Romans 7:15

Romans 7:15

Romans 7:15 says, "For that which I do I allow not: for what I would do, that I do not; but what I hate that I do." Anyone who is rightly related to God, has as one of the primary purposes of their life to do what is right. You cannot be forgiven of your sins unless it is also your goal to do what is right. After Jesus forgave the woman who was taken in adultery, the last thing that He said to her was, "Go and sin no more." One way of describing the difference between the just and the unjust, the believers and the non-believers, is the fact that those who believe in God truly desire to do what is right, and those who do not believe do not have such a desire. That is exactly what Jesus was saying in John 3:19-21 when he said, "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that does truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God."

For the believer doing the right thing is more important than any other consideration. It is more important than profit; it is more important than possessions; it is more important than life it iself. Every believer who is rightly related to God, will say right along with Queen Esther, "If I perish, I perish." “If I lose because of doing what is right, then so be it.” This is one of the great differences between the true believer in God and the nonbeliever, and it is also one of the reasons for conflict and disagreements between them. A believer has standards and principles based upon his best understanding of right and wrong; while for a nonbeliever such things have little importance.

But in spite of the fact that a believer in God and a follower of Christ has such a burning desire to serve and obey the Creator, and in spite of the fact that such believers have the Spirit of God within them to enlighten them and to build up their faith; they still have the same sinful human nature and selfish tendencies that will continue to be there as an obstacle and an opponent as long as they are on this earth. No one has arrived, no one has become everything that they could be, no one has succeeded at doing what Jesus said was the most important commandment, let alone all the other commandments. He said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy mind and all thy strength."

This inability to do everything that we ought to do, and to be everything that we ought to be has several implications. We will talk about these implications after reading the rest of Paul’s description of his own tendency to failure. He said in Romans 7:16-24, "If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh), dwells no good thing; for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would do, I do not. Now if I do that which I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

Because of our inability to do what is right, and because we have the constant presence of our sinful nature; we can be certain that God will be merciful to us. God knows how sinful we are, and He knows how weak we are. Psalm 103:18-20 says, "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." And then Psalm 103:13-14 says, "Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust." Do not ever think that your failures mean that God is less likely to accept you or less likely to bless you.

Knowing the weakness of our human natures and knowing the frequency with which we all fail, we should be careful to avoid being perfectionists. We should allow for some failure and some weakness in others and not be too harsh or too critical. The devil is the accuser of the brethren. Do not make the same mistake. Always remember: to err is human, to forgive divine. Instead of having as a goal to be perfect, have as a goal to constantly improve. You will not be able to be perfect, but you can always improve. You can do a little better today than you did yesterday. Some corporations have adopted in their quality programs the principle of continuous improvement. There is no such thing as the perfect product, but it is possible to continuously improve. It is possible for a company to make a better product this year than they made last year. As a matter of fact, there is no such thing as standing still. You will either improve or you will get worse. You can always be more compassionate, you can always have more patience, you can always face life with more faith in the promises of God. Paul wrote in Philippians 3:13, "Brothers, I count not myself to have arrived: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before."

Paul’s description of how easily and how often he failed applies to all of us. We know that in the case of Paul, the dedication and the zeal and the effort and the closeness to God that he had may have been without equal in the history of the human race. Listen to the description that he gave of his work for God in Second Corinthians 11:23-28. "Are they ministers of Christ? I am more; in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prison more frequently, faced with death often. Of the Jews five times I received 39 stripes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once was I stoned, three times I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness, Beside those things that are without, that which comes upon me daily, the care of all the churches."

There are few who could ever come close to that kind of sacrifice and discipline and accomplishment in the name of God. Yet look how Paul described himself here in Romans Chapter 7 when he said about his own, still active sinful human nature, "O wretched man that I am." What a contrast to those who lift up and praise themselves and their religious organizations in our society today. You can tell how close to God you really are by your own awareness of your own sinful human nature. When the prophet Isaiah had a vision of God in all of God’s holiness and goodness, he said in Isaiah 6:5, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts."

Most of us are much worse than the prophet Isaiah or the Apostle Paul. If they were aware of their sinfulness, certainly we should be also. The Apostle John used some strong language on the subject and said in First John 1:8, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." This truth about our continued sinfulness even after being born-again; emphasizes to us once again the importance of the constant grace and mercy of God. We are not only dependent upon the grace and mercy of God at the time of salvation; we are also dependent upon His mercy every moment of every day. The Christian life begins with the mercy of God, it continues with the mercy of God, and it will end with the mercy of God. The phrase, "Jesus Christ yesterday, today, and forever" has never had a more applicable meaning than the believer’s constant need for cleansing and forgiveness. It is all because of Jesus, and not at all because of you or me.

In Romans 7:24 Paul makes a statement and he asks a question. The statement is a description of himself and it is also a description of the sinfulness of all of us. He said, "O wretched man that I am." And then he asked the important and essential question, "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" In the next verse Paul gives the answer. Jesus is the answer. Paul said in Romans 7:25, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Like Paul, most other believers know how weak and sinful they are. After all that is why we came to Christ in the first place. But we do not stop and continually dwell on that which is negative, and neither did Paul. The things that Christ has done for us and the things that He will do for us are what we dwell on, and it is what Paul emphasized. Therefore, he followed Romans Chapter 7 and its teaching on the weakness of human nature with Romans Chapter 8 and its teaching on what God has done to give us the victory over our sinful nature.

The emphasis will no longer be on what you and I have failed to do, but on what God has done for us freely and graciously. Romans Chapter 8 is one of the great chapters in the Bible, and it contains one of the great Bible verses that has been memorized by thousands and thousands of believers and been a comfort to many more thousands, Romans 8:28. But we will not get ahead of ourselves. We will take the verses one by one.

Romans 8:1 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Notice the first phrase of this verse: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." The word condemnation is translated from the Greek word that literally means ‘to judge against’. The reason that there is no condemnation against believers and the reason that there is no judgment against believers; is because Jesus already took the judgment of our sins when He died for us on the cross. No matter how weak of a Christian you may be and no matter how much you may have failed the Lord, there is no condemnation against you from God. In the course of your life, you might know the sting of condemnation from many possible sources. You might be condemned by other people: those close to you as well as strangers. You might be condemned by the judicial system. You might even forget this Bible verse and condemn yourself because of some weakness or failure. Certainly, Satan will try to condemn you. But God will never condemn you.

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." This is a good verse to remember should you ever start to condemn yourself, and it is also a good verse to remember should you ever start to condemn someone else. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "Judge not that you be not judged." There is a lot of judging and condemning that goes on in our society. Political opponents sometimes condemn each other. Religious people sometimes condemn those of other denominations. People in the news media certainly do a lot of condemning. We should be careful of ever condemning another person, and especially someone who is in Christ.

It is a wonderful thing to be described as having no condemnation against you. What it takes to be in such a welcome condition is also put forth in Romans 8:1. It says that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. To be "in Christ Jesus" speaks of a standing, a connection, a relationship with Christ. Once you experience the connection to Christ whereby you come into a truthful relationship with Him, there will never be a condemnation against you from God. People may condemn you, but God will not. Romans 8:2 tells us why this is so. It says, "For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death."

There are two laws mentioned in this verse. There is the law of sin and death and there is the law of the Spirit of life. Every person on the earth is under the control of one of these two laws. Your destiny will be determined by the law of sin and death, or by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Jesus said to the sister of Lazarus, "I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die." That is a law. It is a spiritual law. The way to become free from the law of sin and death is through Jesus Christ; and every person makes the final choice for themselves because Jesus said, "Whosoever." So, if you prefer the law of the Spirit of life over the law of sin and death, then come to Jesus. He said, "Whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die." If you believe in Jesus, you will never die. You do not have to fear death. No one will be able to kill you before your time. You will be on this earth until God is done with you, and then you will walk out of this life into the Kingdom of God.

Romans 8:3-4 says, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit." Notice the word "condemned" used again in Romans 8:3. The reason that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus is because He was condemned already. He had the only sinless body, but His flesh was condemned and nailed to the Roman cross. Jesus was unjustly condemned by the Roman authorities, but He also bore the divine condemnation against sin. "He who knew no sin, became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."

We should be found guilty, but because of Christ, we have been judged and found innocent. We have no righteousness of our own, but because of Christ, the righteousness of God is accounted to us as a gift. We should be slaves to sin having only death and condemnation as our destiny, but because of Christ, we are free from sin and have eternal life to look forward to. And if you are in Christ, all of this came to you by the Spirit of God. It did not come by the keeping of the law, and it did not come by your own efforts; in other words, it did not come by the flesh.

Paul said in Romans 8:4, "...who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit." In the next verses we will continue looking at the contrast between the flesh and the Spirit as it is described by Paul in Romans Chapter 8.

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