Click here for the Romans 7:21-25 PODCAST
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin." ~ Romans 7:21-25
Today, we conclude our study of perhaps the hardest passage in the Bible to understand. It is so hard to understand because we have a hard time believing that the grace of God is as good as it is. His grace was earned for us by the Lord Jesus Christ. It was His perfection that made it possible for us to be drenched in the favor of God. In fact, God shows believers in Christ His favor as if He were showing it to the Lord Jesus Himself. We understand God's standard of perfection, and, we wrongfully believe that we can somehow get to that standard. This, of course, is so unrealistic. God's grace meets us where we are, and it never waits for us to be where we ought to be to show up in our lives. The grace of God is not merited or earned by us in any way.
In v.21-23 of today's passage we read, "21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me."
The grace of God bottles us up to the reality that we face everyday, and that reality is: we are still fallen sinners. We have been forgiven of all of our sin, but we still wrestle with the temptations that could possibly and do sometimes lure us away from God. The grace of God reminds us that no matter how much we struggle with sin and give into it, we are acceptable through Christ. The grace of God is free and it tells us that God loves us and is committed to us no matter what.
We value God and His culture because He lives in us. When we cried out to Him for help and we invited Him in, He came to live in us for life and eternity. This is not a stretch when we think that our hearts beat because He made them to beat. Also, the breath that we breath came from Him, and, we have been breathing since.
Our inner man has been inhabited by God and this is why we delight in God's law. But, there is yet the presence of sin in our being that is at war against God and the culture He daily desires to deliver to us. Those who have more of His culture inculcated within by the Holy Spirit are often referenced as more godly than others. They are only godly because God is there making His presence know. Those who would be called by others as "worldly" are those who are being defined by this world and its culture more than God and His culture.
This battle is won in our minds which is one third of our souls. The key is to agree with God that His way is right, that is confession by the way, and then we will make the choices that are informed by His word. The Holy Spirit has the responsibility to apply the culture of God to our souls.
Some try to fight this battle against sin with the law, but trying to adhere to the law is a losing battle for the sinner. The law of God puts the magnifying glass on our sinful natures, and in doing so, it crushes us to the point of being convinced that it is only the Lord Jesus Christ that is our savior. The real power is discovered only in none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. His death on the cross was not only efficacious for our justification but also for our sanctification. If we try to fight this battle with sin with the power of the law, we will lose every time.
In v.24-25 of today's passage we read, "24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin."
This is the cry of a man who is sick and tired of this recurring losing battle with his sin. The word "wretched" means miserable or afflicted through the weight and burden of slavery. This is no surprise since back in v.14 the Apostle reminded us that we were sold to sin at the slave market. Like Paul, all of us are slaves to sin, and we cannot bear the weight and the burden of slavery for ourselves. We desperately need a savior, not only to get us into heaven but to get heaven into us now.
I find it interesting that the Apostle brings up the idea of a slave or a servant. You will remember that the first fifteen verses of this book of Romans includes the characteristics of a servant. And, you will also remember that the final five chapters of Romans is about what a servant looks like in every day life.
When we have come to the end of self and we are found crying out to God for His help, we then are at the best spot ever. When we think we can control evil in our lives by sheer determination, then we have yet to come to the end of ourselves. This is the place of desperation and when we operate out of this reality, our God will always step up to the plate.
The phrase "this body" in v.24 is quite instructive. The Apostle Paul grew up in a town called Tarsus. In that town, in that day, the sentence for a murderer was that they would take the corpse of the person who had been murdered and they would attach it to the murderer. And they would force the murderer to walk around and live with the corpse attached to him until, eventually, decay and disease set in. Then the actual murderer would die. The body of death was attached to him and he was forced to carry around the remnant of his sin. Paul seemed to have this in mind when he spoke of his old nature.
Once we have been convinced that sin isn't worth it because it is out to totally destroy us, it is then that we are ready to be the servants of the one who laid down His life for us. In the same way that as sinners we had to look outside of ourselves to the cross to be cleansed of sin, which is justification, so we must look outside of self to the Lord Jesus for the power of sanctification. The Lord Jesus is the answer. He's always the answer. In Him, we find the power to live a sanctified life.
