For 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. Now 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. For 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. Now 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, but 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! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Romans 7:14-8:1
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, but 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! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Romans 7:14-8:1
Introduction
We now come to an interesting point in the book of Romans. We come to one of the most controversial passages in the book of Romans, second to Romans 9, and one of the harder passages to grasp. We just got done studying through Justification in Romans 3 through Romans 5 and how we are Justified and we stand before God as Cleansed, and then We’ve spent a few weeks on Romans 6 and up through Romans 7 verse 13 talking about how Sanctification flows out of our Justification. The two are different, but the two cannot be separated nor can they be reversed. We discussed that our sanctification is a growing process and one that we won’t become fully Sanctified until death.
Then just flowing out of Romans 6 through Romans 7, verse 13, we have Paul telling us over and over. If you are truly a Christian, you’ll have fruit. If you’re truly a Christian, you’ll produce righteous deeds. If you are truly a Christian, you are no longer enslaved to sin. If you are truly a Christian, your desire is to become holy as Christ is Holy.
And then we come to Romans 7:14 and the entire atmosphere that’s been set by Paul is now completely different. The tone is different, the tenses are different. We just got done talking about how we should be producing good works and then Paul says, “But I struggle with sin..” whoa, wait a minute Paul, is this right? Maybe this section shouldn’t be here. Paul is saying that even though, as Christians we are to put off things of unrighteousness, and put on things of righteousness and grow in doing good deeds, aren’t you completely contradicting yourself?
You get the sense that we have died to sin in Romans 6 through Romans 7:13. And then we get to this passage where
Paul says that he struggles with sin
We see these two almost seemingly contradictory thoughts opposing each other, and we have to figure out how to corroborate the two. We know that Scripture supports Scripture, so these two passage of God’s Word cannot be at odds with one another, so the question is, how do they work together? And that’s what I’m excited to share with you guys today. I’m excited to share what God has opened my heart to throughout my week and hours of studying this passage.
So the question that I want to start off with by looking at and discussing this morning is the question that, “If you are truly in Christ, can Christians struggle with addiction?”
Then just flowing out of Romans 6 through Romans 7, verse 13, we have Paul telling us over and over. If you are truly a Christian, you’ll have fruit. If you’re truly a Christian, you’ll produce righteous deeds. If you are truly a Christian, you are no longer enslaved to sin. If you are truly a Christian, your desire is to become holy as Christ is Holy.
And then we come to Romans 7:14 and the entire atmosphere that’s been set by Paul is now completely different. The tone is different, the tenses are different. We just got done talking about how we should be producing good works and then Paul says, “But I struggle with sin..” whoa, wait a minute Paul, is this right? Maybe this section shouldn’t be here. Paul is saying that even though, as Christians we are to put off things of unrighteousness, and put on things of righteousness and grow in doing good deeds, aren’t you completely contradicting yourself?
- Romans 6:1 – Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!
- Romans 6:2 – How can we who died to sin still live in it?
- Romans 6:6 – We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
- Romans 6:11 – so you also must consider yourselves dead to sin
- Romans 6:12 – Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body
- Romans 6:14 – For sin will have no dominion over you
- Romans 6:18 – having been set free from sin
- Romans 6:22 – Now you have been set free from sin
- Romans 7:4 – Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law
- Romans 7:6 – But now being released from the law
You get the sense that we have died to sin in Romans 6 through Romans 7:13. And then we get to this passage where
Paul says that he struggles with sin
- Romans 7:15 – I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate
- Romans 7:17 – it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me
- Romans 7:18 – For I know that nothing good dwells in me
- Romans 7:20 – If I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me
We see these two almost seemingly contradictory thoughts opposing each other, and we have to figure out how to corroborate the two. We know that Scripture supports Scripture, so these two passage of God’s Word cannot be at odds with one another, so the question is, how do they work together? And that’s what I’m excited to share with you guys today. I’m excited to share what God has opened my heart to throughout my week and hours of studying this passage.
So the question that I want to start off with by looking at and discussing this morning is the question that, “If you are truly in Christ, can Christians struggle with addiction?”
Theological Conflict
To answer that question, I believe we need to have a better understanding of Romans 7:14-8:1. The controversy around Romans 7:14-8:1 isn’t new. It’s been a long and on-going debate, and I’m hoping we can work through this logic a little bit and come to a proper conclusion of the view of this passage. And really, there are two basic thoughts that are opposed to each other when it comes to the understanding of this passage. The first view is that Paul is talking in light of a non-Christian view. Paul is reflecting now, back to his life prior to his conversion and that Paul is presently recalling his former state prior to his regeneration. Now that’s view 1. View number 2 is that Paul is speaking of himself as a Christian in his current state at the present time of writing this book to the Church at Rome.
I’m going to tell you up front, that I believe that he is specifically talking about himself as a Christian, and that Paul is reflecting on himself and the struggles that he, even at the peak of his epistle writing and Christian life goes through. But if we don’t view this section of Scripture in light of a current Christian view, then our answer to the proposed question could become different. I think one of the biggest traps that we can run into with the Non-Christian reading of this passage is that we open the door do Full Sanctification in this life, prior to that in the next life.
Those who believe that this passage of Romans is specifically talking about Non-Christians get their support from the following passages in this section. They think that there is too much bondage to sin that Paul is talking about for this passage to refer to a Christian view point.
The Non-Christian Standpoint
Supporting the Position
Romans 7:14 says, “I am carnal, sold under sin” and verse 18 says “I know that in me dwell no good thing; for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not” and they come to the conclusion that we have to be referring to a non-Christian because a Christian knows how to do what is good.
Then they’ll point to verse 24 which says, “Oh, wretched man that I am!” which seems far removed from the promise that Romans 5:1-2 gives us when Paul writes “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. So their question would be “How can a man justified by faith be so wretched?
Then, to the point that I made during my introduction, Romans 6, and even into the beginning of Romans 7 have many examples of the believer’s freedom from the power of sin and the proponents of the non-Christian view ask then, in light of Romans 7:14, “how can someone on says ‘I am carnal, sold under sin’ in fact, be a Christian?”
Problems with the Position
When we read Romans 6 & Romans 7, we have to realize that these two passages aren’t at odds with each other, but they are complimentary to each other. The new creation, new nature, new identity, new person in Christ, and new holiness of the believer is in the redeemed person that has broken sin’s dominion, but the emphasis in Chapter 7 is the other side that, on this side of heaven, sin is still a problem.
If you actually read back through Romans 6, we’ll find points where Paul is talking to Christians and telling them to stop living in sin. It’s not like where in Romans 7 we discuss that Paul doesn’t give the command to produce fruit, but that, if you are a Christian you will produce fruit as simply a fact. But Paul actually gives the command, multiple times, in Chapter 6 to not continue in the way of sin. Examples would be in verse 12, in verse 13, and in verse 19 of Chapter 6. So to say that Chapter 7 cannot refer to a Christian because of statements in Chapter 6, is to actually have a misunderstanding of Chapter 6.
The Christian Standpoint
Description of a Christian
Romans 7:22 says that Paul “delights in the law of God.” This is something, simply put, that a non-Christian cannot claim accurately according to Romans 8:7.
Also, Romans 7:25, Paul says that he “thanks God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So, then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God.” Again, something a Non-Christian simply couldn’t say. This sounds like a Christian thanking God through Jesus Christ with the deepest longings of a Christian.
In verse 15, Paul has a longing to do what is good, but ends up doing what he hates. Paul though has a longing for that which is good; which an unregenerate person cannot do. What did we read back in Romans 3 verses 11 through 18?
None is righteous, no not one? An unbeliever does not pursue God’s purposes or His holy law. And Jeremiah 7:9 informs us that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Then Paul moves on through verse 18 through 21 continuing with the battle that seems so personal and near to him. Something deep inside Paul wants to do what is right, but, and focus on that but, an evil principle keeps them from accomplishing this easily.
This is the main reason here that I think Romans 7 is specifically talking about a redeemed person. This battle between God’s righteous law and the law of sin is a battle that only a believer can struggle with.
New or Old Christian?
Then you’ll get some people that say, “Well Jason, the reason is because we are talking about a new Christian here and not a mature Christian.”
I don’t think this is the case however. First and foremost, Paul is talking in first person, present tense. When Paul wrote this, he was at the peak of his spiritual life thus far in his walk. When Paul wrote this book, he wrote this book that has become a crucial resource for the entire Christian Faith.
Paul, over and over, throughout his writings reveals this inadequacy that he has and the reality of sin still hanging on in his life.
Lastly, the terms Paul uses in Romans 7 are that of a mature Christian, not that of an immature Christian. And immature Christian doesn't hate, with the passion or degree of animosity that Paul does, his sin in verse 15. Nor does an immature Christian have the deep profound love for righteousness that Paul talks about in verses 19 & 21. And most new Christians don’t have the law of God in their hearts and delight in it when Paul talks of this in verse 22. These are responses of a
Mature Christian who really understands their faith and who they are in Christ.I recently heard a sermon from a sister or brother church of Faith Bible Fellowship Lancaster from a Pastor named Tim Bertolet working through the book of Colossians. And this was his quote, paraphrased was this, “The Christian life is becoming more aware of sin, so you can draw closer to Christ” or that the Christian life is, that as you grow in your maturity, the sins that you may have thought as lesser or not even thought about at all, now become more apparent to you because you are drawing closer to Christ and growing in your holiness and sanctification.
So we conclude that this passage is talking from a Mature Christian Perspective. And I don’t know about you, but I find some comfort in the fact that even Paul struggled with sin, and had this battle over sin. It seems that Romans 7:14-8:1 is Paul’s own testimony of how to live as a Spirit-controlled, mature believer. Paul loves the holy law of God with his whole heart, but finds himself wrapped up in human flesh and unable to fulfill it the way that his heart would long for.
I’m going to tell you up front, that I believe that he is specifically talking about himself as a Christian, and that Paul is reflecting on himself and the struggles that he, even at the peak of his epistle writing and Christian life goes through. But if we don’t view this section of Scripture in light of a current Christian view, then our answer to the proposed question could become different. I think one of the biggest traps that we can run into with the Non-Christian reading of this passage is that we open the door do Full Sanctification in this life, prior to that in the next life.
Those who believe that this passage of Romans is specifically talking about Non-Christians get their support from the following passages in this section. They think that there is too much bondage to sin that Paul is talking about for this passage to refer to a Christian view point.
The Non-Christian Standpoint
Supporting the Position
Romans 7:14 says, “I am carnal, sold under sin” and verse 18 says “I know that in me dwell no good thing; for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not” and they come to the conclusion that we have to be referring to a non-Christian because a Christian knows how to do what is good.
Then they’ll point to verse 24 which says, “Oh, wretched man that I am!” which seems far removed from the promise that Romans 5:1-2 gives us when Paul writes “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. So their question would be “How can a man justified by faith be so wretched?
Then, to the point that I made during my introduction, Romans 6, and even into the beginning of Romans 7 have many examples of the believer’s freedom from the power of sin and the proponents of the non-Christian view ask then, in light of Romans 7:14, “how can someone on says ‘I am carnal, sold under sin’ in fact, be a Christian?”
Problems with the Position
When we read Romans 6 & Romans 7, we have to realize that these two passages aren’t at odds with each other, but they are complimentary to each other. The new creation, new nature, new identity, new person in Christ, and new holiness of the believer is in the redeemed person that has broken sin’s dominion, but the emphasis in Chapter 7 is the other side that, on this side of heaven, sin is still a problem.
If you actually read back through Romans 6, we’ll find points where Paul is talking to Christians and telling them to stop living in sin. It’s not like where in Romans 7 we discuss that Paul doesn’t give the command to produce fruit, but that, if you are a Christian you will produce fruit as simply a fact. But Paul actually gives the command, multiple times, in Chapter 6 to not continue in the way of sin. Examples would be in verse 12, in verse 13, and in verse 19 of Chapter 6. So to say that Chapter 7 cannot refer to a Christian because of statements in Chapter 6, is to actually have a misunderstanding of Chapter 6.
The Christian Standpoint
Description of a Christian
Romans 7:22 says that Paul “delights in the law of God.” This is something, simply put, that a non-Christian cannot claim accurately according to Romans 8:7.
Also, Romans 7:25, Paul says that he “thanks God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So, then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God.” Again, something a Non-Christian simply couldn’t say. This sounds like a Christian thanking God through Jesus Christ with the deepest longings of a Christian.
In verse 15, Paul has a longing to do what is good, but ends up doing what he hates. Paul though has a longing for that which is good; which an unregenerate person cannot do. What did we read back in Romans 3 verses 11 through 18?
None is righteous, no not one? An unbeliever does not pursue God’s purposes or His holy law. And Jeremiah 7:9 informs us that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Then Paul moves on through verse 18 through 21 continuing with the battle that seems so personal and near to him. Something deep inside Paul wants to do what is right, but, and focus on that but, an evil principle keeps them from accomplishing this easily.
This is the main reason here that I think Romans 7 is specifically talking about a redeemed person. This battle between God’s righteous law and the law of sin is a battle that only a believer can struggle with.
New or Old Christian?
Then you’ll get some people that say, “Well Jason, the reason is because we are talking about a new Christian here and not a mature Christian.”
I don’t think this is the case however. First and foremost, Paul is talking in first person, present tense. When Paul wrote this, he was at the peak of his spiritual life thus far in his walk. When Paul wrote this book, he wrote this book that has become a crucial resource for the entire Christian Faith.
Paul, over and over, throughout his writings reveals this inadequacy that he has and the reality of sin still hanging on in his life.
- 1 Corinthians 15:9-10
- Ephesians 3:8
- 1 Timothy 1:12-16
Lastly, the terms Paul uses in Romans 7 are that of a mature Christian, not that of an immature Christian. And immature Christian doesn't hate, with the passion or degree of animosity that Paul does, his sin in verse 15. Nor does an immature Christian have the deep profound love for righteousness that Paul talks about in verses 19 & 21. And most new Christians don’t have the law of God in their hearts and delight in it when Paul talks of this in verse 22. These are responses of a
Mature Christian who really understands their faith and who they are in Christ.I recently heard a sermon from a sister or brother church of Faith Bible Fellowship Lancaster from a Pastor named Tim Bertolet working through the book of Colossians. And this was his quote, paraphrased was this, “The Christian life is becoming more aware of sin, so you can draw closer to Christ” or that the Christian life is, that as you grow in your maturity, the sins that you may have thought as lesser or not even thought about at all, now become more apparent to you because you are drawing closer to Christ and growing in your holiness and sanctification.
So we conclude that this passage is talking from a Mature Christian Perspective. And I don’t know about you, but I find some comfort in the fact that even Paul struggled with sin, and had this battle over sin. It seems that Romans 7:14-8:1 is Paul’s own testimony of how to live as a Spirit-controlled, mature believer. Paul loves the holy law of God with his whole heart, but finds himself wrapped up in human flesh and unable to fulfill it the way that his heart would long for.