Looking Back on a Wretched Life

Transcript

GR 1436
06/20/10
Looking Back on a Wretched Life
Romans 7:21-25
Gil Rugh

We're going to continue our study of the book of Romans today, chapter 7. We are in a very interesting portion of the word of God because it is the most controversial section of the book of Romans. In fact some commentators say it's perhaps the most controversial section in the scripture. I think that's going too far. There's a debate over whether we are talking about believer or unbeliever as we come into the last part of Romans 7. You have to understand the context. Paul is unfolding the gospel of God. He desires to come to Rome, he said, so that he can preach the gospel there. He has never had the privilege of being in Rome, but a church has been established there . So in anticipation of the time when he will be able to be there personally preaching the gospel, he unfolds the letter to the Romans, which unfolds the message of the gospel of God—a message that started with demonstrating the sin of all human beings. Gentiles were demonstrated to be sinners; Jews were demonstrated to be sinners; Gentiles in chapter 1, Jews basically in chapters 2-3. In chapter 3 verse 21 and following through chapter 5 verse 21, Paul talked about the provision God made for His righteousness to be credited to sinful people. That was done through the death of His Son on the cross so that all who place their faith in Christ alone are declared righteous by God because their penalty has been paid with the death of Jesus Christ.

Where does that take us? That takes us to how we live our lives as the people of God. Evidently in the church at Rome there were teachers who had come in among the people and they were saying that it's not enough to believe in Jesus Christ. We've looked at some of the background of this. But I just remind you. These teachers were Jews who said it's not enough to believe in Christ; you must also be circumcised and keep the Law. Paul demonstrated first in Romans that Jews as well as Gentiles were sinners. The Jews thought just because they had the Law they would be acceptable to God. Paul made clear it's not those who have the Law that could be righteous, but those who keep the Law. But the reality of it is no one keeps the Law. So “by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight”, Romans 3:20.

He also made clear that to receive the righteousness of Christ, Jews as well as Gentiles must place their faith in Christ. Jews are sinners like Gentiles, Jews must be saved in the same way as Gentiles, and Gentiles the same as Jews. Salvation comes through faith alone. He used Abraham as the example.

Now he proceeds to talk about how we live as the redeemed people of God, the doctrine we call sanctification. We moved through the section on condemnation as a result of man's sin; to justification, the provision of God's righteousness and the application of that righteousness; to sanctification, living a life separated to God, a life of obedience to God. He picked up in chapter 6 by unfolding how that is possible, showing that when a person comes to understand his sinful condition and that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for his sin and places his faith in Christ alone, he is identified with Christ in His death on the cross so that God can view him as having died when Christ died. And since the penalty for sin is death, his penalty has been paid. And something very important happens when a person is identified with Christ in His death—the power and authority of sin in his life and over his life is broken. Sin no longer rules as the master of the life of the one who has placed his faith in Christ. Not only did we die with Christ, we were buried with Christ and raised with Christ to a new life to now live as servants and slaves of God and righteousness, rather than servants and slaves of sin.

Having said that, he moves into chapter 7. He has prepared the way with some comments, but in chapter 7 he is going to unfold more fully and clearly than anywhere else, as he writes to the Romans, how we are set free, not only from sin but the Law. And when I say we, he is specifically addressing the situation of the Jews.

Back in chapter 6 verse 14 Paul said, “sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under Law but under grace.” When you come to chapter 7, he shows in the first six verses that when a Jew believes in Jesus Christ, he was set free from all responsibilities and obligations to the Mosaic Law. Now I say when a Jew believes in Jesus Christ, because we looked at the fact that Gentiles never were under the Mosaic Law. The Law was given to Israel; the Law was given to govern the conduct of the Jews as the people God had chosen for Himself.

So when he says in chapter 7 that the Law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives, he's talking about the Mosaic Law and its authority over the Jews. There is a purpose here because these Jewish teachers were saying that Gentiles need not only to believe in Christ but also now to be circumcised and keep the Law for justification, for sanctification. Paul is showing that when a Jew believes in Christ, he is free from all obligation to the Mosaic Law. He used the analogy of marriage. In a marriage you are bound to one another as husband and wife, but when one of the partners dies, the surviving spouse is free from all obligations to that former spouse. So verse 4, “Therefore my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ so that you may be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.” Verse 6, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that which we were bound so that we might serve in the newness of the Spirit,” the newness that the Spirit has created, “and not in the oldness of the letter,” the Mosaic Law. Totally set free.

That being the case, why would a Jew be saying a Gentile ought to go under the Law when a believing Jew is freed from all obligations to the Law? Gentiles never were under the Law; we saw that in chapter 2. Gentiles will be judged apart from the Mosaic Law; Jews will be judged under the Mosaic Law.

Now this needs some further explanation. You have verse 6, “we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not oldness of the letter.” We noted you could jump from verse 6 to chapter 8 verse 1 because chapter 8, the first 30 verses, are going to be an explanation of verse 6. But you have verse 5, “while we were in the flesh the sinful passions which were aroused by the Law were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.” What he's going to do is explain verse 5 with verses 7-25 of chapter 7. Then verse 6 will be elaborated and explained in chapter 8.

You'll note verse 5 says, “while we were in the flesh” or when we were in the flesh. That's talking about the time when he was an unbelieving Jew, when we Jews were apart from the salvation that is found in Christ, when we were in the flesh. Over in chapter 8 verse 9 he will make clear, “However you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” So anyone who is in the flesh is another way of referring to an unbeliever, an unsaved person. He is apart from the power of the Spirit who makes a person new.

While we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the Law were at work in the members of our body. Note there, “while we were in the flesh the Law worked in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. The sinful passions aroused by the Law were at work in the members of our body.” We're going to see this same terminology come up repeatedly through this last part of Romans 7. As unbelieving Jews, the sinful passions were stirred up by the Law and the result was the members of our body were used for sinful purposes. That's the members that he talks about, of our body, the parts of our body became the vehicle for sinful conduct and behavior, bearing fruit for death. That's the condition of an unbelieving Jew particularly here.

Now he is explaining. Verse 7, “What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! magnoito. It can't even be conceived as a possibility. “May it never be.” What he is answering, if the Law aroused sinful passions, do we mean the Law is sinful? No. What Paul has demonstrated is “the Law is holy and righteous and good,” verse 12. The problem was the Jews were sinful. And so when God gave them His holy, righteous, good Law through Moses on Mt. Sinai, who passed it on to the nation Israel, it reflected His character, but the Jews were sinful. All the Law did was stir up the sinful passions. It wasn't a problem with the Law; it was a problem of sinful people.

Another question, verse 13, “Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be.” Well, maybe the Law is not sinful but the Law is to blame for my death because if it hadn't been for the Law, I wouldn't have died. No, it's all about sin. Rather it was sin in order that it might be shown to be sin by affecting my death through that which is good. All the Law did was reveal and magnify the guilt of the Jews because now they had 613 specific commandments from God as the Jews delineated them. And they were revealed to be lawbreakers. It just confirmed them in their death.

“The Law is spiritual”, verse 14, but I'm not. The Law is from God, given by the Spirit of God, as is the rest of scripture. The Law is a manifestation of God's character; it is of divine origin, but I am of flesh, sold under sin, literally. Sold under sin, in bondage to sin; sin is my master as a fallen person. So when the Jews received the Law, they received it from God. Do you know what the problem was? We note Paul puts himself in the present tense here; we call it the historical present, and it makes it more vivid. You remember he is addressing this situation now from the perspective of one who has been saved by faith in Christ but is looking back and putting himself back as it was. Now he can see himself before his conversion. We talked about that; it's like it is for us. You may have been very religious, very devout, desiring to please God and do what you thought God would want you to do, live by the Sermon on the Mount, keep the Ten Commandments, live by the Golden Rule. I want to please God and do it. And you thought you were doing pretty well. Then you get saved and you look back on your life and it is totally different. Now I see myself in a different perspective; I put myself back there and I see I was a wretched man, lost. That's one of the great problems in salvation, is it not? A person thinks: I'm a good person I'm a religious person, I try to live my life pleasing to God, I don't hurt people, I try to help people, I go to church, I take communion, I've been baptized. I see myself as a good person. Then I get saved and I look back on my life. I was a wretched sinner; I was failing in every way to be pleasing to God. That's what Paul is doing; he's looking back now as a converted Jew and identifying himself, placing himself there with Israel and how he sees himself from a saved man's perspective.

I know the Law is spiritual. I am of the flesh, sold in bondage to sin. There is a constant contrast from verse 14-25 of desire and doing. Oh, I desire to keep the Law; I desire to be obedient to the Law. But at the same time I wasn't doing the Law; I wasn't practicing the Law. We use the expression, good intentions lead not to heaven, but hell. That's what Paul is saying here. He had desires to keep the Law but the doing of it was failing.

So that's what he says in verse 15, “what I am doing I do not understand. I am not practicing what I would like to do, what I desire, but I am doing the thing I hate.” As a Jewish man, a Pharisee of the Pharisees I desire to keep the Law but I find myself not doing it. It was my condition.

So then, verse 17, “no longer am I the one doing it but sin which dwells in me.” This will be a constant emphasis; we're going to be repeating it. “Sin indwells me”; it lives in me. Verse 18, “nothing good dwells in me; the willing, the desiring, is present but the doing is not.” So you see that contrast. I could desire to keep the Law but I couldn't actually do it. The good that I want, I desire, I don't do, I practice the evil that I don't desire. So the result is, verse 20, it is “sin which dwells in me.” Now we noted here this doesn't absolve him of responsibility. Sin is not some outside influence constantly overruling Paul; it's what he is as a fallen being. It dwells in me; it is present in me; sin dwells in me. Verse 21, “evil is present in me.” Paul said, I could desire to please God and honor God but I couldn't do it. Why? It ties to chapter 6, I am enslaved to sin and sin controls me and dominates me. It enslaves me.

We're ready to pick up with verse 21, but before we do I want to remind you of three primary reasons why I believe we are talking about an unsaved Jew in Romans 7:13-25. There are other reasons. As we've gone through the text we've seen some and we'll see some more. But three basic primary reasons. First, the first six verses, and I already shared these with you in our last study but I want to remind you, make clear that even a Jew when he believes in Christ dies to the Mosaic Law. So that excludes the idea that a believer could be trying to live under the Law. I mean, the whole argument of the first six verses was when you believe in Christ all relationship to the Law and its authority and obligations is severed. So it wouldn't make any sense for Paul to be talking about, in the last part of the chapter, what a struggle it is to try to live in obedience to the Mosaic Law. When you believed in Christ you were set free from the Law. As I've already mentioned, a second reason this cannot be the “normal” experience of a believer, sometimes presented as the battle between the two natures—the old nature and the new nature-- is because the Gentiles never were under the Law. The Law was only given to Israel; the Law was only given to Jews. We saw that back in chapter 2. The Gentiles live apart from the Mosaic Law and will be judged outside the Mosaic Law. So this can't be the normal experience for me as a Gentile believer in Christ because I never did live under the Mosaic Law. Now why would we talk about me as a believer in Jesus Christ struggling to keep the Mosaic Law when even Jews were freed from all obligation to the Law that was given to them when they believed in Christ. And a third reason we noted was the description of the individual in chapter 7 verses 13-25 as a person who is under the control, domination and power of sin. The believer has been set free from such a condition.

Back up to chapter 6 verse 6, “knowing this that our old man was crucified with Him in order that our body of sin,” our body as controlled with sin, “might be done away with,” rendered powerless, inoperative, “that we would no longer be slaves to sin.” Verse 18, “and having been freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness.” Verse 22, “having been freed from sin and enslaved to God.”

But the person in chapter 7 verse 14, “I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin,” sold under sin. Verse 20, I'm not in control, I don't do what I want to do, desire to do, “but sin which dwells in me” does it. Verse 23, “it's making me a prisoner of the Law of sin which is in my members.” And then verse 25, I myself am serving “with my flesh the law of sin.” That's not a description of a saved person in any way. A saved person can sin, believers battle with sin, but believers do not lose the conflict with sin. The life of a believer is not a life of constant defeat. We have been set free.

All right, let's pick up with verse 21. I find, then, the principle. Now he's going to have a play on the word 'law' in these verses that we're going to look into. The word translated 'principle' is the word 'law.' “I find then the law,” and principle is not a bad translation here but you ought to note, it's the word 'law' and that's coming up in the contrast. “I find then the law that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good,” the one who desires to do good. We sometimes read into this and say, well, only a believer would want to do good and have these desires. But that's not so. Unbelievers can desire to please God. Paul really wanted to serve God, to be pleasing to Him, to keep His law. In chapter 10, we looked at in a previous study, he testifies on the Jews' behalf—verse 2, “they have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge.” That's the problem. In Acts 22 verse 3, he gives his testimony before the Jews and says, I was “zealous for God as you are this day.” They had a desire to keep the Law. So when he says in Romans 7:21, “I find the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants,” or desires, “to do good,” the conflict is between the desire and the doing. I find the Law, the authority, the controlling power in me, at work in the “one who wants to do good. I have a desire to keep the Law, but there is a controlling law and power and authority that I live under.

So verse 22, “I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man.” What he is doing in verses 22-23 is showing the conflict that existed in his life as a Jewish man and in Jews apart from Christ that struggle with this as those under the Law. “I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man.” Now the law of God is the Mosaic Law that he has been talking about. He started out the chapter on that. And in verse 22 “I joyfully concur.” As a Jewish man putting himself in that position, remember, speaking in the present tense makes it more vivid, but it is what it was like before his conversion. “I joyfully,” Paul was all about the Law. Philippians 3, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, regarding the Law blameless. Looking at it from the perspective before his conversion, the way he thought as a Jew, he was doing fine. Now in Romans 7, he looks back, “I joyfully concur with the law of God,” the Mosaic Law “in the inner man.” The inner man is not the new man; the inner man is what he is in his mind, the desires he had. I desired to keep the Law, I was agreeing with God. Verse 16, “if I do the very thing I do not want to do I agree with the Law, that the Law is good.” Having that desire, this is the word of God, I want to live in obedience to it. This is God's law. As a Pharisee, my whole life is built around keeping every detail of the Law. I agree joyfully with the law of God in the inner man, in my mind, where my desires are.

Verse 23, the conflict, “But I see a different law in the members of my body waging war against the law of my mind, making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.” I have the desire to please God by keeping the Law, and yet there is another authority and power at work in me. So I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, in my mind. But I see a different law, not the law of God, different from the law of God, the Mosaic Law, in the members of my body, controlling what I do with my body and its parts, waging war against the law of my mind. This is a warfare. The law of my mind is the law of God, the law that he agreed with in his mind. So you see the contrast between the way I thought and what I desired and wanted to do and what I actually did. I see a different law from the law of God in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, the law of God that in my mind I desire and want to keep. And what this different law is doing as it wages war is it always wins. This different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of God which I desire to keep with my mind, is making me a prisoner of the law of sin. That's the different law of verse 23. I see a different law, it's the law of sin, it's making me a prisoner, it's in my members. You see it's not an outside influence, it's in me. “Sin dwells in me,” verse 17; verse 18, “nothing good dwells in me;” verse 20, “sin dwells in me;” verse 21, “evil is present in me.” Sin is in my members controlling what I do. I have a desire here, but it doesn't translate into any action.

Now that's as he looks back as a converted person to what the reality was. On the other side as a Jew, he thought he was blameless. But now he has a totally different perspective on his condition before his conversion. It's making me a prisoner of the law of sin. The authority and power of sin; I'm now its prisoner, its slave; it's in my members. I'm a sinful being. My best desires come to naught. Why? Because I am enslaved to sin; it's in my members.

Back up to chapter 6. He talks about sin and the using of our bodies. Verses 12-14, he gives instruction to them as believers, “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body,” in this physical body, “so that you should obey its lusts. Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, your members as instruments of righteousness to God, for sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” You come down to verse 19, “I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness.”

So when you come back to chapter 7 and he talks about the fact “I see a different law in the members of my body,” he's picking up that same idea. But he's already said that we have been set free from the power and control and authority of sin; in chapter 6 he showed that, and shows that a Jew has been set free from the power and authority of the Law and its control. But what you see in verses 22-23, is that I agree with God and His law, but I don't keep it. Well, he's already dealt with this back in chapter 2. It's not those who have the Law, it's those who do the Law who will be righteous before God. Paul says, I didn't do the Law; I failed. Why? Because I was a prisoner of the authority and power of sin which is in my members.

This causes him to come to this question. Verse 24,”Wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death?” My best efforts come to naught; I'm a wretched man. How will I get free? It's through Jesus Christ. There is the freedom. It's like as a converted man looking back and describing his wretched condition, asking where could I go, what could I do. Who will set me free from the body controlled by sin, doomed to death in all of its aspects? The wages of sin is death. I'm a wretched man, unable to keep the Law. Who will set me free? “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, verse 25. He can't hold back the answer. But he doesn't develop that now. He'll pick that up in chapter 8. Look at verse 2, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.”

But first he is going to summarize what he has said and draw it to a conclusion at the end of verse 25. “So then on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other with my flesh, the law of sin.” That's the description of an unregenerate, unbelieving man. He speaks in the present tense which strikes us as a little confusing. But he is putting himself back in that condition and looking at himself as being there, but with the open eyes and understanding now of a converted man. Like we would do it. Some of you were Roman Catholics, some of you were Lutherans, some something else and you thought you were doing well, doing good. Someone came and talked to you about being a sinner and lost, and you said, I am not. I was born in a religious home, I was baptized and confirmed and have taken the sacraments and do all I can to please God and honor Him. Now you look back on your life and you see it totally different. You say, I was trying and failing in every way. But because of your spiritual blindness you didn't realize how much of a failure you were. And Paul didn't either. He's going around persecuting everyone who doesn't submit to the Law the way he does, trying to kill Christians and so on.

So on the one hand, I myself with my mind am serving the law of sin. I have good intentions, good desires. The problem is with my flesh, with my physical body I'm serving the law of sin. It doesn't transport from the desire to the action. It can't. Why? Because he's in the grasp of sin that dwells in him. This is what he is. I can think of desire and want to fly free like a bird, but I can't. Why? Because I'm bound as a human being, and the desire doesn't go anywhere. People have a desire to please God and they'll go through all kinds of things, being religious and doing what they think they should do. But it comes to naught, because we can't be saved by our works. But people have a desire. So we often think we can use this; we think people are fallen; no fallen person could really desire to keep the Law and obey God. Yes, they do. Paul as a Jew did. He desired to keep the Mosaic Law; he acknowledged it was God's law and required his obedience, and he desired to do it. The problem was he couldn't do it. So he ends up enslaved to sin, verse 25, with just desires. I'll keep the Law; I'll do what God would have me do. But he can't do it.

Come back to a few passages with me. Matthew 7. We'll see a very similar thing. Now in Romans 7, the interpretation of this is for Jews living under the Law. But there is application to us, obviously. Look at what Christ says in Matthew 7. We're in the Sermon on the Mount. Some people think they're going to try to live their lives by the Sermon on the Mount. I don't know that they've read the whole thing. They're usually familiar with some things like the Beatitudes, the Golden Rule. Verse 12, “In everything therefore treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the prophets.” Note what He says next, “Enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide, the way is broad that leads to destruction. There are many who enter through it. The gate is small, the way is narrow that leads to life. There are few who find it.” A word of warning verses 15-19, “Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You'll know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” You see the production, and this is why Paul talked about fruit in Romans 6, referred to it in chapter 7 as well, verses we just looked at. What is produced? Bad trees produce bad fruit; good trees produce good fruit.

Verses 21-23, now note this, “Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? In your name cast out demons? In your name perform many miracles? Then I will declare to them,” note this, “I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” You see the problem. They desired, perhaps, to serve God, to honor Him. They did miracles, they did all these things, but from God's perspective, they practiced lawlessness. They failed, they fell short, they are judged.

Turn over to Luke 18, a passage we've referred to in previous studies. Beginning with verse 9, “He told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax gatherer. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself. God, I thank you that I am not like other people—swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax gatherer. I fast twice a week, I pay tithes of all that I get.” You see he was like Paul before his conversion—desirous at keeping the Law, desiring to do what God told him to do. The tax gatherer, on the other hand, realized his failure, his sinfulness and said, verse 13, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner. I tell you this man, the tax gatherer, went to his house justified rather than the other.” You have to come to that. “He who humbles himself will be exalted, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.”

How did he see himself? What was his desire? But he failed because “for by grace you have been saved through faith...and not of works, lest anyone should boast,” Ephesians 2:8,9. That's the hard thing, to come and be humbled and realize I am a sinner. As good as I've thought I've been, as righteous as I've thought of myself, I am a wretched, defiled sinner guilty before God, condemned by Him. “God be merciful to me, the sinner.”

Paul in Romans 7 is speaking from the vantage point of a saved Jew, looking back on what it was like for him as a Jew, a Pharisee striving to keep the Law before his conversion. He desired to do it, he attempted to do it, but he failed. You know the application as we've noted; while we're not Jews living under the Mosaic Law, the same points apply. People strive to live by the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, the Golden Rule; they desire to be religious. Now it's the in thing in some circles that we want to go back to the ancient ways and learn from the monks and those who deprived themselves and isolated themselves and had more purity of devotion to God. Yet by all their efforts and striving, where do they come? They are not pleasing to God; they cannot live in obedience to Him. Why? They are enslaved to sin. You see sin dwells in me. If I get away from all the rest of you sinful people, I haven't solved my problem. You know why? Sin dwells in me. That's the problem. It controls me and masters me and rules me until by the grace of God, I am set free through faith in Christ.

Let me say one other word here before we conclude. You know Paul was born into a Jewish home, raised in a Jewish family. We know that because he was circumcised the eighth day. Being a Jew, raised a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin. I mean, I have the lineage, I have it all together and now I'm desirous of keeping the Law. The fact remains, he couldn't be saved by his works. Now this is where I get concerned about the use of Romans 7 and a misunderstanding. We have our kids, born and raised in this church, raised by godly parents, parents who started attending here because their kids attended and have been attending church, been baptized in this church, express a desire to do what God wants them to do. But they keep failing. I don't know what happens. I start out; I make the resolutions; I determine I'm going to and I don't. You know what we're dealing with? We're dealing with an unbeliever. We often want people and those we love and are close to, to be saved so badly that we want to say, of course you are saved. You made a decision and you got baptized, but you just can't get free from sin controlling you. That's not a believer; that's an unbeliever. You can be raised in the best environment, the most godly environment. Paul was raised in the context of the Mosaic Law which is holy and righteous and good. The problem was he is a sinner. You can be raised in a family that is godly, that loves Jesus Christ, that teaches you the word of God, takes you to church where the word of God is taught. And maybe you say: I made a decision, I got baptized, I desire to please God. And you know what? I keep failing. Sin just has a hold on me and my life is just up and down. The believer is not defeated. I'm not saying the believer can never sin; the believer does not live controlled by sin, enslaved to sin. That's the message of the gospel. It sets you free.

I don't say this to be mean or unkind, but we want to be real and true. The last thing I want to do is give my loved ones a false sense of assurance and confidence that they are saved; they just can't be free from the power of sin. I want to be honest and tell them that your life is a life of an unbeliever, one who doesn't know the freedom that comes in Christ. And when you are set free in Christ, the control and power and domination and authority of sin in your life is broken. You are free. That doesn't mean you will never commit acts of sin, but you are free from slavery to sin.

That's the glorious message we come into in chapter 8. The reason chapter 8 is such glorious freedom is because of what we've been told in chapters 6-7, and now we realize we haven't talked about the Holy Spirit. We come to chapter 8. Now we talk about living the life that we have in Christ, that resurrection life with the power and authority of sin in our life broken, that slavery; we've been set free. Now I live enslaved to God, empowered by the Spirit, living a new life. I walk according to verse 4 of chapter 8, “not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”

I am concerned; I'm concerned for us as a church. I realize it's difficult. We raise the second, the third, the fourth generation. Understand, just because they are raised in that environment, that doesn't save them. They have sin dwelling in them. Paul could desire to keep the Mosaic Law; that would not save him. We can desire to be a good person and do what God would want us to do, but salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ, recognizing by the grace of God that I am a sinner, unrighteous, unholy, ungodly, a failure. But Jesus Christ is the Savior and He will set you free and make you new. That's the gospel, and it brings glorious liberty.

“Wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” In Him there is life, there is freedom.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel that by your grace was brought to us, the gospel that by your grace we understood and believed and experienced the power of the gospel for salvation, that indeed cleansed us from the guilt and defilement of sin, set us free from the bondage, power and control of sin, made us new so that we could now truly live for you, the power of the indwelling Spirit as new creatures in Christ, those for whom old things have passed away and new things have come. Thank you for so great salvation. In Jesus name, amen.