Introduction
Let’s start with a little survey.
In this passage we have just read, what is Paul talking about?
Option one: the experience of a non-Christian, maybe Paul’s own past life as a Pharisee,
Option two: the experience of a Christian, struggling with sin
who thinks both? Who thinks neither?
Martin Luther was sure it was Paul’s Christian experience:
It is a great consolation that such a great apostle experienced the same grievings and afflictions we do. ..
There is no sinless Christian. If you find such a man, he is no Christian, but an anti-Christ.
But Romans seven is a controversial chapter.
here’s a colorful website on the other side:
The Apostle Paul did not have two natures or a sin nature… he did not struggle… nor was he a wretched sinner… Pastors and Bible teachers who interpret Romans 7 in this way are blaspheming God…. have absolutely trashed the gospel
The first reason I’ve called this message crossfire is that is pretty hot:
in daring to speak on this passage, I could be caught in the crossfire
But before we strap on our body armour and dive into the battle,
let’s introduce the book of Romans
it’s Paul’s biggest letter, a complicated book, but here’s a simple summary of the first half:
The first 2 1/2 chapters of Romans show us the bad news.
Ever since Adam and Eve, people have turned away from God
we have rebelled against God and become his enemies.
"There is no one righteous, not even one" (3:10)
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (3:23).
Here, the setting, the scene, is the law court of heaven.
on Judgement Day, all people will be in trouble,
we will be accused, found guilty of breaking God’s law, and condemned to death
the wages of sin is death (6:23)
things are looking pretty bad.
But then comes the good news.
On the cross, Jesus Christ died in our place.
Our penalty has been paid.
All we have to do is trust in Jesus, have faith in Christ.
And God will declare us righteous, not guilty
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved (10:13)
it’s a free gift.
Paul calls this justification by faith. (3:24, 28)
God justifies the one who has faith in Jesus (3:21-26)
there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (8:1).
And in chapter 5, we see the result:
since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (5:1)
God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (5:5)
In the first chapters of Romans, sin is mostly about breaking God’s law.
We are all accused in the law court of heaven.
But if you love and trust Jesus, there is no condemnation.
You are forgiven, declared not guilty, free from the penalty for sin.
That’s wonderful good news
But if you’ve been a Christian for a while, you may have found,
Christians don’t instantly become perfect.
the power of sin is still active in our lives.
That’s what the second section of Romans is about, chapters 5/6 to 8
now Paul describes sin like an enemy power, an alien evil force that invaded God’s world and makes us slaves.
Or a disease, a cancer, a parasite, a virus that lives in us.
Spreading, controlling, killing, destroying us from inside.
So here we are in chapter 7.
Paul has just written, earlier in chapter 7,
“our sinful passions, aroused by the law… bear fruit for death” (7:5)[i]
The law is the Law of Moses, including the 10 Commandments, given to Israel at Mt Sinai.
in Paul’s mind, it’s as if there is a coalition of evil: sin, death and the law.
Some of the Christians in Rome had a Jewish background,
so they would have worried,
What are you saying Paul?
is the law itself sin?
the holy law that God gave us at Mt Sinai.
Did God’s good law bring death?
(7:7, 7:13).
this would have been the question that kept them awake at night:
Paul understands their question,
so he tells a story to show how it is that God’s law, good in itself,
has become so closely bound up with sin and death.
Most of us here today aren’t Jewish,
The issue of Moses’ law might not be so important to us,
but we learn a lot about our lives in Romans seven.
Paul’s Problem
So let’s explore Paul’s experience.[ii]
don’t worry, I agree that the law is good (7:16), he says,
I delight in the law of God in my inner being (7:22).
maybe Paul’s thinking of Psalm 119
I delight in your commands, because I love them (47).
My heart is consumed with longing for your laws (20).
Your decrees are the theme of my song (54).
Your law is more precious to me than silver and gold (72).
Your words are sweeter than honey to my mouth (103).
Your statutes are wonderful, the joy of my heart (111, 121)
I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands (131)
My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end. (Psalm 119:111)
but, cries Paul, I can’t
I love your commands more than life itself, but I break them
God’s law is so good, but I can’t keep it
No matter how hard I try, I always fall short
with my mind, my better self, says Paul, I delight in God’s law.
So what’s wrong with me, what’s going on?
“I do not understand my own actions” (15)
it’s almost a tongue twister, expressing his own twisted anguished self,
“I do not do what I want… I do what I do not want.. I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me” (15-20)
can you feel his grief?
wretched, measurable, unhappy man that I am.
Who will rescue me from this body of death? (7:24)[iii]
Paul has discovered there’s a battle going on
the battle between sin and God’s law.
And he is caught in the crossfire – the second reason for our title.
He is a walking Civil War.
His spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
A footnote:
when we read Paul here,
We can think Paul is saying that our mind or soul is good, but our physical body – that’s bad.
but that is not the teaching of the Bible.
God made our physical bodies – and everything he made is good.
When Jesus was resurrected, he had a body – he could eat and drink and people could touch him
So when Paul says "flesh", he doesn’t mean our physical body,
he means the sinful, evil part of our personality, the darkness in our heart.
The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Paul’s conflict, this good and evil wrestling in his own heart, reminds me of the old American Indian story.
A grandfather was talking to his grandson.
‘I feel like I have two wolves fighting in my heart.
One wolf is a nasty, angry, violent one. The other wolf is a loving, kind, good one.’
His grandson asked him, ‘Which wolf will win the fight?’
grandfather replied: ‘The one I feed.’
It’s a good story, but there’s a crucial difference for Paul:
he’s not a neutral third party, calmly watching the battle on TV, eating popcorn,
cheering for one side, now the other, choosing which to feed,
No. the evil power of sin drags him down despite his good intentions.
in many ways, Paul is talking about what today we call addiction
think of the Alcoholics Anonymous 12 steps:
a lot of websites put Bible verses alongside them, and Romans seven always comes up for step one:
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, and that our lives had become unmanageable.
powerless over our addictions, unhealthy habits, compulsive behaviors, the sin that dwells within us.
An AA book says,
“Remember that we deal with alcohol, cunning, baffling, powerful!
Without help it is too much for us.”
just what Paul found: sin deceived him (11) and overpowers him.
Sin is an addiction
A lot of the time we are like alcoholics in denial.
We pretend that we don’t need help, we are not powerless, we are in control, we aren’t slaves
But that is an illusion, itself enemy propaganda.
Sometimes the hardest thing is to give up our pride and admit that we have a problem
to admit that we are sinners and can’t save ourselves and need Christ.
That’s what alcoholics anonymous step one is about.
Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a short novel, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886).[iv]
probably partly inspired by Romans seven
Jekyll is a respectable doctor, a normal person with a mixture of good and evil.
he discovers a potion that will free his evil side from the good to stand alone – as Mr Hyde
Hyde embodies what Paul calls, “the flesh” or “my members” – the sinful part of my nature
for some time, Dr Jekyll enjoys indulging his evil desires, sneaking out at night as Mr Hyde.
It’s great – There are no consequences. He can never be captured.
But gradually, the dark side grows stronger.
One morning, Jekyll wakes up, sees his hand – what?
He looks in the mirror – it’s Hyde
he’s spontaneously transformed into his evil form.
He becomes terrified of falling asleep,
Double, triple doses of potion are needed to turn back into Jekyll.
Before, he thought he was in control, now he is more and more enslaved to evil.
you can hear Jekyll crying like Paul,
“Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (7:24)
the Christian band Petra have a song “Jekyll and Hyde”:
I have a secret that I let nobody see
An evil shadow that’s been hanging over me
My alter ego that I try to hold at bay
But despite my good intentions he can always get away
He does the things that I don’t want to do
He won’t do things that I know I should do
Sometimes I feel like Jekyll and Hyde
Two men are fighting a war inside
does that sound like you sometimes?
that, says Paul, is the natural condition of all humanity.
all, without exception, are
Helpless, enslaved, caught in the crossfire between God’s good law and our weak sinful flesh.
in a sense, we are back at the start of Romans – everyone is in trouble.
“wretched man that I am!” (7: 24)
in Petra’s words,
I need somebody to rescue me
When personalities clash
sadly, for Doctor Jekyll, there was no rescue.
When he ran out of his potion, he was lost.
The last chapter of the book is his suicide note confession.
By contrast, we have hope.
AA step one is admitting that we are powerless
then comes step two:
We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Yes, Paul cries in desperation, “O wretched man”,
but then he shouts in gratitude to this power:
“thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (7:25).
God’s Solution
So how can we be set free from our old self, our sinful nature?
how does God rescue us? How does God help us?
Paul gives us two big answers.
We saw the first answer earlier.
It’s the cross of Christ. [v]
On the cross, Jesus has paid the penalty for our sin.
If we are Christians, yes, we still sin, we still fall,
but God doesn’t reject us, he doesn’t hate us
God… canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2:14)
There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (8:1).
our old self was crucified with Christ,
so that the body of sin might be destroyed,
and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.
For whoever has died is freed from sin.
(Romans 6:6-7)
When, as a Christian, you fall into sin,
you don’t have to feel guilty and ashamed.
God has forgiven you and God still loves you, your relationship with him isn’t broken.
God loves us so much he accepts us just as we are
but God loves us too much to leave us as we are.
He wants to change us
That’s what Paul’s second answer is about – in chapter 8.
Here in chapter 7, the battle is between God’s law, or our highest self trying to follow it,
and the sin which dwells in us, defeats us and drags us down
in chapter 8, a new force, a new person, dwells in us to fight for the good:
now the battle is between the sinful flesh, and God the Holy Spirit.
the tables are turned.
the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death…
he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who dwells in you…
the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
(Romans 8:2, 11, 26)
Our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19).
In Galatians, Paul writes
The sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. (Galatians 5:17)
the sinful nature wants to do all sorts of bad things,
but God’s Holy Spirit is at work in us to produce good, the fruit of the spirit:
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)
Here is the third reason for my title “crossfire”
the solution to our struggle, torn in two, caught in the crossfire between the law and sin,
is the cross of Christ, and the fire of the Spirit.
The cross of Christ, so we are forgiven.
And the fire of the Spirit, as on the day of Pentecost, who empowers the new life [vi]
The Christian Struggle
So what do you think now –
can Paul’s description in Romans seven include mature Christian believers? [vii]
as we saw at the start, people get pretty passionate about it
One side argues, no way!
Christians have victory over sin, they’re set free!
they’re not “sold into slavery under sin”, defeated and failing to overcome (7:14)
but are Christians perfect?
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8)
The great English preacher Charles Spurgeon told a story
he met a man who thought he was perfect – he never sinned.
Spurgeon invited him to his house for dinner and then threw a glass of water in his face
The man got angry.
Spurgeon said, you see, the old sinful nature was not dead,
he had just fainted, and a little cold water has woken him up!
personally, I think both sides have a point.
the normal Christian life is a mixture of victory and failure, overcoming sin and ongoing struggle.
delighting in God’s law and still falling short.
That’s why Paul talks about salvation as both in the past – already, and in the future – not yet
If we have been united with him in his death,
we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection
(Romans 6:5, 8).
We have died with Christ – already justified, forgiven, made right with God, in the past – chapters 3-4
and we will also live with him – final victory over sin, full salvation, in the future – the end of chapter 8
the chapter 7 experience is in between
so if you are wrestling with weakness like Paul right now, be encouraged
it does not mean you’re spiritually immature or not a real Christian.
In fact, the very opposite[viii]
One Romans scholar put it like this:
The farther people advance in the Christian life, and the more mature their discipleship,
the clearer becomes their perception of the heights to which God calls them,
and the more painfully sharp their consciousness of the distance
between what they ought, and want, to be, and what they are.
Cranfield
This is the experience of most great saints and heroes of the faith.
Here’s an Old Testament example:
Remember the Prophet Isaiah – probably a more godly man than most of us.
he had a vision of God, sitting high on the throne:
angels flew around, crying
“holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty”
and Isaiah cried
“woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips”. (Isaiah 6:5)
when he saw God’s Holiness, he realised his own sinfulness.
Just like Paul.
so, in fact, I hope that we’ve all experienced Paul’s frustration in some area of our lives
I hope we’ve all glimpsed the beauty of holiness like Isaiah did,
Seen a greater goodness we can’t yet live up to.
If not, try pondering scriptures like 1 Corinthians 13 – the great love chapter,
or Galatians 5 – the fruit of the spirit, or Matthew 5 – the Beatitudes
– and ask, does this describe me as much as it could?
I’ve prayed through 1 Corinthians 13 once or twice – it’s a humbling experience!
Imagine a little girl, who hears a violin Concerto by Bach or Mozart.
As the soloist soars above the orchestra, she falls in love with the music.
she longs to play it herself.
Just like Paul delighted in God’s law and wanted to keep it
So she rushes out and start taking violin lessons.
And she discovers an extreme dissonance between the sounds she makes, and that high vision of beauty
– again, like Paul
As a teenager, I learnt the violin.
And my sister, in the bedroom next to me, says my squeaking and scratching didn’t quite get there!
In my defence, she learnt the saxophone, and the sax can be hauntingly beautiful.
It can be…
On a more spiritual level,
I’ve read a little bit about Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu.
These guys really embody the Sermon on the Mount –
Jesus’ teaching about loving your enemy, returning blessing for cursing,
I’d love to be like them.
Such freedom from baggage like bitterness, such capacity for selfless love,
It’s incredible and powerful and beautiful.
but guess what?
I feel all inspired, and then
I pop into the supermarket, just a few items in my trolley,
coming up to the checkout, and someone shoots in front of me. And their trolley is overflowing!
Desmond Tutu tells of a woman who embraced the guy who burnt her son to death, and said “now you will be my son”
Martin Luther King could love and bless the racist police officer who was putting his dogs on to him.
And here I am, stewing and simmering over the most petty, trivial, probably half imaginary offence,
man, I’ve got a long way to go.
“There is an eagle in me that wants to soar,
and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud”
(poet Carl Sandburg [1878-1967]).
But for those, unlike me, who persevere in music.
The day comes when all the drills and scales and arpeggios become second nature.
Suddenly, for a few bars, you forget the mechanics, and you are the music
even if only for a moment, it clicks, it flows.
It can happen with learning to ride a bike, drive a car, speak a language…
How would you describe those moments?
words like gracefulness, freedom, maybe power, beauty, spring to mind
very gospel words.
Very biblical Holy Spirit describing words.
Don’t you long for that day in your spiritual life?
But, man, sometimes the process of ongoing sanctification seems so painfully slow.
Fighting sin is like playing spiritual Whac-A-Mole
you know, the fairground game, where moles keep popping up from holes,
as hard and fast as you knock them down they pop up again somewhere else.
greed – whack! Envy – whack! check out that sexy mole… oops, Lust – whack!
Man I’m doing well, what a great Christian… Oh no, pride – whack!
I’m tired of the struggle, time to relax… sloth – whack!
– sometimes it’s a war of attrition, it seems hopeless.
“O wretched man that I am!”
So what should we do when we fail and fall into sin?
First, we can pray, thank you Lord that Jesus died for me so I am forgiven and you still love.
thank you that by the cross of Christ, you have set me free from the penalty of sin.
Second, we can pray, Lord, please help me to do better.
Fill me with more of your Spirit, the fire of the Spirit, to set me free from the power of sin
And then, third, it’s a good idea to share our struggle with someone else.
James wrote,
Confess your sins to each other and pray that you will be healed (James 5:16)
We don’t have to pretend we are perfect – in fact, that is very dangerous.
It is secret sin that has the most power over us.
Even the apostle Paul could be open about his struggles,
So there is no shame in you or I admitting we find it difficult sometimes.
Then we can pray for and help each other get up again.
Conclusion
Who saw the movie The Matrix?
there’s some cool scenes where the bad guys are shooting at the hero, Neo.
The bullets are coming in slow motion, and he’s twisting and turning in all sorts of contortions to dodge them.[ix]
For a while he succeeds, but then he’s hit, he’s down.
Does your struggle with sin sometimes feel like that?
Tying yourself into convoluted knots, desperately trying to avoid those darts of the evil one (Ephesians 6:16),
and sooner or later, some strike home.
There’s a conversation in the movie that struck me.
An older good guy Morpheus tells the hero Neo that where others failed to defeat the evil agents, he will succeed.
Neo asks if he means, because he can dodge bullets?
Morpheus replies:
No, Neo. I’m trying to tell you that when you’re ready, you won’t have to.
Remember the later scene.
again, the bad guys attack. Again, the bullets fly.
But this time, Neo just stands there, and the bullets stop in front of him
he looks with mild interest at them for a few seconds, before they drop to the ground, and he keeps walking.
The forces of evil realise they now have no power over him.
The Agents run.
For you and me at the moment, caught in the crossfire,
Struggling with sin, desperately dodging the darts of the evil one – yes, that’s life.
but when you and I are ready,
when he who began the good work in us has brought it to completion. (Philippians 1:6)
We won’t have to twist and turn and struggle with sin any more.
Evil, temptation will have no power over us
like when a spark falls upon an ocean, your holiness will quench it in a moment. Spurgeon
the hippopotamus will grow wings!
blessed are those who have admitted they are powerless and know they are spiritually poor,
for a Power greater than themselves will restore them.
blessed are those who mourn like Paul over their failure, for they shall be comforted,
rescued by the cross of Christ and the fire of the Spirit.
blessed are those who delight in God’s law, who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be filled
(Matthew 5: 3-6)
[i] “Law came in, with the result that the trespass multiplied” (5:20)
[ii] there is debate about whether this reflects Paul’s personal autobiography, but for convenience, we’ll just say Paul..
[iii] The ancient Roman philosophers found this same dilemma: “I pursue the things that have done me harm; I shun the things I believe will do me good.” (Horace). “I see and approve the better course, but I follow the worse one” (Ovid). Centuries later, the Jewish psychologist Freud said much the same as the Jewish pharisee Paul. Our conscious ego is caught in a struggle between the id – “the dark, inaccessible part of our personality. . . . a chaos, a cauldron of seething excitement” – and the super-ego, something like the conscience, the socially acceptable and respectable part of us. As a result, “the ego is not master in its own house.”.
[iv] In the novel Moby Dick, Captain Ahab is frightened by what he sees in himself. He asks:
“What is it, what nameless, inscrutable, unearthly thing is it; what cozening, hidden lord and master, and cruel, remorseless emperor commands me; that against all natural lovings and longings, I so keep pushing, and crowding, and jamming myself on all the time; recklessly making me ready to do what in my own proper, natural heart, I durst not so much as dare?”
[v] Another aspect of the cross as solution to the problem of sin is the mysterious doctrine of our dying with Christ:
“our old self was crucified with Christ, so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin.” (Romans 6:6-7). To be set free from the old slave master, to be born again, first you have to die. “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20)
[vi] Romans chapter 7-8 tells a sort of conversion story. In chapter 7, the fall from innocence into sin and death (7:9). awakening to a sense of spiritual slavery-our passage for today, realising our complete helplessness, that we can’t save ourselves, before the salvation of chapter 8.
[vii] Here’s the explanation that I find most convincing and helpful: the common Jewish understanding of history, saw two ages: the present age, and the age to come. (Matt. 12:32; Mark 10:30; Luke 18:30; Gal. 1:4; Heb. 6:5; 1 Cor. 10:11.) the present old age, under the power of sin and death, where God seems painfully absent. The age to come, the new golden age of life and freedom, filled with the presence of God’s spirit.
When Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, Christians realised the new age had already begun, while the old age was not yet over. So these two ages are currently overlapping. The struggle we see here in Romans seven is the impact of this tension between the two ages on our individual lives. In Romans six, Paul said all humanity is in Adam-the old sinful self, that will die, but Christians have a new self in Christ, and so a sort of double identity. that’s why the preacher Spurgeon called his message on this passage, “The Dual Nature and the Duel Within”. and in Romans eight, unambiguously describing believers, we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:23)
[viii] “do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2
[ix] one website put it, “The air sizzles with wads of lead-like angry flies as Neo twists, bends, ducks just between them.”
