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

Victory in Barracks 28

This week has been a tough week for many of us. I was talking on the phone the other day with one of my brothers here, and I asked how his work was going. "This is hell week, Dorm," he said. He told me about sitting in his car on Monday morning, outside his office, with that sinking feeling that things were going to be bad when he walked in. He sat there and prayed, "Lord, I know it's going to be bad. Please give me whatever I'm going to need. Amen." Then he went in, and it was worse than he thought. By Wednesday, he said if he had known how bad the week would truly be, he would have just stayed in his car on Monday morning.

But none of us has that option in the Christian life. We can't check out, we are called in Christ to go forward, to go further up and further in, no matter what. Some days our struggle against indwelling sin, deceptively at work in our own hearts, seems to be so great a plague that we wonder how we can go on. I had a hellish Tuesday this week, so when I was talking with my friend, I understood exactly how his week had been going. But on Tuesday night, God led me to a story that deeply impacted me. He led me to read the last forty pages or so of The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom, the Christian woman who secretly housed Jews in World War II. I want to re-tell for you Corrie's account of the first night they spent in Barracks 28 at Ravensbruck, the infamous concentration camp for women.

When they went in, their noses told them they were in a filthy place: the eight toilets serving 1400 women had backed up. The bedding was soiled, rotting and rancid. They thought they were going to get individual beds: instead they saw huge piers stacked one on top of another, with roughly two feet between them. They were so close that the women in the pier could not sit up. There were endless rows and rows of tiers, with only narrow aisles between them. As Corrie and Betsie walked single file to their sleeping platform, they choked down a surging claustrophobia. They found their platform, settling down on the rotting straw, fighting nausea all the while.

Once they lay down, Corrie felt something pinch her leg. "Fleas!" she cried. "Betsie, the place is swarming with them! ... How can we live in such a place?" Betsie said, "Show us ... show us how." Her prayer was said matter of factly, as if she was simply in constant conversation, only this time it was stated audibly.

Betsie's face suddenly brightened. "Corrie! He's given us the answer! In the Bible this morning ... read it again." Corrie read from I Thess. 5. She kept reading about comforting the frightened, helping the weak, etc. Betsie asked her to go on. Corrie then read, "... Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus." Betsie cried out, "That's it Corrie! That's His answer: 'Give thanks in all circumstances!' That's what we can do. We can start right now giving thanks for every single thing about this new barracks!"

Corrie then stared around her at the dark, foul-smelling room. "Such as?" Corrie asked. "Such as being assigned here together!" Corrie bit her lip, "Oh yes, Lord Jesus." "Such as what you're holding in your hands." Corrie looked down at her Bible, which she had been miraculously allowed to smuggle through several inspection points. "Yes! Thank you dear Lord! Thank You for the women here who will meet You in these pages." Corrie said. "Yes," said Betsie. "And Thank you for the very crowding here. Since we're packed so close, that many more will hear!" Betsie looked at Corrie to agree, "Oh, all right. Thank You for the jammed, crammed, stuffed, packed, suffocating crowds," Corrie said. Betsie went on serenely, "Thank You for the fleas and ..." But this was too much for Corrie. "Betsie, there's no way even God can make me grateful for a flea." But Betsie said, "'Give thanks in all circumstances' ... it doesn't say in pleasant circumstances. Fleas are part of this place where God has put us." So the two sisters stood between the rows of bunks and thanked their God for their fleas.

When I read that again, I put the book down and thanked God for giving me that story. If our Jesus Christ can give Betsie and Corrie victory in the wretchedness of Barracks 28, He can give you and me victory in anything. There is certainly one thing above all to thank God for: Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ our Lord!!!

When the Struggle with Sin Leaves Us Wretched in Prison

That story of wretchedness in prison parallels our struggle with indwelling sin. Our struggle against indwelling attitudes of selfishness and the temptation to focus on hard, seemingly unchanging circumstances, envelopes us in misery. This misery perfectly describes where Paul found himself in Rom. 7:24. Having wrestled with his intractable problem of indwelling sin, having struggled to understand how he can have a heart and a passion to do what is right but then fail utterly at actually doing it, Paul has found that none of his good intentions or sound diagnoses of his problem have helped him at all. His selfish sin and its deceptive power over his mind has imprisoned him within his own body, from which he cannot escape. Like most of us, he is his own worst enemy. He is exhausted from focusing on himself, from over-analyzing his problem, from trying to cope with the same harsh circumstances, and from his vain attempts to figure it all out. He realizes he is a prisoner of sin. He is miserable. He has bottomed out.

But when he bottoms out, he does the only thing you can do at the lowest point: he cries out for help. Having exhausted every one of his own resources, having tried in his religious flesh to do right for God and honor Him in his actions, he tastes the sour vinegar of utter failure. He knows he's wretched, so he cries out for help in Rom. 7:24: "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?"

Paul's Identity Crisis

Paul's first phrase in vs. 24 intrigues me: "Wretched man that I am!" He looks at himself as a miserable failure in godliness, he sees how much sin has ruled absolutely over him, and in the midst of all this he is a Christian. Knowing who he should be, but agonizing over who he appears to be, he finds himself to be a wretch.

What a contrast from the first verse of the book!!! Remember when we first studied Romans together, we looked only at verse one, Paul's introduction of himself. It is a most profound and confident statement made by a man boldly asserting his identity in Christ: "Paul, bond-slave of Christ Jesus, a called apostle, set apart for the gospel of God." Every one of the three parts of the introduction link Paul inextricably to Jesus Christ: Paul is the bond-slave of Jesus Christ, he is called an apostle by Jesus Christ, and his great news from God is all about Jesus Christ. Paul starts this book as a man who knows his identity in Christ cold.

Paul then explores his ironclad eternal bond with Jesus Christ through the three powerful images put forth in Romans chapters six and seven: he is identified with Christ by God through the baptism of the Holy Spirit; he has chosen to identify himself with Jesus Christ by making a lifelong choice to be a bond-slave of Christ; he is identified with Christ by marriage, having been united with Him both in His death and His resurrection. Every Christian is absolutely identified with Jesus Christ. We derive our name as Christians from our Christ. We are in Him and He is in us. Jesus Christ is my life. He defines who I am. Paul has bent over backwards to prove that to us in Romans chapters six and seven.

But ... what happens when we do not behave according to who we are? What happens when there is that terrible inner twang of dissonance when we as Christians identified with Christ act like total jerks? What happens when we set out with the best of intentions to impact our world as those who are different, but we end up acting just like everybody else and our precious witness is compromised? What about our identity then? Who are we really, if sin is such a daily part of our lives and if sin seems to dominate us? Who am I really?

Paul struggled with exactly this identity crisis in Rom. 7:14-24. Paul expounded his love for the Law in vs. 14, but found himself wanting by comparison. His own sin still at work in him made him forget who he was in Christ, so in Rom. 7:14 he stated that "I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin." This is a deadly error on many fronts: he no longer allows Christ to define who he is, but he allows his struggle against sin to define him. He no longer focuses his gaze on his Christ, he focuses his gaze on his navel. And he finds himself to be fleshly, hypocritical, squirming under the iron thumb of sin. That's what it feels like to him, and he explains his own excruciating pain throughout these verses, until he calls himself a wretch in vs. 24. His identity crisis is acute at this point: the man who boldly introduced himself as a bond-slave of Christ Jesus, an apostle called by Christ Jesus, and a man entrusted with the priceless great news about Christ Jesus ... now says of himself, "Wretched man that I am ..." Truly sin has worked its black magic on Paul. It has deceived him utterly regarding his true identity in Christ, making him think that he is nothing more than a sick wretch.

Truly, truly, the most heinous deception of sin is when it goads us to forget the majesty of Christ in us, and our royal identity in Him. If indwelling sin can convince us that we are still only sinners, that our struggle against sin is the defining reality of our Christian life, then we will remain forever under the power of sin. Imagine it: Paul the apostle of the heart set free, a man whose identity in Christ has rendered him a prince among men, sits in a prison of his own making, with the iron door flung wide open, with the chains unlocked, absolutely free to leave ... yet he sits in prison, proclaiming himself a prisoner in vs. 23 and a wretch in vs. 24.

Oh how often sin deceives us into believing we too are prisoners and wretches, when we are free sons of the Great King, when we are princes and princesses indeed in the royal family of God!

Whenever I am with Christians, I sit and marvel at the high company I am with: kings and queens under wraps. I thrill at the thought of the revelation of the sons and daughters of God, unveiled in the royal splendor of their eternal identity in Christ. And yet far too often I find us forgetting who God says we are in Christ, forgetting His majesty within us, and we find ourselves being noble in Christ but behaving like whining children when circumstances don't go our way.

George Macdonald understood this dynamic perfectly in his enchanting introduction to the story The Princess and the Goblin. Here it is:

The Princess and the Goblin
Chapter One
Why the Princess Has a Story About Her

There was once a little princess who --

'But, Mr. Author, why do you always write about princesses?'
'Because every little girl is a princess.'
'You will make them vain if you tell them that.'
'Not if they understand what I mean.'
'Then what do you mean?'
'What do you mean by a princess?'
'The daughter of a king.'
'Very well, then every little girl is a princess, and there would be no need to say anything about it, except that she is always in danger of forgetting her rank, and behaving as if she had grown out of the mud. I have seen little princesses behave like the children of thieves and lying beggars, and that is why they need to be told they are princesses. And that is why, when I tell a story of this kind, I like to tell it about a princess. Then I can say better what I mean, because I can then give her every beautiful thing I want her to have.'
'Please go on.'

There was once a little princess whose father was king over a great country full of mountains and valleys..." Yes, every woman in this room who knows Jesus Christ is a princess, the daughter of a Great King, a King over a great country full of mountains and valleys. The key is to learn to act like a princess when you are living in a world full of mountains and valleys, as well as liars, beggars and thieves.

I will bet that right now sin is at work in you to doubt the truth of your identity in Christ. Right now you may be doubting what I am saying, doubting that it could be so true and so good. Sin would say it sounds too good to be true. But beware: that doubt is the hissing voice of indwelling sin that wants to deceive you into believing you are in prison when in reality you are in Christ, free from sin, free from the law, free indeed. This is God's great news, and it is true. Do not be deceived.

I have a good friend who tells a cautionary tale about seven years he spent in desperate darkness because he forgot who he was in Christ. He was getting his PhD in physics from Stanford when he left to be a research scientist at Stanford Research Institute. While there, he got heavily involved in the drug culture, and tried on various eastern religions to see how they fit. Finally, he came very dramatically to Jesus Christ, choosing to be identified with Him. My friend then became heavily involved in his church, and he began writing his testimony, sharing his faith, and speaking with many audiences. He got involved in the leadership of the high school youth group at his church, but then he seemed to forget who he was. His identity crisis, as is often the case, led to a sexual identity crisis, and he started to become sexually involved with several teenage boys in the group. The pastor of the church quickly called him into account, but this man's identity crisis had become so deep that he did not repent. The pastor then wrote him a letter, which did not solicit a response. They confronted him in twos and threes, and exercised public church discipline. Still he did not repent. He had forgotten who Christ was in him, he had forgotten who he was in Christ, and he behaved shamefully.

For seven years, he lived in terrible darkness, getting back into drugs, embroiling himself in a lifestyle of drinking and debauchery that was hellish. After seven years in the far country, this prodigal finally came to himself, i.e. his identity became clear to him again through repentance: Christ was still in him and he was still in Christ. So he came back to the body with a repentant heart. Several of the men of the church threw him a prodigal son party, putting a ring on his hand, and a father of one boy who had been abused stepped forward publicly at that party, gave my friend a new coat, put it on him, hugged him, and told him he forgave him. It is quite a story, and in fact this week that same man copied to me on email a marvelous letter he had written a young agnostic, sharing the great news of Jesus Christ. I printed and saved that letter as a supreme example of how to share your faith, written by a man who knows Jesus Christ in him, a man who knows who he is in Christ, and is sharing that great news.

My point is this: my friend's identity never changed throughout his sin and his seven years of darkness. Christ was still in him and he was still in Christ, a prince in the royal family of God. His problem came when he forgot who he was, and lived as though Christ was not in him and he was not in Christ. He lived in a prison with a self-imposed seven year sentence, but all the while Christ had set him free. Sin had deceived him into believing things about himself that simply were not true. It is the deception of sin that renders us prisoners when we are really princes, that makes us feel like wretches when we are destined to be winners.

This is the state Paul describes in vs. 24: "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?"

We Need Christ ... Nothing More

The terrible darkness of Paul's misery lifts when he takes his eyes off his navel, as the fog of sin's deception dissipates, freeing him to behold the face of Christ by faith. And when you are sitting in prison, feeling utterly wretched, and you see Christ by faith, you are far more thankful for Him at that moment than at any other time. That is why Paul is so ecstatic in vs. 25: "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" There is hope: Christ is alive, He is alive in me, and I am alive in Him. Paul's lights go on, and he realizes that indeed he is not dead in sin, but alive in Christ!!! He realizes that the reports of his death are greatly exaggerated, blown out of all proportion by the deception of his indwelling sin. Christ is there, always there, in him and in us, and we are alive in Him forever, no matter what.

Paul's language here is his formula for victory in the NT. At least three times I know of, he prefaces a statement of great victory with the words, "Thanks be to God ..." Here in Romans 7, his own struggle with indwelling sin transforms instantly into a great victory once he focuses on Christ: "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" When Paul contemplates the resurrection as the ultimate victory in the history of a death-racked world in I Cor. 15, he concludes with a statement of victory in vs. 57: "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Several pages later, when Paul has become so depressed and discouraged that he has despaired even of life, he exclaims again the great victory we have in Christ in II Cor. 2:14: "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ ..." I can tell you that over the past year in my life, as I have transitioned from one side of a continent to another, from one culture to another, with all the changes for me and my family, that statement of victory in II Cor. 2:14, "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ ..." has brought my Christ's victory home to my heart. His victory is my hope and stay.

Nothing is more essential than to grasp what Paul says in vs. 25. Paul was in desperate need in vs. 14-24, falling further and further down into the abyss of sin and spiritual death. Psychologists could make a detailed study of Paul in vs. 14-24, speaking of his delusional behavior, highlighting his low self-esteem. He might even have been diagnosed a schizophrenic, for the sense of the dual reality of two opposing forces at work within him. Maybe even a split personality. Doubtless the diagnosis would be grave, and the hours of therapy and analysis, as well as the books that would need to be read, would be exhaustive. Paul is in grave trouble; he needs help.

But the glorious truth in vs. 25 is simply this: what Paul needed was only one thing. Actually, only one person. He needed Christ. He didn't need a self-help book, he needed Christ. He didn't need therapy, he needed Christ. He didn't need a vacation, he needed Christ. He didn't need self-help, he needed Christ.

Paul realized this in a flash of inspiration in vs. 25, and that inspiration ignited a blaze of praise and thanksgiving! He realized he had everything he would ever need inside him right then in his indwelling Christ. All the power he would need he had in Christ inside. All the wisdom he needed he had in Christ inside. All the faith he needed he had in Christ inside. Struggling with lust as we know he did from Rom. 7:7-13, all the purity he needed he had in Christ inside. All of everything he needed he already had in Christ inside. This spawns great thanksgiving: when sin had convinced us we were terribly empty, but we find Christ to be our fulness within. As a poet once said about his life in Christ, I'm drinking from the saucer 'cause my cup is overfull.

I want us to stop and consider the laundry list of problems you have in your life. Maybe you have marital problems. Maybe you have problems communicating at home or on the job. Maybe you are getting tired, and your faith and your life feel very drab. Maybe you have broken dreams that God seems to turn a deaf ear to. Maybe you have never grieved the loss of a loved one. Maybe the demands of life are simply too many right now, and you fell like you're drowning. I want you to think very clearly about what your list of problems is right now. That is your diagnosis.

But Paul's prescription is so simple: you need Christ. Let Him be your focus, let Him be your hope, let Him do your organizing, let Him be and do in and through you. Christ is the answer to any and all our problems. This is the great news: victory's name is Jesus Christ!!

Corrie ten Boom in prison learned this time and time again. One day before Ravensbruck she was sitting in solitary confinement in a prison in Holland, when she received a letter telling her that her beloved father had died. In her abject grief, she felt she couldn't be alone. As soon as she heard footsteps outside, she cried out to the guard to open the door, that she had just had terrible news from home. The guard opened the door, a very young girl facing Corrie in her mid-50s. Corrie said, "I just discovered my father has died." The young girl looked shocked: "Your father?" Corrie then realized how old and decrepit she must look to that young girl. Corrie poured out her grief to this girl for a bit longer, the girl listening impatiently. At last the girl said, "Whatever happens, you brought it on yourself by breaking the laws!" Corrie then went back into her cell and prayed a prayer of confession: "Dear Jesus, how foolish of me to have called on human help when You are here ..."

Oh how often we do exactly the same thing! When we feel lonely, when we have a crying need, we scurry around to solicity paltry human help when all the riches of deity reside within us in Jesus Christ. He is there in everyone who has humbly asked Him in, but He is not pushy. He doesn't push Himself forward, being the model of humility. So He patiently waits while we rush around to all our friends, gathering advice that is mixed at best and worthless at worst, wasting so much time, while He silently waits long for us to speak. The tragedy is when we don't speak to Him at all, foregoing all His comfort, help, love and wisdom. How foolish to refuse Wisdom Himself living within, to seek the conflicting opinions of the unwise.

All we need is Christ, and when we see Him, we begin to see all things clearly. And when we see Him, we see ourselves aright in Him, knowing we are identified with Him. That is what Paul tells us in his stirring conclusion of vs. 25.

Knowing My Christ, Knowing Who I Am in Christ

Beholding Christ and finding Him to be sufficient for every need, finding Him to be the only answer, Paul then realizes that in Christ his identity crisis too is resolved. He concludes with that same note of confidence in vs. 25 that we heard from him in Rom. 1:1. He states decisively in vs. 25: "Therefore 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 has beheld Christ, and thus he understands himself. That is the startling fact and great news of vs. 25. One of the deepest questions a man or woman can ask is the question, "Who am I?" Paul had been asking that question and trying to figure it out in his own mind, certainly one of the most brilliant minds of all time. But even the brilliance of Paul fell short of plumbing the question of his own identity. He could not figure himself out. He was a mystery to himself, and a dark mystery because he was in agony. But when he focused on Christ, and looked to Him, he saw himself clearly. Only in the genuine light of Christ can we see ourselves for who we really are. And only in the loving light of Christ can we accept ourselves as we are, because He has accepted us without condition.

This is the genius of Paul's conclusion. Therefore then, on the one hand I MYSELF, the true me, the me in Christ, the eternal being that I truly am, the spiritual me already united in oneness with the indwelling Holy Spirit, that true me is joined with Christ forever, serving the law of God with my mind. That is who I am, both now and forever, and I can rejoice in who I truly am, thanking Christ who is with me both now and always.

And because this is who I truly am, I can accept the fact that I live inside a fallen body given over to certain decay and death. I can admit and accept the reality that sin still lives in my body and still seeks to deceive me and tempt my members to live as though Christ is not in me and I am not in Christ. That old thing, the old beast who I was, still exists, BUT IT IS NOT ME. I am in Christ and Christ is in me, and that far overshadows the ugliness that will die forever when this old body collapses.

But the deeper truth about this passage is that our identity in Christ is not in and of itself an answer to the struggles we face. The answer is Christ. Without Him, we have no identity and we are plunged into chaos. With Him, we have an identity rooted in Him, and that is a glorious thing. But the real answer to the struggle is Christ.

Larry Crabb concludes the exact same way in his book Finding God. His struggle mirrored Paul's struggle in Rom. 7:14-25, from the first chapter of the book to the last conclusion. What a remarkable thought: Crabb thought he was expounding something new in a great new book, but he was merely explaining in modern and more lengthy terms what Paul had written so concisely and brilliantly here at the end of Romans chapter seven!! Here is Crabb's opening paragraph of the last section of the book, captioned The Last Word: "God knows everything about you. He is thoroughly aware of all the personal struggles that threaten to undo you. He knows your history and your present life, all of it. And all he says to you is, 'Christ.' In previous days, God distributed bits and pieces of information, and he gave it to us in a variety of ways. But now he tells us that everything he made known earlier is more fully revealed in Christ. That is his final speech: 'Christ!' There is no more to say."

He is the final word on every struggle, our only hope for any victory.

Conclusion: Victory in Christ, Who Is Our Life

I want to return to show how truly victorious Christ can make us, even in the worst of circumstances during the greatest of struggles. Corrie and Betsie ten Boom had given thanks even for the fleas. But Corrie didn't know why. When they crawled in bed that night with their bedmates, both human and insect, the entire room was filled with the sound of quarreling and fighting. The sound of angry words in many different languages was heard, often followed by the sound of slapping and sobbing. As they listened to these ugly sounds, Betsie started to pray. "Lord Jesus, send Your peace into this room. There has been too little praying here. The very walls know it. But where You come, Lord, the spirit of strife cannot exist." The change was gradual but distinct: one by one the angry sounds let up.

Several days later, Corrie and Betsie began Bible reading and worship services at the back of the barracks after dinner, reading through the Bible under the pale light of a bare yellow bulb. Those services were like no others they had ever seen. At the meeting, some Catholics might recite the Magnificat, there might be a soft undertone of singing by some Eastern Orthodox women, there might be a hymn sung by all ... but then the precious Bible would be opened and read. Corrie or Betsie would translate into German, but then the life-giving words would be passed down the platforms into French, Polish, Russian, Czech, and Dutch. With each moment the crowd would swell, women pressing as close as possible to the light. These services were little previews of heaven.

These women who were closely guarded from 4:30 AM roll call throughout the entire day, were mysteriously let alone at night to read the Bible and conduct worship services in peace. The guards never rushed in to break up those priceless meetings. All the women marveled, until one afternoon they learned the answer to the mystery. The supervisor had been called to settle a dispute among some knitters who worked each day in the barracks. But the supervisor and guards stopped at the door and wouldn't come in. "That place is crawling with fleas!," the supervisor said. Our Christ had deployed an army of fleas to protect the ranks of those worshiping Him and coming to know Him. That is why He had led them to pray a prayer of thanks for the fleas. Sometimes He sends angels, and sometimes He commissions fleas. His victory is remarkable, quizzical, and thoroughly wonderful!!

I read the rest of that story, with my heart full of renewed hope in the certain victory of our Christ inside us. Imagine it: a woman in a German concentration camp describing part of that experience as "little previews of heaven." If He can bring victory into that kind of darkness, He can make us victorious in whatever darkness we face today.

And He alone can do this. I have read two Jewish memoirs of concentration camp life by Elie Wiesel, once in the book entitled Night and most recently in his autobiography entitled Memoirs: All Rivers Run to the Sea. Both books are filled with eloquently told tales of opportunities lost, hatred and cruelty beyond imagining, and incommunicable suffering. But both books are filled with a bitterness, hatred and self-righteous victimization that made me every bit as sad as the tales from the camps.

Comparing those two books with The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom is a powerful testimony to the victorious life of Jesus Christ. The educated Jew with all his culture and brilliance and deep understanding of suffering is dumbfounded before the horror of the Holocaust. He embarks on an endless search for words to describe his agony. But the Christian found Christ more alive in that darkness than she had ever imagined. The tomb couldn't contain Him, and the concentration camp couldn't constrain Him. He is alive. He is our lives. And He will have the victory. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory. Thanks be to God who always leads us in His triumph in Christ Jesus. THANKS BE TO GOD FOR JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD! Amen!

SPEAKING NOTES:

INTRO: Tough week for many of us. Phone: "This is hell week, Dorm," he said. Sitting in his car on Monday morning, praying ... By Wednesday, he would've stayed. Not an option. Plague of indwelling sin: how can we go on? Hellish Tuesday. Tuesday night: The Hiding Place. Barracks 28 at Ravensbruck

- Describe opening scene: 8 for 1400, rancid; piers to sleep on. Calustrophobia, nausea. Legs pinched: fleas!! How can we live in such a place? "Show us ... show us how." Conversational prayer. The answer: I Thess. 5: Give thanks in all circumstances. Such as? Assigned together; Bible; very crowding ... jammed, crammed, stuffed packed, suffocating crowds. Betsie: Thank You for the fleas ... not even God can make me thankful for a flea!" ALL circumstances: not just pleasant. So they gave thanks for fleas. If JC can bring victory in Barracks 28, He can bring it anywhere.

There is certainly one thing above all to thank God for: Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ our Lord!!!

When the Struggle with Sin Leaves Us Wretched in Prison

- That story of wretchedness in prison parallels our struggle with indwelling sin. Describe Paul's bottoming out in vs. 24 after struggle with indwelling sin.

- Only thing to do: he cries out for help. Read vs. 24.

Paul's Identity Crisis

- Paul's first phrase in vs. 24 intrigues me: "Wretched man that I am!" Knowing who he should be, but agonizing over who he appears to be, he finds himself to be a wretch.
- What a contrast from the first verse of the book!!! "Paul, bond-slave of Christ Jesus, a called apostle, set apart for the gospel of God."

- Paul explores his eternal bond with Jesus Christ through the three powerful images put forth in Romans 6 & 7: Baptism, Bond-slavery, Marriage.

- But ... what happens when we do not behave according to who we are? What happens when there is that terrible inner twang of dissonance when we as Christians identified with Christ act like total jerks? Who am I really?

- Paul struggled with exactly this identity crisis in Rom. 7:14-24. His identity crisis is acute at this point: the man who boldly introduced himself as a bond-slave of Christ Jesus, an apostle called by Christ Jesus, and a man entrusted with the priceless great news about Christ Jesus ... now says of himself, "Wretched man that I am ..." Truly sin has worked its black magic on Paul. It has deceived him utterly regarding his true identity in Christ.

- Truly, truly, the most heinous deception of sin is when it goads us to forget the majesty of Christ in us, and our royal identity in Him. If indwelling sin can convince us that we are still only sinners, that our struggle against sin is the defining reality of our Christian life, then we will remain forever under the power of sin. Imagine it: Paul the apostle of the heart set free, a man whose identity in Christ has rendered him a prince among men, sits in a prison of his own making, with the iron door flung wide open, with the chains unlocked, absolutely free to leave ... yet he sits in prison, proclaiming himself a prisoner in vs. 23 and a wretch in vs. 24.

- Oh how often sin deceives us into believing we too are prisoners and wretches, when we are free sons of the Great King, when we are princes and princesses indeed in the royal family of God!!! Whenever I am with Christians, I sit and marvel at the high company I am with: kings and queens under wraps. I thrill at the thought of the revelation of the sons and daughters of God, unveiled in the royal splendor of their eternal identity in Christ. And yet far too often I find us forgetting who God says we are in Christ, forgetting His majesty within us, and we find ourselves being noble in Christ but behaving like whining children when circumstances don't go our way.
- George Macdonald understood this dynamic perfectly in his enchanting introduction to the story

The Princess and the Goblin.
Chapter One: Why the Princess Has a Story About Her
There was once a little princess who --
'But, Mr. Author, why do you always write about princesses?'
'Because every little girl is a princess.'
'You will make them vain if you tell them that.'
'Not if they understand what I mean.'
'Then what do you mean?'
'What do you mean by a princess?'
'The daughter of a king.'
'Very well, then every little girl is a princess, and there would be no need to say anything about it, except that she is always in danger of forgetting her rank, and behaving as if she had grown out of the mud. I have seen little princesses behave like the children of thieves and lying beggars, and that is why they need to be told they are princesses. And that is why, when I tell a story of this kind, I like to tell it about a princess. Then I can say better what I mean, because I can then give her every beautiful thing I want her to have.'
'Please go on.'

- There was once a little princess whose father was king over a great country full of mountains and valleys..." Yes, every woman in this room who knows Jesus Christ is a princess, the daughter of a Great King, a King over a great country full of mountains and valleys. The key is to learn to act like a princess when you are living in a world full of mountains and valleys, as well as liars, beggars and thieves.

- I will bet that right now sin is at work in you to doubt the truth of your identity in Christ. Right now you may be doubting what I am saying, doubting that it could be so true and so good. Sin would say it sounds too good to be true. But beware.

- ILLUS: LAMBERT. Comes to Christ ... gets involved ... identity crisis ... sexual identity crisis. SIN: Still he did not repent. He had forgotten who Christ was in him, he had forgotten who he was in Christ, and he behaved shamefully. For seven years, he lived in terrible darkness, getting back into drugs, embroiling himself in a lifestyle of drinking and debauchery that was hellish. After seven years in the far country, this prodigal finally came to himself, i.e. his identity became clear to him again through repentance: Christ was still in him and he was still in Christ. So he came back to the body with a repentant heart. Prodigal son party ... Got email from him this week.

- My point is this: my friend's identity never changed throughout his sin and his seven years of darkness. Christ was still in him and he was still in Christ, a prince in the royal family of God. His problem came when he forgot who he was, and lived as though Christ was not in him and he was not in Christ. He lived in a prison with a self-imposed seven year sentence, but all the while Christ had set him free. Sin had deceived him into believing things about himself that simply were not true. It is the deception of sin that renders us prisoners when we are really princes, that makes us feel like wretches when we are destined to be winners.

- This is the state Paul describes in vs. 24: "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?"

We Need Christ ... Nothing More
- The terrible darkness of Paul's misery lifts when he takes his eyes off his navel, as the fog of sin's deception dissipates, freeing him to behold the face of Christ by faith. And when you are sitting in prison, feeling utterly wretched, and you see Christ by faith, you are far more thankful for Him at that moment than at any other time. That is why Paul is so ecstatic in vs. 25: "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" There is hope: Christ is alive, He is alive in me, and I am alive in Him!He realizes that the reports of his death are greatly exaggerated, blown out of all proportion by the deception of his indwelling sin.

- Paul's language here is his FORMULA FOR VICTORY in the NT. Rom. 7:25, I Cor. 15:57, II Cor. 2:14. How 2:14 has ministered to me during this season.

- Nothing is more essential than to grasp what Paul says in vs. 25. Paul was in desperate need in vs. 14-24, falling further and further down into the abyss of sin and spiritual death. Psychologists could make a detailed study of Paul in vs. 14-24.

- But the glorious truth in vs. 25 is simple: Paul needed only one thing. Actually, only one person. He needed Christ. He didn't need a self-help book, he needed Christ. He didn't need therapy, he needed Christ. He didn't need a vacation, he needed Christ. He didn't need self-help, he needed Christ.

- Paul realized this in a flash of inspiration in vs. 25, and that inspiration ignited a blaze of praise and thanksgiving! He realized he had everything he would ever need inside him right then in his indwelling Christ. All the power he would need he had in Christ inside. All the wisdom he needed he had in Christ inside. All the faith he needed he had in Christ inside. Struggling with lust as we know he did from Rom. 7:7-13, all the purity he needed he had in Christ inside.
- As a poet once said about his life in Christ, I'm drinking from the saucer 'cause my cup is overfull.

- I want us to consider the laundry list of problems you have in your life. Maybe you have marital problems. Maybe you have problems communicating at home or on the job. Maybe you are getting tired, and your faith and your life feel very drab. Maybe you have broken dreams that God seems to turn a deaf ear to. Maybe you have never grieved the loss of a loved one. That is your diagnosis.
- But Paul's prescription is so simple: you need Christ. Let Him be your focus, let Him be your hope, let Him do your organizing, let Him be and do in and through you. Christ is the answer to all our problems.

- ILLUS: Corrie ten Boom in prison learned this time and time again. One day before Ravensbruck she was sitting in solitary confinement in a prison in Holland, when she received a letter telling her that her beloved father had died. At last the girl said, "Whatever happens, you brought it on yourself by breaking the laws!" Corrie then went back into her cell and prayed a prayer of confession: "Dear Jesus, how foolish of me to have called on human help when You are here ..."

- Oh how often we do exactly the same thing! When we feel lonely, when we have a crying need, we scurry around to solicity paltry human help when all the riches of deity reside within us in Jesus Christ. He is there in everyone who has humbly asked Him in, but He is not pushy. He doesn't push Himself forward, being the model of humility. So He patiently waits while we rush around to all our friends, gathering advice that is mixed at best and worthless at worst, wasting so much time, while He silently waits long for us to speak. The tragedy is when we don't speak to Him at all, foregoing all His comfort, help, love and wisdom. How foolish to refuse Wisdom Himself living within, to seek the conflicting opinions of the unwise.

- All we need is Christ, and when we see Him, we begin to see all things clearly. And when we see Him, we see ourselves aright in Him, knowing we are identified with Him. That is what Paul tells us in his stirring conclusion of vs. 25.

Knowing My Christ, Knowing Who I Am in Christ

- Beholding Christ and finding Him to be sufficient for every need, finding Him to be the only answer, Paul then realizes that in Christ his identity crisis too is resolved. Read 25b.

- Question: Who am I? Even brilliant Paul couldn't figure it out. But when he focused on Christ, and looked to Him, he saw himself clearly. Only in the genuine light of Christ can we see ourselves for who we really are. And only in the loving light of Christ can we accept ourselves as we are, because He has accepted us without condition.

- This is the genius of Paul's conclusion. Therefore then, on the one hand I MYSELF, the true me, the me in Christ, the eternal being that I truly am, the spiritual me already united in oneness with the indwelling Holy Spirit, that true me is joined with Christ forever, serving the law of God with my mind. That is who I am, both now and forever, and I can rejoice in who I truly am, thanking Christ who is with me both now and always.

- And because this is who I truly am, I can accept the fact that I live inside a fallen body given over to certain decay and death. I can admit and accept the reality that sin still lives in my body and still seeks to deceive me and tempt my members to live as though Christ is not in me and I am not in Christ. That old thing, the old beast who I was, still exists, BUT IT IS NOT ME. I am in Christ and Christ is in me, and that far overshadows the ugliness that will die forever when this old body collapses.

- But the deeper truth about this passage is that our identity in Christ is not in and of itself an answer to the struggles we face. The answer is Christ. Without Him, we have no identity and we are plunged into chaos. With Him, we have an identity rooted in Him forever. The real answer to the struggle is Christ.

- ILLUS: Larry Crabb concludes the exact same way in his book Finding God. His struggle mirrored Paul's struggle in Rom. 7:14-25, from the first chapter of the book to the last conclusion. What a remarkable thought: Crabb thought he was expounding something new in a great new book, but he was merely explaining in modern and more lengthy terms what Paul had written so concisely and brilliantly here at the end of Romans chapter seven!! Here is Crabb's opening paragraph of the last section of the book, captioned The Last Word: "God knows everything about you. He is thoroughly aware of all the personal struggles that threaten to undo you. He knows your history and your present life, all of it. And all he says to you is, 'Christ.' In previous days, God distributed bits and pieces of information, and he gave it to us in a variety of ways. But now he tells us that everything he made known earlier is more fully revealed in Christ. That is his final speech: 'Christ!' There is no more to say."

- He is the final word on every struggle, our only hope for any victory.

Conclusion: Victory in Christ, Who Is Our Life

- I want to return to show how truly victorious Christ can make us, even in the worst of circumstances during the greatest of struggles. Corrie and Betsie ten Boom had given thanks even for the fleas. But Corrie didn't know why. When they crawled in bed that night with their bedmates, both human and insect, the entire room was filled with the sound of quarreling and fighting. The sound of angry words in many different languages was heard, often followed by the sound of slapping and sobbing. As they listened to these ugly sounds, Betsie started to pray. "Lord Jesus, send Your peace into this room. There has been too little praying here. The very walls know it. But where You come, Lord, the spirit of strife cannot exist." The change was gradual but distinct: one by one the angry sounds let up.

- Several days later, Corrie and Betsie began Bible reading and worship services at the back of the barracks after dinner, reading through the Bible under the pale light of a bare yellow bulb. Those services were like no others they had ever seen. At the meeting, some Catholics might recite the Magnificat, there might be a soft undertone of singing by some Eastern Orthodox women, there might be a hymn sung by all ... but then the precious Bible would be opened and read. Corrie or Betsie would translate into German, but then the life-giving words would be passed down the platforms into French, Polish, Russian, Czech, and Dutch. With each moment the crowd would swell, women pressing as close as possible to the light. These services were little previews of heaven.

- These women who were closely guarded from 4:30 AM roll call throughout the entire day, were mysteriously let alone at night to read the Bible and conduct worship services in peace. The guards never rushed in to break up those priceless meetings. All the women marveled, until one afternoon they learned the answer to the mystery. The supervisor had been called to settle a dispute among some knitters who worked each day in the barracks. But the supervisor and guards stopped at the door and wouldn't come in. "That place is crawling with fleas!," the supervisor said. Our Christ had deployed an army of fleas to protect the ranks of those worshiping Him and coming to know Him. That is why He had led them to pray a prayer of thanks for the fleas. His victory is remarkable, quizzical, and thoroughly wonderful!

- I read the rest of that story, with my heart full of renewed hope in the certain victory of our Christ inside us. Imagine it: a woman in a German concentration camp describing part of that experience as "little previews of heaven." If He can bring victory into that kind of darkness, He can make us victorious in whatever darkness we face today.

- And He alone can do this. I have read two Jewish memoirs of concentration camp life by Elie Wiesel, once in the book entitled Night and most recently in his autobiography entitled Memoirs: All Rivers Run to the Sea. Both books are filled with eloquently told tales of opportunities lost, hatred and cruelty beyond imagining, and incommunicable suffering. But both books are filled with a bitterness, hatred and self-righteous victimization that made me every bit as sad as the tales from the camps.

- Comparing those two books with The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom is a powerful testimony to the victorious life of Jesus Christ. The educated Jew with all his culture and brilliance and deep understanding of suffering is dumbfounded before the horror of the Holocaust. He embarks on an endless search for words to describe his agony. But the Christian found Christ more alive in that darkness than she had ever imagined. The tomb couldn't contain Him, and the concentration camp couldn't constrain Him. He is alive. He is our lives. And He will have the victory. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory. Thanks be to God who always leads us in His triumph in Christ Jesus. THANKS BE TO GOD FOR JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD!!! Amen!

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