Lesson 95
Romans Chapter 7
Freedom
from the Law's domination
or the total failure of the law to sanctify.
7:20-21
Establishes the Principles in view!
7:20 But
if I [old nature] am doing the
very thing I [new nature] do
not wish, I [whole person] am
no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
- What he is saying here is that at this point
he is struggling with deliverance from the power of the indwelling sin nature;
- Paul says that he finds a principle, a law, at work
within him that causes all his good intentions to end in failure!
- When he wants to do what is right, he ends up
producing from the Sin nature here referred to as "that evil" which keeps on being present in him.
- When he wants to do what is right, he ends up
producing from the Sin nature here referred to as "that evil" which keeps on being present in him.
- the inner man = the new nature from which
comes the capacity to relate to and to love the truth.
What's missing? 2 Cor
- This is synonymous with the I that desires to
do good, and hates evil; 14-17,19; and the mind of v.23, 25
- Different law [e[teron no,mon] different in character from the law of God
being written in the inner man, the new man;
- This different law is manifested through the members
of my body, hands, eyes, ears, mouth, feet;
this law (sin nature) with all its desires is constantly waging war
against the law of my mind; the new
nature;
- The word for mind, nou/j speaks of the faculty of intelligence, understanding; reflective
intelligence; of the ability to take input, analyze it and draw conclusions; therefore reason,
insight.
* What is
Paul describing??
1st
it is retrospective of his own experience; and then it is reflective of each of
our own experiences!
1.
We have that Sin nature, that wants to keep us in bondage;
2.
We respond to that conflict/pressure by saying to our selves; I will get free from this sin; through self-determination we conclude that
we will not do this any longer!
3.
Why will we not succeed but for the short haul? Why?
4.
Though we delight in the law of God in the inner man, new man; it by
itself gives us no power to handle the sin natures desires.
In
fact, moving under the Law in an attempt to handle the Sin Nature,
only makes the Sin Nature stronger; because "the strength of sin is the law"
You can no more overcome the
strong desires of your sin nature by your own power any more than you can
separate yourselves from your shadow!
Paul's great lament
Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
- Wretched man that I am!
talai,pwroj miserable,
wretched, distressed;
implies exhaustion from hard labor;
everything he's tried to do to combat the Sin nature has not worked
If a man was found guilty of a vicious crime, they
would often chain him to a dead body that was decaying steadily, and leave him
chained to it for a period of time.
- This vividly pictures how Paul feels about his own
sin nature;
- His cry here is a recognition that he must
have help from an outside source.
Ø
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our
Lord!
So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of
God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
- The answer to his question (vs:24), who shall deliver me is given here in a context of
praise and thanksgiving;
* It will be by the Holy Spirit that this
deliverance is wrought in us; as we shall discover in ch-8.
Summary of Paul's great discoveries about this struggle in Chapter 7.
1. That the sin nature dwelt within him even
though he delighted in God's law.
2. That his own will and self-effort, self
determination was powerless to handle it.
3. The sin nature dwells in you but it's not who
you are totally, only a part! Also have
a new nature, being built up by the Word!
4. That there was deliverance through our Lord
Jesus Christ!