14 For we know that the Law is
spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.
15 For what I am doing, I do not
understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the
very thing I hate.
Is it just me, or do you ever feel like that? Do you catch yourself doing something you KNOW is a sin, and you don’t want to do it, but you are doing it anyway? If not, you don’t know enough about sin!
1 John 1:8
8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. (The Word of God is not the problem)
17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which
dwells in me.
18 For I know that nothing
good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present
in me, but the doing of the good is not.
Face it, we are not “naturally good.” The Bible says otherwise:
Isaiah 64:6a
6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean,
And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;
Jeremiah 17:9
9 "The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick;
Who can understand it?
Back to Romans 7
19 For the good that I want, I
do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am
no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me,
the one who wants to do good.
Paul (and Mal) wants to do good, he just can’t, because we have in our flesh a natural tendency to sin!
22 For I joyfully concur with
the law of God in the inner man,
23 but I see a different law in the members of my body,
waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of
sin which is in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who
will set me free from the body of this death?
Notice : Paul doesn’t say, “what can I do to free myself from this sin”, but “WHO will set me free!”
Not – how can I make myself not sin anymore, or how can I make up for my sin, but who will set me free?
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So
then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on
the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
Remember, when Paul wrote this letter to the Romans, he didn’t number the verses OR the chapters. We know from the first word in Chapter 8 (therefore) that this references what he has written in Chapter 7.
8:1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for
those who are in Christ Jesus.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
Paul says that since Jesus Christ paid the price for our sin once and for all, that we will never be under condemnation for our sin!
We should not focus on this natural tendency toward sin that is in our flesh, but on the SOLUTION that God has provided.
Romans 6:1-11
1 What shall we say
then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2 May it never be! How
shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Or do you not know
that all of us who have been baptized (Greek word is BAPTIZO, which means identification) into Christ Jesus have
been baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we have
been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised
from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness
of life.
5 For
if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we
shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that
our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be
done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
7 for he who has died
is freed from sin.
Once you have believed in Jesus Christ, you (your old self, your flesh) are BAPTIZED into His death, and the price for the sin is therefore paid!
We always hear “Christ died for the sinner”, but now we must add “the sinner died with Christ!”
8 Now if we have died
with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9 knowing that
Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no
longer is master over Him.
10 For
the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He
lives, He lives to God.
11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ
Jesus.
Realize when (not if) you sin, it is your flesh doing it, and that flesh has been crucified with Jesus Christ.
You hear so much today about sin, and about how we should focus our efforts on changing and committing less sin. But the principle is this: the sin in your body is gone as far as God is concerned, because the price has been paid for it (on the cross).
Romans 6:1-2
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Romans 2:4
4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
As easy as it is to become discouraged because of the sins we keep on committing, God wants us to focus not on the sin, but on the SOLUTION to sin.