Please turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 7 as we continue our study through Paul’s letter to the church in Rome. We are currently in a portion of this letter that deals with sanctification and this covers Romans chapter 6 through Romans chapter 8. Paul has already shown us in this letter that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All are doomed for eternal separation from God because of their sin. We saw how man was condemned before God because of his sin!
But Paul does not leave us in that condition but he brought us to this point so he could now show us our need to be justified before God and that justification cannot come through our good works but only through Jesus Christ. We must receive Him as our Lord and Savior and then and only then can our sins be cast as far as the east is from the west to be remembered no more!
But God is not done with us yet. He is sanctifying us or purging out the garbage in our lives, making us more like Him. In Romans chapter 6 we looked at this issue of sin. And in this chapter we see that the word “sin” is used some 17 times and the idea that Paul is bringing forth is that sin shall not have dominion over us because we have died to sin and been raised in Christ! No longer are we slaves to sin but slaves to Christ and because of that, what is manifested in our lives is not unrighteousness, but righteousness!
Now in Romans chapter 7 the focus is the Law and this word is used some 23 times in this chapter. And the focus here is that we are not under the Law, that it has no power over us even though we were married to it in a sense at one time, because we now have died in Christ and thus we are now free, since we have been raised from the dead, to marry another, to marry Christ.
You see, there are many who try to draw close to God through the Law, by doing this and doing that. They think the victory is in doing and the reality is, the victory is in Christ, as we will see over the next few weeks. Paul is going to show us that he tried this and he even stumbles at times in this and it doesn’t work! Now before we get to the text, let me share this story with you to show you how our sin looks when we are walking in natural light as compared to the light of God. We are told:
A person walking on a dark night, gets splashed by a taxi going by. Oh, he says, “I got some mud on me.” In the reflection of a light about fifty yards away, he says, “I don’t think it is too bad.” As he gets nearer the light, he says, “It’s worse than I thought.” Right under the light, he says, “I’m going to have to go back to the apartment and change.”
The nearer you get to the Lord, the more you are going to see what sin is in your life. The nearer we get to God, the more we will see what we really are.
- Donald Grey Barnhouse, Timeless Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching, p. 217
How true that is and that is why the unsaved try to put out the light, or they don’t want to be around us because the light of God that shines in us exposes their sin and many times we don’t have to say a word! And that is also true of Christians who are living in sin, they don’t go to church, they avoid other Christians, they don’t read God’s Word because the light of God exposes their sin! But that is a good thing because it shows us that we need to repent, that we need to bring it to Jesus and give it to Him!
I remember years ago a pastor relating this same thought. His church was building a bigger building and the ceilings were very high. They had some big equipment in there and the construction people wanted them to inspect the building before they pulled this equipment out. So one Saturday they came in and started to look at everything but they couldn’t see the ceiling clear enough. So, over in the corner was this spotlight the construction people were using and they thought that this would help them and it did. They found all kinds of areas on the ceiling that weren’t painted, wires showing and-so-on.
So on Monday they showed them the list of problems and the foreman wanted to know how they could see all those things. They explained that they used that spotlight over there and it was easy! The foreman then told them that was not what they were to do. You see, people in the church will be looking at the ceiling in natural light and in the natural light all those mistakes, you might say, would not be seen. But, of course, with the spotlight shinning on them, it was easy to find them.
How true that is in our own lives. In the natural light, in the light of man, we look pretty good as we compare ourselves to others who are worse than us. But God does not look at us in the natural light but in His light or that spotlight you might say. Thus, all our sins are clearly seen and that is what God’s Word does in our lives, it exposes our sins to first of all draw us to Christ and then, after we are saved, to keep us close to Him because our sin will draw us away from the Lord! That is a powerful point we need to understand, how are we looking at our lives, in the natural light of man or the supernatural light of God?
Now, as we concluded last time we saw Paul remind us in Romans 7:12, “Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.” That is important for us to understand and Paul is going to continue on with this thought beginning in verse 13 regarding the Law and what is bringing us to death! With that said, let’s begin reading in Romans chapter 7, starting in verse 13 and see what the Lord has for us as we study His Word and focus on this subject of SANCTIFICATION AND THE LAW!
As you read these verses you might say they are the “How not to draw close to God, how not to walk with God, and how not to have victory over sin.” So if you want to know how not to do this, Paul has explained it for you right here in these verses we have read this morning. And as we move on into chapter 8 of Romans in a few weeks, we will see how to draw close to God, how to walk with God, how to have victory over sin! But both I believe are important for us to understand. One so we don’t try to go down that path that is futile and the other way is to show us that we can know what to do and have that victory!
And so with the remainder of our time this morning, let’s break down these verses and see what the Holy Spirit has for us as we look at this issue of the Law and Sanctification and the struggle that it brings into our lives.
First of all what is Paul speaking of when he says, “Has then what is good become death to me?” If you are unsure just look back at verse 12 and Paul is speaking of the Law being good and the idea then is this. Has the Law become death to me? Is it this Law of God that has doomed Paul and all of us to death? Now before you answer that one, I want you to think about it. You see, you might be prone to say that, “Yes, it is the Law that dooms us to death”, but I don’t believe that is what Paul is saying here.
In fact, Paul says, “Certainly not!” There is no way possible that it is the Law that has brought about death in our lives because the Law is good! Then what is that culprit that has brought death upon us? It is SIN! That is the problem. You see, the Law did not originate sin, but it did show us that we were sinners. It is like a mirror revealing to us what we look like, but it did not bring about death to us, sin did! Think about it, when you spent the previous night drinking, up most of the night, and the next morning you get up for work and look in the mirror, you can’t blame the mirror for the way you look, it is only showing you what you look like and that is the Law. It is not the fault of the Law but it is sin that brings about death in our lives, separation from God!
Back in Romans 3:20b, Paul tells us, “by the law is the knowledge of sin.” You see, the ultimate purpose of the Law was to expose the sin of man and drive him to the cross, to Jesus, the Savior! You see, Jesus fulfilled the demands of the Law for us; He took our sins so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Paul put it like this in Galatians 3:23-26, “But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”
Of this C. E. B. Cranfield said: “The more seriously a Christian strives to live from grace and to submit to the discipline of the gospel, the more sensitive he becomes to . . . the fact that even his very best acts and activities are disfigured by the egotism which is still powerful within him – and no less evil because it is often more subtly disguised than formerly.”
How true that is but in the world we are living in, how many people see themselves as sinners? I would have to bet that if you were to ask people if they were good or bad, most people would have to say they were good, not perfect, but at least good! That is wrong for the Bible tells us that, “There is none who does good, no, not one.” Romans 3:12c.
But in America today, again, most feel that they are basically good people and if you were to tell them that they were a sinner, well, that would be unloving, hateful, intolerant, they would be very mad at you! The reality is, you are not telling them that they are a sinner, God is! But even what God says they disregard and they see it differently.
But why is that? Remember what we were told in Judges 21:25, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” That is the problem, man does not think he is living in sin and he does as he pleases, which is sin in the eyes of God! Solomon nails it when he says in Proverbs 20:6, “Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, But who can find a faithful man?” Does that not speak of America today? Of course it does. Man proclaims his goodness while he lives in sin!
Also, in Proverbs 30:12 we are told, “There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, Yet is not washed from its filthiness.” Listen to how The Amplified Bible puts this verse, “There is a class of people who are pure in their own eyes, and yet are not washed from their own filth.” That is how people see themselves but that is not how they are, they are not pure and they cannot wash the filth away.
But, what if they don’t see themselves as sinners, as most people do today? That is where the Law of God comes in, it shows us our sin, it reveals it to us. Again, in Romans 3:20 we are told, “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
Well, if that is true, and it is, then this is great. We just need to show people that they are sinners separated from God and bring them to Jesus and everyone should get saved, right? Well, not exactly. The unsaved rebel against it because they enjoy their evil deeds and they refuse to come to Jesus. The saved, well, like the unsaved, once the Law exposes what we are not to do, we end up doing it! What may have been dormant as a desire in us is now a burning passion and thus, as Paul said, “that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.” And it does!
Paul put it like this in Romans 7:5, “For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.” The Law stimulated that flesh nature and it was aroused! Warren Wiersbe put it like this, “Instead of being a dynamo that gives us power to overcome, the Law is a magnet that draws out of us all kinds of sin and corruption.” How true that is! What happens when you see a sign that reads, “STAY OFF THE GRASS!”? You want to walk on the grass, that sin nature in you was aroused and you wanted to do that which you know you should not do!
Now listen to what Paul tells us in Romans 7:10 and what he says here in Romans 7:13 because they do seem to contradict each other. First of all Paul said in Romans 7:10, “And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.” And in Romans 7:13 Paul tells us, “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.” So what is Paul saying here? Listen to what William MacDonald wrote in his commentary on the book of Romans regarding these verses. He wrote:
“There might seem to be a contradiction between what Paul says here and in 7:10. There he said he found the law to bring death. Here he denies that the law became death to him. The solution is this: The law by itself can neither improve the old nature on the one hand nor cause it to sin on the other. It can reveal sin, just as a thermometer reveals the temperature. But it cannot control sin like a thermostat controls the temperature.
But what happens is this. Man’s fallen human nature instinctively wants to do whatever is forbidden. So it uses the law to awaken otherwise-dormant lusts in the sinner’s life. The more man tries, the worse it gets, till at last he is brought to despair of all hope. Thus sin uses the law to cause any hope of improvement to die in him. And he sees the exceeding sinfulness of his old nature as he never saw it before.”
- William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary, p. 1706
You see, when Paul saw the Law as external he felt safe, secure in keeping it. But, once he saw that it goes far deeper, it is internal, he saw that he failed, he fell far short of God’s standards! The end result is death. The Law didn’t kill him, but it showed him that he was guilty before God and thus, he then was sentenced to face the judgment of God! As I have said before, the Law can’t save us, it can only show us that we are lost in our sins, just as looking in a mirror can’t cleanse us of the dirt on our face, it can only show it to us! Now the Law didn’t deceive Paul, but sin did as it used the Law to deceive Paul into thinking he was something that he was not, holy before God!
Now, as we move on we are moving into a very controversial portion of this letter, or let me say it like this, another controversial portion of this letter. You see, who is Paul speaking of here in these verses, a Christian, an unbeliever, a backslidden Christian? This is important for us to understand because some have taken it to unbiblical conclusions and I think as you read these verses, Paul tells us who he is writing about and if that person is a Christian or not!
The question here is, “Who is Paul speaking of?” Some argue it speaks of a non-Christian, a keeper of the Law like a Pharisee. Others say Paul is speaking of a carnal Christian, one who is not walking with the Lord. The third view, the one I believe is correct, is that Paul is speaking of himself. As you look at this section Paul uses the first person singular some forty-six times in Romans 7:7-25, and thus, he must be speaking of himself! Paul is showing us how a normal, mature Christian can have a struggle with the spirit and the flesh!
Now some of you may not be convinced yet, but listen to what Paul says in Romans 7:22, “For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.” Now, how many unbelievers delight in the Law of God? None! How do I know that? Because Paul tells us this in Romans 8:7, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.” Thus, Paul is definitely not speaking of a unbeliever here in these verses of Romans chapter 7!
Also, in Romans 7:25 Paul tells us, “I thank God — through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.” Once again Paul is not speaking of an unbeliever here for he is thanking God and serving the Law of God. And I do not believe that he is speaking of himself in a backslidden condition because once again he is thanking God and serving the Law of God in his mind! In fact, I truly believe that Paul is speaking of the struggles he was facing when he was writing this letter to the church in Rome. You see, it was a battle of the flesh against the Spirit and he wanted to obey God but he is confessing to the church in Rome and to us that he always did not succeed.
Let me say this, this section does give me encouragement that even a man like Paul had this struggle within his life. Paul, in Romans 6:12-13 said, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” Don’t give in, keep up the fight and don’t let sin rule your life, let God! If Paul never struggled with these things how would that make you feel? It would make me feel like a failure, like maybe I wasn’t even a Christian and I am sure you would feel the same way or maybe you do because you are not doing those things that you want to do for the Lord and you are beating yourself up over them, over your failure. Folk’s, Paul had these struggles and I believe that every believer goes through them as that old flesh nature does battle with the Spirit and the Spirit fights back!
Think of it like this. If Paul the apostle, at maybe the very pinnacle of his spirituality and maturity in his walk with the Lord wrestled with these things, why do we think that we shouldn’t or that we are above that if we are walking with the Lord? You see, I think Paul is encouraging us here that he had these struggles and then in chapter 8 he will show us where he found the victory to overcome them. So let’s read on and see what Paul was going through to encourage us to forge ahead in this battle!
What does Paul mean when he says that the “law is spiritual”? Think about it, is the Law a bunch of outward laws of do’s and don’ts or is it dealing with the inner man, the spiritual part of man? I think it is both but Paul is focusing on the inner man here, the spiritual man.
When the Ten Commandments were written they were written on tablets of stone and thus, the emphasis was on the outward actions. Now some may argue that was the Old Testament and the Old Testament had nothing to do with the inner man, just the outward actions of man. I disagree. Look at Deuteronomy 10:12-13 and what it says. We are told, “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good?” Moses is speaking of the inner man, as he uses the word, “love”, “heart”, “soul” and thus, yes we are to obey the outward Law but it goes far deeper than that, it is dealing with the spiritual man, the inner man that is to be built up, to grow in the Lord and as we do it will be manifested in our outward actions!
Now Paul says that he is carnal, what does he mean by that? He is not saying that he is a carnal Christian but that he does have carnal passions and since he is not experiencing the victory over his sin he feels that he is sold as a slave with sin as his master. What a battle he was facing! One person put it like this, “The Law cannot transform the old nature; it can only reveal how sinful that old nature is. The believer who tries to live under Law will only activate the old nature; he will not eradicate it.”
And here in Romans 7:15 is the battle. How many of you have struggled as Paul is struggling? I am sure we all have and if you have no struggle, then I would be concerned! You see, we all desire to do that which pleases God but we also have a strong desire to please the flesh. That is true of a saved person but the unsaved do not have this struggle to please God but they do please the flesh, they live for it but there is no struggle.
Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:1-3, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” Now we face the battle between the flesh and the Spirit because we are alive in Christ!
And as Paul compares his actions to the Law he recognizes that the Law is good. Yes, he is not good as evidence by his breaking of the Law. And he concludes this in verse 17 as he says, “But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.” Now wait a minute Paul, are you doing the Flip Wilson thing, “The Devil made me do it”? Absolutely not! Paul is not excusing his sin or passing it off as if it was not his fault. What Paul is saying is that this sin that is seen in his life is not the result of the new man that he was in Christ but it was that sinful, that corrupt nature that dwells in him and is fighting against his spirit or that new nature!
Think of it like this. “But now, (since Jesus Christ has come into me life), it is no longer I, (the old ‘I,’ the old me is dead and buried with Christ and there is now a new ‘I,’ the new me, the new creation who doesn’t sin) but sin that dwells in me (that old sin nature that stirs up my flesh to sin.)” That is what Paul is speaking of here and it is important that we understand that or we will come to some very wrong conclusions!
I think the church is moving in the wrong direction today. You see, I think the church is trying to reform our flesh and that is totally against what the Scriptures teach us. The Bible tells us we are to crucify our flesh and allow God to transform our lives by renewing our minds and as we allow God to do that, as we crucify the flesh then we will grow, that inner man, that new man will flourish in the things of God.
Years ago this teaching of the crucifying of the flesh was known as that old “worm” theology, that there is nothing good in our flesh, just as Paul is telling us here. But today we are worried that it will hurt our fragile self-esteem and thus, instead of tearing it down, we need to build it up! There is so much wrong with that kind of thinking but let me make it very simple. What is wrong with self-esteem? Look at the first word – SELF! That is the problem! And the word “esteem” means, “to have a high opinion of, to value greatly.” Thus, the idea we see today is that we are to build up, to exalt self! That goes totally against what the Scriptures teach us.
But Robert Schuller says:
“I don’t think anything has been done in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to human personality and, hence, counterproductive to the evangelism enterprise than the often crude, uncouth, and unchristian strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition.”
You see, what has happened in the beginning of this century and the last half of the last century is that we have moved away from this idea of “worm” theology and we have exulted self to a position of greatness. Pride has become a virtue! We are no longer sinners, that hurts our fragile self-esteem! Those that adhere to this new theology say that, “God saved us because we were worth it, we are valuable to Him.” And the argument goes something like this: “You would only pay what something is worth, thus, because God gave his only begotten Son to die for us, we must be worth a lot! We must be valuable!”
In other words, that old “worm” theology is wrong, according to Robert Schuller and many others today. Folks, they are wrong! It is the whole self-esteem bandwagon that the church is jumping onto. And folk’s, self-esteem is not the solution. In fact it is the problem. We love self too much! Listen to these statements made by Robert Schuller and see if they match up with Scripture or the philosophies of men.
“What is that basic flaw? I believe it is the failure to proclaim the Gospel in a way that can satisfy every person's deepest need – one’s spiritual hunger for glory. Rather than glorify God's highest creation - the human being - Christian liturgies, hymns, prayers, and Scriptural interpretations have often insensitively and destructively offended the dignity of the person. . . . By self-denial Christ does not mean the rejection of that positive emotion we call self-esteem - the joy of experiencing my self-worth. . . . The death of Christ on the cross is God’s price tag on a human soul . . . [it means we really are somebody’s!]”
Isn’t that amazing. Look at Hollywood, at movie stars, sport figures and see if their glory in themselves is something we should be promoting? I don’t think so, in fact, it looks bad when they do it but what about when we do it? We are moving in the wrong direction and away from the Word of God with this idea of building self up, it needs to be crucified!
Now listen to what one of the great Puritan's, Joseph Alleine wrote in 1662 after being imprisoned twice for his faith and you will see how much our theology has changed over the years, and not for the better. He said, “I am not baiting my hook with rhetoric, nor fishing for your applause, but for your souls. My work is not to please you, but to save you. . . . If I were to please your ears, I would sing another song. . . . But how much better are the wounds of a friend than the fair speeches of the harlot. . . . I know, if we succeed not with you, you are lost; if we cannot get your consent to arise and come away, you will perish forever. No conversion - no salvation!”
He nailed it, he is correct, but you see, we have moved to the new gospel of self-esteem and thus, we must avoid anything that will threaten a sinner’s fragile self-esteem. Listen to what one popular Christian teacher had to say regarding the results of not building up self. I think you will be surprised who said this, maybe not, but listen carefully. He wrote:
In a real sense, the health of an entire society depends on the ease with which the individual members gain personal acceptance. Thus, whenever the keys to self-esteem are seemingly out of reach for a large percentage of people, as in twentieth-century America, [and now in the twenty-first century] then widespread “mental illness,” neuroticism, hatred, alcoholism, drug abuse, violence, and social disorder will certainly occur.
- James Dobson, Hide or Seek, pp. 12-13
Do you know who said that? It was James Dobson in a book he published in 1974 called Hide or Seek. So it is no longer our sin that causes us to do this but it is a lack of self-esteem that brings this about? I disagree; it is the sin that is in us. Thus, instead of repenting of our sin and coming to Jesus, we just need to build up our self-esteem and the problems of society will go away! Really? How is that working? Not too well! No they won’t work because the heart of man is evil and apart from Christ, well, just look around and see how proud people are as they do the most outrages crimes. It has nothing to do with their self-esteem being too low, the flesh needs to be crucified and it is not being done and that is the problem as the Scriptures teach us.
Listen to just a few of these verses just to show you what I mean:
“Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one!” Job 14:4.
“What is man, that he could be pure? And he who is born of a woman, that he could be righteous? If God puts no trust in His saints, And the heavens are not pure in His sight, How much less man, who is abominable and filthy, Who drinks iniquity like water!” Job 15:14-16.
“How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman? If even the moon does not shine, And the stars are not pure in His sight, How much less man, who is a maggot, And a son of man, who is a worm?” Job 25:4-6.
“But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.” Isaiah 64:6.
You see, this is the “worm” theology that the Bible is talking about. That we are sinners and nothing we can do can change that except for Christ. And folk’s, what we see today is what Paul warned us of in II Timothy 3:1-2a about the last days as he wrote, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves . . . ”How true that is, self-esteem, loving self and there is no longer talk of crucifying the flesh, of repenting of sin!
Folk’s, before you can have victory over sin you first have to understand where you stand, you have to have a proper view of self! You see, there can be no salvation apart from this and there can be no progress in holiness unless we learn that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwells nothing good! That is what Paul is telling us! And Paul is saying that he constantly desires to do good, that is his hearts desire, but he doesn’t achieve that like he would like!
Again, Paul is speaking of knowing what is right but lacking the power to perform it! It would be like me using power tools to build a house. I may be very sincere, but I lack the power, the talent to do it perfectly. The fault doesn’t lie with the wood, the nails, the screws, the tools, the paint, the brushes, the cement, the shingles and-so-on, but with me. That is why I need the Master Builder, Jesus Christ, to place His hands on mine in order that I can do with His strength and talent what I could not do on my own! Thus, Paul gives to us Romans chapter 7 before Romans chapter 8. I know, brilliant, it took weeks for me to figure that out! No, really, you have to see that you can’t do it on your own, Romans chapter 7, before you can see that you can only accomplish this in Christ, Romans chapter 8, and then it is still a battle as the flesh wars against the spirit!
Let me explain it like this. We have this Golden Retriever and her name is Petra. And it is fitting, for Petra means rock and I think sometimes her head is as hard as a rock! Now here’s the thing. Petra knows what is right; she has been taught what is right. A few weeks back I went to look at the garden in the backyard and she followed me. And I was a little worried that she would run away but we have her on the deck without a chain and I thought maybe she is growing up, she knows she is not to run away. Well, as I turned and I looked at her and she looked at me, I know she knew what she was to do, but what she wanted to do she didn’t do and she ran away!
Great! So my neighbor’s backdoor to their garage was open and she goes running in there. Great! And all of a sudden I hear screaming and out the front door of the garage is running a cat for her life and Petra and two little girls! Great! So I did go running after her and the poor cat ran up the tree and I was able to retrieve the Golden Retriever and we had a nice little talk! But that is so much like us. The things we want to do we don’t do and the things we don’t want to do we do and that is what Paul is speaking of here! The Law, in a sense, says, “Don’t run away!” And we, like may dog, think, “I can run away!” and off we go! What we want to do we don’t do and what we don’t want to do we do!
Now we are not going to be able to finish this up this morning, and we will try to conclude this chapter next time as we finish up looking at THE CONFLICT we face and then THE VICTORY we have in Christ!
But as I close this morning let me leave you with these words from J. Vernon McGee in his commentary on the book of Romans. He sums this up for us as he wrote:
I remember when I started out, oh, I was going to live for God! That’s when I fell on my face, and I have never fallen harder than I did then. I thought I could do it myself. But I found there was no power in the new nature. And that is the reason that an evangelist can always get [a] response in a meeting. I’m afraid ninety percent of the decisions that are made in our churches today have been made by Christians who have been living in defeat in their Christian lives. What they are really saying is, “I want to live for God. I want to do better.”
Often an evangelist in a meeting says, “All of you that want to live for God, put up your hand. All of you today that want to come closer to God, put up your hand. Those of you who want to commit your life to God, come forward.” The minute an evangelist says that, he’s got me. That is what I want to do. That new nature of mine says, “I sure would like to live for God.” But there is no power in it. That is what multitudes of believers fail to recognize. There have been folk who have been coming forward for years, and that’s all they have been doing – just coming forward! They never make any progress. Oh, how they need to understand this truth!
- J. Vernon, McGee, Thru The Bible Vol. IV, pp. 693-694
The victory folk’s, as we will see, is never in us, but it is only found in Christ! May we not forget that as Paul reminds us in II Corinthians 5:17, “ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” Or as The Amplified Bible puts it, “Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!” May we die to self, crucify the flesh on a daily basis and submit, surrender our lives to the Holy Spirit so that we can do those things that God desires us to do!