Don t Shoot the Messenger Shoot the Enemy (Romans 7:7-25 August 14, 2011)

Don t Shoot the Messenger Shoot the Enemy (Romans 7:7-25 August 14, 2011) Tradition states that the Chinese General Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War in the 6 th Century BC. One proverb arising from his work states If you know both yourself and your enemy, you can win a hundred battles without jeopardy. There is much truth to this statement. How many battles have we fought in our lives only to ultimately discover we were fighting the wrong enemy? This is never truer that when we are facing our greatest enemy our own sin. Sin separates us from God, condemns us, draws down the wrath of God and leads to eternity in hell. The Jews knew this but they failed to know their enemy and what empowers their enemy. They thought that you could overcome sin by Law. The believed that setting yourself to obey the Law made you relatively holier and godlier. In chapters 1-3 of Romans Paul showed the absolute folly of this. Since God is perfectly holy only perfection is acceptable. Relative holiness is still sin. In fact all the striving to be holy merely leads to frustration and despair because at the end of the day everyone still falls short. 1

So some Jews asked well what about the Law of Moses if it can t save us why did God give it? Paul s answer was that the Law was given to show us how sinful we are and how much we need a Saviour. Romans 3:20: For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. The Law gives us the knowledge that we are sinners. Then in chapter 3 verse 21 and following, Paul shows what can destroy sin. The righteousness of Christ. God can deem us to have the holiness of Jesus. He can take our filthy rags of sin and replace them with the spotless garments of Jesus. God does what the Law cannot. This leads us to Romans 5-8. A. Assurance of Future Glory (5:1-11) B. Because we are in Christ (5:12-21) C. Should we serve sin to magnify grace? No! (ch 6) C Should we serve Law to gain holiness? No! (ch 7) B Because we are in Christ (8:1-17) A Assurance of Future Glory (8:18-39) The overall burden of this section is the assurance of our future glory. Paul wants us to know that if we rely on Law to save us there is no assurance. But if we rely on the grace of God there is full assurance there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2

Why? Because we are in Christ. We are united with Him, we died with Him, we rose with Him. His death washed away our sin. His resurrection guarantees we will rise. This means that our salvation our future glory rests on Him and not us. But what I want you to notice is that Paul knows how some saints hear the gospel of grace. He addresses them directly in Romans 6 and 7. In Romans 6 Paul answers the question: If we are in Christ should we serve sin to magnify grace? Romans 6:1 Are we to continue in sin that grace might abound? Romans 6:15: Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? Since we are saved by grace not Law does it matter whether we sin or not? Or should we sin so that the grace of God in salvation is magnified? Surely God gets more glory from saving a depraved murderer than from saving someone from a good home who never got into trouble? Since we all sin, since every one of us falls short of the glory of God is sin that big a deal? Why strive to be holy when you can never be perfectly holy? Paul s answer is unequivocal. May it never be you died to sin and are bound to Christ. Being in Christ means when Christ died sin died in you. You serve Christ not sin. Grace doesn t mean a licence to sin it means freedom from the power of sin so you can choose not to sin. Then Paul moves on to chapter 7 where he answers the question: If we are in Christ should we serve Law to gain holiness? Since God wants us holy do we find the power to live holy in the Law? Paul s answer is unequivocal in Romans 7:1-6. May it never be! The Law was never designed to make us holy in fact the Law fans the flames of sin. And more than that you died to Law and are bound to Christ. 3

Paul says the Law was never given to save. Grace is what does this. The Law was designed to show men their sin and need of grace. But then Paul says something that would be stunning to a Jew and is probably stunning to most Christians. Look at Romans 7:5: For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. Yes the Law serves to show you how sinful you are but the Law also actually inflames your sin and makes your situation worse. Instead of making you godlier it fans the flames of sin which leads to the fruit of death. Paul knew that the Jewish Christians who saw merit in keeping the Law would explode at this. So he answers them in the rest of chapter 7. Before we look at how Paul answers them just a quick reminder. Last week I took you through the various views of Romans 7. Depending on how you understand chapter 7 affects how you understand Paul s answer. We began by asking who is the I from verse 7 onwards referring to. 4

We looked at the various options Paul himself, Adam, Everyone and Israel. I concluded that in my opinion Paul was most likely referring to himself. Possibly he could be referring to himself as a representative of Israel but I think he is talking about himself. Then we asked if this is Paul Which Paul? We looked at the options: Paul at his Bar Mitzpah, Paul as a mature Christian at the time he wrote Romans, Paul as an immature Christian soon after his conversion, and Paul as a Pharisee. 5

I concluded that in light of what Paul says in chapter 6 of Christians being freed from slavery to sin this was unlikely to be Paul as any form of Christian. Most likely Paul was thinking about his days as a Pharisee trying to please God but failing. Being frustrated. Despairing of finding power to deal with sin. So with this in mind we can now look at what Paul says in verses 7-25 where Paul answers those who misunderstand what he is saying about the Law. Look again at Romans 7:5: For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. The Law serves to show you how sinful you are but it also actually inflames your sin and makes your situation worse. Instead of making you godlier it fans the flames of sin which leads to the fruit of death. Paul knew that the Jewish Christians who saw merit in keeping the Law could not let this statement go past. These two statements the Law arouses sin and bears the fruit of death become the basis for the rest of the chapter. Notice how Paul addresses these two statements. Verse 7: Is the Law sin? 6

Verse 13: Does the Law bring death? Paul answers these two questions. He begins by saying: Don t shoot the messenger the Law. This is based on his argument that the Law arouses sin. Look at his argument. Verse 7: What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! They challenged Paul. You seem to make the Law out to be sinful and the cause of our spiritual death is that what you are saying? Paul wants them to know that is not at all what he is saying. Paul never said that the Law is sin. 7

Saying that: Law shows us our sin and Law arouses our sin Is NOT the same as saying the Law IS sin He is NOT saying that the Law is the problem. The Law is the messenger that shows us our sin Paul says don t think I am saying we should shoot the messenger. Verses 7 and 8: Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, You shall not covet. Paul is not saying that for those without the Law there is no sin. What he is saying is that for those without the Law they may not know certain things they are doing are sinful. He could have chosen any example he chooses coveting. Desiring something that someone else has. 8

In chapters 1 and 2 Paul says that even Gentiles without the Law have a law written on their hearts a conscience that bears witness. Most societies most individuals know through God giving them a conscience a law written on their hearts that such things as murder, rape, theft are wrong. As Paul says in chapter 1 we can suppress this but it is there written on our hearts. However, most Gentiles most people who don t have the Law, probably would not say coveting was wrong. Only when the thought leads to action does it become wrong. But for a Jew he has the tenth commandment You shall not covet. He knows it is sin. Without the Law he would not know it is sin. But the Law shows us it is sin. Coveting leads to dissatisfaction greed, envy, lust. It can make you depressed and unhappy. It can also make you act on your dissatisfaction. You can commit theft, rape, adultery, murder. To be dissatisfied with what the Lord gives you to want what your neighbour has his wife, his house, his car, his life that is sin. It can lead to sinful actions but even if it doesn t it is still sin. But Paul does not stop there. The Law also arouses our sin. Verse 8: But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Once Paul or anyone encounters the Law he know coveting is sin. But trying not to covet just makes your awareness of sin much worse. You realise how often you covet. How dissatisfied you are. And the more you tell yourself don t covet all the things you covet pop into your mind. Think for a minute about the Ten Commandments. I am just going to quickly run through them. Think about what these commandments mean. Think about what God is saying. 9

to Did these commandments make you feel holy? Probably not. They probably made you feel guilty. The showed you your sin. All the God substitutes in your life, times of anger and lust, the lies you have told the things you covet. And thinking about them may well have aroused your sin. Thinking about not committing adultery can arouse as desire to want to commit adultery. Thinking about not coveting can arouse as desire to want to covet. All the things you deserve and should have. Tell someone they can t have something and that is all they want. That is nature of our sin. But saying that the Law shows sin and arouses sin is not the same as saying that the Law is sin. 10

The Law didn t put the sin in your heart the Law merely tells you how bad the sin in your heart is. If you go in to see your doctor saying that you don t feel well something is wrong. He examines you and runs a few tests. Finally he calls you in and the news is not good. You have bowel cancer. Unfortunately the cancer has spread to your liver and lungs. You have months to live. What is the problem the doctor, the tests no! Often patients do lash out at the doctor simply because they are the bearers of bad news. The problem is the cancer. The doctor and the tests showed what the cancer was doing but they are not the problem. In the same way the Law was not the problem. The Law showed how sinful we were. The Law aroused our passions. But the Law is not the problem. In chapter 6 Paul showed that the answer is not to discard the Law and let sin have its way. Yet, nor is the answer to embrace the Law and try and kill sin by more Law. Verses 8 and 9: For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. It is these verses that have made many scholars say Paul could not be talking of himself. They argue that Paul would never say that apart from the law, sin lies dead or that apart from the Law he was alive. In Romans 5 Paul argued that from the moment Adam sinned all men were spiritually dead with the Law without the Law. Yet I am convinced this is Paul speaking of himself. Some time in his life Paul was told you shall not covet. Up until then he did not know he was sinning by coveting now he did and it is not that he died spiritually at that moment he was already dead born in sin it is that he realized he was dead. The Law showed him clearly that he was already spiritually dead. So perhaps I can paraphrase these verses like this. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. Before I encountered the Law, while I was already dead spiritually I didn t know it. Sin and its power lay dead in me. 11

I was once alive apart from the law. I was actual dead but I thought I was alive. Without the Law I lived in ignorance. But when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. However, once I knew the Law all ignorance was washed away. Sin came to life in me and showed me clearly who I was a man already spiritually dead. All Paul is saying is this. Without the Law your sinful heart can readily say you aren t that bad you might covet but you haven t committed adultery or murder. Once the Law comes it shows you who you are already dead in your sins and trespasses. Verses 10-11: The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. As a Jew Paul had been taught that the Law would bring life. By keeping enough of the Law you will live. But what it did was to show Paul how sinful he was and how far short of the glory of God he falls. It showed him he was already dead. Verse 12: So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. The Law is holy and righteous and good. It shows us the glory of God and the standard of God. Law shows us our sin and Law arouses our sin Is NOT the same as saying the Law IS sin But there is a second statement Paul made in Romans 7:5: 12

Paul speaks of the fruit of death. Some of the Jewish Christians misunderstood and wondered if Paul was saying that the Law brings death. Paul s answer is this: It is sin that brings death not the Law. The Law shows that sin is our true enemy. 13

Law is not our enemy it is the messenger our true enemy is sin. That is what we must shoot. So in verses 13-23 Paul urges us to shoot the true enemy sin. Verse 13: Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! Paul has shown that the Law is good so how can that which is good bring death? It doesn t it merely shows us the presence of the real enemy the harbinger of death sin. Verse 13: It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. It is sin that produces death. The wages of sin is death. Sin brings the wrath of God. Sin sends us to hell. Sin brings physical, spiritual and eternal death. The Law that which is good merely shows the presence in us of this true enemy. 14

Through the Law sin is shown to be sin and we are shown for what we truly are sinful beyond measure. 1 Corinthians 15:56 tells us how this fits together: The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. What gives death its power is sin. What gives sin its power is Law. But Law does not cause death it merely shows us for what we are totally lost and without hope. Verse 14: For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. The Law is spiritual it shows us the standard of God and it shows us for who we are flesh weak powerless to please God sold under sin. Who are we? Verses 15-23: 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. This is Paul the Pharisee. This is Luther the monk who wants to do good. This is any non-christian who responds to the Law. They want to do good but are powerless. The want to do what the Law says but find their passions inflamed and themselves even further from the Lord. The sin within controls them. They keep doing evil. Nothing can free them from the grip of sin. The more they want to do right the more they find evil is stronger. Paul was the Pharisee who delighted in the Law but had no power to keep it. Luther was the monk who delighted in the Law but had no power to keep it. 15

This is any non-christian who hears the Law: You shall not murder You shall not commit adultery You shall not steal And they delight in this Law but have no power to keep it. There is no doubt that the Law resonates with the heart of man. Our legal system is based on the Ten Commandments. We know what it says is right. And yet we have no power to keep the Law. Look at the riots in England. As soon as men and women perceived that the restraining hand of the government police and justice were not going to catch them they poured out looting, destroying, terrorizing. Young men and women some from good homes with parents who knew it was wrong just had to join in. I watched the mother of Chelsea Ives a talented athlete, a girl chosen as one of London s Olympic ambassadors struggle to explain how she was watching the rioting on television only to be appalled by the sight of her own daughter joining in the looting. She called the police and identified her own daughter. She said: I had to do what was right. She won t thank us. But then, what could normal, honest parents do? How can you sit there and see that and say, That s OK? We know what is right we just don t have the power to do it. That is Paul s lament here. To those Jewish Christians who want to try and draw closer to God through the Law Paul s answer is simple. It didn t have power before we were Christians the Law has no power for godliness now. The Law shows us we are sinners and in the process it inflames our sin. Let me diverge for a moment. Last week I told you why I do not believe this passage is talking about the Christian experience. That was a somewhat traumatic conclusion for me. As a young Christian I had been taught that this chapter describes the normal Christian life. We want to do right but we still fall into sin. 16

And over the years that has been me so many times I can t count. Desperately desiring to do right and finding this strange, wild beast within rise up battle with me and often win the war. And I took so much comfort reading these verses. Even Paul struggled and lost. Keep fighting Craig. Let me say this. While I have come to the conclusion that this passage is not addressing the Christian it does not detract from the truth that in many places the Bible talks about the fact that Christians still sin. The Lord s prayer forgive us our trespasses. 1 John 1:8: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. The commands to confess our sins, to restore sinning brothers, to forgive sinning brothers. We do sin I wish we didn t but we do. But what I have come to realize is that at times seeing Romans 7 as speaking of a mature Christian almost sapped my desire to fight sin. If Paul couldn t fight sin who am I to fight it. Maybe fight a bit if I fail just confess and move on. But I have come to believe Paul commands more of us. Here is Paul in chapter 6: How can we who died to sin still live in it? 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. For one who has died has been set free from sin. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.... For sin will have no dominion over you. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. We died to sin, sin is brought to nothing, no longer enslaved to sin, set free from sin, dead to sin, sin has no dominion over you, set free from sin. This does not mean we do not sin. This does not mean that overcoming sin is easy. Listen to Paul in Ephesians 6:10 18: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole 17

armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. Holiness is a spiritual battle. But we are on the victorious side. We have His Spirit and His Word to aid us in the fight. We will fail but perhaps we need not fail as often as we do. And we do 1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But I believe that message is the thrust of other passages other sermons. So what is the thrust here? Quite simply, the thrust is the gospel. We are surrounded by men and women who are dissatisfied. They long for something. 18

Some think there is a God some don t. Some look for satisfaction in things, some in good deeds, some in worshipping self. But all have some form of the Law. It tells them they are sinners. But the Law can t make them holy. It can t deal with their dissatisfaction. His answer is not to shoot the messenger. Instead we have to shoot the real enemy sin. But as Paul has pointed out we have no power to deal with sin in and of ourselves. So finally Paul gives the answer to dealing with sin. The ultimate and only answer. Use the only effective bullet Jesus. Verses 24-25: Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? This is the cry of the unsaved who has tried everything to deal with sin. This is Paul the Pharisee doing everything to deal with his sin tithing, sacrificing, killing Christians but still far from God. This is Luther whipping himself till he bleeds but still far from God. This is every non-christian. And then comes the answer. The glorious gospel. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! 19

Paul then sums up the situation he was in from which the gospel freed him. So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. With his mind he desired to serve the Law of God. But his flesh served sin. The only way out was the freedom that comes through Christ. He is the only bullet who can slay the power of sin. Jesus does what the Law cannot. He actually makes us holy in a legal sense. He gives us power to fight sin and become more holy in a practical sense. And finally He will make us fully holy in every sense in glory. The Law is not our enemy sin is and the only way to kill sin is through turning to Christ. If there are any here this morning who do not know Christ if you have struggled to do good if you have looked for satisfaction there is only one answer salvation through Christ. If any are in Christ but struggling Jesus frees us from the power of sin. We can all on Him to empower us to live holy and become more like Him. This is our gospel. This is our glory. In Him sin is already defeated. In Him we have the victory. 20