“Indwelling Frustration & Despair”

TEXT:  Romans 7:25b

REVIEW

1.  Even Unbelievers: Many people have thought Romans 7 must be about a believer’s struggle with sin since the person described delights in God’s law.  But many people who will not bow the knee to Jesus try to live their lives with the highest regard for the Law.  Unless they have the help that only comes from the Lord, they will not find the law to bring to them the holiness that they seek.

2.  Even Believers:  Many people have thought Romans 7 must be about an unbeliever’s struggle with sin since the person described seems stuck in defeat.  But many believers face prolonged periods of hopelessness as they struggle with indwelling sin.  Some seem to give up on the hope that they will ever see real victory in this life.  Is there any hope for fallen humanity in the face of such a difficult and prolonged struggle with sin?

TODAY’S PASSAGE: 

So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God,

but with the flesh the law of sin.

After such a glorious conclusion…

            The previous verse and the first half of this verse form one of the most exciting conclusions in Scripture to a section that deals so forthrightly with the challenges that people face as they desire to follow God’s ways.  In the form of a question and answer, it reads as follows: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?  I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!”  Paul recognizes our sinful wretchedness.  We have a body of death chained to us.  We are prisoners of war marching in chains into enemy lands.  We need a Deliverer. 

Then comes the statement of victory.  “I thank God.”  The answer to my longing for holiness is in God, not in the Law that would rightly condemn me.  The Lord who has been appointed as the righteous judge of mankind is the Sacrifice that cancels my guilt.  He is now at work in me by His Spirit.  I live and grow in holiness through faith in the Lord of the church.  There is an answer.  The answer is the present and powerful saving work of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Why then, after such a glorious conclusion, would Paul return to the struggle with the words that make up our text this morning?  By the way, the beginning of the eighth chapter is a return to the victory song.  Why is this message of seeming defeat and hopelessness sandwiched in between two great verses of victory?  Is the Apostle Paul just randomly summarizing an earlier point that he made?

I think that Paul has something important to say here about the present experience of his own life and of all those who would say in their minds that the law is good, while yet having the old remains of a sin nature rising up against them and against God.  Yes the victory is certain and secure for the elect of God.  That is cause for great rejoicing.  Christ has conquered sin and death.  But before you get the wrong idea that there will be no more fighting, here is a word of reminder from Paul: “With the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

“With the mind”… with my spirit, my reason, my conscience, my heart

“I myself”… even I, Paul, have such a struggle as long as I live in this body

“serve the law of God”… the commandments of Christ, the moral law, the duty of imitating the Lord God in all His praiseworthy integrity and moral beauty,

“but with the flesh”… with my old sin nature

“the law of sin”… the law that exposes and arouses sin in my still troublesome sin nature.

Why is this the case?  If any man consistently approached all of life with perfect faith in God, such a man would have no sin.  Paul was not that man.  He was not sinless.  His teaching preserved in the Scriptures was inspired by God, and is perfect and powerful.  But Paul was still subject to sin until the day he died.  That means that even Paul did not always fight against sin the right way – that is through faith in the present reign of Christ working in him by the Holy Spirit.  Sometimes even Paul would have been tempted to give in to hopelessness, or to seek what can only come by grace as if it came through Law.  This must be, or else we have to suppose that Paul reached some state of sinless perfection.  But this is not the model of the Christian life that Paul teaches the churches.  He is the one who tells us that we have to keep putting off the old man and putting on the new man, because the body of death is still a wretched and smelly nuisance.

We have great victory in Christ in every way, but the struggle can be long and ugly, so seek that help which is from above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father.  If Paul is not talking about a present reality for himself as he writes to the church in Rome, then he said something in our text this morning that certainly could be very easily misinterpreted to make that point.  Put another way: if Paul meant to tell us that Christians would not continue to struggle with the problem of double-mindedness and defeat, he certainly picked an odd set of words to get his point across. 

Application…

Paul has written here twenty inspired words about the reality of the struggle for growth in holiness that even he himself faced.  How can we make best use of these words?  I thought of calling this sermon “How to Get Out Those Really Tough Stains.”  Not all sin is equally troublesome, and not all sinners face equal troubles.  This morning I want to address sins that seem to define your life, or struggles of God’s providence that we have the hardest time making our peace with.  We know that we are commanded to be thankful in all things, but our worse struggles with our own sin, or our related or unrelated challenges with the greatest losses we face seem to show up like ugly blotches in our life tapestry.  In general, out of great love for the saving work of Christ, we want to grow in holiness in any situation where our sin is exposed.  But some things keep on coming back to us, with a big red stamp on the case file for stubborn sins, shouting out in block letters “FAILURE!”

            How do you get out that kind of stubborn stain?  First, it really will help us to remember that the answer at root is the same for the smallest smudge and for the deepest stinking mess.  There is no other way for us than through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord, even with our worst struggles.  Any other suggestions that can be made can never take away the truth that wretched sinners need a Deliverer in order to grow in holiness.  Jesus is the only Deliverer who can defeat that horrible bully of sin nature that sends us into the confusion and frustration of double-mindedness, where we love the Law but do evil.

            With that said, let me leave you with four specific pieces of advice that I sincerely hope will bring you comfort as you take these twenty words of on-going struggle to heart.

            1) Some things take time.  God is under no obligation to finish your growth in holiness quickly.  You live a certain number of days according to His good wisdom, and the progress of sin eradication is in His wonderful hands.

2) Some stains may require repeated and persistent application of appropriate solutions.  God has given us faith, repentance, Bible reading, prayer, singing, the Lord’s Supper, learning, teaching, and opportunities for mercy to others.  We need to trust Him in all of this, and not ourselves.  Still, as we trust Him, we may need some pretty strong doses of His solutions for frustration and despair.  I have started to meet much more frequently with people in crisis than I once did, and I have seen the Lord do great things.  Trust Him, and pour on the things that He tells you to use in such situations.  Jesus once healed a blind man with two touches, rather than just one.  After the first touch the man could see, but men seemed like trees walking.  After the second touch, men were men.  The Jordan River is not a magic body of water.  But Naaman the Syrian was told to dunk himself seven times.  The walls of Jericho did not come down the first time the armies of God circled the city.  Do you get the point?  Keep on going.

3) Some things require outside help.  Don’t resist the aid of the priesthood of all believers and the love of those who are called to give an account for your progress in holiness.  God gives you the body of Christ for your good.  It may help to do what the Bible instructs us in James 5 and confess our sins to one another so that we can pray for one another.  There is healing in the prayer of faith.  Don’t be too proud or private to ask for help.

4) Some things will not be fixed until heaven.  The point for you in some persistent challenge may be patience.  That may be the victory of faith for you in this life.  There are many physical ills that will not be completely overturned until our future hope comes.  Why should this not also be the case for the many spiritual struggles that we face?

Finally, through all the pain, frustration and despair of struggling with indwelling sin remember that the Lord of Glory was made man and died for you so that you would know complete forgiveness today.  Remember that the Father loves you, the Son loves you, and the Holy Spirit loves you.  And trust, always trust, that His will shall be accomplished.  He works out all things according to the counsel of His most perfect will.  So don’t be surprised by stubborn sin.  It’s part of life.  But don’t be satisfied with defeat.  Trust the Lord, and He will give you the desire of your heart, whether now or later.