"Thanks Be to God" -- Romans 7:14-25

The Eighteenth in a Series of Sermons on Paul's Epistle to the Romans

According to the Apostle Paul, the normal Christian life entails an intense struggle with sin.  Although there are times of great progress in the Christian life, these momentary victories serve to point us to that glorious day when we will completely triumph over sin.  But until that day comes–at the time of our death or the Lord’s return, which ever comes first–every Christian must certainly empathize with Paul when he laments that even though he delights in the law of God, he still does the very thing he knows is wrong.  Even though he has been set free from sin, death and the condemnation of the law, Paul knows himself to be a wretched man, sold as a slave to sin. 

Beginning in Romans 5:12-21, Paul contrasts what we are “in Christ” with what we were “in Adam.”  Thus all believers have been transferred from the dominion or realm of Adam to the dominion or realm of Christ.  But even though this transfer is a reality for all Christians (not just those who supposedly live victorious Christian lives), in Romans 7:14-25 Paul tells us that because we remain in “the flesh,” we will struggle with habitual (or indwelling) sin until we die.  Having been set free by Christ from those things that once enslaved us in Adam, the struggle that each one of us now faces is to act like the free men and women that we are.  We must stop acting like the slaves to sin we once were.  This is the essence of the struggle with sin described by Paul in Romans 7:14-25.  And this struggle is one important characteristic of the normal Christian life.

As you may recall, last time we tackled the critical question to be faced by all those who encounter this passage.  Is Paul talking about his own experience in these verses, or is he describing a hypothetical Jew struggling with the conviction of sin brought about by the law, which provides no relief from sin’s guilt and power?  If Paul is indeed talking about his own experience, then the question is whether or not Paul is describing that time before his conversion (as he did in Romans 7:7-13), or his present struggle with sin, even though he be an apostle.  Since we discussed this in some detail last time, let me simply state here that in my estimation, the evidence is overwhelming that Paul is speaking of his present experience as an apostle, and that the struggle with sin depicted in this passage is that of the normal Christian life.

Having addressed the critical interpretive question regarding this identity of the “wretched man” last time, we now turn our attention to the details of this passage and we will also address some of the ramifications of the inevitable struggle with indwelling sin.

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"Sold as a Slave to Sin" -- Romans 7:14-25

The Seventeenth in a Series of Sermons on Paul's Epistle to the Romans

Romans 7:14-25 is one of the most important, but disputed passages in the New Testament.  This is because in this passage Paul describes a struggle with sin so intense that he can characterize it as follows: “when I want to do good, evil is right there with me.”  When the apostle seeks to avoid doing evil, he ends up doing it anyway.  In fact, throughout these verses, Paul speaks of sin almost as a power or force which takes hold of him, taking him prisoner (“sold as a slave to sin,” as he puts it), even though in his heart, he delights in the law of God.  In a lament of despair the apostle cries out in verse 24, “what a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?”

The news of the gravity and intensity of this struggle with sin either comes as a welcome relief to Paul’s reader–who may have a similar struggle–or as a word of warning that if this is their experience also, they need to move on to the victory over sin the apostle will describe in Romans 8.  The dispute over this text centers around a very simple but important question.  Is Paul talking about his present experience as a Christian, even that of an apostle?  Or is Paul talking about that period of his life before he came to faith in Jesus Christ.  Perhaps, Paul is not even talking about himself at all.  Perhaps Paul is describing someone who has been convicted of their sin by the Law of God, but who has not yet come to faith in Jesus Christ.  But make no mistake about it–however we interpret Romans 7, it will dramatically impact our understanding of the Christian life.

This is one of those passages in the Bible where we hit a genuine fork in the interpretive road.  As baseball player-philosopher Yogi Berra once put it, “if you come to a fork in the road, take it.”  We do not have the option of remaining undecided about this text, because how we interpret it will affect virtually every aspect of the Christian life.  From the doctrine of justification, to the doctrine of sanctification, to our expectations about the Christian life and how we choose to live it, to the kind of teaching and preaching we hear in the church, to the way in which we deal with our troubled consciences, to the way we pray, how we interpret these few verses has such dramatic consequences for our daily lives as Christians that we have no choice but to make a choice!

If Paul is talking about his present struggle with sin, even the struggle with sin as experienced by an apostle, then Romans 7:14-25 should be interpreted as speaking of the normal Christian life.  This means that Paul’s struggle to do what is right and avoid doing evil, coupled with his failure to do so as depicted throughout, is the same struggle with sin that every Christian faces on a daily basis.  If we interpret Paul in this way, the struggle with sin described by Paul is the inevitable consequence of being transferred from the domination of sin, the law and death (what we were in Adam–to use the categories Paul sets out in Romans 5:12-21) to the dominion of Christ.  As we saw in chapters 6 and 7 of Romans, although we have been set free from sin, death and the condemnation of the law because we were buried with Christ in baptism and have risen with him to newness of life, nevertheless, we still think and act like what we were in Adam, while we were under the dominion of this present evil age.  This is why the imperative (command) which Paul gives to his reader back in Romans 6:11, focuses upon the need to reckon ourselves dead to sin, but alive unto God.  It takes a fair bit of time for someone who has known only slavery, to learn to live as a freedman.

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I Would Not Have Known What Sin Was -- Romans 7:7-13

The Sixteenth in a Series of Sermons on Paul's Epistle to the Romans

When Paul tells us in Romans 6:14 that we are no longer under law but under grace, he’s referring to the fact that now that we are in Christ (and, therefore, under grace), the law no longer condemns us.  In Romans 7:1-6, Paul continues to discuss this, reminding us that apart from Christ, the law held us captive and aroused our sinful passions so that we bore fruit for death.  But now we are released from the law, because we died with Christ.  In Romans 7:7-13, Paul continues his discussion of the Christian’s relationship to the law.  The law of God is holy, and the commandments are holy, righteous, and good.  And yet that same law arouses the desire within us to sin.  Why is that?  How did that which is good become death to us?  As Paul will tell us, God gave us the law to show us that our sin is utterly sinful.  We would not know what sin was, Paul says, were it not for the commandments of God.

We are working our way though Romans chapters 6-8 and looking at Paul’s doctrine of sanctification.  Building upon the distinction he set forth in Romans 5:12-21 between the damage wrought by Adam and the superabounding grace of Jesus Christ, Paul makes the point that all those in Jesus Christ have died with Christ and will rise to newness of life.  Having set forth Christ’s death, burial and resurrection as pattern for our own sanctification, Paul began this discussion not with a list of things we should do or avoid, but by reminding us that sanctification begins with the recognition that we have died with Christ, we have been buried with Christ, and that we have been raised with Christ.  And having been reminded of this, Paul asks, “how then, can we continue to live as slaves to sin, offering ourselves as instruments of unrighteousness?”  Rather, the apostle’s point is that having been set free from sin and its condemnation, we are now free for the first time to offer ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness.

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The New Way of the Spirit -- Romans 7:1-6

The Fifteenth in a Series of Sermons on Paul's Epistle to the Romans

In Romans 6:14, Paul tells us that we are not under law but under grace. But when Paul says that we are not under law he is referring to the fact that all those in Christ are no longer condemned by the law–the so-called “second use” of the law. But the absence of the law’s condemnation does not mean in any sense that we are no longer obligated to obey the Ten Commandments. In fact, having been freed from the law’s condemnation, we are now free to obey the commandments, something we could never do while we were still slaves to sin.

We are continuing our series on the Book of Romans and we are discussing Paul’s doctrine of sanctification as set forth in Romans 6, 7 and 8. In Romans 6:1, Paul began this discussion by referring to the believer’s death to sin through union with Christ. In Romans 7, the apostle continues this discussion, now referring to the believer’s death to the law.

According to Nygren, “It is at least clear from this comparison that Paul’s thought in chapter 7 follows a course similar to that in chapter 6. The same categories are used, being simply applied to different matter.” If Romans 6 is a description of our death to sin because of our transference from domination under Adam to freedom via our union with Christ, Romans 7 describes our death to the law as an elaboration on Paul’s comment in Romans 6:14 that the Christian is no longer under law but under grace. Just as sin no longer enslaves us because we died to sin through our union with Christ, so too the law no longer condemns us because in Christ, we have died to the law’s condemnation. We now stand in a new relationship to the law.

There is a reason why Paul must address the topic of the law at this point in this epistle. As Leon Morris points out, “the place of the law in God’s scheme of things was a constant battleground in Paul’s controversies with Jewish opponents. For them the law was the greatest good, the mark of God’s kindness to his people in that he had given it to them. They studied it with the greatest of diligence, regarding even the minutest detail as important. They took it as central for any pious person as he sought to live a life of service to God. It seemed to them that Paul was rejecting this greatest of goods that God have given. Paul found himself in a difficult position. On the one hand, he could not regard the way of the law as the way of salvation, and he said this with utmost firmness. But on the other hand, it was the good gift of God and, rightly used, was of great importance.”

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You Have Been Set Free from Sin -- Romans 6:15-23

The Fourteenth in a Series of Sermons on Paul's Epistle to the Romans

One of the most important themes in Paul’s theology is union with Christ.  Through faith, all believers are united to Jesus Christ and thereby receive all of his saving benefits.  In Romans 6, Paul makes the point that because we are “in Christ,” we have been crucified with Christ, buried and entombed with him by virtue of our baptism, and raised from the dead with Christ to newness of life.  We have been set from sin’s horrible consequence (which is death), from it’s shameful guilt (which is condemnation) and its desperate tyranny (which is slavery to the flesh).  And so to establish a basis for sanctification, Paul reminds us that in Christ we have died and rise to newness of life.  This is why Paul’s discussion of sanctification begins with the exhortation for all Christians to reckon ourselves dead to sin, but alive to God (Romans 6:11).

Having established in Romans 5:12-21 that Adam is federal head of the human race under the covenant of works, and that Jesus Christ is the federal head of all those under the covenant of grace, in Romans 6:1-14, Paul addresses the subject of sanctification.  To properly understand Paul’s doctrine of sanctification, we must understand that what is said throughout Romans 6, 7, and 8, only makes sense in light of the important distinctions set out in the last half of Romans 5.  The havoc Adam’s disobedience brought upon the human race, must be seen in light of Jesus Christ’s obedience through which the many are made or reckoned as righteous.

As Paul sets forth his gospel, it becomes clear that all those freely and instantaneously justified through faith also begin the process of sanctification through that same act of faith at the time of their justification.  The point is important, so I’ll say it again:  Paul cannot conceive of someone who is justified, who is also not undergoing the process of sanctification.  Although in evangelical circles we commonly hear people speak of a two-stage Christian life–someone “accepting” Jesus as their Savior, but not yet making him Lord of their lives–such a notion would be inconceivable to Paul.  For Paul, we are either in Adam or in Christ.  If we remain in Adam, we are subject to sin, condemnation and death.  If we are in Christ, we are set from these very things because we have died and risen to newness of life.

To use one writer’s phrase, we have been transferred from the realm (dominion) of Adam to the realm or dominion of Christ through faith, something Paul will later tell us is a gift of God which arises in direct connection with the preaching of the gospel (cf. Romans 10:17).  At the time of this transfer from Adam to Christ, something definitive occurred, seen in the way in which Paul speaks of these events as completed acts (the use of the aorist tense).  It is because we are now under the dominion of Christ, we must look to the pattern of Jesus Christ’s life, death, burial and resurrection as the pattern for our own sanctification.  As Jesus was crucified, died and was buried, so are we.  And even as Jesus was raised from the dead, so too are we!  This is the lens through which we must think about our sanctification.

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Count Yourselves Dead to Sin, But Alive to God -- Romans 6:1-14

The Thirteenth in a Series of Sermons on Paul's Epistle to the Romans

Paul has made the point as clearly as he can:  God justifies the wicked through faith in Jesus Christ.  The ground (basis) of our justification is not our own works, but the merits of Jesus Christ–including his death for our sins, his one act of obedience through which the many made are made (declared) as righteous–received through faith alone.  Therefore, we are not in any sense justified because of God’s work in us.  Rather, we are justified because of God’s work for us.  But in Romans 6:1-8:39, Paul will now make the point that all those justified will also be sanctified.  Indeed, the apostle cannot conceive of someone who is freely and instantaneously justified by the merits of Christ who is not also undergoing the process of sanctification.

As we have seen in previous sermons, the literary hinge between Paul’s discussion of justification and sanctification is Romans chapter 5, especially verses 12-21.  In the last ten verses of Romans 5 Paul sets out the panorama of redemptive history in very broad terms while also identifying the two main figures in the administration of the covenants, Adam and Jesus.  Setting these two figures in contrast to one another, Adam is both the biological and the federal head of the human race.  Under the terms of the covenant of works– “do this and you shall live”–Adam is the federal representative of the entire human race.  Because of Adam’s one act of disobedience, Paul says, the entire human race is rendered guilty and comes under the curse of sin, which is death.  In Adam we all sin.  In Adam, we all die.

But Jesus Christ, the second Adam, is the head of the covenant of grace.  Through his act of obedience (which stands in marked contrast to Adam’s act of disobedience), all those whom Jesus represents are regarded as righteous.  Through the disobedience of the one man (Adam) the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of Jesus Christ, the many were made righteous.  As in Adam we were made sinners and subject to death, so in Christ we are reckoned as righteous, now set free from the tyranny of sin and death, so that in Christ we might live.  As Paul puts it, where sin abounds, grace super-abounds.

The analogy between Adam and Christ, federal or representative heads of the covenant of works and grace respectively, becomes the basis for understanding much of Paul’s discussion of sanctification.  Throughout Romans 6-8, all those in Adam, are said to be under the dominion of sin, the law and death.  But all those in Christ are said to be set from the dominion of sin and the law, and now live with Christ.  The analogy Paul sets out in Romans 5 between what Adam’s fall has brought about and what Christ’s obedience undoes, becomes the key to understanding what follows when Paul discusses sanctification.  Doug Moo puts this in eschatological terms, speaking of a transfer of realms–from Adam to Christ.  This eschatological focus also fits within the structure of so-called federal theology.  Under the realm (dominion) of Adam we are condemned, because Adam is our representative under the covenant of works.  We are justified when we are moved (transferred) by God’s grace from the realm (dominion) of Adam to the realm (dominion) of Christ under the covenant of grace.

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Through the Obedience of the One -- Romans 5:12-21

The Twelfth in a Series of Sermons on Paul's Epistle to the Romans

Earlier in Romans, Paul spoke about the gravity of human sin and its impact upon the human race.  Paul’s assessment of the human condition is bleak: “there is no one righteous, no not one.  All have turned away.”  But Paul has also spoken of the way in which ungodly sinners (including Jew and Gentile) are delivered from their sins through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  In Romans 5:12-21, Paul will deal with the source of human sin (Adam) as well as contrast Adam with that one who undid the consequences of Adam’s sin (Jesus Christ–the second Adam).

If the first eleven verses of Romans 5 were packed with important theological terms, the last ten verses of Romans 5 deal with two of the key figures in the drama of redemption–the first of the human race and the savior of the human race.  The first man, Adam, is both the biological as well as the federal head of the human race and our representative before God.  Adam served in both of these capacities during a time of probation in Eden under terms of the covenant of works.  In Genesis 3 (our Old Testament lesson) we read of how Adam’s probation turned out–not very well.  As the Puritans used to say “in Adam’s fall, sinned we all.”

But death is not the final word for God’s people.  Where sin abounds, grace super-abounds!  As the second Adam, Jesus Christ stands as the living head and federal representative of all those redeemed and justified, all those whom the father had chosen in Christ, and for whom he performs his priestly work.  Throughout Romans 5:12-21, Jesus is depicted by Paul as the second Adam, whose perfect obedience unto death (unlike the disobedience of the first Adam), effectively overturns the sentence of death which now hangs over the human race as a result of Adam’s fall into sin.

While this is a very important passage, doctrinally speaking, it is also one of the most widely interpreted.  The key point is the meaning of the phrase in verse 12, “because all sinned.”  A brief word about the structure of the passage and the subsequent history of its interpretation is necessary.  The main point of contention can be seen by looking at any modern English translation of this passage.  Verse 12 ends with a dash, indicating that Paul breaks off in mid-thought in verses 13-17 to explain what he just said.  It is not until verse 18 that Paul returns to and completes the thought broken off in mid-sentence in verse 12.  Keeping this in mind is important to understand the passage correctly. 

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Peace With God -- Romans 5:1-11

The Eleventh in a Series of Sermons on Paul's Epistle to the Romans

We’ve all seen the pictures of VE-Day–some reading this might even remember VE Day–that glorious day in May of 1945 when Hitler’s Germany unconditionally surrendered to the victorious allied armies.  The horrors of war were coming to an end.  Peace was at hand.  And did people celebrate!  In Romans 5:1-11, Paul speaks of the coming of peace, but not in the sense of the end of bloody war between combatant nations.  Paul speaks of the peace which is the result of Jesus Christ’s death upon the cross for sinners.  By turning aside the wrath of God, Jesus Christ has reconciled God to sinners and sinners to God.  Because of the cross the war between God and rebellious sinners is now blessedly over.  And this beloved is cause for joy and celebration!

Beginning in Romans 5:1, Paul changes focus a bit and begins to set out some of the blessings which come to all of those who receive the promised inheritance through faith and not through works.  This section in Romans is not only loaded with important theological information, but the entire chapter serves as a hinge of sorts, connecting Paul’s discussion of justification in Romans 3:21-4:25, with his subsequent discussion of sanctification in Romans 6:1-8:39.  As we will see, for Paul, all those who believe God’s promise to justify the ungodly are not only justified and given life, but they are also called to reckon themselves dead to sin but alive to God (Romans 6:11).  Paul cannot conceive of someone who is justified but who is not also being sanctified.  To be justified by grace through faith is to be sanctified by grace through that same faith.  These two things are inextricably linked together.

It is noteworthy that commentators disagree so widely about the main theme of this section as well as how it is connected to the preceding discussion of Abraham and justification by faith (4:25) and the following discussion of sanctification and the Christian life (6:1 ff).  The divergence of opinion about the theme of this section suggests the obvious–this section is packed with information, all of which is related to Paul’s comments about the nature of the inheritance of those justified sola fide.

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Blessed Are They -- Romans 4:1-12

The Ninth in a Series of Sermons on Paul's Epistle to the Romans

Paul has said a number of striking things about the gospel.  The gospel is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe.  Through its proclamation, both the wrath of God as well as a righteousness from God are being revealed.  Embracing the gospel through faith brings life, delivers us from God’s wrath and justifies us, that is, gives sinners a right-standing before God.  In fact, these points are so striking that some of Paul’s critics could easily argue that this gospel was Paul’s invention and amounted to a betrayal of the Judaism which Paul claimed to be upholding.  Paul must now prove that his gospel is no innovation.  Not only was this gospel revealed to him by Jesus Christ, it is the same gospel believed by Abraham, the father of all the faithful.

Given the sorts of problems faced by the Roman church, it is vital for Paul to demonstrate to the Jews in Rome that the gospel he has been preaching is no mere innovation.  As Paul has pointed out in Romans 2-3, the failure of the Jews to understand the true purpose of the law and the meaning of circumcision, does not at all mean that the Old Testament says nothing about the gospel that Paul is now preaching.  In fact, for Paul, the Old Testament anticipates, indeed points the reader ahead to that one event which marks the turning point in redemptive history–the coming of Jesus Christ to inaugurate the long-expected messianic age of salvation in which God will deliver his people–Jew and Gentile–once for all from the guilt and power of sin.  This is what God promised throughout the Old Testament, and what God has now accomplished through the person of his son.

Paul has already spoken to some of these matters earlier in the epistle.  In Romans 2:28-29, Paul made the point that the true Jew is the one who believes God’s promise to save sinners, not someone who merely hears the law and trusts that by possessing the oracles of God, he is somehow exempt from judgment.  In Romans 2, Paul has also addressed the question of Jewish superiority and the false hope on the part of those who undergo circumcision, thinking that it makes them members of the covenant and exempts them from that judgment which is coming upon the whole world. 

In believing God’s promise, the true Jew recognizes that God has acted in Jesus Christ to bring about all that he has promised.  Through faith in Christ’s blood, shed to redeem God’s people and to turn aside God’s wrath toward sinners, God justifies all of those who believe in Jesus.  Trusting in the cross of Christ is the only way for sinners who are under the curse because of their sins to receive a right-standing before God, and this trust excludes all human boasting.  Furthermore, far from eliminating the law from the life of a Christian, seeing the law in the light of the coming of Christ actually establishes proper role for the law, as both the teacher of sin and as the rule of gratitude.

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