don’t have.

Legalism focuses on the outward rules we can at least appear to keep. But sin isn’t just outward actions, it’s inward attitudes: hatred, pride, selfishness, coveting, bitterness, apathy and so on. People may never see outwardly what’s going on inside of us but God sees it, and the inward sin isn’t something we can get rid of.

So the law is good and righteous but it inflames unrighteous, evil impulses in us because of sin. And that brings Paul to the inner conflict that every Christian knows.

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

Some people think that Paul is referring to himself before he came to Christ but for several reasons I don’t think this is the case for a few reasons. I believe Paul is talking about the very real inner struggle going on in his heart between doing what’s right and sinning. It’s a struggle we have all felt: What I want to do I don’t do. What I don’t want to do – I do!

Paul says there’s something living inside of him that bends everything in the wrong direction. There’s an alien force eating him from the inside out and that alien force is called sin.

²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Legalists tend to focus on “sins” – outward actions they can control. Legalistic Christians set high standards and look down on those who don’t keep them. I don’t steal. I obey my parents. I don’t lie. I have cheated on my spouse. I don’t take the name of God in vain. I’m doing pretty good.

But here’s why legalistic churches are full of some of the most un-loving, judgmental people you’ll ever meet: legalism can motivate people to keep outward rules and avoid outward sins, but legalism has no power to kill the monster that dwells inside us (sin).

Every follower of Christ struggles with pride. With jealousy. With wanting what others have. With self-righteousness. With impure desires. With idolatry (making gods out of things that aren’t gods). And with desires to love God and love people. To do good and help the needy. To be kind and compassionate. To walk humbly before God.

It’s a struggle. It’s a war. It’s exhausting. Ever feel a burden on your heart and you don’t even know why? A sadness? I do, and I’m a very positive and optimistic guy by nature.

In the following verses Paul uses the word law to describe very different laws. Verse 21 uses the word “law” to describe a principle at work in his life:

²¹ So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 

In verse 22 law refers to the law of God:

²² For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,

But there is a third kind of law, a force or power warring inside of him:

²³ but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

He cries out in exhaustion and desperation: ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Rom. 21-24

The word “wretched” indicates a warrior who is exhausted and weary after battle. Even the great Apostle Paul was tired and discouraged at the constant struggle going on inside of him – the tug of war between doing good (law of God) and law of sin.

If Jesus has come into our life, then there’s a part of us that wants to glorify God…and there’s a part of us that wants to live for our own glory. There’s a part of us that wants to build up people…and a part of us that wants to tear people down. There’s a part of us that wants to show compassion and a part of us that just doesn’t care. A part that wants to put out fires, a part that wants to see things go up in flames.

We also need to understand that our sin is much worse than we know. Jeremiah 17:9 says that our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it? We’re not talking about externals here – we may look good on the outside and we may even think we’re ok on the inside. Not perfect but not that bad. But our hearts are wicked and deceitful and part of that deception is that we can’t even read the deeper impulses of our heart.

That might seem negative or discouraging, but if we don’t recognize how deeply crooked our hearts are, how bent they are in a selfish, God-denying, self-promoting ways, we won’t feel our need for the cross. If we want to see how bad our sin is; if we want to see how seriously God takes our sin, we need only look at the cross. Jesus died a brutal death and bore the wrath of God for my sin and your sin. Because there is a force, a law, in me that has evil close at hand even as I try to do good.

Because the law wasn’t given to get us good. The law was given to make us realize we are unable to be good enough. I need help. Paul says “who will deliver me from this body of sin?” I need deliverance! I need rescuing!

And that brings us to Christ: Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. Vs. 25

Jesus is the one who delivers us from this wretched state! We don’t need to live in this place of exhaustion and discouragement. We don’t need to live defeated and dark lives. Thanks be to God that He has delivered us from this wretchedness through Jesus Christ!

In chapter 8 Paul will assure us of how strong God’s salvation through Jesus Christ is, and how powerful the work of the Holy Spirit is in us. But let me just remind us of the opening verse:

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Rom 8:1

No condemnation! No guilt hanging over us! No fear of God casting us away or rejecting us! God wants His children to live in the freedom of no fear. The freedom of no condemnation. The freedom of knowing and being assured of His love and acceptance.

Why is this possible? Because we were once married to the law. The law was good but it brought out the worst in us. It condemned us. It enflamed our worst passions. It aroused sinful desires in us. Yet in God’s sight we were bound by a covenant that could only be broken by death.

And we died…we died to sin. We died to the law. The law went looking for us and found our name in the obituary. Dead to the law. But we didn’t stay dead. Like I said last week, Christ opened up a gate in the back of the cemetery and we keep on walking in the newness of resurrection life. And now we don’t belong to the law, we belong to someone else. We are married to someone else – to Jesus Christ.

So the Holy Spirit begins to work on our hearts making us love Jesus and want to please him more and more. We don’t obey because of the law, we obey because of love. The law becomes a way to live, but not the way to life. Christ is the way to life.

I want to close by reminding us of how deep and great our Father’s love for us is. Sending Jesus wasn’t a cold, sterile mission. It was a mission of love. You are loved and precious to God – and He wants to be loved by you. Relationship.

If you don’t know God as your heavenly Father, the Bible says there’s only one way to get to Him: through Jesus Christ. Place your faith and trust in Jesus and ask him to be your Savior and your Lord.