The Good That I Would...

Brothers and sisters in the Lord, I shared with you a number of weeks ago when we first
began our study of Romans chapter 7 that the verses that we have read together this morning
are verses that in the history of our own religious tradition have been highly debated.
And the debate is focused on this whose experience is Paul describing.
Is he talking about himself or is he talking perhaps about some third hypothetical party?
If he's talking about himself and that certainly seems to be the context in which he speaks,
then the question is, is he describing his experience as a Christian or is he describing
his experience as outside of Jesus Christ?
Shared with you some weeks ago that how you answer that question is of critical importance.
Because if Paul is talking in this passage about his own Christian experience we may as
well say goodbye to any and all efforts at becoming more like Jesus Christ as I said some
weeks ago, if a man of the spiritual statue of the Apostle Paul can only live in defeat
and discouragement so that he cries out the good that I would, I do not, the evil that
I do not want to do is what I want to do.
If that's the best he can do, then what chance do you and I have in terms of beginning
to live a badly overcoming Christian life?
It's interesting when you study the history of interpretation of this passage.
Up until the time of St. Augustine around 300 and some of this era most of the early church
fathers were convinced that Paul was talking about his pre-conversion experience or that
this was the cry of a man who was not born again, he didn't have the Holy Spirit living
in his heart and along came St. Augustine.
St. Augustine was a tremendous spiritual giant.
Most of our theology today interestingly enough you can trace back to St. Augustine.
St. Augustine began with that same interpretation but then probably because of his own experience
and if you know anything about his life you'll know some of the struggles that he went
through.
He decided that this was the cry of the Apostle Paul after his conversion.
From that day to this there have been many many people in the Western world who have
used these words as the cry of their own heart, the good that I would I do not and the
evil that I do not want to do that is what I do.
And for many people it has become an excuse to keep on sitting.
In my own pastoral life and ministry and experience there have been many people that
as I have taught on sanctification and God's power and desire in Jesus Christ to change
your lives when the bottom line hits the appeal to Romans chapter 7 and they say almost flippantly
well if Paul couldn't do it then what's the use of even trying to pretend can I do it.
The question that we want to try to face together this morning is that really what Paul
is saying in this chapter is he really saying that the best any Christian can ever do is
to keep on struggling and being defeated with no hope for victory at all.
If that is what he is saying then how do you square that with all the other stuff that
he's been talking about in Romans chapter 6, Romans chapter 8 as we'll see later on where
he talks about the victory that we have in Jesus it's important then to understand these
verses in the context of his overall message I believe that's where a lot of people go
wrong.
I think a lot of people read these verses over they say yeah that sounds like me I can identify
with that.
I'm a Christian I have these kinds of struggles and so therefore Paul is talking about
the Christian life and this is normal and that's how it's always going to be.
We need to understand that when Paul brings up this subject he brings it up in the context
of what?
He brings it up in the context of the law.
The law you will recall is like a demanding exacting husband.
It comes to you all the time the demands tells you what you ought to be how you ought to
live but never sticks out his hand to help you and then when you fail it points out your
failures and it keeps piling on condemnation.
That's all the law can do and the problem does not lie with the law that's what makes
it so maddening it's not the law that's wrong the law is always right but the function
of the law is to bring out this sin and the wickedness that lives in my fleshly or
carnal nature.
And so anytime a man or a woman lives under the dispensation of law outside of the grace
of Jesus thinking that somehow we can do it ourselves we're going to be defeated again
and again and again because that's the purpose of the law it is to lay bare the rottenness
of my heart to drive me to Jesus who delivers me from that bad husband and gives me anyone.
And having stayed at that case theoretically in the earlier verses of Romans chapter seven
Paul now continues to personalize that struggle of a man who lives under the law and
he says when anybody lives under the law because that's how he begins Romans chapter seven
do you not know brethren that he interrupts himself and he says I'm speaking to those
who know the law.
He says anytime anybody lives under the law thinking they can do it themselves.
He says there are a number of characteristics that are going to be part and parcel of that
experience and he personalizes that experience.
If you look carefully at these verses before us this morning you will find at least four
characteristics that Paul lists of men and women who live under the law rather than being
married to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me share those with you this morning number one if you live under the law.
You continued to remain he says a slave to sin verse 14 we know that the law is spiritual
but I am carnal sold under sin the law he says is spiritual.
What he means by that is that the law reflects heaven's ring.
The law tries to put into words the way God is and the way that God wants us to live
it is a spiritual way because it can only be produced by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Paul says I am carnal that is to say I am fleshly my human nature my human personality
and my human body doesn't identify with heaven's laws it doesn't want to place God at the
center of all of its life it lives for its own appetites it lives for its own desires
it lives for its own craving the law he says is spiritual but I am carnal that's where
the problem lies the problem doesn't lie with the law it's a good law the problem lies
with me my heart my nature I am sinful and therefore he says I am sold under sin now that's
very strong language because to be sold under sin means that sin owns me controls me dominates
my life and that's one of the ways in which we can tell that Paul cannot possibly be talking
about his Christian experience I say that because in Romans chapter 6 verse 17 he's been
bragging about the fact that thanks be to God that you who are one slaves of sin have become obedient
from the heart of the standard of teaching to which you were committed and having been set free
from sin have become one slaves of righteousness remember Jesus redeemed me from sin redeem me from
the bondage of its domination Satan no longer is my master in Christ Jesus the Lord Jesus is my
master I may still fall into sin and there may be times as we'll see in a few moments when
there still rage is a battle within my heart but I'm no longer a slave to sin I am redeemed by
the blood of Jesus to be a child of God God before me as he says in Romans chapter 8 nobody can
be against me if I'm under the law I remain a slave to sin number 2 says Paul a person who lives
under the law lives in the odd dilemma of knowing what is right but not having the ability to do
at verse 16 now if I do not do what I want I agree that the law is good interesting argument
he says I agree that the law is good the law's version of what I'm doing he says I have to
agree with it I understand that what I'm doing is wrong later on in verse 22 he says I delight in
the law of God in my in most south but I see in my members and other law at war with the law of
my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members he says I delight in the
law of God in my mind I've discovered over the years there are one of the significant differences
between a person who has been raised in in a moral or a religious environment and a person who
has been raised in sort of a secular or pagan world is that the person who has been raised in a
moral environment knows the difference between right and wrong people that have gone to church or
people that have gone to Sunday school you know they have a wide variety of understanding of what
God wants what God doesn't want to don't run around with your neighbor's wife don't steal
they may not be able to live up to it but they know what in their mind unbelievers in the
other hand oftentimes don't even know that one of the things that's so disconcerting for unbelievers
when they start coming to church and they begin to hear the truth revealed is that the truth is
like a powerful search light and all of a sudden you begin to discover the things that you thought
were good and right and okay now all of a sudden they're showing to be seen that's a heavy
load to bear a person who lives under the law who lives in a religious system where we have been
shown God's way knows the difference at least broadly and superficially speaking between right
and wrong the problem is knowing the difference between right and wrong doesn't help you
do the right you've noticed that have you not the world is full of people who are very knowledgeable
the apostle Paul here in personizing this experience he says I know what is right he says I know
it all too out but he says under the law I'm only told what to do I'm not given any help in doing it
and so therefore he says I continue to live as we'll see in just a few moments with that tremendous
battle inside always losing and always being defeated he says I can will what is right
but I cannot do that it's important to understand that because we live in a world where there are
all kinds of people who think that if we can only point out to other people what they ought to do
if we can only educate them properly we can stop them from sinning
friend of mine from out east this past week dropped her daughter or two weeks ago dropped her
daughter off at loyalist was amazed to discover that the bathrooms at loyalist at least some of them
I understand are full of condom machine now that can be quite a shock when you come from your own
sheltered background so she had gone talking to some of the authorities involved about this
shared her concerns and he sort of made light of it saying that not very many people use them
anyway which I thought was a interesting commentary on the subject but the bottom line is this
if you listen to our culture and if you listen to our society then the whole emphasis is that
if only we give the right information and if only we educate people properly and warn them about
all the dangers people will do the right thing went to nonsense the world is full of people that
know what they ought to be doing but when their passions get carried away they could well what is
right but they cannot do it because through the law comes the knowledge of sin number one under
the law I'm a slave to sin number two under the law I know what it is what I want to do
but I'm not giving help to do it number three the result is that under the law
I continue to live in a constant state of inner turmoil and inner battle verse 15
I do not understand my own actions can you hear his perplexity he says I don't get it
I don't know why these things are happening I do not understand my own actions I do not do what I
want but I do the very thing I hate to the end of verse 18 I know that nothing good dwells
within me that is in my flesh I can will what is right but I cannot do it for I do not do the
good I want but the evil I do not want is what I do I do not do the good I want but the
evil I do not want is what I do let me say right away this morning there's something about that
verse that identifies with all our experience just because one is a Christian and I don't want
to leave that impression this morning just because one is a Christian doesn't mean that the
wrong going to be battles within our lives a lot of us we've never had battles until we started
to follow Jesus Paul talks about that later how the spirit lusts against the flesh but the
difference between a person who was in Christ and living in a state of grace and a person who's
just living under the law is if you look at this passage in its entirety you discover that
there is never any hope or any resolution to the battle it is a cry of hopelessness that begins
to emerge out of this man because whereas the Christian will sometimes be overcome by seeing
and will oftentimes have to struggle but lives in the faith that in the Lord Jesus he's been
delivered he's going to overcome and he's going to be more than a conqueror the person under the law
lives in a constant state of defeat and he can will what is right but he cannot do it
and here again we can tell that Paul is not talking about his Christian life and his Christian
experience because that runs contrary to his proud assertions in Romans chapter 6 verse 14 when he
says sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace Paul's whole
argument in the book of Romans is how God redeems us from the power of sin and redeems us from the
power of the law comes to live within our hearts and within our lives and begins to give us hope
yes we struggle yes we have battles and yes we often fall down but as often as we fall down
God in his grace reaches down to us cleanses us washes us forgives us and restores us and we go
from glory to glory and we live in the assurance that one day we're going to stand before the throne of
God without spot or wrinkle or blemish or any such thing totally redeem trophies of God's amazing grace
if in one's life one experiences constant turmoil constant defeat and you can never understand
or identify with victory then you need to ask yourself the question have I been to Jesus
have I given up myself righteousness have I embraced him as the Lord of my life have I experienced
the touch of his grace his forgiveness his power and his resurrection life this man a Romans chapter
seven he doesn't know any of that reality at this point because he lives under the conviction
of sin number one the law makes me slave number two the law can tell me what to do
won't help me do it number three the law will produce within my life a conflict in the turmoil
because the more I know what it is that I ought to be doing and the harder I try to do it the more I
discover in the flesh in the natural I cannot do that and number four the law will reduce me
to a withered pile of helplessness and hopelessness listen to verse 24
wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death wretched man that I am
who will deliver me from this body of death the word wretched very interesting word
literally means in the Greek a person who is exhausted by virtue of hard labor
and the picture that immediately comes to my mind is that of a slave who is driven by a cruel
and unrelenting taskmaster has no consideration for the weaknesses or the needs of the slave
piles on him job after job after job doesn't give him time to rest doesn't give him proper food
nourishment continues to lay upon him the demands threatens him with destruction if he does not obey
whips him beats him drives him
and the slave finally gets to the point where he says I can't do it anymore kill me if you want life
will never be worth living this way I haven't got what it takes to live up to the demands of that
cruel taskmaster wretched man that I am who will deliver me of this body of death
ever feel that way ever feel that your knowledge far exceeds your ability to live up to it
ever find that the things that God wants you to do and the duties that face you especially
at the start of a new school and church season are simply so big and so high you get tired even
looking at it ever feel that way and you keep a big sigh of hopelessness and despair and you just
say look other people may be able to do it I cannot do it wretched man that I am who will deliver
me from this body of death like a student at school who can't learn
they keep trying to pump information into him as fast as they pump it into him runs out the
other end so husband trying to meet the demands of his wife and discovers that no matter how hard
it is that he tries never good enough it's like a Christian who knows all the things that he
she is expected to do tries for a while to do it and just finally gives up you know why so many
people don't want to become Christians because they see all the things that they think Christians
ought to be doing and they take inventory of their own ability and they say hey who needs the hassle
I'm trying to be something I'm not I think a lot of us sometimes when we're fairly
functional in our own personality have a hard time understanding the total helplessness
and hopelessness and despair that overcomes people when they are confronted with an insistent
demand to be something which they cannot be pulses that's what the law will make out of me wretched
man that I am who will deliver me from his body of death and if that's where he stopped
it would be a pretty unhappy miserable condition but that's not where he stops
because the whole purpose of bringing me to this point of despair is not to weigh me down with
the despair but to show me that there is a way out of that despair and his name is
his name is Jesus wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death
thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord how do I escape the law how do I get into a position
that there is a new fountain of life rising up within me that will enable me not only to know
but will have God but to have increasingly the strength and the ability to step out and do it
it's to acknowledge my helplessness my wretchedness and my despair
and to understand that Jesus came into the world to seek and to save the lost
and that went by faith I'm joined to Jesus his law of the spirit of life will set me free
from the law of sin and death listen to how he goes on in Romans chapter 8 there is he says
therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for the law of the spirit of
life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death now listen to this for God
has done God has done what the law we can buy the flesh remember there's nothing wrong with the
law wrong with the law it's my flesh the law we can buy the flesh could not do sending his own
son in the likeness of sinful flesh and foreseen he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the
just requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh
but according to the spirit for those who live according to the flesh that their minds and
the things of the flesh those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of
the spirit God has done but the law we can buy the flesh could not do sending his own son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and foreseen he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the just requirement
the law might be fulfilled in us who walk according to the spirit you see why Paul's excited about
his gospel can you see why Paul was willing to lay down his life to go to all the nations of the
world and to proclaim that I'm dying message that Jesus Christ can save to the uttermost those
that call upon his name and the answer to our struggles our sense of defeat and their sense of
encouragement and and just the immensity of the task that faces us as God's people in this secular age
not to try to crank up more energy and to turn out more adrenaline and to do all of the things
that we think we need to do to stay in pop things to come to Jesus again and again
receive his forgiveness his healing his grace he put it this way you will recall
come to me all that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest
Brian gentle and lonely and hard you'll find rest for your souls for my yokes easy
my burden is light
it's my prayer that is we face the challenges of our individual and corporate lives in this next
period of time but the Lord Jesus will just enable us to draw from his strength grace upon grace
so that by the power of his grace within us we can be more than conquerors
through him that loved us the God be the glory
let us pray
sometimes Lord we are overwhelmed
by the light of your revelation by knowing all of the things that ought to be changed
and by knowing Lord all the demands that are being made upon us left and right front and center
now we'll just understand Father that you never intended us to meet these challenges in our own
strength I pray this morning that where some of us may be weary some of us may be tired of
fighting the battle against our own selves or against the world that you'll help us afresh
to be renewed in Christ and know that he loves us that he graciously washes away all our failures
that he's not going to call us to do more than what he gives us grace to do
and that Lord as we move in the grace and the strength of his grace your power will equip us
to bear fruit and to shine for his glory in a world filled with darkness and filled with despair
Lord if we've never come to Jesus never really come to Jesus help us to do that now
and help us to find in him the forgiveness and the light of life
that makes his burden light in his joke easy thank you Father for hearing us in his name we pray
it together being man.