The Miserable Christian Life: Romans Series #21
We need to understand that Romans chapters 6, 7, and 8 should be read together. If you just read one of those chapters and don’t not read the other two, then you will miss truths and get all messed up.
As we get into Romans 6, we have laid before us the ideal Christian life—the Christian life as it is intended to be. There is a phrase which occurs there several times: “freed from sin.” In this chapter we learned that as born-again believers we are freed from sin. Not that we cannot sin, but that now as believers the dominion of sin has been broken over us and we can choose not to sin and to obey God.
Then there are some key words that occur in Romans 6: Know, Reckon, and Yield. We are to know that we are identified with Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection. That is, we are to live our life on the basis of this truth. Then on a daily basis, we are to yield ourselves unto God, day by day, being who God wants us to be.
Even though Romans chapter 6 looks easy to achieve, sooner or later we will end up in Romans chapter 7. We will make the shocking discovery that sin is still very much a reality in our life. Although we are saved and are going to heaven when we die, and although the penalty of our sin was paid for in full at the cross of Calvary, we still do battle on a daily basis with this matter of sin.
What we have in Romans 7 is the picture of miserable Christians. They know they are saved; they know they ought to live right; they want to live right, and yet they find themselves losing the battle of the victorious Christian life every day.
In Romans 7 we read about Paul’s experience. It a picture of us trying to live the Christian life in our own strength and not succeeding. I have divided up this chapter around several themes, and I want to lay them in front of you to move from misery to victory.
I. We Have a Marital Connection (Romans 7:1–6)
The apostle Paul teaches,
“Do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the Law), that the Law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? 2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he is alive; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. 3 So then, if while her husband is alive she gives herself to another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress if she [f]gives herself to another man.
4 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in regard to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were brought to light by the Law, were at work in the parts of our body to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
Paul begins in verse 1 by stating a principle. It is the principle that the law only
has force on a person as long as that person is alive. But the moment the man dies the laws that are in effect there have no more force—the case is closed.
Then in verses 2 and 3 of Romans 7, Paul gives an illustration. He illustrates it with the laws of marriage. As you read about this marriage you will find that it is indeed an unhappy marriage. Here is a woman who is married to a very demanding husband. He has a series of expectations—all good within themselves, but she is powerless to obey them.
She finds herself in an unhappy marriage. But the law of marriage says that as long as her husband is alive she is not free to marry anybody else. In fact, Paul says if she does marry someone else, she is an adulteress because she has broken the law of marriage.
I want to fill in some details for you in Paul’s illustration. In his illustration the husband is Mr. Law, the Ten Commandments of God, God’s moral absolutes. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal. The law is the husband. You and I are the wife. We find ourselves here in an unhappy marriage with Mr. Law.
The law is very healthy. Jesus said one time about the law—heaven and earth will pass away before one jot or tittle will pass away from the law. So it seems we are bound in an unhappy marriage. Notice what Paul does. He says “Wherefore my brethren, ye [the wife] also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ.” The husband couldn’t die—the old law couldn’t die. So Paul says you died.
When did we die? We died 2,000 years ago when the body of Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary. The law has no more dominion over us. That means the old marriage to the law that dominated us no longer has force over us. He says that we should be married to another, even Jesus, who is raised from the dead.
You see, we died with Jesus 2,000 years ago, and when Jesus rose again from the dead, the Bible says that you and I were raised together with Jesus Christ. So I have a brand-new life. The old marriage has been dissolved. Now I am married to another—even to the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s a beautiful picture of what it means to be saved. Being saved is kind of like getting married.
We can serve God—not on the basis of attempting to keep up with all of these laws and not on the basis of trying to obey all of these laws in an outward fashion—but now in verse 6 he says we serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. I am married to the Lord Jesus Christ, and in that relationship is the energy and strength to live the way I ought to live.
II. We Have a Monstrous Conviction (Romans 7:7–13)
Did you see the monster in these verses the last time you read Romans 7? In Romans 7:7–13 there is a monstrous conviction which emerges. This old monster is exposed by the law. What Paul is doing here in verses 7–13 is talking about his life before he was saved. He is talking about his unsaved life.
Notice what he says in verse 7: “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law.” In other words, God’s commandments are God’s absolutes. He says, “I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died” (Romans 7:7–9).
What in the world is he talking about here? He’s talking about his unsaved days and the fact that when he heard God’s moral absolutes, when he heard God’s thou shalt nots, that the very hearing of the law and the very revealing of the law to him made him conscious of the fact that there was an old monster in his life. It was the monster of sin.
He is saying that when God’s law says thou shalt not, we become aware of the fact that inside of us is the desire to do the very thing God tells us not to do. God’s Word shows us the inwardness of sin.
He says in verse 8: “sin, taking occasion by the commandment.” Let us just imagine that Paul is looking at the Ten Commandments from an outward point of view; he is feeling good about himself. Paul read, “Thou shalt not steal.” Paul says, “I’ve never robbed a bank. I’m doing good.” Then he reads, “Thou shalt honor your father and mother.” Paul says to himself, “I’ve been good to my father and mother. I’m doing pretty good.”
He continues to go down through these commandments. Then he hits the tenth commandment. We read, “Thou shalt not covet.” The word covet there means inward desires, unlawful desires, illicit desires. That tenth commandment is different from the others in that the others on appearance are primarily outward.
But when the law says in the tenth commandment “Thou shalt not covet,” God is talking about something that goes on in the inside. When the law said to Paul “Thou shalt not have illicit desires,” it moved on the inside of Paul’s heart, and he became aware that his problem was primarily on the inside.
Have you come to learn that the battle is on the inside? Your watch quits working and you go to the watch repair shop and you say to the repairman, “Something’s wrong with these hands on my watch. They aren’t moving.” So the repairman takes your watch, barely glances at the hands, but turns it over and goes on the inside. He understands the real problem is not the hands on the outside; the real problem is the works on the inside.
When the law of God said to Paul, “Thou shalt not covet,” he came to see the inwardness of sin. In Romans 7:8, the phrase, “but sin taking occasion,” was a military term that meant to use it as a base of operations. He is saying the moment God’s law said “Thou shalt not covet,” sin on the inside began to expose itself. This commandment of God was and is a base from which to attack Paul and to show him that he was a sinner.
Paul says in verse 9, “but when the commandment came, sin revived.” It’s just like sin was a monster coiled up in his heart. The moment the law said to Paul not to do something, he became aware there were desires on the inside.
Sin revived. There’s something about being told not to do something. Have you walked by a sign that said, “Do not pick the flowers”? There’s just something inside of you that wants to pick the flowers. The very command creates the desire on the inside. Thus, Paul talks about the inwardness of sin. He says in verse 9, “sin revived, and I died.” He is saying, “I died to the good man I thought I was.”
Additionally, Paul talks about the deceitfulness of sin. He says in verse 11, “For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.” He is saying that sin is a deceiver. Sin never gives you the true picture. Sin never tells you like it is. Sin will deceive you about its pleasure. I am not going to tell you that you will not have pleasure in sin.
Yet sin wants to deceive you about its pleasures because the Bible also talks about the pleasures of sin for a season. Sin’s pleasures have a way of running out, but sin doesn’t want you to know this reality. Then sin wants to deceive you about its power. Sin doesn’t want you to know that it has tremendous power. When you take a sin, then sin has a way of taking you. All sin is addictive.
We should never be deceived about the deceitfulness of sin. Sin doesn’t want you to know there is a penalty to pay. Yet, Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death. The devil said to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, “Thou shalt not surely die.” Yet they did and we do. Sin has a way of hiding its deceitfulness.
Paul is saying that old monster is being exposed in my heart. We need to learn the inwardness of sin, the deceitfulness of sin, and the wickedness of sin.
Paul writes in verse 13, “Was then that which is good made death unto me?” He’s talking about verse 12 where he said that the law is holy and just and good. The problem is not with God’s moral absolutes. He says, “God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.”
He is saying that sin reveals just how wicked it really is in that it takes something holy and just and good and turns it into an instrument that brings evil. There is nothing wrong with the law; the problem is he broke the law. The law is fine; he just wasn’t living up to the standards of the law.
Imagine there is a beautiful, cultivated field. It’s so nice and the sun comes out on successive days. In a few days while the sun was coming out all of a sudden weeds began to come up in that beautiful field. Somebody says, “What an awful sun to bring out the weeds.” No, the sun is good. Nothing wrong with the sun. The problem was the soil; the weeds were already in the soil.
Paul says that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. You will never come to Christ until you see how terrible and awful sin is.
III. We Have a Miserable Conflict (Romans 7:14–25)
What happens in verse 14 is in the previous verses 7–13. Paul is talking about the lost man. Now, in verse 14 he’s talking about Paul, the saved man, who is leading a defeated, miserable Christian life.
Verse 14, “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” Paul was no doubt the greatest Christian who ever lived. He wrote more than half of the New Testament. Yet, he writes, “We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.” He’s not talking about when he was lost.
What is carnal? Carnal means to be dominated by the flesh. Carnal means to be a saved person and yet living a defeated Christian life. Spiritual means that you are governed by the Spirit of God. Carnal means that you are governed by your own flesh. The truth of the matter is that you never, ever get to the point where you are altogether one and not the other.
You and I would call Paul spiritual. Yet Paul, the closer he got to Jesus Christ, and the more he understood what the Christian life was all about, the more he realized how far he was from what God intended him to be. He said, “I’m carnal.” I don’t know about you, but I feel that way too when I really see where I am and where I ought to be and what God expects of me. I just have to say, “I’m carnal.”
We need to learn that there is a civil war going on in our heart. In verse 15, we read, “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.” He’s talking about the old nature and the new nature.
In verse 19, we read, “For the good that I [the new nature] would I do not: but the evil which I [the new nature] would not, that I [the old nature] do.” Do you see what’s happening? There’s a battle going on. At times, our behavior baffles us. Is this where you are? Am I making a connection?
We say, “I’m saved. I’m going to live for Jesus. I know I’m saved. I’m going to reckon it that way that I have victory in Jesus Christ. I’m going to yield myself to God for I have a new nature. I’m going to wake up in the morning and I’m going to live for Jesus today. I’m going to do what I ought to do. I’m going to read my Bible. I’m going to pray. I’m going to be a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ.” Yet, before you get out of the door you’ve lost your temper, said something unkind to your wife, or yielded to a temptation. You find yourself a walking civil war on the inside.
Paul writes in verse 17, “It’s not me but the sin that dwells in me.” He’s not taking away any personal responsibility to sin. But he is saying, “I have discovered that sin is still inside of me. There’s an unwelcome tenant inside of me and at times is dictating the terms.”
I have been forgiven of my sin. I don’t have to sin anymore, but my habit patterns are such that I find that sin is still my tendency. Sin is still dwelling in me. I have news for you. If you don’t think sin dwells in you, your spouse does. It’s a conflict.
Paul writes in verses 18–21, “For I know that in me (in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I [the old man] do that I [the new] would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.”
For example, you decide to give a large donation to your church. As you get ready to write the check, the devil says to you, “Why don’t you just come down one Sunday morning in front of everybody and give that large donation?” God is present, but evil is right there.
I’m going to go out witnessing. That’s good! That’s what you ought to do. Then on the way out you say, “I’m going to let everybody in the Sunday School class know just how many visits I made tonight.” Evil is present all the time.
In Romans 7:22, we read, “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” My new nature on the inside; I really want to do what is right. But I see another law in my members. There is something else going on inside of me. Warring against the law of my mind.
Every time I decide to do good, there is something else inside me that goes to battle and attacks and brings me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. He is saying that the law of God wants to do right. But the law of sin is still working in my heart. Every time I decide I want to do good, here comes that old law of sin and there’s a battle.
Then Paul exclaims in verse 24, “O wretched man that I am!” The word “wretched” means “to the point of exhaustion.” He is on the battlefield. He’s been fighting this battle, trying to do right and can’t do right. Trying to keep from sinning and can’t keep from sinning. He’s like a soldier slain on the battlefield. “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?” The word there meant to rescue a buddy on a battlefield. Who’s going to come and rescue me from the body of this death?
During the first century, in the Roman Empire, they had a rather gruesome approach in some locations. When a man committed murder, they would take the dead body of the victim and tie it to the murderer’s body, wrist to wrist. They would take the murderer, tied to that old dead body, and throw the body out in the sun so the decay and the gangrene of the dead body could eat into the body of the murderer. Paul is saying “O wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me? I’m tied to sin and it’s eating me alive. Who’s going to let me go? Who’s going to get me free?”
Yet here comes the crescendo in verse 25: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” He is saying, “I have found out that only Jesus can save me.” Now I’ve found out only Jesus can sanctify me. If you will lay hold of this you are on your way to victory in the Christian life. Jesus is our wisdom; Jesus is our righteousness; Jesus is our redemption. The same Jesus who can save you is the Jesus who can give you the power to live the way your ought to live.
Mr. Dan Jansen is a retired American speed skater who captivated the world by overcoming heartbreaking Olympic setbacks to win a historic gold medal in the 1,000-meter race at the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer. Jensen was one of the greatest speed skaters of all time.
There was a time when no one would have considered him as the wretched skater—the miserable skater. Here was a man who knew that God had put in him the ability to be the fastest skater in the world. Yet in the 500 meters he slipped a few times, touched the ice, and instead of a gold, silver, or bronze, came in eighth place.
For about a week people could say that Dan Jensen was a Romans 7, miserable skater. Then the world watched as he lined up for the 1,000 meter and began to skate. He made a few slips, yet he just kept on skating. When he crossed the finish line, he finished the 1,000 meters on the ice in 1 minute 12.43 seconds. A world record and a gold medal!
In a week’s time Jensen went from a Romans 7 skater to a Romans 8 skater! In a week’s time he went from Romans 7:24—O wretched man that I am—to Romans 8:25— I thank God! When he won, his wife, Robin, lifted up her face and said, “Thank You, God”
The Christian life is all about learning that we can’t do it ourselves. We need to learn that the secret to victory in the Christian life is letting Jesus have control as we skate the race of life.
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