“I Vs. Not I”
TEXT: Romans 7:13-20
REVIEW
1. The Answer from Outside: True Christianity is all about an answer that comes from outside ourselves. If we did not need massive amounts of outside aid, then what would be the point of the cross of Christ? The healthy don’t need a doctor. But we are not healthy. We need a righteousness that comes from outside us in order for us to have peace with God. But we need something more. We need to get from where we are to where God is, and that requires more from God. The disciple Thomas told Jesus that He did not know where Jesus was going, so how could he know the way. Isn’t that our problem? We don’t seem to know the way through this life. We need some other help from outside us.
2. Is the Law the answer for us? The Law is holy and just and good, and yet it is not that something else we need. It has a great gospel purpose. It exposes and provokes our sin, and drives us to the real answer. But it can never bring us on the way to the life with God that we need and desire.
TODAY’S PASSAGE:
13 Has then what is good become death to me?
Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
1. Has the Law become death to me?
This passage clearly exposes a deep internal struggle with sin that we face. But let’s not get confused into thinking that the Law is bad, or that the Law itself is death. Let’s get it straight. The Law is from God, it is good, and it has a purpose. There is a problem and the problem is me. I have a sinful nature, and that sinful nature is made much more visible through the law.
The Law itself is “spiritual.” What Paul means here is that the Law is from God. It is without sin or error. Paul says that I am “carnal” or “fleshly.” That does not mean that my body is evil because it is physical. The answer is not for me to deny my body or escape from it. The problem is deeper than that. It is the sin nature within me that Paul is referring to, and this sin nature is more than my match.
Here’s the reality that I face. There is a difference between seeing something as morally good and doing the good thing. We all know that. Paul is going to explore this in verses 14-20. Paul’s message here is not some attempt to excuse sin or to take away our responsibility for our mess-ups. He’s just explaining the problem that we all know that we face, and leading us to see what is not the solution, so that we will be all the more ready to embrace the real Help that we desperately need.
In a word, Paul writes here of a massive struggle. You may feel that you are struggling with something this morning. What is it? Are you struggling with some situation that you don’t like or with some person who you see as a problem? Paul’s struggle in this passage is different from all these struggles with something outside us. He tells us about the biggest struggle that we face today, and it is a struggle within us. There is a battle in me between the new man that I truly am in Christ (we will call this person “I”) and my sinful nature (we will call this person “Not I”.) Paul gives us permission to do this in verses 17 and 20 when he says concerning sin “it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.”
2. I
What can me say about “I”? Since we are considering the work that the law does in exposing and provoking sin, we begin by noting that this “I” hears the law from God. Then “I” has a reaction. “I” agrees that the law is good and spiritual, that is from God. This “I” loves the law, and wants to do the law. Of course “I” does not want to do what is evil. But we see that there is a problem that introduces us to the other party in the struggle, and it is the final observation we can make about this “I.” He is perplexed. He does not understand why he does not do the law and instead does the evil which he hates.
3. Not I
The problem seems to be this great adversary within me, who we are calling “Not I.” This is the sinful nature. What can we say about him? There is nothing good in this sinful nature. This “Not I” dwells in me, and is powerful over me. Of course the passage tells us that the sinful nature does sin and does not do good. As we read of the struggle displayed in these verses, we would have to say that “Not I” appears to be winning. The sinful nature seems to have the upper hand in this battle as long as the battle is simply between “I” and “Not I.” That is why we said from the beginning that we need some powerful Help from outside us. If the fight is just between “I” and “Not I,” and there is no other Helper, we are in deep trouble.
In the weeks ahead we will see that the answer for us is in the power of Christ working through the Holy Spirit. We will have time to consider the good operations of our Savior in some detail as He sends this great Helper. For today, we need to see some things about this struggle within us.
APPLICATION:
Let me start my application of these verses with an observation that you may find strangely comforting. The life of struggle with sin is a reality. It is not just you. If you are facing this internal struggle, it is not because you are unusually weak or despicable.
Let me tell you frankly what I see as I look among my friends here in this church family. I see people resisting the means of grace (preaching, sacraments, prayer) and not even liking the means of grace. I see people dissatisfied with their lives and discouraged with their failures. I see people ashamed and angry with themselves, with others, and certainly with the lives that they have been given. So you are not alone. Now here’s the amazing miracle: With all of that mess, and through it all, people still want to believe in the death and resurrection of Christ for them. They still believe that their only hope is that alien righteousness that we have been studying in Romans. They believe that Jesus obeyed the Law for them, died for them, rose for them, lives now for them, and I think they even believe that Jesus loves them, and He does.
Wouldn’t you think that with all the disappointment and sin that people would just decide that Christ must not be the answer. But that is not what their conclusion is. They still believe in Jesus. They still want to follow Him. How do you account for such a thing? I’ll tell you what it is. It is the result of an alien power (that is a power outside of ourselves), who works in us to believe in alien righteousness. That same alien power who keeps us in the faith despite the intensity of the struggle, is the only one who can bring us an increasing measure of victory in the struggle between “I” and “Not I.”
Let me move on now to warn you of two problems.
Problem 1: The “lots-of-struggle-but-no-victory-at-all” problem. The person who has this problem does not deny that the Christian life involves internal strife. He can readily say “Amen” to that. But where is any sign of victory? Is this you? Two suggestions for you: 1) Your assessment may not be entirely accurate. God will sanctify His people. If you are in the faith, then He has begun a good work in you, and “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.” That’s a promise. You can count on it. But listen carefully to my second suggestion. 2) Could it be that you are relying upon the Law to do what only Christ working through the Spirit can do. Reliance upon the Law will never lead to a victory of “I” over “Not I.” Victory only comes through a more vigorous resting upon Christ in all His righteousness and power.
Problem TWO: The no-struggle problem. This is a very different pattern, although the end result is similar. This person is unwilling to engage in the struggle. They just fold. This is not the way the race is to be run. We are not allowed to abandon the narrow road that leads to life, and the narrow road is a road of struggle.
Let me close with three points of advice:
1. Don’t be surprised by struggle. Perhaps you are on the beginning of a renewed path of taking the Christian life more seriously, and you have thought that living for Christ will be an end to your struggles. This is not the case. You will struggle with your dead sin nature until the day you die.
2. Don’t use Romans 7 to excuse yourself from struggle. “If hopeless struggle with sin is good enough for the Apostle Paul it is good enough for me.” Paul is not telling us about this struggle to lead us to the conclusion that victory is a fiction. He is urging us in a very different direction. Here it is:
3. Face up to “Not I” and fight. But fight smart. Run the race in Christ. Seek the power of the Helper. Brothers and sisters, there is an alien righteousness by which we have peace with God. There is also an alien power in the gift of God’s Spirit. There is no hope without Him.