Christ Life In Us Romans 7:21-23 Am I Really a Loser

what you find when you study these verses and you try to interpret them yourself and then you go and see what other people say. Well, there's a lot of different opinions by people you really like that their take is a little different. So it's a challenging study, but it's a really helpful one. So I actually backed up to 14 For I know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh sold under the bondage to sin. So I've spent a little time talking about what spiritual is. It always connotes the idea of an invisible power. And here's a really interesting fact.

This idea of spirituality does not show up in the Septuagint. and it's not even in the Gospels. And that was really not strange, but I thought, well, that's, so I searched around and it is a after Pentecost word, this idea of spirituality. You won't see it, Old Testament. You don't see it in the Gospels.

And that goes along with the idea that we as believers are spiritual creatures, not necessarily earthly ones, even though we still live here. And it winds all the way back to the idea that what's your origin as a believer? Where did you come from? You came from the Lord Jesus Christ. who was not an earthly man. He was created by God, his body was created by God, and he was born like any other man, but he didn't come from Adam.

So he's not earthly, he's not fleshly, he's spiritual. And so that's why I think that word doesn't show up until Christ comes on the scene. Totally different kind of a man. And it's difficult for us, I think, sometimes get our arms around or our brains around the fact that we are spiritual creatures. We're different than a non-believer. We don't, our origin isn't Adam, even though our body is, but who we are as people, persons, we're not from him.

And the other factor here is when he says the law is spiritual, And the reason it's spiritual is because it came from God. But he says, I'm fleshly. So how does he view himself? He views himself as an earthly man, a natural man, controlled by his senses, controlled by his appetites, he's governed by his human nature, sin nature, instead of controlled by the spirit of God.

And so when you have three men that are talked about in the New Testament, you have the natural man, which is all those that are non-believers, you have believers who are spiritual people, spiritual men, and then you have this other group that are spiritual men, but they're acting like they're natural men.

And the term for them is carnal. So for that which I'm doing, I don't understand. For I'm not practicing what I would like to do, but I'm doing the very thing I hate." That's a mantra for a carnal man. He knows better, but he doesn't have the power to live that way.

So I try to sort of put these in some graphs. I hope they're... The natural man, having the nature of the flesh, Again, he's controlled by his animal appetites. He's hungry, he eats. He's governed by the sin nature. The sin nature is the total controlling power in his life.

And instead of the Spirit of God being the controlling part of his life. If you look at 1 Corinthians, it says, but the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. don't want them. And why? Because they're foolishness unto him. He can't understand them because they are spiritually appraised or discerned.

Now the other part of a believer, his position is spiritual. He has an origin from God and therefore he's in harmony with God's character. And he is as character, and he knows that the law, or any law system that comes from God, is spiritual, because its source is God. So it says about him in 13, which things we also speak, not in words taught by humans, human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

So what's interesting is that you can be religious, but you can't be spiritual if you don't belong to the Lord. You can be pious and a thousand other things, but if you don't belong to the Lord, you have no concept of what it means to be a spiritual being. And you have to look at this from, there are two elements in this.

One of them is, we talk a lot about around here, is our position. We have a position in Christ that is totally spiritual, and I'll go through it, and then we also have a condition that is everyday walking around existence. So our position is the source of our Christian life, and that source is perfect. It's eternally established in the Father's presence. When you receive the Lord Jesus as your personal saver, the Holy Spirit caused you to be born into him. God created us in a position that was established through Christ's work at Calvary.

So 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, what is he? He's a new creation. new creation.

Position is permanent. It's eternal position and every believer has been placed in whether he's aware of it or not. Even if you've never been taught about your position in Christ, it's still true of you. The Christian who comes to see his position in the Lord Jesus begins to experience the benefits of all that it means to be in Christ. His daily condition is developed from the source of his eternal standing. We were talking about grace in Sunday school this morning. Grace is, God has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing and the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.

And you read a verse like that out of Ephesians and you look around at your environment from the earthly standpoint and you think, well I'm not all, what do you mean? I'm, you know, I'm sinning and I, I, you know, I'm not resting, and I'm, you know, I'm a victim, or I'm doing whatever I'm doing out of the flesh. But God says, okay, but still you have this position, and this is how I see you, and it's perfect, and it can never change. But my condition is what we are as we walk around the earth, in which we develop from infancy to maturity.

You have a little baby, one year old, right? How much does she know about what being a human being is about? Nothing. Mom feeds her, changes her diapers, puts her to sleep, and takes care of her needs. She has no idea she has a sin nature. She has no idea of what's coming. When a person is born again and born of God, he's just like that little girl You don't know anything. All you know is you're saved by grace. That's all you know. You have no idea that there is this positional life that you were born into that's your inheritance and it's true of you the second you were saved.

So although our position remains immutable, which just means it can't change, our condition is all over the lot. Through the exercise of faith, though, Our eternal position, the source of our life, begins to affect our daily condition. But no way does our condition affect our heavenly position. A lot of times, as we grow and learn our position, we think, well, I sinned and I made God angry. You can't change God's attitude about you. He's already decided about it. because he puts you in Christ, and he looks at us as being in Christ. So, even though our condition is all over the lot, our position never changes.

So, a couple of verses. Since you then be risen with Christ, since that's true, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Boy, what a privilege. Since I'm risen, with Christ, my focus, my efforts can be in things above where Christ sits at the right hand of God.

Well, he wouldn't encourage me to do that if he didn't intend to show me. Ephesians 6, 10 amplified says, be strong in the Lord, be empowered through your union with him, draw your strength from him. Draw your strength from him. Now, in the next couple slides, I'm gonna try to sort of illustrate.

This whole thing goes on inside a Christian. He's got his old man, and he's got his new man in Christ. And there is what Romans 7 talks about, the war that goes on. So let's look at this. The old man, Adam, everybody that's born on this planet comes from Adam.

It's who you are. your identities with him, and oh, by the way, you come separated from God. When your feet hit the ground, you're separated from God, and it's because you have this little cool thing called the sin nature. So your nature as a human being is sin, and that's what you're really good at.

You know, years ago when my son John was two years old, I said to a class one day, I said, I've noticed something about John. I don't have to send him to sinning academy. He knows how to do that. Why? Because he's got a sin nature. But if you compare him with or contrast him with the new man in Christ, the new man, every believer is new man. is of the new man, has a new nature, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, he's separated from the law, and he's separated from sin, and he's separated from the world. Those three things don't have to control him anymore. Problem is, he's still got the sin nature floating around inside of him.

And I think it's because we still have these bodies. That the sin nature is there, and the sin nature was there when you got saved, but it didn't decide that The game was over. As a matter of fact, from its perspective, the game just started. So, maybe a little bit more. This was a graph that Helma Lloyd did, oh my goodness. 2000, January of 2000, so it's 26 years old.

If you put a line down the middle, he was talking about walking in the spirit. How do you function as a believer from a spiritual standpoint, from where you're looking at it, on the left side is the old man. And you have a body, and you have the world, and you have sin, and you have Satan influencing that sin nature called the flesh. And it triggers, the way you live, and it goes up to your soul, and your mentality, your senses, your consciousness, your emotions, your will, are functioning and operating based on the old man.

But notice the red and blue little switches. He was an electrical engineer, so every time he did a graft, it looked like a schematic, right? So he says that we have the power by faith to move that needle from the red to the blue. And when it goes to the blue, the red shuts off.

And now, the new nature, the Holy Spirit, and our desires change. and it becomes the soul, and its mentality, its senses, its consciousness, becomes spiritually motivated. Well, and that's, you know, it's nice to talk about that, but let's talk a little bit about this thing, the soul. We're made up of a physical body, a soul, which is really mind, emotion, and will, and we have a spirit. Now if you're not a believer, your spirit's dead to God. It's separated from him. If you are a believer, it's alive to God. So your soul, when Adam sinned, his soul, his spirit died to God and his soul became the operating principle in his behavior.

However, he got this new thing called the sin nature. And the sun nature was the thing that began to control his soul. So his senses, like his emotions, were askew now. And his, he couldn't quite decide to will this way or will that way. It messed his will up. And boy, his intellect, and we see it today, you know, I believe this, you believe that, that guy over there believes this, the world's flat, you know, all the things that go on, the sin nature infected all three aspects of your soul.

But when you are saved, the switch goes to the other side, and now the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, it begins to influence your soul, your mind, You begin to think God's thoughts after him. Your intellect, you study his word. You begin to find out, boy, there is a new life.

It is different than what I'm used to. And your emotions come in line. Well, at any given time, a believer is either red switch or blue switch. And they could do this 50 times in an hour. You know, well you know, I don't have to tell you that. You experienced that.

So one of these is considered carnal, and that's what Paul is gonna talk about in these verses, and they are the works of the flesh. The other are spiritual, and they are the works of the spirit. The big issue in the old man is one little word. You know what the word is?

I. I. I will. Romans 7 is all about I. And not until we get to Romans 8 do we get out of the I business. So, if I read verse 15 down to 20, watch for the I's. For that which I am doing, I don't understand. For I'm not practicing what I would like to do, but I'm doing the very thing I hate. How many I's have we got in the first sentence? Five of them? Four, five, six. Next verse.

But if I do the very thing I don't wish to do, I agree with the law confessing that it's good. So now it's no longer I, the one doing it, but sin which indwells me. So it sounds from that verse like he's copping out. I'm not responsible. No, it's his sin nature and he does take ownership.

He says, I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh, because I'm wishing or I'm willing is present in me, but the doing of good is not. Or the good that I wish, I don't do. But I practice the very evil that I don't wish to do. But if I'm doing the thing that I don't wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin dwells in me.

So I've been asked this a lot of times. Is this the experience of every Christian? What do you think? It better be. Because if you're not experiencing this, then you're not going through the exercise you need to go through to learn what it's like to live under grace. and to be a receiver, and I think Roger's up after me, he gets to do eight, one, two, three, four, five, and that's where the I goes away, and God starts to replace, or the Spirit starts to replace the I. Now, if this has never been your experience, I thought at first, well, I better not read this whole thing.

And then as I read it a couple of times, I remember reading this years ago from Hudson Taylor. Everybody know who Hudson Taylor is? He started the China Inland Mission back in the 1800s. And he spent his whole life in China, most of his life in China.

Here's what his experience of this, I wish I could do, but I don't, experience. He said, my mind has been greatly exercised, wrote Hudson Taylor to his sister, for some months past, feeling the need personally and for our mission of more holiness, of more life and power in our souls. But personal need stood first and was the greatest. How many of you ever thought about, well, I gotta do this.

I prayed, I agonized, fasted, I strove, made resolutions, read the word diligently, sought for more time for retirement and meditation, but all was without effect. Every day, almost every hour, the consciousness of sin oppressed me. I knew that if I could only abide in Christ, all would be well. But I could not. I began the day with prayer, determined not to take my eye from him for a moment. But pressure of duties, constant interruptions apt to be so wearing, often caused me to forget him.

Then one's nerves get so fretted, in this climate that temptations to irritability, hard thoughts, and sometimes unkind words are all more difficult to control. Each day brought its register of sin and failure, of lack of power, to will was indeed present with me, but how to perform I found not. Then came the question, is there no rescue? Must it be thus to the end?

Constant conflict instead of victory, too often defeat. Instead of growing stronger, I seem to be getting weaker and to have less power against sin. I hated myself. I hated my sin. I felt that I was a child of God, but to rise to my privilege as a child, I was utterly powerless. I don't think I've ever read anything that explained the fight with sin like that does. And so, if you look in the bulletin, do you see what I titled the sermon today? Am I losing? I am losing. So, verse 21, so the verses 21, two, and three are the verses for today.

I find then a principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law or principle 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. Really interesting verses, oh my goodness. We just as soon in our Christian life skip right over this part. So he finds a law or a principle, and here's what he discovers, and that's what this is about. This is a discovery on his part, that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good, it's a fixed principle of sin, and it's in his members, and he can't get rid of it. It's there.

The one who wishes, who desires to do good, has this other thing in his members, evil. So he finds a condition that when he desires and wills to do good, it shows you how effective the will is in your Christian life. This evil nature asserts itself against the doing of what is good. So you can't will yourself into holiness.

Why not? Because your will, if the needle is on this side, the will is affected by the sin nature. And you think you have the power to do it. Isn't that true, you know? I mean, if you're a sports fan, every athlete thinks he's got the will to be superstar.

I find that principle of evil. He now states a settled conclusion. He's come to a conclusion and he's drawn the line and he said what he has experimentally discovered, that this is a principle, he's gonna write it down, how he now sees that even if he has found God's way of deliverance, the evil is present and persistent.

It's not going anywhere, it's there. It is the denial of this fact that has wrecked thousands of lives. For evil will be present until the Lord comes or bringing in redemption for our bodies. As long as you've got an old human body, you've got a will to sin in there. It's there.

And then he says, I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see a different law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity under the law of which is my members. So we've got three issues here in these two verses. The first one, he's delightful. He's really excited about the fact that God's law is spiritual.

The second is that he's discerned that, well, I might be delighted about God's law in the inward man, but I've discerned that there's another thing going on inside of me. And oh, by the way, it beats me every time. Not some of the time, every time. So rejoicing, this word is a stronger word than just rejoice. It means understanding of moral agreement, delightful. Boy, I'm really excited that I find out that the law is spiritual. It has its origin from God and with God, and so therefore it is spiritual, and therefore it's in harmony with God's character. The law is spiritual. The law is spiritual.

And after the inward man thus revealing himself as he's a born-again believer, even though he's got this struggle going on. But then here's the discernment. I see a different principle in the members of my body, and they're just floating around there, shift into neutral. No, they're waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner a prisoner of the law of sin, which is in my members. So this is a revelation to him.

Another one of those things that he writes down and says, this is something I've discovered, it's a principle. The law of my mind, that principle which governs the new nature in virtue of the new birth. In other words, my mind, from what I know, being taught by the Holy Spirit, my mind tells me, because I've studied God's Word to the point that I understand it, that maybe my mind, knowing the information and my will willing it, I don't have to go through this struggle with the sin nature that's in my members. It's the law of my mind. the law of my mind, that principle which garvans the new nature.

But then, the law of sin, the principle of sin, in which sin exerts its influence and power despite the desire to do what is right, sin and death, Romans 8.2. Sin brings death, separation.

Now, If this principle isn't learned by this time in your life, hang around. The Lord's gonna teach you about this because he's got the answer. And the answer is, well, from our perspective, about three weeks down the road. But what happens? He's defeated this raging war against the law of my mind and it makes me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.

And you know, this isn't that I'm going to become a serial killer. It's all those deadly little things inside your mind that, oh, you are upset with somebody because they didn't give you the respect you deserve. Hudson Taylor talked about quite a few ones. Bob Strong used to say it's those real deadly ones inside you, you know, envy, lust, desire. Roger talked about desire. The law principle of sin, which Paul speaks of, is in his members. It's in your body. It's in all of you, and it influences your soul. The law principle is in his members at war against the law principle in his mind. is the evil of the sin nature.

You can get, we used to say in the Marine Corps, when they were training, they would say, get your mind right. You know, because there's a right way and a wrong way and a Marine Corps way of doing things. And so when they said, get your mind right, they meant the Marine Corps way. Well, from a spiritual standpoint, you could say, get your mind right. Because there's a right way and a wrong way and a spiritual way.

It brings defeat in my members. It causes me to be the law of sin in my mind. So I lose. Now if you go to Galatians 5, it'll help explain this. For the flesh sets its desire And that's, you know, Roger talked about, I wouldn't have known sin had not sinned, or the law said don't desire, can't do that. But the flesh sets its desire, which it's not supposed to do, against the spirit. And the spirit sets, is against the flesh. And they're opposite to one another, they're contrary to one another, so what? But I can't do the thing that I wanna do. And then he says, the flesh, the evil nature, has a passionate desire to suppress the spirit.

You know, I had this thought the other day when the Lord Jesus was baptized and then he went into the desert and Lucifer got a shot at him, Satan got a shot at him, and tempted him three times with the three things that he came to do. He said, I'll give you all those three things if you just worship me. And he said, be gone, Satan. And in my mind, I thought forever, well, Satan went off somewhere, couldn't be seen.

No, he just went right over here. And he stood there, and he watched for his next opportunity. It's the same thing with us. He didn't go anywhere. Sin doesn't go anywhere. It just moves over here for a minute, waiting for you to recognize it again. And here is the thing.

They're in opposition to each other so that you may not do the thing you desire to do. Have you ever really wanted to do something that really was from the Spirit of God, but you just, there was a war going on and you couldn't do it? Like ask somebody for forgiveness? How many times have you resisted going to the Lord and confessing your sins?

That's the war. So he sees these two natures as a normal mode in which certain forces operate. He sees two authorities saying to him, he do this, but the higher one giving way to the lower one. That's really what this says. And as the lower prevails, it leads into captivity, a principle of sin, which is in his members. And in other words, it's itself of whom a man is overcome of the same as he brought into bondage. The end, therefore, is that man as a creature of flesh living under law does what sin charges. And it's the law of sin which he gives obedience to.

But only a man regenerated or a believer would even think this was a problem. And I'm gonna end up with this. And I got this from Newell, I thought it was really good. There's no more I who do it, but sin which dwells in me. An unregenerate man is not conscious of moral power, which is not of himself, for he has but one nature, he is the flesh. So he would never think about being worried about what I really want to do, I don't do. The unregenerate man couldn't say, what I hate, I do.

Only the born-again people hate evil. Ye that love Jehovah hate evil, Psalm 97. And David could say, I hate every false way. But of the wicked he wrote, he abhorred not evil. The natural man does not hate evil. Now, they may hate injustice, but they don't hate evil. The unregenerate man could not say, that what I do not, that I do. What I don't want to do, that's what I'm doing. And he wouldn't say, I consent to the law that it's good. He wouldn't say that.

An unregenerate man resists the law that he may justify himself. A regenerate man can sense that the law, being good and being spiritual, no matter how it judges, what he finds himself doing. In verse 16, the unregenerate man couldn't say, I delight in the law of God after the inward man. He couldn't say that. First of all, he doesn't have an inward man. And he certainly wouldn't delight in a spiritual law from God. All men are children of wrath, every single one of them. Alienated from the life of God and the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, not subject to the law of God.

Before his conversion, Paul, as we saw, could help stone Stephen. He could hold the coats while somebody else fired the rocks. and he would assent that what was happening was a good thing, verily thinking he ought to do it. He thought that stoning Stephen was the right thing to do. But Paul was not then seeking holiness as the man in Romans 7 is, but he was secure in his own righteousness as legalist. He was a Pharisee.

So, concurring back to the three principles, for I joyfully concur that the law is good. I delight in that. I love God's law. Secondly, I see a different law in my members, a different principle in my members, that's unwilling to own this different law principle this settled state of enmity towards God in my own members that so terribly bars spiritual blessing and advancement.

Yet the Spirit of God will bring us to face up to this issue about this other principle of law in my members, face up to it and have discernment and also As long as we look lightly at the fact of the presence of us in a fallen nature, I speak to Christians, we're far from deliverance. If you don't recognize the problem, how can you be delivered from it?

So defeat. There's no strength or power in ourselves against the law of sin. Boy, we gotta learn that lesson. We don't have the power to not sin. which is in our members, and he has left us as much dependent on the work of Christ on the cross for our deliverance as for our forgiveness. It's holy because we died with him at the cross, both the sin and the whole legal principle, that sin's power for those in Christ is broken.

So, I try to keep this right in those three verses, which by themselves, they're a B movie, you know. And next week, we're gonna see Paul's reaction to discovering these principles, that great phrase, O wretched man that I am. And then we're gonna find deliverance, and where it comes from, how it happens, and who does it. And then when we get to Romans 8, actually, you know, our Bibles are divided up into chapters, and I don't know who the guys were that decided on chapters, but they messed up Romans 7 and 8. I think Romans 7 should have gone all the way through chapter 8, 4, because it all fits in the same argument, because deliverance is the first four verses, of Romans 8 is the answer to all of Romans 7.

How victory is won. Okay, so let's close. Our dear Father, how thankful we are for your grace. How thankful we are that you really do take the time to educate us and to show us about sin and that it is stronger than we are in terms of overcoming, but there is an answer. And the answer is obviously your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank you, we pray in his name, amen.