This week, Pastor Chris shared a message on Romans 7 about the tension of being fully alive in Christ but not a perfect person. Misunderstanding this passage can lead to living in compromise and bondage, instead of the abundance and victory God has for your life. As we partner with God through the Holy Spirit, we learn to walk in a transformed life.
Romans 7:15
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
The Word clearly teaches that…
• We are not characterized by our weakness but by His strength. (Scripture here)
• The pattern of our lives should be obedience and not disobedience.
• We should never again live as sin’s captives but rather as the Lord’s redeemed.
“…the attitude is crucial. Do you flee for refuge to Romans 7, finding an easy excuse for your all-too-persistent shortcomings and allowing yourself to accept your compromised condition as the expected status quo? Or, to the contrary, do you find that subnormal condition to be completely unacceptable, determining by the grace of God to rise higher, considering yourself dead to sin and alive only to the Lord? What is your attitude in all this?” Dr. Michael Brown
Romans 6:2–3, 6-8 (ESV)
2 By no means! 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? 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
Romans 6:11–14 (ESV)
11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Romans 6:17–18 (ESV)
17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
Romans 7:13–20 (ESV)
13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 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. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Paul speaking of believers…
(1) The shift to the present tense.
(2) Unbelievers do not desire so intensely to keep God’s law (v. 21).
(3) The distinction between the “I” and the “flesh” (v. 18).
(4) The delight in God’s law (v. 22).
(5) Deliverance from the sinful body is future (v. 24; 8:10, 11, 23).
(6) The tension between good and evil in the concluding statement in 7:25.
(7) The fact that Christians are already righteous in Christ but are not yet perfected until the day of redemption.
Paul is referring to unbelievers…
(1) The structure of the passage matches the life of the unregenerate previewed in v. 5.
(2) The Holy Spirit is not mentioned in vv. 13–25 but is referred to 20 times in ch. 8.
(3) To say that Christians are “sold under sin” (7:14) and “captive to the law of sin” (v. 23) stands in tension with chs. 6 and 8, which trumpet the freedom of believers from slavery to sin.
(4) The suggestion that the present tense does not denote present time but the spiritual state of Paul when unconverted.
(5) The desire to keep God’s law reflects the mindset of the pious Jew who wanted to live a moral life.
(6) The section’s opening verse (v. 13) explains how the law brought death to Paul as an unbeliever.
Different Types of Christians?
(1) Carnal Christian
(2) Perfect Christian
(3) Transformed and Being Transformed Christian.
John 10:10 (ESV)
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
2 Corinthians 3:18 (ESV)
18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Romans 8:29 (ESV)
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…
Both positions agree that…
(1) Christians still struggle with sin (see Gal. 5:17; 1 John 1:8–9).
(2) Christians can and should grow in sanctification throughout their lives by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling within them (Rom. 8:2, 4, 9, 13–14).
Romans 7:21–25 (ESV)
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 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. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 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.
“The figure is of person chained to a corpse from which he cannot be freed, despairing of deliverance. But despair gives way to a declaration of victory, not because the struggle ceases, but because human strength is exceeded by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Jack Hayford
“If you want to believe that we will never have a struggle with sin, basing yourself on the ‘pre-conversion’ reading of Romans 7, you’ll have problems to face, both with the biblical text and with your own life. But if you use the ‘post-conversion’ reading of Romans 7 as an excuse for consistent sin in your life, you’ll find yourself facing God’s rebuke. The Word is against you!” Dr. Michael Brown
- We are victorious believers that are in a battle.
Romans 8:1–2 (ESV)
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
Galatians 5:17 (ESV)
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.
- The battle with the flesh can only be won by living in the Spirit.
1 Peter 2:16 (ESV)
16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.
Discussion Questions:
- How does the reality of our struggle with sin highlight the necessity of Jesus’ salvation?
- Pastor Chris mentioned that the Holy Spirit is not even mentioned in this section of Romans 7; what do think is the correlation between the Spirit and fighting the Flesh?
- How can Paul’s struggles with sin inform our understanding of personal shortcomings?
**Some of the discussion questions derived from Bible Hub**
Application Questions:
- This week, sit with the Lord and ask, are you partnering with Him in the sanctification process or settling into the patterns of the flesh?
- Are there ways you may be living in compromise as Pastor Chris explained? It’s never too late for repentance and coming into the fullness God has for you!
Join us for an in-person service at City Central Church in Tacoma, WA
Sundays at 9am + 11am