-9-
Released From the Law, Bound to Christ
Romans 7
7 :1 “Do you not know, brothers and sisters —for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. 3 So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.
4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.”
As the apostle Paul writes to the Roman church, he keeps in mind that he is talking to two very different groups of people. Some to the people used to be Jewish by religion, and the other group were non-believers with mainly pagan backgrounds. So at times he is writing more to one group than to the other. As you may have noticed in verse 1, ' I am speaking to those who know the law'. So these would be those from group one, former Jews by religion.
These would be people who might fear that if they were to give up on the law … which Paul seems to have been explaining is totally inadequate for salvation or for sanctification … if they were to give up on the law, they might feel like they are giving up on God.
The truth that Paul has been talking about has had to do with the basis of the forgiveness of sin. He has used a number of different ways to get this across, but now he uses a term that they and we are familiar with. That is the marriage bond.
Paul talks as if the Jews considered themselves 'married' to the Law. And that is a good illustration. The orthodox Jews of the day taught that the law was their source of sanctification and peace. Paul shows them that the opposite is true … that the law produced anything but peace. But he also wants to show them, that if they can let go of the law, just like a person has to give up his or her spouse if they were to die, and then remarry … in this case, to the grace of Jesus … it will be a wonderful change. The new marriage actually does produce peace and sanctification.
5 “For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.”
The Law is like a thorn stuck in our clothing. It irritates. Just when everything seems OK and normal, there it is again.
Notice how Paul shows that in the next verses.
7 “What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead”.
Paul is using just one of the laws, 'Thou shalt not covet'. He says, 'Once I learned what coveting was, I noticed I was doing it all the time!' How irritating is that? Things were so much better when he did not know it was wrong … or even what coveting was.
So, while the law may be irritating because it always points out our failures, does that make it bad? Paul says No. Because only when it is pointed out can we repent of it and receive a spiritual washing; forgiveness.
But as Paul says at the end of verse 8, apart from the law, sin was dead. O the bliss of ignorance!
9 “Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.”
Verse 9 is quite a verse! I believe we need look at it very closely and then take it very literally. This is a verse that every Calvinist theologian would have to 'dance around' to try to make any sense of it.
Let's just take it for what it actually says.
Paul is making this point by using himself as the example. Note carefully what he says:
What we are going to look at addresses directly the original teaching of the Roman Catholic church, the Anglican church, the Presbyterian church, the Lutheran church and all Calvinist based teachings, regarding salvation.
The above church denominations have a teaching in common concerning depravity. The teaching is this: All humans inherit from Adam, the sin nature and share the guilt of his sin. Translate that: From the moment of conception a baby has Adam's nature and guilt. That changes number one above to read: 1. I was spiritually dead from the moment of conception. As a proof verse they would use: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Psalm 51:5
Because they believe that babies are born 'spiritually dead' and because they believe that water baptism 'saves' the above mentioned denominations adopted the practice of baptizing infants. In their view, an infant is born spiritually dead, and if they were to become ill and die, they would go to hell. The Roman Catholics softened this somewhat by saying that an unbaptized baby who died, would end up in Limbo. The word 'Limbo' means edge or hem. Limbo was the 'edge' of hell. These teachings changed over the years. At first they said that it was a place of the very mildest of suffering. They would not be in any pain, only the pain of knowing that they could never go to heaven. Then others began to teach that even this pain did not exist, because the babies would not be given the information that there even was a heaven at all, therefore they would not know what they are missing. Later (after the 1300's) the teaching changed a bit more. They reasoned that individuals up here on earth could intercede for them in various ways, and that they could eventually end up in heaven.
The other denominations mentioned above do not and did not believe in a place called Limbo. Their teaching was more severe. They said that babies who died unbaptized went to hell with no opportunity to ever go to heaven. In our minds the question might arise, 'What about the scripture which teaches that 'It is by grace that we are saved, through faith'? How could a little baby be expected to have faith?'
So the practice and belief of these church leaders was to come up with something that could protect little children who died as infants and at the same time agree with the scripture that says a person is saved by faith. Here is what they came up with: The child's parents would exercise the faith for the baby who is too young to do. The parents believe for the child. And in case that this seemed too risky, (perhaps the parents were not all that godly) they were to choose 'god-parents' as a backup. Between these four individuals, at least one of them would believe for the little baby, then they would baptize the child. So here is a second variation: water baptism saves. And then a third variation, water baptism by sprinkling and not by immersion. There are reams of information that could expand on this, but we don't need to do that here.
What we do need to look at it this; is a baby in need of salvation? Are they 'dead in trespasses and sins'? Paul says no. He says that he “was alive once”. And then he says, later on he died.
If we can rid ourselves of any preconceived doctrine, it is not too difficult to understand. Paul, just like anyone else, was born with a sin nature. But he was not born with guilt and blame. He says that he was alive. He has to mean 'spiritually alive'. This means there is no need for salvation. To be spiritually alive means that we are OK with God. If a Paul had died physically as an infant, he is saying, “I was alive. I would have went to be with Jesus.”
Then he says, “I was alive … without the law, once”. When was Paul without the law? When he was a small child, of course. There is no other way to take this.
Next he adds, “but then the commandment came”. So now how old is he? Old enough to be taught the commandments of God. As his parents taught him the commandments he discovered that he could not keep them. Sin became a reality to him. As he felt the guilt of his sin, he died. How old would he have been at this point? We can't know for sure, but normally the Jews would start teaching the law to their children very early on. Perhaps as early as 4 years old.
So now, as a child old enough to experience guilt of sin, he dies … spiritually. Had he died physically at that point, he would have went to hell. As he grew up, he would have learned all about God from the Jewish scriptures. He was 'more fortunate' then many. He said "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God … ” Acts 22:3 ¶ And he also said that he was, “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;” Philippians 3:5
But God had a special purpose for Paul, and while Paul was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians, he was blinded by a bright light and he heard the voice of Jesus. Paul was converted that day. He put his faith in Jesus and shortly thereafter he was baptized.
So, although the last thing Paul says in verse 9 is “I died”, after that Damascus road experience … he was alive … again.
That is what we call the 'new birth'. We call it 'born again'. We call it salvation.
I mentioned some denominations that taught that little children are born spiritually dead and in need of salvation lest they die young and go to hell. We see can that this is a false teaching according to Paul's testimony. Little children are born alive spiritually. It is only after they die spiritually (when they experience what sin is) that they need to be born again.
I mentioned the Calvinist view; What is that? We will be going into this in depth in the next chapter, but for now let me say that John Calvin taught that God, knowing every human being that would ever be born on this planet, (s)elected some for salvation before they ever were born. God did this in eternity past, even before he created the world. I have never read what percentage of humans that God supposedly chose. Would it work out to be about 10%?
According to Calvin all humans are born totally depraved and incapable of placing any faith in God. He gave this acronym to help understand his fundamental belief system.
T – Total depravity
U – Unconditional election
L – Limited Atonement
I – Irresistible Grace
P – Perseverance of the Saints.
As I said, more of this in chapter 8, but I want to point out here that John Calvin taught that unless you were one of the elect, a chosen few, you would eventually die and go to hell. So the question is, are all babies who die a part of the small number of the elect … the chosen? Are 10% of aborted babies … elect and all the rest go to hell? Or have all aborted babies been chosen to salvation by God before the foundation of the world?
Paul says that he was alive before the law came into his life. And then he says that he died. If we put this in Calvinistic terms we would have to say, 'I was one of the elect once. But then the commandment came into my life … and I became a 'non-elect'. Then on the road to Damascus I became an 'elect' again.
This is non-sense. To a Calvinist, if Paul were one of the chosen before the foundation of the world, then there would have been no point in his life, before conception or after … that he ever could possibly have died and gone to hell. And yet Paul clearly says, 'I died'.
Paul says that it was the 'law' that killed him:
Ro 7:10 “The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.” . Ro 7:10,11
Does that make God law into something bad? No, Paul goes on to say, “12 So then, the law is holy, and the command-ment is holy, righteous and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.”
So the commandments show us what sin is. We discover that we are far more sinful than we might have thought. As we realize how hopelessly sinful we are it motivates us to call out to God.
14 “ We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin”.
So we conclude that, because we have a sin nature … we sin. The law shows us just how much we sin. And we discover we cannot quit sinning. It is in our nature. So we call out to God for forgiveness and salvation. All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. So that removes our sin nature right? Well, not according to Paul's experience.
“15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.”
This is a very interesting group of verses.
Paul says that sin 'lives inside of him'. And then he said that 'good' does NOT live inside of him. But he quickly qualifies it by saying 'that is, in my sinful nature'. So we have a sinful nature. We got that from Adam. And we have the desire to do good residing somewhere inside of us. But not in the sin nature. So where? We must have two natures.
Sometimes we refer to this as the 'old nature and the new nature'. I have heard it referred to as 'the old man and the new man'. Only Christians who are 'born again' have this new nature. It is the thing that 'died' when Paul learned what sin was. So unbelievers have a 'dead' spiritual nature. When we are 'born again' or 'born from above', we receive a second new nature. It sounds a bit schizophrenic, but Christians have two natures. How do they work together? As you know from personal experience there is conflict.
“21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?”
Paul said it this way in his letter to the church in Galatia:
“Ga 5:17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”
As Paul shares his very personal testimony regarding this struggle … this battle that is raging in him we are amazed by his honesty. Charles Spurgeon1 commented on this; “Now, the more holy a man gets the more he cries in this way. While he is low down in the scale, he puts up with sin, and he is uneasy, but when he gets to see Christ and get somewhat like him, the more nearly he approximates to the image of his Master, the more the presence of the least sinful thought is horrifying to him. He would, if he could, never look on sin again ...”
And here is a quote from William Newell's commentary on Romans;
“(2) ln his remarkable Autobtography Mr.Charles G. Finney relates the case of a lady who had always been marked for simplicity and uprightness of spirit. She had been, when a young woman, very highly regarded, but when she heard the gospel, she believed it, immediately entering fully into the admission of her guilt before God, and trusting Him implicitly on the ground of the shed blood of Christ, But in Mr, Finney’s meetings she heard that God had commanded her to yield herself to Him and be filled with the Holy Spirit. She instantly complied again.
And her husband came to Mr, Finney saying, "I cannot understand my wife. She was the most perfect creature I ever knew, when we were married. Then she was converted, and has been absolutely exemplary ever since. But she says now that at your meeting the other night she yielded herself in a new way to God; and I myself can see the most astonishing change, but cannot account for it at all."
As the Lord changes us from glory to glory2 (2Co 3:18),
we become more sensitive than ever to our rotten sin nature. We become sick of it. Who can deliver us? Can I deliver myself? More laws, is that what I need? Can a good psychiatrist deliverer me from my sin nature? Can the prayers of my Christian friends or even those of my pastor?
“25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.”
Is Paul 'giving up' on dealing with his sinful nature (that he calls 'the flesh')? Is he saying, “OK … I just won't worry about it. I will serve God in my mind … and if my body sins, so what?” Not at all. He has much more to say about walking in the Spirit and not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. Romans chapter 8 will show us just how powerful the indwelling Spirit can be in each of us. Victory over the flesh is what we long for. Walking in the Spirit is our only satisfaction.
1 Ro 7:7-25 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3374, “Sin’s True Quality” 3376 @@ "Exposition" }
2 2Co 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.”
As the apostle Paul writes to the Roman church, he keeps in mind that he is talking to two very different groups of people. Some to the people used to be Jewish by religion, and the other group were non-believers with mainly pagan backgrounds. So at times he is writing more to one group than to the other. As you may have noticed in verse 1, ' I am speaking to those who know the law'. So these would be those from group one, former Jews by religion.
These would be people who might fear that if they were to give up on the law … which Paul seems to have been explaining is totally inadequate for salvation or for sanctification … if they were to give up on the law, they might feel like they are giving up on God.
The truth that Paul has been talking about has had to do with the basis of the forgiveness of sin. He has used a number of different ways to get this across, but now he uses a term that they and we are familiar with. That is the marriage bond.
Paul talks as if the Jews considered themselves 'married' to the Law. And that is a good illustration. The orthodox Jews of the day taught that the law was their source of sanctification and peace. Paul shows them that the opposite is true … that the law produced anything but peace. But he also wants to show them, that if they can let go of the law, just like a person has to give up his or her spouse if they were to die, and then remarry … in this case, to the grace of Jesus … it will be a wonderful change. The new marriage actually does produce peace and sanctification.
5 “For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.”
The Law is like a thorn stuck in our clothing. It irritates. Just when everything seems OK and normal, there it is again.
Notice how Paul shows that in the next verses.
7 “What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead”.
Paul is using just one of the laws, 'Thou shalt not covet'. He says, 'Once I learned what coveting was, I noticed I was doing it all the time!' How irritating is that? Things were so much better when he did not know it was wrong … or even what coveting was.
So, while the law may be irritating because it always points out our failures, does that make it bad? Paul says No. Because only when it is pointed out can we repent of it and receive a spiritual washing; forgiveness.
But as Paul says at the end of verse 8, apart from the law, sin was dead. O the bliss of ignorance!
9 “Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.”
Verse 9 is quite a verse! I believe we need look at it very closely and then take it very literally. This is a verse that every Calvinist theologian would have to 'dance around' to try to make any sense of it.
Let's just take it for what it actually says.
Paul is making this point by using himself as the example. Note carefully what he says:
- I was alive
- apart from the law
- The commandment came
- sin came to life
- I died.
What we are going to look at addresses directly the original teaching of the Roman Catholic church, the Anglican church, the Presbyterian church, the Lutheran church and all Calvinist based teachings, regarding salvation.
The above church denominations have a teaching in common concerning depravity. The teaching is this: All humans inherit from Adam, the sin nature and share the guilt of his sin. Translate that: From the moment of conception a baby has Adam's nature and guilt. That changes number one above to read: 1. I was spiritually dead from the moment of conception. As a proof verse they would use: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Psalm 51:5
Because they believe that babies are born 'spiritually dead' and because they believe that water baptism 'saves' the above mentioned denominations adopted the practice of baptizing infants. In their view, an infant is born spiritually dead, and if they were to become ill and die, they would go to hell. The Roman Catholics softened this somewhat by saying that an unbaptized baby who died, would end up in Limbo. The word 'Limbo' means edge or hem. Limbo was the 'edge' of hell. These teachings changed over the years. At first they said that it was a place of the very mildest of suffering. They would not be in any pain, only the pain of knowing that they could never go to heaven. Then others began to teach that even this pain did not exist, because the babies would not be given the information that there even was a heaven at all, therefore they would not know what they are missing. Later (after the 1300's) the teaching changed a bit more. They reasoned that individuals up here on earth could intercede for them in various ways, and that they could eventually end up in heaven.
The other denominations mentioned above do not and did not believe in a place called Limbo. Their teaching was more severe. They said that babies who died unbaptized went to hell with no opportunity to ever go to heaven. In our minds the question might arise, 'What about the scripture which teaches that 'It is by grace that we are saved, through faith'? How could a little baby be expected to have faith?'
So the practice and belief of these church leaders was to come up with something that could protect little children who died as infants and at the same time agree with the scripture that says a person is saved by faith. Here is what they came up with: The child's parents would exercise the faith for the baby who is too young to do. The parents believe for the child. And in case that this seemed too risky, (perhaps the parents were not all that godly) they were to choose 'god-parents' as a backup. Between these four individuals, at least one of them would believe for the little baby, then they would baptize the child. So here is a second variation: water baptism saves. And then a third variation, water baptism by sprinkling and not by immersion. There are reams of information that could expand on this, but we don't need to do that here.
What we do need to look at it this; is a baby in need of salvation? Are they 'dead in trespasses and sins'? Paul says no. He says that he “was alive once”. And then he says, later on he died.
If we can rid ourselves of any preconceived doctrine, it is not too difficult to understand. Paul, just like anyone else, was born with a sin nature. But he was not born with guilt and blame. He says that he was alive. He has to mean 'spiritually alive'. This means there is no need for salvation. To be spiritually alive means that we are OK with God. If a Paul had died physically as an infant, he is saying, “I was alive. I would have went to be with Jesus.”
Then he says, “I was alive … without the law, once”. When was Paul without the law? When he was a small child, of course. There is no other way to take this.
Next he adds, “but then the commandment came”. So now how old is he? Old enough to be taught the commandments of God. As his parents taught him the commandments he discovered that he could not keep them. Sin became a reality to him. As he felt the guilt of his sin, he died. How old would he have been at this point? We can't know for sure, but normally the Jews would start teaching the law to their children very early on. Perhaps as early as 4 years old.
So now, as a child old enough to experience guilt of sin, he dies … spiritually. Had he died physically at that point, he would have went to hell. As he grew up, he would have learned all about God from the Jewish scriptures. He was 'more fortunate' then many. He said "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God … ” Acts 22:3 ¶ And he also said that he was, “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;” Philippians 3:5
But God had a special purpose for Paul, and while Paul was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians, he was blinded by a bright light and he heard the voice of Jesus. Paul was converted that day. He put his faith in Jesus and shortly thereafter he was baptized.
So, although the last thing Paul says in verse 9 is “I died”, after that Damascus road experience … he was alive … again.
That is what we call the 'new birth'. We call it 'born again'. We call it salvation.
I mentioned some denominations that taught that little children are born spiritually dead and in need of salvation lest they die young and go to hell. We see can that this is a false teaching according to Paul's testimony. Little children are born alive spiritually. It is only after they die spiritually (when they experience what sin is) that they need to be born again.
I mentioned the Calvinist view; What is that? We will be going into this in depth in the next chapter, but for now let me say that John Calvin taught that God, knowing every human being that would ever be born on this planet, (s)elected some for salvation before they ever were born. God did this in eternity past, even before he created the world. I have never read what percentage of humans that God supposedly chose. Would it work out to be about 10%?
According to Calvin all humans are born totally depraved and incapable of placing any faith in God. He gave this acronym to help understand his fundamental belief system.
T – Total depravity
U – Unconditional election
L – Limited Atonement
I – Irresistible Grace
P – Perseverance of the Saints.
As I said, more of this in chapter 8, but I want to point out here that John Calvin taught that unless you were one of the elect, a chosen few, you would eventually die and go to hell. So the question is, are all babies who die a part of the small number of the elect … the chosen? Are 10% of aborted babies … elect and all the rest go to hell? Or have all aborted babies been chosen to salvation by God before the foundation of the world?
Paul says that he was alive before the law came into his life. And then he says that he died. If we put this in Calvinistic terms we would have to say, 'I was one of the elect once. But then the commandment came into my life … and I became a 'non-elect'. Then on the road to Damascus I became an 'elect' again.
This is non-sense. To a Calvinist, if Paul were one of the chosen before the foundation of the world, then there would have been no point in his life, before conception or after … that he ever could possibly have died and gone to hell. And yet Paul clearly says, 'I died'.
Paul says that it was the 'law' that killed him:
Ro 7:10 “The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.” . Ro 7:10,11
Does that make God law into something bad? No, Paul goes on to say, “12 So then, the law is holy, and the command-ment is holy, righteous and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.”
So the commandments show us what sin is. We discover that we are far more sinful than we might have thought. As we realize how hopelessly sinful we are it motivates us to call out to God.
14 “ We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin”.
So we conclude that, because we have a sin nature … we sin. The law shows us just how much we sin. And we discover we cannot quit sinning. It is in our nature. So we call out to God for forgiveness and salvation. All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. So that removes our sin nature right? Well, not according to Paul's experience.
“15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.”
This is a very interesting group of verses.
Paul says that sin 'lives inside of him'. And then he said that 'good' does NOT live inside of him. But he quickly qualifies it by saying 'that is, in my sinful nature'. So we have a sinful nature. We got that from Adam. And we have the desire to do good residing somewhere inside of us. But not in the sin nature. So where? We must have two natures.
Sometimes we refer to this as the 'old nature and the new nature'. I have heard it referred to as 'the old man and the new man'. Only Christians who are 'born again' have this new nature. It is the thing that 'died' when Paul learned what sin was. So unbelievers have a 'dead' spiritual nature. When we are 'born again' or 'born from above', we receive a second new nature. It sounds a bit schizophrenic, but Christians have two natures. How do they work together? As you know from personal experience there is conflict.
“21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?”
Paul said it this way in his letter to the church in Galatia:
“Ga 5:17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”
As Paul shares his very personal testimony regarding this struggle … this battle that is raging in him we are amazed by his honesty. Charles Spurgeon1 commented on this; “Now, the more holy a man gets the more he cries in this way. While he is low down in the scale, he puts up with sin, and he is uneasy, but when he gets to see Christ and get somewhat like him, the more nearly he approximates to the image of his Master, the more the presence of the least sinful thought is horrifying to him. He would, if he could, never look on sin again ...”
And here is a quote from William Newell's commentary on Romans;
“(2) ln his remarkable Autobtography Mr.Charles G. Finney relates the case of a lady who had always been marked for simplicity and uprightness of spirit. She had been, when a young woman, very highly regarded, but when she heard the gospel, she believed it, immediately entering fully into the admission of her guilt before God, and trusting Him implicitly on the ground of the shed blood of Christ, But in Mr, Finney’s meetings she heard that God had commanded her to yield herself to Him and be filled with the Holy Spirit. She instantly complied again.
And her husband came to Mr, Finney saying, "I cannot understand my wife. She was the most perfect creature I ever knew, when we were married. Then she was converted, and has been absolutely exemplary ever since. But she says now that at your meeting the other night she yielded herself in a new way to God; and I myself can see the most astonishing change, but cannot account for it at all."
As the Lord changes us from glory to glory2 (2Co 3:18),
we become more sensitive than ever to our rotten sin nature. We become sick of it. Who can deliver us? Can I deliver myself? More laws, is that what I need? Can a good psychiatrist deliverer me from my sin nature? Can the prayers of my Christian friends or even those of my pastor?
“25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.”
Is Paul 'giving up' on dealing with his sinful nature (that he calls 'the flesh')? Is he saying, “OK … I just won't worry about it. I will serve God in my mind … and if my body sins, so what?” Not at all. He has much more to say about walking in the Spirit and not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. Romans chapter 8 will show us just how powerful the indwelling Spirit can be in each of us. Victory over the flesh is what we long for. Walking in the Spirit is our only satisfaction.
1 Ro 7:7-25 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3374, “Sin’s True Quality” 3376 @@ "Exposition" }
2 2Co 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.