Introduction

“If you’re able, please stand.” Reading Rom. 7:13–25. “Thanks be to God.”

How can I experience real change in my life?

Sometimes it’s trivial: lose 5 lbs or improve my time in a 5k. When an adult is trying to get a better time or improve his bench press, that’s in the category of the “trivial.” Or maybe the change is finding a better gadget to help me with that thing. Again, that’s the type of change in the category of “trivial.” “But you don’t understand!”

Sometimes more serious: stop being angry at my children. Battle with purity. Some pattern of behavior that’s really destructive to your relationships but it feels uncontrollable. As a Christian, at some level you really want to change this pattern of behavior—but that desire to change bumps into another reality in you, sin. You don’t want to change quite...yet.

But still, all of us have some areas in our lives where we really, really, really want to change. Then we face a reality: true, lasting, important change is incredibly difficult. Our desires can be at war with one another. So, How can I change?

The question, “How can a sinner like me be saved?”, is the question over Romans 1–5. But in some ways the question, “How can a sinner like me change?”, is the question that hangs over Romans 6–8.

The theological word for that is “sanctification.” Or more accurately, progressive sanctification. The process of becoming more holy, more like Christ.

These chapters in some ways go back to the end of chapter 5:

Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, ²¹ so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom 5:20–21)

“Sin reigned in death” was addressed by Rom. 6. How Christ broke the reign of sin and death.

“The law came in to increase the trespass” is addressed here in Rom. 7.

The series in Romans 6–8 is Walking in Newness of Life. Today we see that to walk in newness of life we must see that Our Victory is in Christ and Christ alone.

Our sermon will explore that Victory in Christ. We’ll look at (1) The Enemy: Our Sin (7:13–23); (2) The Deliverer: Christ (7:24–25).

I. The Enemy: Our Sin (7:13–23)

To get oriented to our passage, let’s think about the flow of Romans 7:

• Notice Rom. 7:1, “brothers...those who know the law.” Jews particularly in view.
• He’s dealing with “the law” of Moses.
• The opening section (7:1–6) dealt with the fact in Christ we died to the law.
• The result is now we can serve God through the Spirit:

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 7:6)

But that leads to another question, is there something wrong with the law of God? Or, as he says in Rom. 7:7:

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! (Rom 7:7)

Then he tells a little autobiographical story. Rom. 7:9:

I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. (Rom 7:9)

So far this makes the law sound as if it’s a bad thing. Paul is emphatic the law isn’t bad at all:

So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. (Rom 7:12)

But Rom. 7:9 is still a riddle: when God’s law came, sin came alive. Rom. 7:13, then, asks the right follow-up question, does the law bring death? Is God’s law a horrible thing?

Not at all. The problem is not with the law. The problem is “sin.” Part of the true “sinfulness of sin” is that sin takes the holy and good thing of the law and becomes even more sinful.

This internal dynamic, this thing in us that reacts that way, Paul calls “sin.”

We need to define “sin” quickly before we go further, especially “sin” as its being used in this passage.

• Greek hamartia (ἁμαρτία) – translated “sin.”
• In this chapter the idea in view in particular is the way “sin” is all the ways we fall short of God’s holy standard. All the ways we break his commandments—with our actions or in our thoughts and desires. The 10^th commandment is the one that hangs over this chapter: “You shall not covet” (Rom 7:7; Exod 20:17).
• “Sin” is our resistance to the will of God in all parts of our being.
• “Sin” is measurable, because it’s violating God’s standards, not our own desires!
• “Sin” in this passage sounds almost like a thing living inside of us that’s separate from us—Rom. 7:17.

This “sin” inside of us is powerful. Pervasive. Touches everything.

Look at Rom. 7:14–15. That’s a bleak picture. But it points us to sin’s power.

****Well, now we can ask an important question about our passage, Rom. 7:13–25.

Beginning in Rom. 7:7, Paul begins to use the first-person “I” a lot. In our passage, Rom. 7:13–25, that continues.

In the ESV in our passage, “I” or “me” is found abou 30 times (21 uses of the Grk egō, other times embedded in the verbs).

Is Paul speaking of himself as a Christian? Or his life before he was saved? Or is he doing something different?

The tricky aspect of the passage is that some of his comments sound like something a Christian would say. But other comments sound like something only true of a non-Christians.

The ideas that sound like a non-Christian:

• “I am of flesh, sold under sin” in 7:14. Sounds like a non-Christian, because of what we read in Rom. 6:14 and will see in Rom. 8:9:

For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Rom 6:14)

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. (Rom 8:9)

• Absolute inability in Rom. 7:18. “Not the ability to carry it out.” No ability? That sounds like a non-Christian, because of what Paul said in Rom. 6:2–5 and what he will say in Rom 8:3–4, 9:

How can we who died to sin still live in it? ³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Rom 6:2–4)

And then in chapter 8:

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit....⁹ You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. (Rom 8:3–4, 9)

• No mention of the Holy Spirit or Christ in 7:7–24, not until 7:25. Very different from Galatians 5 where the Christian’s battle against sin is very much with the Spirit in view.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. (Gal 5:16–18)

• Does this mean Paul is talking about himself before coming to Christ and being given the Holy Spirit to walk in obedience?
• And then there’s the flow of thought. You can see a progression beginning in Rom. 7:9. “I was once alive apart from the law.” The law came and then Paul “died.” The problem wasn’t the law, but it was his sin that reacted to the law. That dynamic gets developed in the rest of the chapter. And then is the cry of desperation in Rom. 7:24. The answer is Christ in Rom. 7:25.

All that might lead you to say Paul is speaking of a non-Christian of some type.

And yet there are things in the passage that seem like he’s speaking of our lives as Christians:

• The present-tense verbs: Paul says, “I am,” “I do,” “I want.” Certainly sounds like Paul is referring to his current experience.
• A sincere desire to obey God’s law “in my inner being” in 7:22—does anyone but a Christian have such a desire?
• The sober assessment that ends the passage in Rom. 7:25b. If passage ended at 7:25a, it would seem that conversion happens right there. But 7:25b seems to go back to a present reality for the apostle Paul.
• The “already and not yet” dynamic of this passage is actually consistent with Romans 6 and 8. Romans 6 talks about our freedom from sin, but it also assumes that sin will be a battle for us.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. (Rom 6:12)

I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. (Rom 6:19)

That’s also true in Romans 8. Romans 8 will speak of our freedom from the law and our ability to “fulfill the requirements of the law” by walking in the Spirit—but it also assumes that we’ll have to battle against sin until we’re glorified:

But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. (Rom 8:10)

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Rom 8:13)

• Then there’s what Thomas Schreiner calls the “existential” argument. This is what our experience seems to be like. What the Christian life feels like. It sure feels like what’s being described here—a battle against a foe where it feels like we’re often defeated. In fact, we often feel like Rom. 7:18, “I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to do what is right.”

How do we bring all this together into a coherent and plausible reading?

4 View of Romans the “I” in Rom. 7:14–25

1. The “Not-Quite-Christian”: Old Testament saint (Stott) or a person on the verge of conversion experiencing great conviction (Lloyd-Jones) or maybe Paul’s own journey of conversion.
2. A Typical Christian: The passage is presenting the typical life of the Christian where the battle with sin is always present and Paul describing his own inner struggles (Reformers, John Murray, Cranfield).
3. The Story of Israel: This view says Paul is writing “as if” the experience is of an individual, but it’s really describing the Israel’s history (1) before the Law at Sinai; (2) after receiving the Law at Sinai; (3) and then Israel in the present still living under the Law and not yet turning to Christ (Chrysostom in 300s AD, Colin Kruse).
4. Human Inadequacy apart from Christ: This view says that Paul is speaking of Christians but not exactly of our typical Christian experience. His point is different. More about bankruptcy in the flesh apart from Christ.

View 4 overlaps with View 2 a lot. But it brings out the uniqueness of this passage.

I think the last view has the most to commend it. I read of it in Thomas Schreiner’s commentary on Romans (BECNT). It best catches the flow of the argument in Romans 6–8.

If you take Romans 7 as talking about the normal experience of the Christian, you run into real opposition with Romans 6 (we died to sin) and Romans 8 (we have the Spirit). But if you take Romans 7 as talking about a particular aspect of our life as Christians, it makes good sense.

This view has a parallel in Jesus words in John 15, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” Paul is echoing that idea but with an emphasis on the “sin” inside of us.

Apart from Christ and the indwelling Spirit, “sin” in us is an absolute monster. Our fleshly desires will rise up and cause us to do what we hate all the time.

Apart from Christ and the indwelling Spirit, you’ll want the good but never do it, you’ll “delight in the law” but be a slave to sin.

With this understanding, then, let me read again Rom. 7:13–23.

• Apart from Christ, the picture is bleak indeed!
• Apart from Christ, there’s some kind of desire to obey but no ability.

That leads us to The Deliverer.

II. The Deliverer: Christ (7:24–25)

The passage leads to a cry of desperation. When you take an honest look at the goodness of God’s commandments and the reality of my sinfulness, it leads to the cry of desperation:

“Wretched man that I am!” – The problem is not Paul's self-esteem. Apart from Christ this is what I am!

This cry is like Isaiah crying out when he encounters the living God,

And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isa 6:5)

God doesn’t talk him out of this assement. God doesn’t tell Isaiah, “Please, please, Isaiah. You’re a good person. Don’t be so hard on yourself.” That’s not the answer!

But Paul in Romans 7 gives a critical insight. In Rom. 7:24 notice how he asks his question, “Who...?” The answer to his cry of desperation is not a “WHAT?” It’s a “WHO?”

The help us in our struggle against the impossible enemy of our sins is not a “WHAT,” it’s a “WHO.”

It’s not a “WHAT” of a new workout routine. Or a new set of disciplines to perfect. Or a new diet. Or fasting.

The answer to our sin problem is a “WHO.” It’s a person. It’s a relationship.

The “WHO” is given in Rom. 7:25: “Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ!”

Kind of like those monster movies where King Kong and Godzilla and some other impossibly huge monster come together.

When your problem is an impossibly huge monster, what’s the answer? An even more powerful monster. Or maybe two!

Our problem is the impossibly huge monster of sin, what’s the answer? Someone even more powerful, All-powerful: Our Lord Jesus Christ!

“Our Lord Jesus Christ” is once again the answer.

• He is the answer to the question, “How can a sinner like me be saved?”
• And he is the answer to the question, “How can a sinner like me be holy?”
• He is the answer to the question, “How can I overcome my sin?”

Notice the name Paul uses:

• “Our Lord” – Our God and King
• “Jesus” – The “Yahweh Saves” (Matt 1:21)
• “Christ” – The One and Only Mediator, the Anointed One

In the 1640s a group of Reformed Baptists from 7 churches in London got together and wrote out a confession of faith. They put on paper what they believed. It had about 50 or so paragraphs. But in two of their paragraphs they capture what Paul is saying in Romans 7, the bad news and the good news:

31. [We confess] that all believers in the time of this life, are in a continual warfare, combat, and opposition against sin, self, the world, and the Devil, and liable to all manner of afflictions, tribulations, and persecutions, and so shall continue until Christ comes in his Kingdom, being predestinated and appointed thereunto; and whatsoever the Saints, any of them do posses or enjoy of God in this life, is only by faith. 
32. [We confess] that the only strength by which the Saints are enabled to encounter with all opposition, and to overcome all afflictions, temptations, persecutions, and trials, is only by Jesus Christ, who is the Captain of their salvation, being made perfect through sufferings, who hath engaged his strength to assist them in all their afflictions, and to uphold them under all their temptations, and to preserve them by his power to his everlasting Kingdom. 
1644 London Baptist Confession of Faith 31–32

The battle is real and ongoing—but our victory is secure in Christ!

The “Already and not yet” of the Christian life. We feel both cries simultaneously:

• “Wretched man that I am!” (7:24)
• “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (7:25)

Not a Christian? You’re battling an enemy you can’t defeat.

• An enemy which leads to death and endless torment.
• Make Paul’s cry your cry of salvation today—Rom. 7:24–25a!
• Through faith in him you’re declared RIGHTEOUS!

Conclusion

We asked at the beginning, “How can I change?” Inside of us is a huge opposing force to change—important change, becoming more holy and more like Christ.

What does that mean in the day to day?

• A conviction we must have: The answer is a WHO.
• A conviction that leads to some WHAT’s.
• Leads to what we call the “means of grace.”

It means doing the things that help us grow in our relationship with Christ:

• Bible reading
• Prayer
• Fellowship with Christians
• Reading Christian books
• Gathering with the saints on Sundays
• Investing your money and time in Christian pursuits

These are “means of grace” since they are practical actions that help us to find what we really need, grace.

These actions aren’t the grace, but they help us get the grace we need.

What you need is not a WHAT, it’s a WHO. But to get to the WHO of Jesus, you also need to think about WHAT you’re doing and the people you’re doing it with.

Like having some electronic device, like a computer. The battery dies. There’s no life in it.

Well, there’s an outlet right there on the wall. But having a computer near the outlet doesn’t do the trick. You need a cable to connect the computer to the outlet.

The cable isn’t the power, it’s just the “means” to help you access the power.

That’s what the “means of grace” are for us, the way we access the power in “our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Romans 7:24–25a. Amen.

Prayer and closing song.