Romans 7:14-25
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 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. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 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. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 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.
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. As you know, we've been working through the book of Romans, section by section, over the over the time Romans has come together to lead through a couple of ideas. It begins stressing the idea that everyone is a sinner, that you can do nothing good. That no matter how awesome you are, and how obedient you try to be, nothing can truly measure up to God's law. But salvation comes through grace, by faith, on account of Christ as a free gift of God. Once Paul comes to that, at the end of chapter three, he begins to answer ask a number of questions that come up from it. Things like, well, if we don't have to obey God to be saved, what do we do? Can we sin? Do we reject the law? What do we do with all of this obedience stuff. And so he goes through a number of concepts, things like being baptized into Christ means that we die with Christ, and we rise with him. So we live a new life is the resurrected person, perfect and holy. He talks about our relationship with the law, how the Old Testament law, we died to it. And yet now we rise to this new obedience to a moral law, not as someone who is afraid of violating it, but someone who strives to serve in the Spirit. And that's kind of where we ended last week. What comes next is the natural result. If we have been freed from the old law, or now serving in the spirit, how does that work? In our hearts? Well, we get is a struggle. Paul was dealing with the Christian struggle that I think any honest Christian has, is the pain of what happens when you look at your own life. And say, Why did I do that? I know you've done it, right. You've had a moment in your life where you go, I didn't want to do that bad thing that I just did. I was cranky. I took it out on someone who loves me. I forgot something I was supposed to do. And you do this internal like, what? That is the struggle of a Christian who is trying to obey God, but finds that sin inside of us tries to take over and we lose control. That's what Paul is writing about in Romans chapter seven, today. And so what I'd like to do is go through this section by section piece by piece, to really explore what he says so we can understand it. He begins with this. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am under the flesh sold under sin. Here God is talking or Paul is talking about God's moral to moral law being spiritual is the the requirements that God has on each and every one of us. They did not disappear with the Old Testament law. They are good and holy, because they come as part of God's creation, we're all called to follow this law. And so we know that it is spiritual. The law that St. Paul referred to just a little while ago was there to help remind us how good it truly is that it is actually a demand and a call to be perfect. Luther tells us about this as he explains his 10 commandments, and he helps us to see how good and wonderful God's law truly is. And I pulled out an example from the Eighth Commandment, you shall not bear false testimony against your neighbor. And I want you to imagine what it would be like in a church if we could do this according to Luthers explanation, where he says, We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him slander him or hurt his reputation, but defend him speak well of him and explain everything in the kindest way. Can you imagine what it'd be like to live in a community like that. Where anytime someone had bad news, like the gossip we all love, we decided not to share it. How amazing would that be? Right? Or if a politician said something stupid, we all explained it in the kindest way. I know you laugh, right? Because we go the opposite. Can you imagine how good that would be. But it's the sin in us. That breaks that, that violates it. And no matter how much we know that this is what we should do, we find ourselves gossiping away. And the law is spiritual. He says, but I am of the flesh sold under sin. He continues, I do not understand my own actions, where I do not do what I want. But I do the very thing I hate. I know I've seen this in myself. And I bet you have to. We all have failings that we wish we could fix. Otherwise, we would not have New Year's resolutions. We would not have all these books about becoming a new you science about breaking bad habits. This is part of the human condition. And even St. Paul, one of the greatest men of the Christian faith, looks at himself and says, I do not do what I want. But I do the very thing I hate. We've all been there. I recognize the pain that is likely in Paul's voice as he thinks these words in his head, when we do the stuff. They're our own weakness that we hate. This is what it means to be a Christian is called by God sanctified by Christ. But knowing that we still can't live up to the good that we want to do. Each and every one of us. If you have the Holy Spirit in you, you know, you can't live it up the way you're supposed to. And sometimes it just doesn't it. Sometimes the struggle leads to pain. And it's and even St. Paul goes through it. He continues. Now, if I do what I do not want I agree with the law, that it is good. Very simply, what this means is that he's setting up this thing where he's got this, the his body, his flesh is doing what he doesn't want. But his mind agrees with God's law. And what I think is, is this helps us to see that this internal struggle that every Christian has the pain that you feel when you do something that's wrong, and you don't know why is actually a good sign. What it means is that you haven't given up it what it means is that you're a Christian. But the Holy Spirit is at work inside you, helping you to recognize that you need a savior. That the sin in you is not something to celebrate, or to love. But something to turn from repent, something that drives us to our Savior. The struggle that a Christian faces as they go out every day and we have to fight against the temptations of our sinful flesh is the struggle that is there only because the Holy Spirit has called you to something new. It's a reminder that you have the call of God and the gift of Christ, that Jesus died for you and raise you from death. It's a reminder that the battle you face every single day is part of the battle that leads towards everlasting life. And that conflict is fueled by the Holy Spirit. Without that conflict, you would just be a sinner Right,
you would just be one of the last. But it's because you're saying, because Christ has called you that every day is a battle. Every day is a struggle against the sinful flesh that moves within. St. Paul continues, he says, so now it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in 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. Or I do not do the good I want but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now, if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within. Here, St. Paul is relying on some of the ideas that he has talked about prior to this. In Romans chapter six, he begins by telling us that we died with Christ, and we are raised with Him. And what that means is that we are now a new creation in Jesus Christ, the real you has been raised from the dead. And yet, at the same time, there is the flesh that remains. And so we have this dual identity. The real you is raised from the dead with Jesus Christ in baptism. And yet at the same time, there is a sinner trying to hijack your body. This sinner is not you. The real you has been raised with Christ. And yet we constantly have this battle. And St. Paul can goes on to say how he wants to do this good, but he finds himself controlled by the flash and ends up doing evil instead.
What should this do for us? As we see this struggle in our own lives, we set a goal for the day you wake up, you go out there and say today I'm going to be good and then you get out of bed. What should this do for us? It should drive us back to the source of our life. The place that supports this true identity that God has given us the Word and Sacrament because in this ongoing battle, there is only one place to fuel us and beat us and strengthen us as we fight against the temptations of the flesh. That is God's word. That's the sacrament, Holy Communion, absolution, remembering our baptism. Because this is where we are strengthened for this battle and encouraged and driven out to try again. At the end of the Small Catechism, there's this section called Christian questions and their answers. And what it does is it rolls through a bunch of different questions in preparation for coming to Communion. And one of my favorite is the final question. Question number 20. Where it says, But what should you do if you are not aware of this need, and have no hunger or thirst for the sacrament? Lose the rights to such a person no better advice can be given than this. First, he should touch his body and see if he still has flesh and blood. And then he should believe what Scriptures say of it in Galatians five, and in Romans seven. Right. If you still have flesh, you still need the sacrum. And this battle that we face every day should just drive us to the place where we can take in Christ's Body and Blood and be strengthened once again.
Paul continues, he says so I find it to be a law that when I do wants to do right, evil lies close at hand for a delight in the law of God in my interviewing, 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 dwell In my memory. St. Paul really likes using the word law in a lot of different ways, right? So what he's saying is that there's an ongoing battle. There's a law that says, God, that follows God. And then there's another one that follows sin, and they're constantly at war in him. And it's this thing that he sees going over and over, on and on his life. Now, here's the point in the sermon where you might expect your pastor to come forward and tell you here are five different ways that you too can defeat the laws in your in your life. Or where you might say, how here, get a sermon about how to have the victory over temptation in your daily life. But you're not going to get that from me. Because Paul, doesn't give that either. St. Paul, perhaps one of the greatest men of the Christian faith, guy who wrote more books of the Bible than anyone else, who traveled the globe as a missionary. He still struggles with sin, and struggled with sin, till the day he died, as did the other apostles, as have all the saints of the Christian Church throughout all the history of the world. Now you might think, great pastor, way to make me depressed leaving here today, I'm looking forward to battling against sin. But I want you to remember that that makes you no different than St. Paul. Right. St. Peter, chief of the apostles struggled with sin the same way you do. You are no different. You are no worse than the greatest of the Christians who's ever lived. When you face your daily battle, it is the same daily battle as the best of them. And God is still with you. And while we fight this battle every day, all the way until the day of our deaths, we know that it has always already been won by Jesus Christ. And that is how St. Paul finishes it out. He says, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death. Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Because we know that Jesus Christ will deliver us from this body of death. Because the day he returns, we will no longer be the real OS raised from the dead and the flesh. The flesh that is sold, the sin will be gone. And all that will remain is our resurrected bodies with Jesus Christ, to live in perfect perfection forever. This is the victory that we have in Jesus Christ. Knowing that this battle that we face will only go on so long. And then eternity come with perfection in him. In Jesus name, Amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai