Inner Confliction & The Gospel – Part I
Part 1 of the “Inner Confliction & The Gospel” sermon series. This week is an exegetical sermon on Romans 7:13-25 addressing the first 6 reasons out of 12 for believing this passage is talking about the experience of a Christian and what that means for us. This sermon was originally preached by Pastor Duane Smets on April 15th, 2007 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
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:: The Resolved Church :: April 15th, 2007 :: Pastor Duane M. Smets
Inner Confliction and The Gospel – when sin gets the upper hand
Romans 7:13-25 (Part I)
I. The Law and Gospel Connection
II. Who’s Experience is This?
1. The structure of Romans
2. The plain reading
3. 1st century Judaism
4. Paul’s pre-conversion
5. Honest self-assessment
6. The Christian struggle
7. The new master
8. A body of death
9. The law principle
10. The conclusion 7:25b
11. The apostle Peter
12. 1 John 1:8
II. The Gospel Response
– Theme One: True Hedonism
– Theme Two: True War
Romans 7:13-25
13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Introduction
Good morning church. Today we embark in studying one of the most experientially vivid, honest, relevant at the same time both spiritually liberating and spiritually devastating and yet hopeful passages in the whole Bible. We are back to our study of the book Romans, which we as a church are taking a few years to carefully go through. So let’s read the text and pray.
God, without the illuminating gift of your Spirit our minds will be confused as we study this passage. Through your faithful servants you have given us the Bible to tell us about yourself, about Jesus and how he so perfectly fits the great need of our body and soul. Guard us from error today as we study. May we walk away today with a deeper understanding of the gospel and not take this passage as an excuse to let inner conflict run rampad in us and at the same time may we not leave using this passage as a warrant for freedom from struggle. Show us your glory, may your Son Jesus shine with exceeding brightness, allow us to see and be saved despite our sin and corrupt natures. Amen.
Last week was Easter and I preached a sermon about the connection between the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and the mission of Jesus Christ after he rose. I said that mission begins at resurrection and that being a Christian begins at the point where you become strongly persuaded in your mind that Jesus really is and really rose from the dead. Biblical faith begins in the mind, flows then to affections and then plays itself out in your actions, in how you live. That is slope of how God designed faith to be. So here is faith, prepare your minds for action. You are going to have to work the muscle of your mind today.
I. The Law and Gospel Connection
So first let’s catch our minds up with where we were last in Romans because it is really important for this passage. Where we were was in verses 7-12 for a month, four sermons on the connection between law and gospel. Earlier Paul had written some pretty gnarly stuff about law. Things like we need to die to it, that it arouses sinful passions and that it hold us captive. So Paul, one of the fisrt church planters, wrote verses 7-12 to defend the law and show us how it leads us to the Jesus gospel.
Through the course of a month we looked as the six different ways that Paul tries to show that there are some bad effects that result from our intereaction as humans with the law. The law being either the written commandments in the Bible or the unwritten, inner moral sense inside us as humans. So Paul writes to defend the law and to help us put it in a proper persepective. And our first verse of study today, verse 13 is really a recalling or a restatement or a summary of verses 7-12. Let me show you.
Read verse 7 with me, “What shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.” That’s verse 7. Now read verse 13, our first verse of study for today. “Did that which is good (the law), then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good (the law), in order that sin might be known shown to be sin, and the the commandment (the law) might become sinful beyond measure.”
Does it sound similar to you? Is the law sin? By no means! Did the law bring death? By no means! The law makes me know sin and thus my need for a savior. Do you guys see the connection? So Paul is really continuing the same line of thought in our passage today but in verse 14 he takes a turn and dives into this experiential illustration to continue to defend the law, show human sinfulness, and display the greatness and goodness of the gospel that cures it.
If we wanted to we could have just taken verse 13-25 and clumped them down together as a seventh reason in our Law and Gospel series dealing with verse 7-12. But we didn’t do that and here is why. The reason is because once we hit verse 14, we dive into a deep canyon. There are a ton of issues that this section of Scripture brings out. This passage, for some is a very dear passage of comfort, consolation and hope and for others it is a passage they hate and think it has no relation to being a Christian at all. In this passage we dive into a hot bed of controversy that is fueled by emotions and pain and fear and bad theology and all kinds of stuff and it’s a mess.
II. Who’s Experience is This?
So because of all that we are going to do three sermons, maybe four on it, we’ll see. So here is the big question. Here is where the lines get drawn from there things go in almost every direction. Who is this? That is the question. Who is this? All this talk about “I” and the things I want to do and don’t do. Such an intimate look at a divided conflicted person. Can this person really be a Christian and if it is, is this really Paul, the great church planter who wrote two-thirds of the entire New Testament Bible? Is he just speaking hypothetically? If it is a Christian is that what it’s like to be a Christian, when does this conflict occur, is it right before or right after if it is a Christian. You can see why things get pretty thick and intense huh?
So what are we to do? We are a group of “resolved” people who believe in Jesus and want to follow him and read and understand his Bible. What do we do when we come to a passage like this? There are two options.
One is to say, “who cares.” I just love Jesus and isn’t that enough. Controversy is bad and I don’t like getting into fights, so I just stay out of anything where there is disagreement, because how can you ever really know what side is right anyway? I just love everyone. That’s one way.
The other way is to suck it up, dive in and try and figure it out. That’s what we’re going to do. It’s going to be good times. That’s our evangelistic technique here. Invite your friends next week and say, you should come to church with me. My pastor is preaching about the inner confliction of a post-christian from the ancient letter to the romans in the seventh chapter where he defends the nomos with an existential illustration of depravity and hope in the gospel. I’m sure they’ll jump at that oppurtunity. J
So I have 12 arguments that we are going to go through. We are going to try and go through six today. But before we start let me tell you why we are working through the text this way, in the form of looking at arguments. Are all arguments bad?
No. I’ve said it before and we have to learn it. But just because there is controversy over something does not means that one position isn’t right and we cannot afford to let the things that we believe be dictated by what Satan can cause controversy over. Often times the most precious things are the things upon which controversy hovers over. And the real truth is, everything is controversy. That we believe God exists, that the Bible is true, that Jesus is God and rose from the dead, and that Jesus is the one true religion…that’s kind of controversial. J
So arguments are not bad…they are necessary. Though know this that my goal is not to make good you good arguerers. If you think you are a good arguerer your probably a conceded, arrogant jerk and people don’t like you very much. The goal is not to make us a bunch of smart people who are superior to everyone else because we know what we believe and why. No my goal is that we would strive to have an honest faith that is rooted and ground in the truth of Scripture and that some how in the way I preach I would implicitly teach you how to read you Bible. And to do that we have to deal with controversial things.
Okay, hopefully you guys are all excited now. So here we go. I’m not good at concealing what I really think so I just say it out right, actually, I think I already said it. But I am convinced that this passage is talking about a Christian, that it is the experience of Paul and all Christians alike, even sometimes, long after first becoming a Christian.
1. the structure of Romans
First reason, the structure of Romans. What a text means is not whatever it means to me in my own personal experience. The Bible is an amazing, divinely inspired book, but it is not magic. We read it just like we read any other book. And like other books the book of Romans has a beginning, middle, and end. In the first five chapters Paul made a case that all are ungodly both by our actions and our nature and that there is an eternal penalty for that, the wrath of God, but we can be spared from wrath by believing that Jesus was really God who came and as the eternal God suffered eternal wrath in our place on the cross. It’s what we call propitation.
But gospel is an easier word, gospel means good news and it is good news not only because of what it provides for us in the future but also now. So in chapter six Paul talked about the nature of grace and how it works after becoming a Christian (how it has implications for seeing Jesus as our master and as our spouse) and now in chapter seven he has been talking about the nature of the law and how it works after becoming a Christian (how we come to love the law as it protects us and leads us to Jesus).
So structure. Both chapter six and seven fall consequetively and conceptually after chapter 1-5 as part of a tightly fit argument where Paul is systematically and chronologically ordering his book about how God is glorious in saving sinners. Thus, chapter seven must be the experience of a saved believer based upon the general theme, purpose and outline of the book.
2. the plain reading
Second reason, the plain reading of the text. A general rule of thumb when reading any text of any kind is that the right way to understand and interpret it is whatever the most natural, plain, and obvious way of reading it is. I mean listen to some of this again, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am!”
I, I, I, I, me, my…it’s kind of obivious isn’t it. He uses I, me, or my forty times in this passage! In the present tense, to say that he is talking out of his own experience. He doesn’t give us any clues that he is saying anything else. He doesn’t say he is speaking hypothetically, or that he is speaking from the past before he became a Christian. He shares it as a personal illustration and to not see it as that is to reject the straight forward impression and to read a whole bunch of stuff into the grammar and words that seem to work so hard to say, “look, I know what I am talking about, here is my experience.” Now I grant it that sometimes the meaning of a certain passage may not be all that clear from the outset. But is this really one of those passages? I don’t think so. I think it takes enormous amounts of exegetical gymnastics to get anything else out of these words to make them say that this is not the inner struggle of a Christian.
3. 1st century Judaism
Third reason, a first century Jew. Let’s consider the historical and cultural background of this text. Another tool we use for correctly interpreting the Bible. For the sake of argument, let’s say that this is a first century Jew living in Palestine. Is this the way they would talk about their law? “I joyfull concur with the law of God in my inner man”?
Here is what we know about 1st century Judaism and the law. The law was everything…you have three main schools of thought about the law, the pharisees, the sadducees, and the zealots. And all three groups were meticulous in keep every point of the law to a perfect “t.” Would such a person, with a total committment of outward perfection for their righteousness say as verse 21 does “I delight in the law of God in my inner being”? I don’t think so. The law was not an internal issue for them. I think I can show you this.
4. Paul’s pre-conversion
Let’s go to our forth reason and look at passages in the Bible where we get pictures of Paul, as a 1st century Jew, before his conversion. Two passages, Galatians 1 and Philippians 3. You can read along with me if you like.
Galatians 1:13-14 “For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism (so real clear here, we’ve got pre-Chrisitian Paul), how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and treid to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond my countrymen (sound like a little competition, outward perfection), being more extremely zealous for my ancesteral traditions.”
That’s one picture. Here’s the other.
Philippians 3:4-6 “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness, under the law blameless.”
So first, does a pre-Chrisitan Jew in the first century “delight in the law of God in their inner man.” I don’t think so…that sounds much more like a joy of a believer in Jesus who sees Christ as the fulfillment of the law and all it’s requirements.
But here is the even bigger issue. In those two passages we read, did you hear the sound of any struggle. Those who say that this passage of Scripture is a person before they become a Christian say it has to be because someone who really knows Jesus shouldn’t talk like this right? So struggle is before. But did you hear struggle? I didn’t. It doesn’t sound like there was any conflict of conscience at all. The law was something Paul boasted about and was proud of. He was the very opposite of this divided and sometimes tormented man we read about in our passage today. So my fourth reason for saying this is a Christian is because before Paul became a follower Christ he had no internal struggle, just competition for perfection, trying to earn favor with God by doing all the right things.
5. honest self-assessment
Fifth reason, an honest self-assessment. It seems to me that Paul here in our passage today, is wrestling with himself, and that the reason he wrestles is because the Holy Spirit has done a huge work in his heart, so that in verse 18 he can honestly admit, “I know nothing good dwells in me, in my flesh.”
People who do not follow Jesus and sadly, and many who claim they do, do not speak like this. Everybody thinks they are a good person. Everyone. No one thinks they are bad and that they have ever really done anything wrong that is deserving of damnation. God is love so he should just sweep it under the rug and hopefully see that though sometimes I do bad things I’m still a good person, right? One who truly knows God and looks into the mirror of God’s law sees how pitiful and depraved they are. That is the confession of a Christian. I am a sinner and I need a savior. I have nothing on my own. There is nothing good in me. How do you see yourself? As good, doing alright? Or daily in desperate need of Christ?
Such a confession is the opposite of a self-confident self-righteous Pharisee that Paul was before he began serving Jesus. It is interesting that he adds this qualifier, “in my flesh.” If you were around when we started chapter seven we talked about this concept, “the flesh.” The flesh is the evil way in us, the contamination and depravity that has effected every part of who we are. But notice he, says “nothing good dwells in me,” and then adds, “that is, in my flesh.” That is because the Bible teaches that when you come to believe in Jesus work on the cross for you that his Spriti comes to reside in you and you get a new nature, the Spirit of God nature. That is where we are going in Romans 8, the new life in the Spirit. So what happens is the Christian ends up with two natures, the flesh and the spirit. And they are in conflict.
6. the Christian struggle
That leads us to the sixth and final reason for today, the Christian struggle. Galatians 5:17 says this, and this is a passage that there is not any debate about, everyone agrees that in Galatians Paul is talking about the experience of a Christian…listen, “The flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”
Interesting huh? Does that sound familiar? Flesh, oppostion, not doing the things you want to do? He uses a lot of the very same vocabularly and almost some of the same exact phrases there in Galatians that he does here in Romans 7. And there it is clear he is teaching that there is struggle in the life of a believer. So my sixth point here is that it seems very clear that in Paul’s overrall theology that he believes the Christian, after becoming a Christian, will have times when there is intense spiritual struggle.
We know this is true. Yes, sometimes people may feel bad about hurting someone’s feelings, or cheating their work out of time or money, or whatever it may be. But there is not an intense spiritual struggle and conviction and sorry toward God like we have here in Romans 7. A desire to please God and yet willful disobedience. A non-Christian does not struggle like that. They do what they want and do whatever they want and do their best to keep their faults covered up. They do not feel the weight of indwelling sin because they are dead in sin and not yet resurrected to new life in Jesus. Some have said it is having a 1-ton weight fall on a dead body, it feels nothing. But in the life of a Christian…oh how you feel the weight.
III. The Gospel Response
- theme one: true hedonism
Okay, so that is six reasons why I think this passage is talking about Paul’s life and ours as well, after becoming a Chrisitan. And maybe you are like big deal. What is the difference? Sure Duane, you made some good arguments but really does it really matter what I think about this passage. What is the point and if you are right, that kinda sucks, because who wants to be a Christian anyway if it just means signing up for a lot of inner turmoil?
Here is my answer. Actually there are really three answers I think, maybe more. But I am going to give one each week, one for each sermon. My first answer, the one for this week, is true hedonism.
Let me explain. The truth is that I have probably spent more time in my life studying this passage than any other passage of Scripture over the course of years. I have wrestled with this passage a lot. It was hard to dive back into it this week, because I knew what I was getting myself into. Maybe that is part of the reason we detoured for awhile and its taken so long to get here.
But here is the main reason I was not excited about preaching on this text…The main reason is because the picture here is of a very confused, frustrated, and emotionally wrecked person. And I am trying with all my might to try and help bring us as a church to maturity and stability and I’m afraid that you will take what I have said today and what we have studied and think that it is okay and that the normal way of the Christian life is being lost in a myriad of spiritual depression and confliction. And the result is that whenever we get together it is just a big complaining fest where we lick our wounds together and then pray some hopeless prayer.
Here is the thing, that is not the gospel and that is not the point of this text. If you only look at these twelve verses and you don’t look very close, yes that is where you will end up. But there is a whole bunch of other stuff in this book of Romans that surrounds this passage and in the whole rest of the Bible there is a ton of a stuff that says this is not the normal way of the Christian life, that is not what it is about, it is about the kingdom of God where there is peace, joy, and love…that is the gospel. The infinitely great satisfaction in knowing Jesus and walking through life with him.
So let’s think about this text…think about it with me. What is the point? Why is he wrestling so here? What is the goal? What does he want? Is it not joy and happiness? Verse 24-25, who will deliver me? Thank God for Jesus! Do you see that?
The reason why anyone struggles, why anyone is ever confused, why anyone ever feels down and feels inner turmoil is because they want to be happy and they are not and they are trying to figure out a way to get there. That’s why the theme we are focusing on this week is true hedonism. And it’s here in the text too. “I delight in God…but…I am conflicted because of sin.” I want to be happy, how do I get there, what is the pathway, who will deliver? Verse 25 “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
So, I believe this text is a vivid portral of the Christian orientation to long for, look to, and seek after joy in God through Jesus. That is why I say this week’s gospel response is true hedonism. Hedonism is a word that means life is about pleasure, about making yourself happy. And the gospel is something that says putting your faith in Jesus does not mean that you will never struggle, but you will find deep, immense, and true joy because it is fixed in the ever increasing joy of the glory of God. Christianity is a future oriented faith and it is an honest faith. Honest about life and it’s hardships and our human faults and about our desire for true and deep and lasting joy.
If you look at my sermon title for this series, it is “Inner Confliction and the Gospel” but I have a subtitle too, it says, “when sin gets the upper hand.” I have that subtitle because I believe what we are seeing here is the picture of a person’s experience when they recently blown it, have broken God’s law and are either toward the end of coming out of it when they are just starting to deal with it all or they are looking back on the what happened shortly after they have repented and have gotten back up on their feet and are following Christ. I don’t think we are looking at a normal everyday Christian experience, but rather an incident or a season of real, hard, gospel growth in the soul.
Conclusion
Okay, so what does this all mean for us? How do we apply this text? If this text really is relevant to the experience of a person after becoming a Christian what does that mean for us?
One, it means do not be surprised when you fail and it gets hard. If you are a new Christian, God often times will grant a season in the newness of your faith where it is fairly easy to follow Jesus and everything is new, you feel that born againness Jesus talked about, God’s spirit is working in you, and you are perceiving the glory of God shining all around you. That is good. Those are special times. Relish in it. Suck up the joy of the gospel in your soul for all its worth. Treasure this time and document it in your heart. Just know this. A time will come when you will struggle, and so when you struggle, don’t bail. There are categories God has given us for understanding this. It is Romans 7. It is flesh and spirit battle and conflicted wants. And the way out is Jesus.
Second, it means, if you are in the struggle right now. Know you are not alone. Some of the most godly men who have walked the face of this earth have had deep, intense bouts with sin. This is one person right here, the great apostle Paul, broken and at odds with himself. Many of my heroes have walked this path. The great preacher, Charles Spurgeon, often had intense bouts with depression. John Owen, one of the great puritan theologians. For two years he could barely speak he was so weighted with the reality of his sinfulness, and then he came out of it, ever conscious of his depravity but with a new found faith and vigor for the gospel and he became a pastor, a professor, and one of the greatest theologians we have ever known.
Know this too if you are stuggling right now, there are people here in this room that are struggling too. You are not alone. Find someone you can talk to. Whether it is through the mid-week small group, or if it is through inviting someone out to lunch or whatever. We can spur each other on in the faith.
Third, with all the tenderness and love that I can muster, I say this…just repent. Almost every we are struggling and we start talking about it, we start talking about what happened to us. So we deem our struggle not to be our own fault in any way. It was either this person or that person or this circumstance or that. But here is the thing. We rarely see our own fault. We don’t like to. It is a lot easier to be the victim. But every spiritual struggle is a struggle with sin. Humble yourself. Admit to God your failings and your faults. Embrace Christ. Receive his grace. Being a Christian does not mean we are free of our sinfulness it just means that we have a Jesus who is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all our unrighteousness when we confess it to him (1 John 1:9).
Lastly, for the kids. The Bible says here that sometimes you know what you should do because your mom or your dad told you so, then you go ahead and do what you know they don’t want you to anyway. That is because there is something called sin inside you and the only way to be happy and not feel all crudy, like you do after you disobey, is by receiving Jesus. He was punished for you so that your punishment from mom and dad won’t be so bad. Jesus loves you and one day will get rid of the sin inside you forever and ever if you trust and follow him with your whole heart.
