Today, we return to our study of sanctification in Romans 6-8. In Romans 6 we learned of the believer's relationship to sin. In Romans 7 the Apostle Paul describes the Christian's relationship to the law. The Apostle wrote primarily to a group of people who didn't understand the purpose of the law. They didn't understand that they couldn't measure up the law and therefore earn God's favor. This does not mean that we should ignore the law because it delivers to the believer our sanctification.
The law was not given to us in order to solve our problem with sin. In fact, we are unable to solve our problem with sin. This is why the Lord sent us His Son, so that we could be delivered from the penalty, the power and the presence of sin. At the cross the Lord Jesus rendered the penalty of our sin null and void. It is through our sanctification that God is training us to be delivered by the power of our sin. One day, we will be delivered from the presence of sin when we are translated into heaven.
Israel, like all of us, was conflicted and in need a new heart. The law, which Israel was trying to adhere to, could not give them a new heart. Israel had become persuaded that the law, not God, had become their savior. Like Israel, when we believe we can earn God's favor, it makes us believe that we are superior to others. This superiority positions us to make those who do not fall into line with our rules based approach to life, as less than us.
In v.14 of today's passage we read, "14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin."
When we invited the Lord Jesus into our lives, many of us believed that turning away from sin meant never sinning. We thought that since we became followers of the Lord Jesus that all of a sudden we should no longer sin. But, this is totally unrealistic. And, when we fail at our attempts to not sin, we struggle with the idea that God has to be appeased into liking us again. We thought that our sin put Him out and that since we turned our backs on Him that He turned His back on us.
We did this because we did not understand the difference between justification and sanctification. We did not understand that our justification or rightness before God was a total gift. We earned not one ounce of God's favor, the Lord Jesus did it all on His cross. To think that we have to add anything to what the Lord Jesus did on the cross is to say that He was a failure at procuring our salvation. Justification is a one time deal, whereas sanctification is a daily process. God understands that we are all in process, and that we will never be perfect this side of heaven.
In essence, the struggle that the Apostle Paul writes about in this chapter is of a man trying to live out the teachings of Romans 6, trying to live free from the penalty and power of sin without the Holy Spirit. Romans 7 is a description of someone trying to live out Romans 6 without the power of God. And, when we get to Romans 8, we will understand the full teaching of what a grace saturated and motivated life looks like.
In Romans 7, the word "I" is used some 30 times without a single mention of the Holy Spirit. Add to that the amount of times that the Apostle Paul used "me," "my," or "myself," that brings us to a total of 37 times in this passage that the "self" is accentuated. And, in Romans 8, we learn of the key to the success of the believer in the arena of sanctification: the Holy Spirit who is referenced at least 20 times in Romans 8 is the key. Our sanctification is the work of God in our broken and yielded lives, and in order to get to this point we must with Paul acknowledge that we are the problem.
The Apostle used the word "unspiritual" in v.14 which literally means that our flesh still "belongs to this fallen and sin-sick world." Every single believer in Christ, no matter how far along in the sanctification process we are, struggles with sin and we are in and of ourselves unspiritual. Paul wrote here of himself, that he himself was unspiritual. In fact, he goes on to say that we were "sold as slaves to sin." Even though we have been forgiven and we are assured heaven, we will struggle with sin until we matriculate to heaven.
Here, the Apostle, was simply describing what happens when we, by our dedication and willpower and determination, try to obey God in order to gain or maintain His acceptance of us. When we do this, we are living under the Law. And Paul is telling us what to expect when we live like this. Sin deceives us into thinking that we must factor into our salvation.
In v.15-16 of today's passage we read, "15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good."
Oh, the civil war in the soul of the believer in Christ. Once we have been "born again" we want to obey God because He is in our lives and He is opening our eyes to the reality of the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden. A proper sanctification changes our motivation to obey God from "having to," to "wanting to." And, we struggle with the desire to meet our needs the way we had always met them before we became believers in Christ, in the flesh. The flesh, for all of us, is a fire hydrant that is hard to turn off, and, it will not be turned off fully until we get to heaven.
As believers in Christ, we struggle with the fact that we struggle over and over with certain reoccurring sins, and, we can't seem to get away from. This is what the Apostle Paul is describing here in these two verses. Paul is saying that he desired to do good and that agrees with the law. But the good that he wanted to do, he could not do. All believers in Christ struggle with this. This is a normal part of the process of our sanctification.
In Galatians 5:17 we read, "For the flesh wars against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. These are contrary to one another so that you cannot do the things that you would."
Since sin continues to dwell in us, nothing good apart from the Lord Jesus, via the Holy Spirit, dwells in us. This is a vital step to our deliverance from this often disappointing reality. We must have a realistic look at who we are in Christ and the fact that we are still sinners. In 1 John 1:8 we read, "If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Apart from God, we can do nothing of eternal value.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ announces that since He won the battle over sin and death, we have been free to face the reality that we still struggle with sin. This frees us to be honest about the civil war that rages within us. We are able to do this because we are totally righteous before God through Christ. The perfection of Christ has been imputed to us and we are therefore fully justified on the basis of his finished work. Nothing can separate us from God’s love which is in Christ Jesus.
Since the Lord Jesus was strong for us, we’re free to be real. Oh yeah, we desire to bring glory to the Lord, but there are times that we fail in our pursuit of this. We are unwise when we do not walk in the truth which is what renders in and through us the very wisdom of God. This process of our sanctification underscores why we not only need the Lord Jesus for our justification, we also need Him for our sanctification. And, even the failure in our lives to battle sin factors into our sanctification. You see, our failure magnifies His success and His heart towards us. This makes us love Him more, and this, is what invites us into deeper intimacy with Him.
