Romans 7:15-25a - July 18, 2004 – Pentecost 7
ROMANS 7:15-25a
15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!
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Dear Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
As we look around in our nation we may notice that there are people that are different from us. There are all kinds of people, different nationalities, different religions, and different backgrounds, different occupations, which yields all kinds of diversity. Yet as we also look around at our nation and the people we see, in the midst of all these differences and diversity there are many things that make us alike with everyone else. When we look deeper, we find that most of us look about the same. We walk around on two legs. Each one of us has the same kind of human feelings, human failings, and human desires. Then as Paul reminds us this morning, each one of us still has sin. Sin unites us all of us. We cannot escape it. The fact is the Lord reminds us that just as no one can escape physical death here on earth, it means that sin is still alive and well. The prophet Ezekiel describes it this way: "For every living soul be-longs to me, the father as well as the son--both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die" (EZEKIEL 18:4). Since people still die, Ezekiel reminds us that people are still sinning generation after generation, person by person until the very end of time. So we have that in common with everyone, and everyone has that in common with us.
Today, we have to agree and confess with the Apostle Paul when he says, "I know that nothing good lives in me." With that confession, we make that our theme for our sermon—
I Know that Nothing Good Lives in Me.
I. We discover that sin is alive and well.
II. Also we learn that sin is to be defeated.
I. SIN IS ALIVE AND WELL
We know the apostle Paul quite well. The Lord had called him from darkness into light by his grace. Paul realized that it was only by that grace of God that he was saved. We also realize that now because God had shown him such great love, Paul had a responsibility--a re-sponsibility to try and walk in the way that God had laid out for him. But Paul also realized that sin interfered with that perfect walk in the way of the Lord.
Paul says as our text begins: 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. Paul is not saying, "I don’t know what I am doing," but he is saying, "I want to do good, but I don’t. Instead that which I hate I do. The sin that I hate and want to try to stay away from, I end up doing. I don’t understand why I do that." Because Paul knows what is right and wrong, he also knows the difference between good and bad. Still, Paul does that which is sinful.
We have heard that over and over in the various verses of today’s text. Paul writes; 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. As you notice the struggle that Paul faces, it is a strug-gle whenever he really puts the emphasis on himself when he says: "I can’t do it. I can’t do the good I want instead that which I hate." He says: 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. It would be a struggle for Paul.
Especially as a believer, Paul now knew what was right and what was wrong. He did not mean he would not face temptations. In fact he says: 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. There is the battle between a believer and his Christian nature, his new man as he battles the old man, the sinful nature. Because sin is alive and well! Paul gets to that very point. He says, "Sure, I do those things I don’t want to do. What I want to do, I do not do." Why is that? He says, 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. Not to say he has no choice. Not to say he is going to blame sin, but he recognized that it is sin, which is alive and well, sin that still infects his life and affects his living.
So it is today. Sin changed the world from the very beginning when Adam and Eve re-belled against God and the perfection of the world was lost, so to this very day the world is not perfect. Our lives are not perfect. This nation is not perfect. This world is not perfect, because sin is alive and well. To Christian believers, this is probably pretty simple and easy to under-stand. But this teaching concerning sin and the total depravity of man is not the philosophy and it is not the teaching or the understanding of the world around us. The world around us says, "We can just try harder. We can help ourselves or someone else can help us to get our act to-gether to make a better life and live without mentioning anything about sin. Yet, sin is the root of every problem that everyone faces. Sin unites us all and is alive and well. John writes in his letter: "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us...If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives" (1 JOHN 1:8,10). We can’t deny sin and we dare not. We can’t dismiss it. We can’t call it a sickness or disease. When or if we ever do—God’s word has no place in our lives.
Sin is still sin! The simple fact is that in God’s eyes sin is sin with no distinction to big sins or little sins. There is just sin. There is just sins which is a transgression of the law, be-cause it is doing something wrong. Yet, we know what people tell us. They try to live a good life so they can get to heaven. We might even fall into the trap and say, "Well, we are not as bad as other sinners or as everyone else. We haven’t robbed a bank or put someone to death or anything that wicked." Yet, sin is sin. We might have done what we might consider a big sin or a small sin, a few sins, lots of sins. What does the Lord tell us? He says to us: "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it" (JAMES 2:10). One sin condemns us just as Adam and Eve sinned by disobeying. That one sin condemned them and condemns us because just one sin breaks all of God’s command-ments.
Doing what is wrong is sin. Even doing nothing when we ought to do something is also sin. You begin to see that sin is alive and well. If we would try it on our own, we would be like apostle Paul and say, "We can’t overcome sin. We cannot do what is good." What did Paul fi-nally realize as every believer does? As sin is alive and well, there is only one that helps and that is Christ the Lord. Paul writes in Timothy: "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst" (1 TIMOTHY 1:15). Imagine that! We would look at the Apostle Paul and not consider him as the worst of sinners. We might look at the Apostle Paul and hold him up and say, "What a fine example of Christianity." The Apostle Paul gave up his life that he might travel thousands of miles to spread the gospel message. Yet, when he looked at his life he realized that he was no different than anyone else. When he looked at his life, he realized that he did not deserve God’s grace anymore than anyone else. Instead, he said, "I am the worst of sinners." Paul re-alized this and we too realize that. We are the worst of sinners. If we want to compare our-selves to anyone else, we would say, "I am worse than my neighbor." Sin is alive and well. When we realize we are the worst of sinners, there is great joy in knowing that even for myself as the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus died for my sins.
We confess with Paul, I know that nothing good lives in me. Sin is alive and well, but II. sin is to be defeated.
II. SIN IS TO BE DEFEATED
When you listen to this section, it almost sounds like there is no hope at all. Paul could easily become discouraged and defeated when saying: 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. He says this is sin. Paul says: 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. Sin is alive and well. Then in our text Paul says something that might sound strange to our ears: 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. The law was reminding Paul of his sin and the sin of these believers also. Yet he says, "Even though I don’t do what is good, the law is good." How can the law be good if it is pointing out that sin is bad and that man’s actions are evil and wicked from the very beginning? The law is good, because it does just that. It makes it very clear by showing the clear distinction between right and wrong = sin is evil. The law is good so men are without excuse.
Later on Paul writes, 21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. He is reminded that even in the midst of doing something that is good, evil is still there. Paul realized he could not take a knife and cut off the evil from himself. Paul could not operate on himself to cut sin out of his heart. It is still right there working along side of the good. Paul reminds responsible believers that everything is tainted with evil. All humanity has this in common to everyone.
Paul continues: 22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law. Paul states that the new man delights in God’s law knowing that as God’s law says, ’Do this. Don’t do this.’ It gives the believer a path to follow. The inner man or new creation has direction and guidance in this life. How lost a person would be if he had no direction at all. As Paul wages war and struggles against Satan and his own sinful flesh, he comes to the end and says: 24What a wretched man I am! What a wretched man I am, the worst of sinners. He says: Who will rescue me from this body of death? He is going back to the fact that sin is alive and well, and he is going to face death because of sin.
Who is going to save him? Well, the answer as Paul knows and we know: 25Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! In all of these verses, Paul is saying, "Look what happens when I trust in myself. When I try to do what is good, it only comes out bad. When I want to do what is good, I do the evil that I do not want to do. But now where is the salvation? Where is the rescue?" Christ Jesus our Lord!
What a joy for us today. You and I learn again that sin is alive and well, but it also is to be defeated. Sin is defeated. We learn that sin is alive and well by God’s Law that tells us what is right and wrong, God’s Law still guides us in the right direction. How sad it is that many in this world make excuses by saying, "I don’t want to hear about sin, because it makes me feel bad. I don’t want to hear about God’s Law, because it is irrelevant or because it seems too hard." Only by hearing about God’s Law, only by understanding that we are wretched people, that we are the worst of sinners, can we and do we and will we appreciate God’s Gospel. We hear in Colossians: "He (God) forgave us all our sins, having 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 2:13b, 14). You can picture God’s love for us and his deliverance as he nails his one and only Son to the cross and takes away the written code--God’s commandments. God forgives our sins. That is how sin is defeated, by God’s great love for us.
Most amazing of all sin is defeated purely and solely because of God’s great love and di-vine mercy for his creation. In Ephesians, which emphasizes God’s grace, Paul teaches about this grace: "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved" (EPHESIANS 2:4,5). That is how sin is defeated. When we don’t look to ourselves for deliv-erance, when we don’t look to ourselves for self-help, but in the midst of our wretchedness and being worst of sinners, we return to the Savior. We see God’s great love for us, his mercy, and his grace that we don’t deserve. This is God’s abundant grace that we have not earned, and God’s divine grace that we cannot buy. Instead God’s grace is freely given to each and every-one of us. Sin is defeated. It begins by realizing very clearly as Paul says, "I know that nothing good lives in me."
Whether we think have high standing in life or low standing, remember David who was king over Israel. David had everything. Yet, when he saw his neighbor’s wife, he wanted that too. David committed adultery with her, and had her husband put to death, nothing good lived in him. Sin was alive and well. Nothing good lives in us. Sin is alive and well, but it is de-feated. In Psalm 51, a Psalm of David, he confesses his sin and discovers that sin is defeated because God through Christ offers his forgiveness and provides it. We defeat sin by realizing our sinfulness. Only in seeing our sinfulness we come to appreciate even more God’s free for-giveness. In Psalm 51: 9,10: "Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me" (PSALM 51:9,10). We sing these words following the Sunday sermon. We sing to the Lord, restore a steadfast spirit within us. Create in us a clean heart. Then sin is defeated. It is overcome, not by our power, but by the power of God who gives the power and ability to remain steadfast.
Yes, we live in a nation, country and world that is vastly different. Many things change from generation to generation. Still, from generation to generation this country, this nation, this world stays the same. Paul has described what we all have in common. He says that noth-ing good dwells in anyone. We make that confession on our own: I know that nothing good lives in me, because sin is alive and well in our lives and in the lives of everyone in this world. The life, the suffering and the death and the resurrection of our Savior also defeat sin. It is de-feated, and the victory is ours. We thank God.
In the resurrection chapter in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 15, toward the end of 15, Paul speaks about the resurrection of Jesus. This is important for believers. What Paul says here in Corinthians, he says in Romans--that sin is alive and well, but Christ gives us the victory. Paul writes: "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. --- (We are saddened by death because of the sting of sin. That comes from the power of God’s Law.) --- But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 CORINTHIANS 15:56,57). We sadly confess nothing good lives in me because of sin. We boldly confess we shall live eter-nally in the goodness of God because of forgiveness – sin is defeated! Amen. Timm O. Meyer
