Romans 7
Rom 7
“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Rom 7:24
The book of Romans is considered one of the most important New Testament books. It systematically lays out the key Doctrines regarding the salvation of man: original sin, actual personal sin, salvation by faith and not works, election, etc.
Rom 1:7: “The just shall live by faith,” was the cry of the Protestant Reformation.
Rom 7 is important because it deals with the nature of the Christian’s battle with personal sin. Paul talks about 2 laws (operating principles) which are working in him, each contrary to the other, such that even though he does not want to sin, he does in fact sin!
With his mind (the new nature) he serves God; with the flesh (the old nature) he serves sin.
That elicits the soul wrenching cry of verse 24: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
Note, who looks outside himself! He does not ask, “How shall I deliver myself?”
But “Who?” and then the glory of the gospel is declared in Rom 8:1: “no condemnation to those who are in Christ!” Sinners though we are, because we are joined to Christ by faith, not by works, we will not be condemned!
Jesus Christ delivers us!
Some Christians take Rom 7 to be either a hypothetical person, or Paul speaking of himself, but prior to becoming a Christian, for they say no Christian “serves sin.”
Paul does speak of his pre-conversion days, when he explains how the Law (the Ten Commandments), and particularly the Tenth Commandment, “Thou shalt not covet,” convicted him of sin. Rom 7:7-12.
But then starting with verse 13, he makes a transition, and starts talking in the present tense; verses 7-12 are past; verses 13-24 are present.
I take Rom 7 to be Paul talking about himself, first speaking of how the law convicted him of sin, and then as a born-again person, how he experiences this inner battle between the old man and a new man; both of which are present within him.
Paul HATES the fact that he sins!
“For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.” Rom 7:15
That is the mind set of the Christian: we sin, but we hate it! We are sheep; we fall into the mud, we get dirty, but we get up as quickly as possible, clean ourselves off by confession and repentance, and then continue again on the narrow road. Luther makes this point very clearly. Paul hates sin, and that fact shows he is talking about himself after being born-again; it is an evidence of new life in Christ.
The unsaved are likened to pigs who love sin, and wallow in it.
“But it is happened unto them (the false ones Peter is talking about) according to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.” 2Pe 2:22
They have no new nature in them, so they do not hate sin! There is no battle going on in the non-Christian; they have only the old, fallen, actually dead nature of Adam (which we are all born with) and that nature loves to sin.
Paul says nothing like that; in fact he says the exact opposite; he is clear that if we love to sin that is proof of being un-saved:
“And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.” Rom 3:8
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Rom 6:1-2
“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.” Rom 6:6-7
The point is all Christians sin, we all know we sin, we all hate the fact that we sin; all Christians experience Rom 7! None of us say, “I have no idea what Paul is talking about; I don’t sin!” So the problem is not what we know to be true, the problem is that we mis-understand what Paul is saying here in Rom 7 about “serving sin.” We will clarify that.
We want to look at chapter 7, and consider four (4) points:
Firstly, what does “the body of this death mean?”
It means the Old Man, the Old Nature, the Flesh, the Heart of Stone: the Fallen/Spiritually Dead Nature we received from Adam: Adam sinned and death entered into the Creation, and has passed to each of us. That is the whole point of Rom 5.
The Christian is one who has been given spiritual life by the Holy Sprit, but that life exists within a dead body ,“we have this treasure in earthen vessels” 2Co 4:7; an outward man that is decaying, while at the same time the inward man is being renewed day by day 2Co 4:16.
The above verses support the fact that Christians have an old man and a new man living within them at the same time, and are in conflict with each other.
“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” Gal 5:17
When Adam and Eve sinned, they died (God did not say “You will fall, he said you will die!”); they died spiritually and physically. God deals with the spiritual death by birthing us again, re-generation (re-generating us), generating us again, giving us life again: born-again.
The physical death, the dying of the mortal body, is not dealt with until the last day, when this mortal shall put on immortally, a non-dying body, which Paul writes about in 1Co 15.
In Rom 7:24 Paul says he is lugging around, he is burdened with, an Old Man inside a dying body! He, Paul, the true Paul, the born-again Paul lives inside a body that is dying as a result of the sin of Adam, and he hates what that dying body loves! He fights against it; it is not him!
In 1Co 9:27 he says, “I beat my body down, and bring it into subjection.”
Christian, the old man is an enemy within, and enemies must be fought against!
Secondly, what does “take out of” in Eze 11:19 and Eze 36:26, mean?
It is this phrase from Ezekiel that causes many Christian to say that Rom 7 is about a hypothetical, non-Christian.
God clearly says “I will take the stony heart out of their flesh,” so how can there be 2 natures in the Christian, the old and new; is there not a contradiction here?
The Hebrew word for “take away” is “sur” (Strong’s 5493) and the first definition is “to turn off” the idea of to diminish, to lessen effect; take away its power.
When we are birthed again by the Holy Spirit, we are given a new heart, but the old heart of stone is not actually removed, so that it no longer exists within the Christian, its controlling influence is broken.
And that is exactly what Paul says in Rom 6.
“Let not sin reign over you!” It wants to, don’t let it. It is there, but not yield.
“Neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteous unto sin!” You are tempted, don’t yield; don’t sin.
“Sin shall not have dominion over you!” It will try to dominate you, but as you fight and resist, it shall not.
The old nature has been removed from its place of prominence and authority (dominion) over us.
The sheep falls into the mud, but does not stay there.
Here it what John Gill says on 1Jn 3:9, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin,”
“… doth not commit sin; does not make it his trade and business; it is not the constant course of his life; he does not live and walk in sin, or give up himself to it; he is not without the being of it in him, or free from acts of sin in his life and conversation, but he does not so commit it as to be the servant of it, a slave unto it, or to continue in it; …”
So there is no contradiction, “take away” in Ezekiel means to end its power.
There are 2 natures within the Christian, the old man from Adam, and the new man from Christ, given by the Holy Spirit, when he births us again.
Thirdly, is there a contradiction between “serve sin” and “dead to sin”?
Paul says in Rom 7:14 “but I am carnal, sold under sin” and in verse 23 he speaks of a law in his members “bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members” and in verse 25 “but with the flesh (I serve) the law of sin.”
However, previously in Rom 6:6-7 Paul said, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.”
And in 6:10 that “we died to sin” and 6:11 “we are dead to sin” and in 6:12 “let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies.”
Is he dead to sin, such that he cannot sin, or does he serve sin?
We can make this more complicated than it is. Simply put, as believers, who are in union with Christ, joined to him by faith, when he died, we died: we died to sin, but like a dying lion, in his death throws can still kill you, so sin is still active. Sin does not control us, but we can yield to it. The un-saved have only one operating principle in them, the old nature from Adam, which they obey without conflict. Christians have 2 operating principles in them, the old nature from Adam, which has been crucified with Christ, which is dying, but is not 100% dead, so it still tries to get us to follow it by sinning; regarding this we are told “Don’t yield!” “Reckon yourself as a man dead to sin, and don’t listen or obey!” It is the new nature which we have gotten from Christ, upon our being born-again by the Holy Spirit, who is telling us that. Hence a battle ensues within us: the old nature saying “Sin!”; the new nature saying “Don’t sin!”
Notice in Rom 6 Paul does not say “sin is dead” he says “we are dead to sin” (verse 2); that is exactly what God says in Ezekiel, when he says “I will take away”; the power of sin is broken, but it is still thrashing around seeking to get us to sin. We are to “reckon ourselves dead to sin (Rom 6:11), stir up the new nature to say “Sin you are dead to me,” and to stir up our self to “not yield to sin (verse 13).”
There is no contradiction; it is a battle!
Fourthly, the consolation of Rom 8:1 “no condemnation”
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Rom 8:1
Paul is not saying that there are some in Christ who walk after the flesh, and some in Christ who walk after the spirit!
No!
Paul is saying that they who are in Christ Jesus, are ones who do not walk after the flesh, but are ones who walk after the spirit.
Christians sin, but we do not walk in sin; we do not continue to sin; we fall and get up; the sheep verses pig analogy!
“There is no condemnation to we who are in Christ!”
We sin, but our sins are not counted against us, they have been blotted out by the blood of Christ, washed away, thrown away, covered, forgotten!
100% GONE!
A true Christians hears these words and thanks God for the full and free forgiveness in Christ; a hypocrite hears those words, and says, “Great!, let me keep on sinning, God will forgive me; let me sin that grace may abound!”
Christian, our Lord Jesus pities us on account of our human condition, having to live in a dead body, with a traitor within (the old nature from Adam), struggling everyday to not sin, while everyday having to fight against the pull of that old man within, and the devil without, and the world around.
Richard Baxter said, “All sin is to please the flesh; the world is the material; the devil the mover.”
Jesus is fully aware of this; that is exactly how the devil tempted him.
Let us look unto him, and to the cloud on witnesses, who endured the same trial of their faith, and resist sin, but at the same time, praise God because there is no condemnation for we who are in Christ Jesus, when we do sin.
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Do Not Grow Weary for consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” Heb 12:1-4
26 May 2024