A Study of the Book of Romans

Lesson # 17 

“Hope For The Frustrated Christian”

Romans 7:14-25, 8:1-4 

       If you accept that Paul was saved in about 35 A.D. and that he wrote the this letter to the Romans in about 57 A.D. that means that he had been a Christian for little over 20 years and as a mature Christian still says, “I have to deal with and confront sin in my life.”  This much seems obvious if the Apostle Paul struggled with this, it will probably happen to you and me also. So if your struggling you are in good company, you have something in common with one of the greatest Christian’s who ever lived.

       Some people suggest that Paul’s experience related in Chapter seven describes a defeated or “sub-normal” Christian life. But I don’t believe so. As John MacArthur points out in his commentary, “It seems rather that Paul is here describing the most spiritual and mature of Christians, who, the more they honestly measure themselves against God’s standards of righteousness the more they realize how much they fall short.” [John MacArthur. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Romans (1-8). (Chicago: Moody, 1991) p. 379]

       In fact I believe with what Paul is telling us we can see three characteristics of what a mature Christian looks like.  

            Three Characteristics of a Maturing Christian.

First, A Maturing Christian Continues To Struggle With Sin. (vv. 14-17)

 “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. (15) For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. (16) If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. (17) But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”

       Paul states that his life is a constant struggle. He says, “I do not understand what I do. That which I desire to do, I can’t and that which I hate, that I do!”

We struggle in a variety of ways. We struggle between what we know to do and what we actually do. Knowing and doing are two completely different things. We can know the right thing and still do the wrong thing. We also struggle between what we know God want us to do and what we would rather do if God would leave us alone.

       We see this struggle exhibited in the Garden of Gethsemane the night prior to the crucifixion of Jesus (Mark 14:32-42). Jesus had gone into the garden to pray and Peter, James and John accompanied Him. Jesus said to them, “Stay here and pray while I go over there and pray” (v. 32). But what happened? The disciples wanted to stay awake, they wanted to pray, but what happened? They fell asleep. Jesus came back and woke them up and again asked them to stay awake and pray (vv. 37-38). He then made the observation that is true of everyone one of us, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak” (v. 38).

          Even the best saints of God are going to struggle. How else can you explain Christian leaders who fall? How else can you explain seemingly godly people going into immorality? How else do you explain God's people giving in to anger, bitterness, gossip and all the rest? The best way that I know how to explain it is the reality of indwelling sin and the struggle we all face. 

Secondly, A Maturing Christian Desires To Serve God.  (vv. 18-22)

"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. (19) For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. (20) Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. (21) I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. (22) For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. (23) But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”

            J.I. Packer puts it this way, “In reality, it is a mark of spiritual health passionately to desire to be perfect for the glory of God and then to be deeply distressed when one finds that sin, though dethroned and no longer dominant, remains within, marauding and trying to regain control, so that one cannot fully achieve righteousness. This healthy distress at the way in which, morally speaking, what one aims for always exceeds what one actually grasps is what Romans 7:24-25 portrays.” [James Packer. “Your Father Loves You” (Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986), page for March 21]

       There once was an American Indian who became a Christian and after he’d been a Christian for a number of years he told a missionary, “I’ve got a problem. It’s as if on the inside of me there are two dogs! One is a black dog who tells me to do wrong and one is a white dog who tells me to do right. These two dogs are constantly fighting for control.” The missionary asked the Indian, “Tell me, which dog wins the fight?” And the Indian said, “It’s the dog that I feed the most.” Do you want your new Jesus nature to overpower your old sinful nature? My advice to you is to “feed it!” Feed it, and starve the other. 

Third, A Maturing Christian Learns To Depend Upon The Holy Spirit. (vv. 24-25)

“O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (25) I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”

       Perhaps a clue to the problem found by looking at the occurrence of the personal pronouns in Chapter seven. If you care to count you’ll find that in verse 14-28 Paul use the first personal pronoun (I, Me, My or Myself) 40 times.

       Before I go any further this evening I want to identify the man who has given me more trouble any other in the 20 years I have been pastor of First Baptist Church. I stay angry at him most of the time. In fact, he makes me miserable. I want to identify him to you, I would ask him to stand, but he is already standing… because I am talking about myself. As the cartoon strip character Pogo says, “We have met the enemy and he is us!”

       Paul seems to be portraying himself as one who loves the word of God and longs to please God, but who has tried to do so in his own strength.      

       Punishment meted out to criminals under during Roman times could be especially brutal. Sometime some one who had committed murder would literally be chained face to face, with the corpse of his victim. As the corpse decayed, it ate death into the living man and literally became to him “a body of death.” The putrefaction and the corruption of that dead body would infect the living body! What a terrible way to die!

       It is only when we come to the end of ourselves, both in trying not to do evil and in trying to do good, that we are ready to rely on the Holy Spirit to do in through us what needs to be done. 

Spiritual Maturity Is Found In Learning To Depend On The Holy Spirit. (8:1-4)

·        We Are Not Condemned By Sin (v. 1)

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”

       Verse one of chapter eight is obvious a continuation of the thought in chapter seven because it begins with the word “therefore.”  Paul is telling us that the only ground for hope is in yielding to the power of the Holy Spirit. He can work through us to empower us to live victoriously, but it is up to us to yield ourselves to His control.

       What does verse one mean when it says, “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”? Well I think we must first look at what it does not mean.

When he says there is no condemnation it does not mean that there is no cause for condemnation. That would only be true if there were no longer sin or failure in our lives. But I John 1:7 we are reminded, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

When he says there is no condemnation he is not saying there will be no accountability.  Christian’s will stand before the Lord to give an account of their lives, not in order to earn salvation but in order to determine rewards (2 Cor.5:10) “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” When he says there is no condemnation he is not saying that there will be no failure. When he says there is no condemnation he is not saying there will be no struggle. When he says there is no condemnation he is that there will rejection and no punishment because of our sins.

·        We Are Not Compelled To Sin (v. 2) 

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” 

·        We Are Not Controlled by Sin (vv. 3-4)

 “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, (4) that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

            The Holy Spirit has changed our desires. The old preacher Harry Ironside tells the story of a man who had lived a life of gross sin until he got saved. “After his conversion, one of his old friends said to him, “Bill, I pity you—a man that has been such a high-flier as you. And now you have settled down; you go to church, or stay at home and read the Bible and pray; you never have good times any more.”

       “But, Bob,” said the man, “you don’t understand. I get drunk every time I want to. I go to the theater every time I want to. I go to the dance when I want to. I play cards and gamble whenever I want to.”

       “I say, Bill,” said his friend, “I didn’t understand it that way. I thought you had to give up these things to be a Christian.”

       “No, Bob,” said Bill, “the Lord took the ‘want to’ out when He saved my soul, and he made me a new creature in Christ Jesus.”