Right with God - Romans 7

I love a rags to riches story. I don't know if it's just me. I suspect many of us love that story of transformation, the before and the after. Yet we see those types of stories just about everywhere we look. If you look at TV today and you see some advertisements, I guess you've got to go off streaming things to free to air channels to see ads now.

But if you look at those ads, you might see an ad for teeth whitening toothpaste. That seems to be a whole new market that's cropped up. And in those ads you always get the before and the after. You get the stained teeth and now you get the bright white, like an unnatural shade of bright white teeth that apparently these toothpaste will make happen. More recently, there's been a big focus on the way that a trip overseas can sort out your hairline.

You can go overseas and get that done. And we've got the before and the after. From the struggling to the flowing locks of hair. That's another before and the after that we get. But we also see it in the movies, don't we?

If you've seen the Lion King, Simba starts the movie as a frightened young cub. He's running from his past. He's consumed by guilt. And then, hopefully, I'm not ruining the story for you, but I feel that if you haven't seen it yet, you're probably not going to. So at the end, he stops running, he goes back to where he's supposed to be.

And the scared young cub becomes the Lion King he was born to be. Or the movie Rocky. We meet a debt collector from Philadelphia who gets a shot. Somehow, I don't actually remember how this happens, but he gets a shot at fighting the heavyweight champion of the world. And we see the transformation.

He goes from debt collector, he runs up some stairs, to inspirational music, he eats some eggs, raw eggs. And suddenly street brawler to boxing champion. It's an incredible transformation. I'm probably showing my age. I should have thought about something that was made in the 2000s.

I'm sure you can come up with your own examples there. The young people are probably saying, what's Rocky? What's that all about? I suspect in the early church, there was no greater transformation story. There was no greater spiritual rags to riches story than the testimony of the apostle Paul.

And as we come to chapter seven, we're gonna be in verses 14 to 25 shortly. I wanna first spend a few moments reflecting on Paul's transformation, his rags to riches. And there's four Points that are gonna guide our study this morning come up on the screen and I've made them all shun words to help you remember them. So reputation, revelation, desperation, liberation. So let's start with reputation.

If you were in the middle of the 1st century AD, in the city of Rome, we find a church there that is made up of Jewish and Gentile believers. It's made up of slaves and freed slaves and Roman citizens. And together they're trying to work out what it means to follow Jesus, particularly in a world and in a city where everything is designed to pull them away from him and into those churches. Meeting in homes spread across the city. A letter arrives.

It's passed from home to home as the believers pour over its words as they read them again and again and. And try to take in everything that's written. Because significantly, at the top of the first page of the first part of that scroll is the name of the author. The author is the great apostle Paul. The believers that are gathered in Rome have undoubtedly heard his story.

Everyone in the early church had. His transformation had been incredible. It was the best example of the Gospel at work. Before they'd known him as Paul, they'd known him as Saul of Tarsus, his Jewish name. He'd been educated in the Jewish world.

He'd studied under Gamaliel, one of the most respective rabbis of his generation. And Saul wasn't just any Jew. He was part of a small sect of Jews called the Pharisees. He was one of the spiritual elite amongst the Jewish people. Years later, Paul would write these words about who he had been.

This before picture of his transformation, it's in Philippians 3. 4. Paul writes, though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more. I was circumcised when I was 8 days old.

I'm a pure blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin, a real Hebrew if there ever was one. I was a member of the Pharisees who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault. You see, by any external measure, Paul was unrivaled.

He had the right heritage, he had the right education, he had all the right external behaviors. But we see in chapters 7 and 8 of the book of Acts, perhaps you can go and read them this week this before picture of his transformation story. Saul wasn't just opposed to Jesus, he was Harshly persecuting the followers of Jesus. He hunted them, he dragged them from their homes, he threw them in prison. He was there when Stephen was stoned to death, watching on and approving.

And in Acts 9, we see that Jesus had a different story for Saul. Saul's on the road to Damascus. Maybe you know this story. A bright light appears to him, and Jesus speaks to him and. And says, saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And suddenly, Saul is changed. And just as passionately as he'd been persecuting the early church, he gives his life to building it. And the ministry that followed was extraordinary. It's this after photo, this after shot of his transformation. He goes on journeys, spreading the gospel.

He travels some 20,000 km, which in the ancient world was an incredible endeavor. And as he went, he planted churches. He faced intense persecution. He was beaten, imprisoned. He escaped from towns where mobs had formed as they tried to kill him.

He was shipwrecked, bitten by a snake. And yet in all of this, he kept going for the sake of the gospel we read. God works through him in incredible ways, like in Lystra, where he heals a man who'd been crippled from birth. In Troas, he raises a young man from the dead. In Philippi, he sings and prison doors are opened.

He stands in front of Roman rulers and Jewish leaders, and he declares the good news about Jesus boldly. And in the midst of all of that, he makes some time to write letters to groups of believers in the early church. And we have them in the New Testament. One of them is the Letter of Romans. And so this is the before and the after of the man who now writes to them.

It's the before and the after of the man who crafted this letter to the church in Rome, Even though he'd never been there to visit them himself. His reputation had gone there. He was unrivaled in the early church because of his passion, his authority, and the way he'd given his life to the cause of the gospel. And so, as this letter arrives to the believers there in Rome and someone begins to read, we can only imagine the expectation they must have had, the excitement that was in the room as the great apostle writes to them. And as they read, they see the most incredible summary of the Gospel.

He starts Romans by speaking of the devastating account of human sin. He then speaks of justification by faith and peace with God. He then reminds them that they are not under the law, but under grace, that they have been freed from the Master. That is sin. And now, in verse, 14 of chapter seven, we're going to read something that I think would have shocked the believers in Rome.

I think as they came to this part in the letter, this revelation, our second word this morning, would have shocked them. Paul writes this in Romans 7, verse 14. So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it.

Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I'm doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I'm not the one doing wrong. It is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me that is in my sinful nature.

I want to do what is right, but I can't. I want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don't want to do, I'm not really the one doing it. It's sin living in me that does it.

After the last few chapters where Paul has said that the law doesn't make you right with God, he opens this section by saying the trouble isn't the law because it is spiritual and good. Paul doesn't hate the law. I wonder if we expect him, and maybe the believers there kind of expected him to follow this by saying the law is spiritual and good, and so am I. Because of grace, sin has been dealt with in my life, and now I know what it is to be without sin. Now I know what it is to live the perfect Christian life.

You know, surely if anyone could do it, if anyone could be without sin, surely it was Paul. But Paul doesn't say that. He says the law isn't the problem. The problem is me, because I am sinful. I want to do what is good, but I don't do what I want to do.

Instead, I do what I hate. Wonder if the people there gathered started to shift uncomfortably in their seats. This is a revelation about Paul they're probably not expecting. This is a man through whom God had raised the dead. And here he is saying, I want to do the right thing, but instead sin within me does the wrong thing.

Years ago, I injured my shoulder. I ended up playing sport, ultimate Frisbee, of all things. I don't know how you hurt yourself playing ultimate Frisbee, but I managed it. And the pain at the time was immense. I discovered a while later that I'd actually dislocated it and it had popped back in.

And over the weeks that followed, most of the pain seemed to go away. There was still a shooting pain every time I put pressure on my arm. And so for a few years, I tried to get treatments to get rid of that pain. And I had injections of different kinds and went and saw different physios and doctors, and nothing could fix the problem. Until eventually a specialist, I saw another specialist, and they said to me, you need to go and have another mri.

This time get dye put in your shoulder, and that way we can see what's going on. And sure enough, when those images came back, they saw that there was structural damage to my shoulder that they hadn't seen earlier. But here's the point. The first time I saw that damage was after the mri. Other scans hadn't shown it, it hadn't appeared on them.

But it would have been crazy for me to think that just because the MRI showed that damage, that somehow the MRI had caused it. You see, the MRI had simply shown what was already there and what I was feeling the effects of. And that's the point Paul is making. He's saying the law has simply pointed out the problem. In our sinful nature.

The law is a diagnostic tool. It shows us the problem clearly, but it has no power to deal with it. Throughout Romans, Paul has made this point. You can't expect the law to do something it wasn't designed to do. It can tell us what is wrong, but it can't be fix us.

And so he continues, in verse 21, I have discovered the principle of life, that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God's law with all my heart, but there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still there within me. I wonder if you see that Paul uses that word war. He's not downplaying it here.

He describes his struggle with sin as a war. He's saying it's like there's two opponents within me pulling in opposite directions. You know, last week in chapter six, Paul told us that we're no longer a slave to sin. So it's important to understand that in chapter seven, he's not contradicting himself. He's simply saying that we are no sin is no longer our master, but sin is still our enemy.

He's speaking about two different things. In chapter six, he says, who we are in Christ. In chapter seven, he's honest about what we feel in the flesh. And both of these things are true at the same time, because this is the reality of the Christian life. You can be free from someone's control and still find yourself in a fight with them.

And that's where we find ourselves with sin. As much as the vulnerability from Paul must have been, I think, probably a shock to the believers in Rome, I suspect it probably resonated with them. I suspect they probably heard it and it resonated. And maybe for you this morning, it resonates as well. Because you love God, you want to follow him, and yet you find parts of your life, maybe ways of speaking or thinking or acting, that you feel are at the center of this same war.

You want to do what is right, but you feel yourself being pulled to do what is wrong. And so Paul says there in verse 22, I love God's law with all my heart. He's not saying I love the system. He's not saying I love what the Pharisees have done to it. He's saying I love what the law was always intended to reveal, which is God's goodness.

The law shows the way God's people were called to love him, to love one another, to honour him in the way they lived and the way they spoke and the way they treated one another. And that's what Paul desires. He desires to be like Christ. He wants to be like Jesus in what he does. He wants to act with the compassion that Jesus acts, but because he knows he so often falls short of that.

We have our third word, desperation. It's there in verse 24. Paul says this. Oh, what a miserable person I am. Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?

The word translated for us here as miserable. Maybe in the version, if you've got a different version, it might be wretched. It comes from a Greek word that literally means to be miserable through the exhaustion of hard labor. Years ago, I made the mistake of agreeing to go on a bike ride with some friends. I hadn't ridden my bike in 15 years, at least, if not longer.

And they all rode their bikes to work. That's kind of the difference in the skill and the fitness level. And so they thought nothing of setting off on a 25 kilometer ride. I was tired after 25 metres, I kid you not. Before we got out of our street, my legs were burning.

There's one photo that remains as proof of that ride. It was taken by my beautiful and caring wife as she came out of the house as I arrived home. I'd collapsed off the bike onto the lawn, and I was lying on our front lawn, absolutely exhausted. And she came out laughing and thought there was nothing better than getting a photo. But as I was thinking of that exhaustion from hard labor, that's the picture that came to mind this morning.

And that's how Paul feels. He feels he is a miserable person because he is exhausted from this battle with sin. You notice from verse 13 onwards, it kind of makes it a bit tricky to read. Paul has referred to himself 40 times. And then in verse 24, he looks outside himself.

Notice he doesn't say, I need to fix this for myself. Instead he says, who? Who will free me? And that's our final point there in verse 25, liberation. Thank God the answer is in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

So you see how it is in my mind. I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature, I am a slave to sin. Over the verses that have come before, we've had Paul speak about the battle within, the exhaustion, the desperation he feels. And then here he gives us the answer to it. And the answer is he looks to Jesus, he looks to the cross.

He says, thank God, the answer is in Jesus Christ. Now, this isn't just a nice little encouragement from Paul. Instead, it's the reality of the Christian life. When you're struggling with sin, look to Jesus, look to the cross, the see the place where Jesus carried your sin. You can know that the verdict over your life is that you are no longer guilty because Jesus paid what you owe.

And that's liberty. That is freedom in the life of the Christian. And yet we still struggle with sin. You know, we might read what Paul writes here as if it's a pretty grim picture of the Christian life, but I love it because it's so raw and it's honest. It presents to us so clearly the struggle that each one of us knows in our own lives, the battle that we have between living the way that we know God wants us to and the sinful part of our nature that remains.

You know, I challenge you today that the more you grow in maturity as a disciple of Jesus, the more aware you should become of the sin in your life and the more it should grieve you. I don't know that as you get more mature, you think less of your sin. As you get more mature and you know what Jesus loves and you love the same things. I think you become more aware of the sin that remains. You become more Aware of the gap between who you want to be and the sinful part of your nature that remains.

You know, the fact the believer is still grieved by their sin is evidence that sin doesn't own them anymore. The person who hasn't experienced God's grace doesn't lie awake troubled by the things they've done. They just go and do them again. But the believer hates the sin that they find in themselves. And that's the Spirit at work.

It's exactly what Paul describes here. So I'd encourage you. Don't see the conflict as evidence that somehow God's grace has failed. You see it as evidence that God's grace is at work in your life.

As we come to a close this morning, I want you to think back to that rags to riches picture at the start. Perhaps it's the teeth example that go from stained to bright white. You see, the transformation that had happened in Paul's life was significant. He knew he'd been made fully right with God. But he also knew that the struggle in the Christian life wasn't complete.

The struggle to be more like Christ was a daily battle. Paul knew that on this side of eternity, the aftershot of his transformation was one where sin was still present. And so he longed to be with Jesus. It's why he says over in Philippians 1:21, for me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. He knew that in eternity that sin would be finished.

The exhaustion that he felt trying to live for Christ with the flesh that was pulling him away, all that would be done with, the transformation would be complete.

But here's something important for us this morning. Paul doesn't just give us hope for eternity, he gives us hope for now as well. And we're going to see that as we step into Romans 8 next week. We'll see Paul speak to the desperate cry of Romans 7, where he'll remind us that the Spirit of God dwells in us and gives us power for the fight. And he starts chapter eight with some incredible words.

I don't want to steal Pastor James thunder for next week, but it's important that we hear them after we've just had these words from Paul on the battle with sin. Paul says at the start of chapter eight, there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Oh, what a relief those words must have been for the believers there in Rome who were all too aware of the struggle with their sinful nature. And here Paul says there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And that's what Paul's been building to.

Romans 6 has told us sin is not your owner. Romans 7 has said, sin is still your battle. Romans 8, come back next week. Romans 8 is going to say, sin is not your sentence. And so here's my encouragement for you as we close.

As you find yourself this week struggling with that battle that Paul speaks of in that space between who you desire to be and still struggling with sin, look to Jesus. Remind yourself that the fight isn't over, but Jesus has already dealt with your sin. And as we step into Romans 8, we're going to see that it isn't just about knowing this truth. It's about the Spirit of God giving us all the power that we need to live it. Now, let's pray.

God, we thank youk for this passage. Father, we thank youk that Paul is open, he's vulnerable, he's real in what he writes. He doesn't paint this fake picture of perfection in the Christian life, but he makes it clear that while our sin has been paid for in full on the cross, and while we can rejoice in that, that there is still part of our sinful nature, our human flesh, that pulls us away from the things that God wants. Lord, each one of us, I suspect, knows that battle all too well in our own life. And so would you help us this week through your Holy Spirit, who gives us power, would you help us to live for you?

Would you remind us that we can say no to sin, that it isn't our Master anymore, that we've been made free in and through Christ, and help us to live in a way that honours and pleases you. So we ask you this in Jesus name, Amen.