Saint and Sinner

Romans 7:14-25a Every Christian comes to the cross of Jesus Christ with the spirit—if not the words—of the old hymns:  “just as I am without one plea but that thy blood was shed for me” and “nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling”. 

Every Christian comes to Jesus as a sinner—knowing that there are no excuses we can offer up to God for our sins—knowing that we cannot justify ourselves God’s sight for we have fallen short of his glory. 

Every Christian also knows that, coming to the cross in faith, putting our trust in Jesus and what he has done, we are justified by God’s grace:  our salvation and forgiveness and peace are a gift from God. 

From that moment on, we are born again and new people in Christ.  We love God from our inmost heart and we desire nothing more than to do his will and live in fellowship with him.

But we also discover that what we most desire in our life with God—to do his will and serve him in holiness of life—is the very thing that we struggle—and often times fail—to do.

Even if we had never before heard these familiar words of our text from the book of Romans—we immediately recognize the truth of them—the genuine pain and sorrow of wanting to do God’s will—but failing to do that very thing.  That struggle was true of Paul and it is true of us too.

That we have this battle between what we desire as Christian people and what we actually accomplish in our life—is not unique to us.  It is the painful struggle against sin of every true Christian.  This struggle is not a sign that we have lost our faith—but so long as the struggle exists—a sure sign that we are Christian people—wanting to do the will of the One who has saved us—but falling short again and again on account of our flesh.  Paul wrote:

We know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

            The broken-ness of our human condition is not the fault of God or the fault of his law.  But rather, the fault lies within us—in the sinful flesh we inherited from our first parents.  That is true of every person by nature—and it is STILL true of us even when we become Christians. 

When we came to faith in Jesus, we were born again—we have a new heart and a new spirit—we are new people—in Christ.  But the old, sinful flesh we were born with did not magically disappear.  We still must bear it—like corpse that is chained around our neck that we must carry around every moment of our lives—but even worse, for this corpse fights against our best efforts and sincere desires as Christians.

We know the pain in Paul’s words:  I do not understand my own actions.  How many times have we said to ourselves:  “Good grief!  What is wrong with me?  I know not to do that!  I know that’s not right!  Why can’t I keep my big mouth shut!  When will I ever learn!  You would think I would know better than that by now!”

When we sin against better knowledge--it seems that we haven’t even begun to progress in the holy living that we really want to do as Christian people. 

Now, all of this is assuming that we really are Christians and we really do hate the sin in our lives—but the person who is living in sin without repentance or concern-the person who is consciously and deliberately making room for sin in their lives--ought not fool themselves into believing that any of this applies to them because they are not Christians no matter where they sit on Sundays or what church roll they are on.  There is no saving faith where there is no repentance and no intention to amend one’s life.

This struggle against sin that Paul is describing is only true of the Christian who knows what God desires—who very much wants to do it—and yet finds that they fall again and again under the crushing weight of their sinful flesh.  Paul wrote:

If I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

            To understand these verses, it is vitally important that we understand who the “I” is that Paul is talking about.  The “I” in these verses who hates sin and wants to do what is right as revealed in the law-- is the new person we are in Christ.  This new person we are by faith in Jesus knows the right things to do and wants to do them.  We recognize that the law reveals the holy will of God—and that the judgment of the law upon our own lives is correct:  that sin still dwells within them—in our flesh.  Paul wrote:

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. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

            The old sinful person within us, the flesh that leads us away from God and into sin—cannot be reformed-- for there is no good within it to begin with.  It cannot be whipped into shaped.  The law will never make it better. 

Instead, the flesh must be crucified and put off again and again which is the purpose of the law —to show us the truth about our sin again and again—to lead us to sorrow over our sin again and again-- and to bring us to the cross of Jesus Christ for forgiveness again and again.

This dynamic of- sorrow over sin and faith in the forgiveness of Jesus- is the heart of the Christian life and it begins with seeing our sin as God sees it—as that which is evil.

The sin that Paul mentions as that which brought him to the truth of his sinful condition was coveting—desiring things of which were not rightfully his—a sin of the heart.  He wasn’t committing adultery or stealing or murdering or blaspheming God—he simply had sinful desires in his heart—but he recognized those as evil—not because they were less than others’ sins—but because of what they were in God’s sight:  evil.

Often times, we are confused about the seriousness of our sins.  We say to ourselves:  “So I am not real regular in church attendance—maybe I say a curse word now or then—so what if I talk back to mom and dad—I’m still better than most people.”

But most people are not the measure that matters!  The holiness of God is the measure of our lives—and all sin is evil in his sight-- and all sin deserves his punishment in time and eternity. 

Recognizing our sins as evil in God’s sight and deserving his wrath brings us to a point where we can be saved-- because so long as we are measuring ourselves against others-- so long as we are excusing our sins-- so long as we are trying to justify what we do wrong—we will never come to the cross as sinners who need salvation. 

And that is what we are… for that even when we are doing our best—sin is never too far away.  Paul wrote:

If I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.  So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.  For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,

            The child of God wants to do the Father’s will.  It is simply impossible that a person has truly come in faith to the cross of Jesus Christ- recognizes the priceless gift of forgiveness that is there in the shed blood of Jesus—but remains unmoved in their hearts to live for God from that moment on.  It is simply impossible!  The child of God delights to know and do his Father’s will and searches the Word of God to discover that will is so that we can begin to do it in our lives.

            But as soon as we begin to do that—our sinful flesh is right there beside us, marring the good that we would do.  We volunteer at church—but we want to be honored for it.  We give to charity --but we hope someone sees and comments.  We extend kindness to someone in need—but are oh so proud of how nice we are. 

Paul says that it is a a principle—a pattern—that as soon as we begin to really attempt to follow Jesus—we discover- in a brand new way- just how sinful we are –that it extends to each part of our lives.  Paul wrote:

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.   Wretched man that I am!

Our mouth says things that we know we shouldn’t say—our feet take us to places we shouldn’t go—our eyes look at pictures we shouldn’t look at—our ears listen to words we shouldn’t hear.  There is a spiritual battle that lies before us each moment of our lives and that battle doesn’t just come from the unbelieving world (so that we could shut ourselves up in a monastery and avoid it) the battle comes from within us.

From the moment we came to faith in Jesus there was a spiritual struggle within us—a conflict between the new person we are in Christ and our old sinful flesh.  There is not one part of our lives that is not affected by that battle-- and often times we lose and fall into sin. 

And so what should we do when that happens?  Should we just give up and give in?  Should we simply surrender to our flesh and confess that it is too powerful a foe?  No!  Instead, we fight on—moment by moment, day by day, temptation by temptation—we fight on—confident that our daily battle against sin is a part of an epic war and that has already been fought and won by Jesus Christ who gives us his victory and ultimate deliverance from the power of sin and death.  Paul wrote:

Who will deliver me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

            I have always said that one thing that I am looking forward when I die is the opportunity—for the first time in my life—to be unencumbered by my fallen flesh—to never again disappoint my Lord by sinning. 

Of course I’m looking forward to seeing Jesus—yes I want to know what heaven is like—but I will be really, really glad that my days of sin will be done with—once and for all.

            But that day of deliverance is Good News for us ONLY because Jesus has already dealt with sin and death—for us—in our place and had the victory. 

His death on the cross has forgiven all of our sins—even those sin we commit in weakness as Christians.  His resurrection is God’s promise that our own death will be a day of deliverance into a new life in which sin will never have a part. 

The realities of our Lord’s death and resurrection mean that the daily battles against sin that we often times lose—are not the last word about us—but that Jesus has already won the victory-- and so our victory is assured.

            Today Jesus invites those who are weary and heave-laden to come to him and rest.  He speaks to us in his Word and comes to us under bread and wine to assure us that despite the sins of this last week and despite the struggles against our flesh which often seems more powerful than our faith—we really are his people and he forgives us and lifts us up in his power so that we can begin again to fight the good fight of faith.  Amen.