Devotion on Romans 7:14-25 by Pastor Kevin Skogen
We venture into the most controversial part of Paul’s letter to the Romans this morning. The debate being whether Paul is speaking in these verses as a Christian man or speaking about his life prior to being a Christian. For the sake of clarity, I am stating right up front that I am committed to this being Paul’s Christian experience, even his experience as a seasoned apostle.
I think by the time we are done you too will see quite clearly that this is not only Paul, this is you…this is me.
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.
Notice that Paul is speaking in the present tense and the verses are loaded with the pronoun, “I”. This is a man, well into his apostleship, speaking about his life as it was at that moment.
In fairness there is a way to use the Greek that sets verbs in the present but is referring to the past, but what we have here is a desperate man…a man who is talking to us Christian to Christian, no fluff, nothing held back. And immediately, if you have a self-reflective bone in your body, you are hooked…Paul like the Psalms so often, pull us in because we say, I get that…I know exactly what he is saying, I know that to be true, I feel those same things…If I didn’t know any better I would think he is talking about me!
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 is not making excuses as if to say, hey, this is not my fault, this is sins fault. Some of you might remember the old comedian Flip Wilson and his famous line when he played his character Geraldine, “Honey, the Devil made me do it.” That is not Paul here. He is being honest about the battle that rages in the Christian as he or she seeks to put sin to death. Yes, sin is a defeated foe, but it is not yet eradicated and so the battles continue and sometimes the skirmishes are quite intense.
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.
Always there is the reality of sin pressing, standing close by, tempting, inviting…even when and maybe we would say, especially when, we are seeking to do what God’s Word calls us to. We realize just how sin comes and how quickly…just one glance and there it is, just one careless word, just a few moments of defenses down, just one slight from another at us, and before we even realize it, we are where we didn’t want to be, where we had no intention of going.
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.
And in the most desperate need, the apostle shows us again where our hope lies, and it is definitely not with self. Who will deliver me, who will give me the strength to put off sin??? Jesus! And only Jesus. And notice the desperation, notice the intensity…this is not a casual call for help, this is a man with nowhere else to turn.
As many of you know, my brother-in-law, Dana’s brother who just happens to be married to my sister, is a minister in the Reformed Episcopal Church. Like all of us he has an interesting journey that landed him in a sister denomination. Eric began his ministerial life as a Nazarene. The Nazarene church believes in entire sanctification or some call it perfectionism. Put simply, they believe that in this life you can become sinless…perfectly sanctified.
Eric was speaking with a retired minister who was arguing that he hadn’t sinned in years. Eric asked the gentlemen, what about two years ago when you and I disagreed and you lied to me…remember, I confronted you about that lie. The response: That wasn’t a sin, it was an indiscretion.
If we are to maintain that we are perfect or even remotely getting close to it, we are going to have to change definitions and change them profoundly. We are going to have to tell ourselves all kinds of stories, fables really, so the façade can seem to stand.
When Dana and I would go to visit my son Seth and his family when they lived in South Carolina, we pass a church and every time we do I laugh and begin a pretend dialogue as if we are a husband and wife who used to go to that church but I, the husband, stopped going. The name of the church is the Second Chance Fellowship and my conversation is as follows.
Hey, how come your husband doesn’t come to church anymore?
Well, although he appreciated the Second Chance he received here at Second Chance Fellowship, it became clear that he needed way more than two chances…two chances simply aren’t enough for him.
Or more seriously how about this: In the recent past I have had people say to me:
I didn’t come to church on Sunday because…I would have done nothing but sit there and weep. Brothers and sisters, are you ok, with your Christian brother or sister, weeping…perhaps overwhelmed by the struggles of the Christian life, or maybe seeming defeated by the sin that just won’t go away that they can do nothing but weep?
It reminds me of a book I read some time ago where a Christian burned out, tired of the charade of his own Christian life and the church he belonged to, was visiting a church in another country. He saw a woman weeping uncontrollably and asked the minister about it and he was told:
If someone weeps in church here, it’s just business as usual. They cry as they pray for a sick relative, as they meditate on Jesus’ suffering on the cross, and as they pour out their soul to the Lord. If someone started sobbing uncontrollably during a Communion service at my church, the man quipped, people would get freaked. In New England, public displays of emotion give people the hives. What if it’s catching? Here you can bawl your eyes out or lie prostrate on the floor, and people step over you like you’re a piece of furniture. They assume you’re doing what normal people do in the presence of God. Not bad theology. (From Chasing Francis)
Or how about this one when a Christian, an admirable Christian, a Christian from whom I learn what it means to trust the Lord, says to me, “Life is crushing and I am less than I ever thought…” Do you get that? Brothers and sisters, THAT is the Christian life…THAT is what Paul is talking about as genuine…real, to the bottom, Christian thinking, and Christian living and anything or anyone that denies or ignores that, has doomed themselves to the shallows at best and to a life that isn’t even remotely Christian at worse.
I think there are many reasons why some folks struggle with this passage…why they don’t want to believe that a Christian could struggle with sin as Paul says he does…many reasons.
To be continued…
Prayer: Father, may I be strong and courageous this day to obey all that You have spoken. If you have said it in Your word then it should be my delight and joy to walk in its fullness. Forgive me for how easily I turn aside, but Father, not this day, not to the left or to the right. Your Word is a light unto my feet, give me grace to be faithful to it, in Jesus name, Amen.
Hymn: Blessed Jesus At Your Word
