GOD'S GREAT NEWS for MAN'S GREAT PROBLEM - Romans 1-8

My struggle in the workplace ...

As you know, I was in business before I became a pastor. The last company I worked for specialized in custom market research consulting, and it was run by two of the most unethical men I have ever met. They lied to their employees and to their customers on a daily basis. They were so cheap they wouldn't even buy coffee for people to drink at work; instead they formed a "Coffee Club" so that those who drank coffee had to pay to drink it. Furthermore, these men had the company pay the rent on their apartments, thereby understating their income. You can imagine what our conversations at coffee breaks or lunches were like: "Did you hear what they did now ... Those cheapskates!" Their characters were lacerated daily.

While I worked there, I was also studying to be a pastor. As God would have it, one of my assignments was to write a paper tracing a theme throughout the whole Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation. The theme I traced was the theme of speech, the summary statement of which I found in Prov. 18:21: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue ..." As I was writing that paper, I was deeply convicted about the enormous power our words have: power to bring life to the weak and hurting, or power to slay the strongest of men. Trace the usages of the word "tongue" through the Bible and you will see what I mean. I remember sitting there studying and glorying in the beauty and majesty of God's word regarding our speech. I have never felt a greater passion to learn to speak like Jesus spoke. I resolved to have life-giving speech, and I vowed not to gossip any more during lunches and coffee breaks. But all of that was fine and good in my study; the struggle came in the application the next day at work.

At lunch the very next day, I did real well for the first ten minutes or so: others started to talk about the owners, but I held my tongue. But then someone brought up one of my "pet peeves:" how the two owners would promise you a raise in six months, then conveniently forget all about it until you begged and pleaded at their door to honor their promise. When I heard this subject come up I gritted my teeth and locked my jaw to hold my tongue. I held it for five minutes more. Then came the two words that pushed my buttons: "Coffee Club." I lost it. I jumped right in and started ripping their character behind their back, just like everyone else. My resolution lasted all of 15 minutes!! How I struggled at that place!

This is the reality of the struggle we face every day as Christians: we may know the Ten Commandments inside and out, we may write theological papers of many pages, we may spend hours in quiet times and prayer, we may memorize Scripture until we are blue in the face ... but we will struggle with indwelling sin. The struggle is great: but the struggle is not all there is to the Christian life!!

The Law is Not the Problem: Indwelling Sin is the Problem

Last week we discovered that we are set free from the Law through our new identity in Jesus Christ, but that freedom from the Law means freedom to respect the Law. Paul proved that the Law is holy, righteous and good, worthy of our respect. The Law is not our problem: indwelling sin is our root problem. The Law reveals our sin, and sin misuses the Law to mutate into more sin, bringing about our spiritual death. Paul concluded in vs. 13 by saying, "Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful." Thus, the Law does not produce our death, indwelling sin does. The Law is not our problem, indwelling sin is.

Paul has stated all this as a principle he had seen working in his past. All the verbs in Rom. 7:7-13 point toward Paul's past. But in vs. 14-25, Paul switches to the present tense. The principle expounded theologically in vs. 13 is illustrated painfully in the present tense of Paul's Christian experience, in his moment-by-moment struggle with the residual sin indwelling him, ready to rear its ugly head. We can think about how sin produces death in vs. 13: Paul experiences it and leads us to feel how sin produces death in vs. 14-25.

The Struggle: 7:14-20

This passage is about the struggle you and I face every day as Christians. Commentators go around in many circles about whether or not Paul was a Christian when he wrote this, but I want to focus on several simple facts from this passage that prove that Paul was indeed a Christian writing this. First, Paul uses present tense verbs, to show that this struggle is part of the continuous present tense of the Christian life. Second, Paul has a love for the Law in this passage and a great desire to follow the commandments. But in Rom. 8:7, Paul says an unbeliever with his mind set on his flesh is hostile to God, not subjecting himself to the Law. Third, Paul has a keen sense of his own sin in this passage, and he wants to overcome sin in his life. This is typical of a believer, and atypical of an unbeliever. Fourth, Paul uses the phrase "no longer I" in vs. 17 and 20, meaning that a change has taken place in his life in regards to sin. Only a regenerate believer has been set free from sin in his new identity in Christ. Fifth, there is an obvious dual reality for Paul in this passage: his struggle is against his new desires as a prince identified with Jesus Christ, and the reality of sin and failure in his own life. This dual reality is true for every Christian: I am saved, but not yet sanctified; I am in Christ, but sin is still in me and still rears its ugly head; I am wanting to love God by following His commandments, but I still fall short. Finally, Paul is indeed a Christian in this passage, because there is not a Christian I know who does not struggle with sin the way Paul does in this passage. It is not only true to life, it is specifically true to the Christian life. Paul's struggle is my struggle and your struggle, if you are a Christian.

So, how does Paul describe his struggle? He describes it in a knotty text, a tale of cycles of sin repeated, so he repeats his struggle in two parallel sets of verses in this passage. The text itself is a perfect representation of the struggle: in the present tense, knotted, repeated. Just like I often find myself struggling with the same sin over and over, and the struggle knots up my stomach, and the struggle is my very present struggle. The text illustrates the struggle, not only in what it describes, but in how it describes it.

One thing to realize about this passage is that it repeats itself. This is the way sin works in our lives: putting us on a treadmill of failure, where we go around and around the same old sin issues. Verses 14-17 describe the struggle, and what Paul discovers about it, and vs. 18-20 then describe the exact same thing, re-stating his conclusion verbatim. Just like the book of Judges describes cycles of sin over and over, so Paul's struggle with indwelling sin is described as a repeated cycle. Who hasn't struggled with some of the same things over and over?

I remember a Bible study one time when a Pastor who had led a vibrant church for 34 years came for a Q & A time with us. We asked him if he still had struggles, and what he himself was working through as a very mature, godly man. I'll never forget what he said: "I find that I continue to struggle with some of the same things I have always struggled with. I keep asking myself, 'when am I finally going to get over this?'" I think that bears out the continuing cycles of this epic inner struggle!

In vs. 14, Paul begins with a statement summarizing everything he had just written in vs. 7-13. He begins the struggle by affirming what we know: "For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin." Verse 14 is a note of tremendous discord. The Law is spiritual, bearing the imprint of the mind and heart of God who is spirit. But then Paul looks at himself. He is supposed to bear the image of God, but his fallen flesh has marred him, and sin seems to hold sway over his life. Paul looks at and reads the Law, he loves it and affirms it, then he looks at himself by comparison, and he sees himself as a fallen man, a man in the flesh, sold to sin.

This is where commentators think Paul could not be a Christian when writing this. After all, Paul just affirmed in Rom. 6:18 that Christians have been freed from sin, and are now slaves of righteousness. That is theologically true about the Christian: in my position in Christ, in my new identity in Him, I have indeed been freed from sin, and am now the bond-slave of righteousness. But Paul sets forth in vs. 14-25 to illustrate the principle expounded in vs. 13, showing how it is indwelling sin that produces his death. He struggles with indwelling sin throughout the passage, and cries out from "... the body of this death" in vs. 24. It is an illustration, and as such Paul exemplifies for us how we begin to struggle in vs 14. And in vs. 14, Paul traces what happens when he forgets who he is in Christ and who Christ is in him. I did the exact same thing in sharing my struggle in the workplace: I was a Christian at the time, but I was resolving in my own strength to deal with my sin problem. And it produced spiritual death in me. I forgot the truth about who I am in Christ, and how Christ is available to me to overwhelm the sin the crushes me.

Isn't this exactly how we begin to struggle? Don't we often forget who we are as Christians? Don't we tend to forget what we know about Christ living in us, about our true identity in Him as a prince or princess in the family of God? And when we forget about who we are, we tend to focus only on ourselves, comparing ourselves against spiritual standards like the Law or the Christian heroes, and don't we often find ourselves wanting, seeming to be no more than fleshly Christians whose Christian life is one long, painful, daily struggle against sin? The beginning of Paul's struggle in vs. 14 is the beginning of every Christian's struggle: when we forget who we are in Christ and who He is in us, and we focus only on ourselves.

That leads me to the next utterly striking aspect of this passage. Look in your Bibles in vs. 14-24. Just trace how many times you see the personal pronouns "I," "me," or "my." There were so many I had a hard time counting them, but it appears that Paul uses the first person 34 times in eleven verses. The main word is "I," I," "I."

What happens in vs. 14 is what happens often in our own lives. We study something in the Bible, like biblical principles of leadership, or biblical priorities like "Seek ye first the kingdom of God ...," and then we look at our lives and see how far short we are falling. When I do this, I feel badly about myself, and focus on myself. I forget who I am in Christ and the power He is in me, and I think it's up to me to improve myself. I see my weaknesses, I agree with God about them, and I am going to try my best to start afresh and do better today. A friend of mine describes it this way: after a day of living in failure and frustration yesterday, he got up early, had a good quiet time that seemed to speak to exactly his areas of weakness, and he jumped into the shower with a tremendous spiritual surge and prayed enthusiastically, saying, "Lord, today is going to be different. I can't believe I screwed up so much yesterday, but today I am going to have a much better day. I'm going to do my best today to live in a way that honors You. Amen." Now that prayer sounds familiar and it sounds sort of right, but he's already dead in the water. His focus is on "I," "I," I." How many of us have made similar resolutions that "today will be different," only to find ourselves repeating the same old cycle of sin? When our focus is on "I," "I," I," we die, die, die.

Let's read together Paul's cycle of sin in vs. 14-17. Paul starts with that contrast, where he exalts the Law as spiritual, but he sees himself as fleshly. This moves his flesh to make a response of the most insidious form, a response of religious flesh: I CAN DO IT ... I can try harder to obey the Law ... I can resolve to defeat sin ... I can read this new self-help book and start a program of prayer and meditation that will give me victory over my sin ... I ... I ... I. This is how indwelling sin deceives us: it tricks me into grabbing hold of the right goal, but I try to get there on my own, by the old "do it yourself."

This is exactly how Satan deceived Eve in the garden: the right goal was to become like God; the wrong way to become like God was to "do it yourself," to pick the fruit and hope the serpent was right. Eve fell for it. Fortunately Jesus did not. When Satan offered Him all the kingdoms of the earth, if He would just "do it yourself" by worshipping Satan, Jesus saw the ruse for what it was. Christianity is not a "do it yourself" faith: it is a faith trusting God to do it all in and through us. In fact, Jesus did NOTHING according to the old "do it yourself." Rather, he said in John 14:10: "Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works." The difference between Eve and Jesus is the difference between the struggle and the victory.

Somehow between vs. 14 and vs. 15, Paul tried the old "do it yourself," and he failed. His fleshly "I CAN DO IT" intentions seem good, but the desires and the deeds don't match up. He is in fact a miserable failure. He is experiencing spiritual death. He says, "For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate." With the best of religious fleshly intentions, he is a sinful failure; he is left bruised and confused. After writing my paper about the tongue, I fully intended to hold my tongue at work. I had resolved to do so. My intentions were good ... for about 15 minutes. There is a tremendous sense of discord in vs. 15: the desire is right, but the deeds don't follow and we end up sinning. I bet everyone in this room can tell this same story of inner struggle. Starting from the premise "I CAN DO IT," he realized after his failure the truth that "I CANNOT DO IT." He got crushed.

But he does see a ray of hope piercing the storm clouds in vs. 16: Aha! "But if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good." There is something good about all this: in his heart, he wants and desires to do good. There is something good within him, even though he sins egregiously. And since he agrees with the Law and delights in the Law, but still the sin happens, the Law is not his problem: indwelling sin is his problem. Verses 14-16 perfectly illustrate the truth of vs. 13: the Law is not the problem, sin is.

In vs. 17, Paul arrives at his initial conclusion, based on this first round of struggle and failure in dealing with his indwelling sin problem. He concludes, "So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which indwells me." Paul in vs. 14 had forgotten who he was in Christ, but now he is starting to remember the truth about his new identity. Yes sin indwells him, but sin does not define him. It is not the true "I" doing the sin, but sin within him. Paul has diagnosed the root issue in his struggle: the conflict between the true I in Christ, who I really am, and my residual indwelling sin.

We live in an age which believes mightily in the power of correct diagnosis. We all believe that the correct diagnosis of any problem immediately puts us on the road to recovery. That may be true in diagnosing a toothache or an ear infection, but the struggle with indwelling sin is so deep a problem that having the correct diagnosis doesn't even begin to address the root issue. We need help beyond ourselves.

So did Peter the night Jesus was betrayed. Peter was zealous in his love for Christ. On the way to the Mount of Olives, he promised the Lord in Matt. 26:33, "Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away." Jesus poured the cold water of reality on his religious flesh in vs. 34: "Truly I say to you that this very night, before a cock crows, you shall deny Me three times." Then, utterly deceived in his religious flesh, Peter had the audacity to contradict Jesus in vs. 35: "Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You." But within a few minutes they arrived at Gethsemane, the place whose name in Hebrew means the "oil press." In the oil press of harsh reality, Peter was asleep at the switch. Jesus asked them to watch and pray with Him, but within minutes Peter was sleeping. Jesus came and said, "So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." How much weaker was Peter's flesh later that night, when indeed he denied the Lord three times, doing the very thing he hated!!! That is the reality of the struggle: we try by the flesh to do what is right, we make big promises to God, but in the end the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, and sin has its way with us.

But it is one thing to hear about poor Peter, and understand Peter's sin and fleshly weakness. It is far more important that we recognize our own indwelling sin. I want you to consider doing the following exercise as you read and think about this passage. Instead of the general concept Paul presents here, ask yourself what is the biggest area of sin in your life, and insert that into the text. Let's say your biggest sin is lust. So, begin with vs. 15 and consider this passage this way: "For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I wish to do, which is to stop lusting, but I am doing the very thing I hate, which is lusting continually. But if I lust when I do not wish to lust, I agree with the Law that says "Thou shalt not lust," confessing that it is good not to treat women as objects of my own selfish lust ..." and so on and so forth. Or, you may struggle with being judgmental and critical of others, so read vs. 18 and 19 this way: "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh; for the wishing to stop being so judgmental and critical is present in me, but the doing of the good, the looking to heal rather than leaping to judge, is not. For the good that I wish, to stop judging others and being critical, I do not do; but I practice the very evil, judging and criticizing, that I do not wish ..." and so forth and so on. When you read this passage with your struggle at the heart of what you are reading, this passage leaps to life before your eyes.

Paul starts out the second cycle of sin and failure in vs. 18-20 with a confident statement revealing his diagnosis of his problem, in vs. 18: "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not." He has diagnosed his problem very well: he had right intentions, just not right actions. His desires are good, his deeds just don't measure up. At this point, we would expect Paul to make headway in his struggle. But starting with what he knows and is confident about is still part of the deception of indwelling sin. Before, he had been deceived into believing "I CAN DO IT," but of course he could not do it. Now he is deceived into believing that "IF I KNOW THE PRINCIPLE, I CAN DO IT." But knowing and doing are still two different things. As Jesus stated it, the difference was between "hearing" and "doing." Anyone can expound a truth or hear a principle explained. The struggle comes in the application. That is what I learned after studying all about what the Bible says about the tongue. I knew the passages cold, but my knowledge alone did not help me at the lunch table when I couldn't hold my tongue. They say knowledge is power. But in the struggle against indwelling sin, knowledge is powerless. Knowledge alone accomplishes nothing in the Christian life.

This is what Paul finds out painfully in vs. 19: "For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish." He still struggles, sin still rears its ugly head, regardless of his correct diagnosis of the problem, regardless of what Paul knows. The struggle is terribly, terribly deep!

But again, Paul sees the same ray of hope piercing the clouds, this time in vs. 20: "But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me." His conclusion, that "I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me" is exactly the same in the Greek text of vs. 17 and vs. 20. No matter what he does in his flesh, no matter what he knows in his mind, he arrives at the same place. He has a root problem of sin, but there is some hope in that the sin does not define who he is.

That is a revolutionary discovery Paul makes. From the dawn of time, sinners were identified and defined by their sin. Arabs cut off the hand of a thief, thereby ridding themselves of the offending member and identifying that man forever as a thief. His sin defined him. In the middle ages, criminals were punished for their sin by being defined by their sin: an alcoholic was put in a cage in a town square, and the cage would have a sign marked "Drunkard" on it. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne had to wear the scarlet letter "A" so that she would be forever identified as an adulteress. Soldiers in Custer's army had one side of their heads, one half of their mustaches, and one half of their beards shaved off if they were caught stealing. As if that was not bad enough, they were then made to wear a wide board tied to their backs, with the words "I am a thief" painted in large letters on the board. French women who collaborated with the Nazis during the Vichy era had their heads shaved, so they could be identified as collaborators. But in the midst of all that human punishment and misery in sin, Paul says: YOU ARE NO LONGER DEFINED BY YOUR SIN. The true you is set free from sin!!

Thus Paul knows his identity in Christ, he knows that he is set free from sin and sin does not define him. But His real problem is in the internal struggle between his new identity and his old indwelling sin, between who Christ has made him to be and the reality that he still lives in his body as a fallen human being. This struggle will get worse before it gets better.

The Dual Reality of the Christian Life: The Struggle Intensified -- 7:21-24

This is his conclusion in vs. 21: "I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good." His identity issue is resolved, but the resolution reveals his deeper problem: he lives with a strange dual reality, an ongoing sense of internal discord. There is in him the right desire to do good, but there is the evil of sin indwelling him. Good and evil, the two opposing forces in the moral universe, are opposing each other within his own body!! He lives every day with a profound sense of cognitive dissonance. There is a tremendous struggle raging inside him. In fact, the struggled intensifies into a full scale war in vs. 22, 23.

Everything in these verses is divided into two opposing forces at war within the body of the believer. There is the Law of God with which I joyfully concur as a new man in Christ, but arrayed against that is the old law at work in the members of my body, the law of residual sin. This indwelling sin literally "wages war" against the law of my mind, which delights in and wants to follow the Law of God. My mind, knowing what is right and good, is embattled by sin which is in me, that doesn't care one bit about what is right and good, but wants to do what it wants when it wants.

The internal war rages on in vs. 23, but when the smoke clears by the end of the verse, I find myself beaten and taken to a POW camp. I am made a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. My mind cannot override sin's work in me. What I know and how well I know it cannot conquer sin; instead, sin imprisons me. What is worse, the prison is my own body, from which I cannot escape. I have met the enemy, and it lives within. I cannot escape the struggle, and I cannot win the battle. It is like a recurring nightmare, only it takes place every day and every night. I am utterly wretched. Paul had reached the bottom of the pit.

Larry Crabb reached the same point in his life several years ago. Out of his struggle he wrote his best book, Finding God. Here is his struggle that prompted the writing of that book, from the first chapter: "During the day on Sunday, March 17, I felt restless, uneasy. That night, I couldn't sleep. At midnight, I slipped out of bed, reached for my Bible, and headed for the privacy of my study. For reasons still unclear, within seconds of my sitting down the dam burst. Tears gushed from my eyes and poured down my face. I sobbed, I wailed, I heaved for perhaps twenty minutes, without one recognizable word coming from my mouth, just the groaning of a soul in wrenching pain. I felt an unspeakable sorrow beyond any I had ever known. With terrible clarity, I realized that I, along with everyone else, was out of the Garden of Eden and had no way back in.

"And then words began to come, out loud, subdued at first, then with the intensity of a scream. I cried out to the Lord, 'I cannot endure what I know to be true. Life is painful. I am selfish. Everything is intolerable. Nothing satisfies. Nothing brings relief. Nothing good is certain. There is no rest. Sorrow outweighs joy. I cannot go on without knowing you better.' Then, as suddenly as they had begun, the tears stopped. I sat quietly, aware that I was doing business with God, that my deepest being was engaged with him. He must be pleased, I thought, with my zealous longing for communion with him.

"I felt good for perhaps a minute. And then, with the impact of a battering ram, the realization hit me: 'I am preoccupied with me! I'm not even close to touching God. He's not on my mind. I am!' The tears flowed again, this time with even greater violence."

What a description of a man writhing with the inner struggle: wanting to be right and do right, but finding selfishness and insidious, "me-oriented" sin cropping up from within him at every turn. That is a wretched man!

Paul ended up in the same place in vs. 24: "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" Where is the hope for me, when my body of sin imprisons me, when my sin mutates into a thousand forms of selfishness in me, poisoning every relationship, isolating me from others, making my life a neverending struggle? Or, as I have cried out to God at similar points in my life, in utter frustration, "Lord, WHERE'S THE HELP?"

The Struggle Resolved by Christ -- I Cannot Live a Christless Christian Life: 7:25

The help can be seen in one single but startling fact arising out of this text. Look carefully at vs. 14-24. In all those eleven verses, Paul mentions himself as "I," "me," or "my" some 34 times. Now look at those eleven verses and see if there is even a single mention of Jesus Christ. There is no mention of Jesus Christ. Now look to see if there is any mention of the Holy Spirit, who brings Jesus Christ to live inside the believer. THERE IS NO MENTION IN THIS PASSAGE OF JESUS CHRIST OR HIS HOLY SPIRIT. This is the heart of the struggle: I cannot live the Christian life without Christ. It takes Christ to make a Christian, it takes Christ living through my life to make my life a genuinely Christian life.

In vs. 14, Paul forgot who he was in Christ, focused on himself, and started to try in his own flesh to do what is right and good. He tried to do his best, with wonderful intentions. He tried to emulate Christ, to imitate Christ, to be like Christ. But like Eve in the garden trying to be like God, he tried the old "do it yourself." And he died. He ended up doing exactly the opposite of what he wanted to do. If Jesus Christ as the greatest man who ever lived never even once tried the old "do it yourself," why do we in our fleshly weakness so often try to be godly and do good things on our own? Paul realized he could not do it himself, but then he thought knowing that principle would deliver him from the struggle. But in vs. 18, armed with his new knowledge, he discovered that knowledge does not translate into godliness or godly action in the Christian life, and he found himself cycling back into the same old struggle. He arrived at a clear understanding of the dual reality he lived in as a Christian, where his new identity in Christ was constantly embattled by the sin which indwelled him, but the struggle only intensified into full-scale war once he understood the dual reality. He winds up in a prison that is his own body, from which there is no escape. He carried about within him a constant battle, without hope. And all through these verses, there is no mention of Jesus Christ, not one word about the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Hope in the struggle does not dawn until vs. 24, when Paul finally looks beyond himself for the help he needs. Who will deliver me, o wretched man that I am?

But the sun rises over the horizon in the east, the light pierces through the darkness of the struggle in vs. 25: "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Jesus Christ too lives within ... He is within me as my indwelling Deliverer!!! Not only do I have a new identity in Him, I have HIM ... living inside. I am not in the war all alone, I am not going to have to focus on the struggle, I can focus on Christ. It's really not up to me, I cannot do it ... It's up to Him; He alone can do it!! It's no small wonder the first six letters in the name "Christian" are C-H-R-I-S-T. Paul has lived in a wasteland, a spiritual dead zone, trying to live a Christless Christian life. Nothing is more futile, nothing is more tragic, nothing is more utterly foolish. It takes Christ to make a Christian, Christ living within by the Holy Spirit. He must be our lives, because there is no substitute. I cannot mimic Him; sin will overwhelm me. Christ alone overwhelms sin. If I live a Christless Christian life, my life is nothing more than an endless cycle of sin and struggle. The point of my life is Christ: Christ in me, my hope of glory, Christ living through me despite the struggle. The key is in accepting the struggle with sin as reality, but not focusing on the struggle with sin. My focus is on Christ and letting Christ be my life. Simply put, it is not "I," as Paul painfully learned in vs. 14-24; it is not "I," but Christ.

Paul reaches a joyful conclusion in vs. 25: "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin." Paul concludes grandly in Greek: "Therefore then ..." In light of Christ, everything becomes clear, and even the epic struggle against sin takes on its rightful proportion. Christ fills Paul's viewpoint, and all else becomes clear. Paul's focus shifts onto Him, so suddenly he is no longer embroiled in the struggle and imprisoned within his own body. Rather, he accepts the struggle as part of the reality of his Christian life. Yes sin indwells him, but he is a new man in Christ, with his Christ within. His identity is assured because of Christ within. He says, "I myself," the true me, the real person I am inside in eternal union with my indwelling Christ, that real me serves the Law of God, but there is still the old me, there is still my flesh that tries to do its best but falls victim to the law of sin. Yes, there is the struggle. I cannot escape that reality this side of heaven. But the deeper mystery is that there is my Jesus Christ, living within me, and I can spend the rest of my days praising and thanking Him, focusing on Him, submitting all things to Him that He may live within me, regardless of the old struggle with sin. When you can focus on Christ, why spend your days in drudgery and defeat by focusing on the struggle against sin? As Paul said, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!!" Amen!

Let me close with a story. I know two women who both became Christians in their early 20s. Both of them met Jesus Christ at about the same time in their lives, and they clung to each other like sisters as they began to walk with Christ. Soon they became roommates. They had been Christians for a little over a year when it came time for New Year's resolutions. Both of them had the exact same problem they wanted to get rid of: they both smoked. One of the young women made the classic New Year's resolution that she was going to quit smoking. She joined with another woman, and they worked up a plan to phase out their smoking over the first few weeks of the year. She was all set to go, and was confident. Now the other young Christian woman didn't make any resolutions. She knew she could never quit smoking on her own. Instead, she prayed, "Lord, there's no way I can quit smoking unless You do it. Would You do this: would You work in me to quit?" That was all she said. Now within a few weeks, the woman with the New Year's resolution had given up trying to quit. Her resolution went where some of our's have gone by this third week in January: nowhere.

But the woman who had trusted in Christ alone began to undergo something strange. Suddenly in her work she was assigned a huge project to complete. It was almost impossibly large. But, if she worked night and day for about four weeks straight, the project could be completed. So, she started in on her work. Day after day went by, and she told me that often whenever she reached for a cigarette, the Lord would gently remind her to just finish the next little sub-task in front of her. Every time when she reached for a cigarette, the Lord gently redirected her: Just focus on this over here ... not just now, maybe later ... At the end of a month, the project was done, and she had quit smoking. When the Lord does it, He works, and the struggle fades into the background. Not I ... but Christ. She has never smoked since.

Conclusion: Not I ... but Christ

Let me conclude by saying this final word about the Christian life. It is always lived out in the present. It doesn't matter what happened ten years ago, ten days ago, or ten minutes ago. You may have had the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat during that time. Elijah went from the mountain of victory in I Kings 18 to the mountain of defeat in I Kings 19 in the space of a about 41 days. You may have spent your whole Christian life as a Christless life, with you doing your best and trying your hardest to act like Christ in your own flesh. This entire passage boils down to these four words: Not I ... but Christ!

SPEAKING NOTES:

INTRO: Working at MIRC ... two unethical men ... lying ... Coffee Club ... paying rent on their apartments. Imagine the talk during coffee breaks and lunches: did you hear what they did now? Those cheapskates ... While there, studying to be Pastor ... theme study on speech ... Prov. 18:21 ... study tongue. Enraptures. Vowed to stop gossipping. Fine and good in study ... problem is in application. Lunch the next day ... ten minutes ... Six month raises ... held ... Coffee Club ... gave in. 15 mins. Reality of struggle: know Ten Words, write papers, hours in QT/prayer, memorize ... but we still struggle with indwelling sin. Struggle great ... not all.

Law is Not Problem: Sin is

- Review 7:1-13, read vs. 13. Past tense ... present tense. ILLUS in vs. 14-25. FEEL death!

The Struggle: 14-20

- Struggle. Was Paul Christian? Yes. 1) Present tense verbs. 2) Love for the Law: 8:7. 3) Keen sense of sin, wanting to overcome it. 4) "No longer I" in vs. 17, 20. 5) Dual reality. 6) True to life .. Christian life.

- Describe struggle: knotty text: Present tense, knotted, repetitive.

- Passage repeats itself: 14-17, 18-20: Like Judges. ILLUS: I find that I continue to struggle with the same things I have always struggled with. I keep asking myself, 'when am I finally going to get over this?" That's the reality, even after 34 years.

- Vs. 14: Summarizing vs. 7-13, discord. Law is spiritual, he is fleshly.

- Is Paul a Christian? Freed from sin? True, but don't I often forget who I am in Christ, who Christ is in me? Beginning of struggle: when we forget who we are in Christ, focus only on ourselves.

- Look at vs. 14-24: Personal pronouns 34 times!!! Main word: I, I, I.

- How this happens to us: study something, Matt. 6:33, leadership ... then we see how short we measure up. I feel badly about myself .. forget about Christ, who I am in Him, focus only on myself. ILLUS: Ron in shower. "Lord, today is going to be different .. I screwed up ... I will have a better day. I will honor you." Dead in water. His focus: I, I, I : die, die, die.

- vs. 14: Paul's religious flesh: I CAN DO IT! I can try harder ... I can resolve to defeat it ... I can read this book, start program of prayer meditation ... I, I, I. Right goals, wrong way to get there: the old "do it yourself."

- Eve got crushed this way: Jesus did not. Eve = struggle, Jesus = victory.

- Vs. 14, 15: Somewhere here Paul tried "do it yourself," and died. He is a failure. Read vs. 15. Good intentions, bad actions: I wrote paper, then died.

- Ray of hope in vs. 16: Not I, but sin dwelling within.

- Vs. 17: First conclusion. Right diagnosis.

- Age of correct diagnosis = power. Not so ... need help beyond ourselves.

- So did Peter in garden. READ passage in terms of lust/critical spirit.

- 18-20: Second cycle: deceived into I KNOW THE PRINCIPLE, I CAN DO IT. Not!
I knew all about the tongue, couldn't hold it at the lunch table.

- Painful failure in vs. 19, like vs. 15.

- Vs. 20: Ray of hope: Not I, but sin dwelling within.

- Vs. 20: Conclusion: Same verbatim as vs. 17: Radical concept. Unlike anything in history: Arabs, Drunkard, Scarlet Letter, Custer's army, French collaborators.

- Real struggle: real I in Christ, indwelling sin. Gets worse before better.

Dual Reality: Struggle Intensified -- 7:21-24

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