WAR WITHIN – 3 by Dr. Shah, Clearview Church, Henderson, NC
Introduction: In two weeks, starting June 4th, Wednesday evening at 6pm, we will be starting our Digging Deep summer bible study. Our focus this summer is on Great Britain. This will probably be one of our best series because you will not only learn the history of Great Britain, but also of Europe and the United States. We will be tracking the growth of Christianity through England, Scotland, and Wales and also learn how the various movements made it to what we know today as the United States. In the process, you will also learn your own family history going back thousands of years. It will truly surprise you, and you don’t want to miss this. Just like what you saw, there will be tons of videos to help you learn. This will not be live-streamed, so invite everyone to join us here. By the way, in the video you just saw, we are at an Anglo-Saxon reconstructed farm at Jarrow Hall Museum which is on the northeast coast of England. The Anglo Saxons invaded Britain after the Romans left in the fifth century AD. They were Germanic peoples who drove away the local Britons who were in the land and even assimilated with them. In time, they also became Christians. We’ll see in a little bit how well they understood Christianity and how is this connected to our series through Romans. In our series through Romans, we come to Romans 7, and our message is titled WAR WITHIN – part 3. We are learning how to fight against sin, flesh, and death in the Christian life until God completely destroys them in the end of time.
Romans 8:5 (page #1741) “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.”
Context: As you know, Paul wrote this letter to the church in Rome in the first century that was divided between Gentile background and Jewish background believers. Among many important truths, he wanted them to know that in our pre-Christian life we were under the control of Sin, Flesh, and Death, with Satan as the self-appointed head of this Axis of Evil. Being saved means that we died, we were buried, and we have risen to walk in the newness of life (Romans 6). Our death represented our death from the family of Adam and our resurrection is our new birth in the family of the New Adam. Our death also represented our death to Master Sin. We are no longer slaves to sin. Furthermore, we were in an unhappy marriage with Mr. Law who only made demands on us but could never help us. Mr. Law was not a bad person. What he was telling us to do was not contrary to God. In fact, what he tells us to do is the secret to the blessed life. It’s just that it was an ill-suited marriage, like being married to a “measuring tape” or a “micrometer screw gauge.” The only way to end this marriage was death, but Mr. Law does not die (It’s God’s truth), so we must die. Romans 7:4(page #1741) “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.”
Now, the marriage with Mr. Law is annulled, and we are in a new marriage with Jesus.While Mr. Law would say “do this and don’t do that,” Jesus says make yourself available and I will do through you. As long as you abide in Christ, you bear fruit to God. The moment you try to serve God by keeping the Law, you return to bondage again. That is legalism. That is the picture of the defeated Christian. Again, going back to the Law after being saved is not about whether or not you should keep the 10 commandments. It is doing your best versus submitting to Christ and letting him live through you. He wants to bear fruit to God through you. By the way, this is not a Pauline doctrine. This is exactly what Jesus taught in John 15 1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” What happens when a branch is pruned, a new one comes in its place and bears more and new fruit. Romans 7:6 “But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”
Application: Are you catching all this? Are you still under the grips of Satan, Sin, Flesh, and Death? Are you still married to Mr. Law and trying to do better? Have you received Jesus as your Savior? If you have, do you know that you have died, buried, and risen with Christ? Now, he lives through you and bears fruit to God. Are you bearing fruit to God? Are you serving in the newness of the Spirit or the oldness of the letter?
Now we come to Romans 7:7-25. This is important for all of us but especially for those who think that they don’t need all this. Let me warn you that it is tough to understand, but it is indispensable to your Christian life. Grant Osborne, a famous New Testament scholar from yesteryears, remarked that this section is “one of the most difficult exegetical and theological conundrums in the New Testament.” It’s tempting to skip over it, but we do so to our own detriment. Francis L. Patton, President of Princeton University (1888-1902) said: “The only hope of Christianity is in the rehabilitating of the Pauline theology. It is back, back, back, to an incarnate Christ and the atoning blood, or it is on, on, on, to atheism and despair.”
To help us understand what it means to serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter, Paul gives us an example of a deep sin that we were struggling with before we got saved. Again, Mr. Law was steady telling us not to do it. If he didn’t, we wouldn’t know how terrible this sin was. Romans 7:7 “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet.’” Paul is referring here to the 10 commandments. The Greek word for covet is “epithumeo” = desire, want, lust for. Was this the first time that people understood covetousness? Of course not. The first sin that came into humanity was because of coveting. Genesis 3:6 “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.” The Hebrew word is “chamad” = desire, take pleasure in. People knew this sin. Covetousness caused the first murder when Cain killed Abel. Josephs’s brothers coveted him. Potiphar’s wife coveted Joseph. When God gave the 10 commandments, the last one was more than just “oh, by the way…” After (GINSPMASWC) “no gods before me, no graven image, no taking his name in vain, remember the Sabbath, honor your father and mother, no murder, no adultery, no stealing, no false witness,” listen to the final 10th commandment Exodus 20:17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.” All the commandments are important, but the last one is especially important. Covetousness is the harmless sin that causes the most damage. It is a feeling, but it is more than a feeling. It is inward, but it affects everything outward. It is subtle, but it is very substantial. It gets both the good and the not so good. Like Saul, it will make you chase an enemy and miss your throne. Like David, it will cause you to steal another man’s wife. It is the last of the commandment, but it is the “sin that rules humanity” (NIDNTTE). You can keep all the commandments (so you think), but if you fail here (which you will), you fail in all the commandments.
The 10 commandments cannot help you. In fact, Master Sin uses it against the lost person – Romans 7 (page #1740) 8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. 9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. 12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. This is the pre-conversion life under the Law.
When you get saved and start growing in the Lord, you will see this sin become more and more real. It’s nothing new. It’s just that you now are in the light. But, if you try to fight it the old way of trying to use the commandment, you will go further down the road of misery. Romans 7 13 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand…” The Greek word is “ginosko” = knowledge, understanding, and even control (in the context). 15 “…For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. This is a description of the Christian life that is lived by the power of the flesh. How did the sin get there? Remember the body is gone but the spirit is still alive. As long as you tolerate any presence of sin, Master Sin has a bridgehead in your life, which is indwelling sin.
How do we find victory over sin? Romans 7 (page #1741) 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 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. The believer is caught between 4 laws: law of God; law in my members; law of my mind; and law of sin. Finally, he throws up his hands in despair – 24 “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” When you come to the end of yourself, all defeated and discouraged, Jesus is there waiting for you. He planned this all along.
Next week, we will see the role of the Holy Spirit in all of this in Romans 8. Galatians 5 16 “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”
Anglo Saxon poem “Dream of the Rood” from a stone cross from AD 750.
“It was long ago–I remember it still–that I was hewn down at the wood’s edge, taken from my stump. Strong foes seized me there, hewed me to the shape they wished to see, commanded me to lift their criminals. Men carried me on their shoulders, then set me on a hill, foes enough fastened me there. Then I saw the Lord of mankind hasten with stout heart, for he would climb upon me. (Lines 28-34)
Then the young Hero stripped himself–that was God’s Almighty–strong and stouthearted. He climbed on the high gallows, bold in the sight of many, when he would free mankind. I trembled when the Warrior embrace me, yet I dared not bow to earth, fall to the ground’s surface; but I must stand fast. I was raised up, a cross; I lifted up the Mighty King, Lord of the Heavens: I dared not bend. They pierced me with dark nails: the wounds are seen on me, open gashes of hatred. Nor did I dare harm any of them. They mocked us both together. I was all wet with blood, drenched from the side of that Man after he had sent forth his spirit. (Lines 39-49)
HE will come again hither on this earth to seek mankind on Doomsday, the Lord himself, Almighty God, and his angels with him, for then he will judge, he who has power to judge, each one just as in this brief life he has deserved. Nor my any one be unafraid of the word the Ruler will speak. Before his host he will ask where the man is who in the name of the Lord would taste bitter death as he did on the Cross. But then they will be afraid, and will think of little to begin to say to Christ. There need none be afraid who bears on his breast the best of tokens, but through the Cross shall the kingdom be sought by each soul on this earthly journey that thinks to dwell with the Lord.” (Lines 110-116)
In conclusion, he writes – “May the Lord be my friend, who once here on earth’s suffered on the gallows-tree for man’s sins: he freed us and granted us life, a heavenly home. Hope was renewed, with joys and with bliss, to those who endured fire…”
This is not about the cross’s vision. This is about “the true believer, who is united with Christ in his death but who will one day be honored and raised up to heavenly places, where he will rejoice with joy everlasting…it is the mystical experience of the Christian and proof positive that the message of the gospel had indeed sunk into the poets of Anglo-Saxon England, and through them to the wider public.” (Gerald Bray, The History of Christianity in Britain and Ireland). After all, think about it – who was closest to Jesus when he was on the cross, other than the cross. That’s how close we are to be to Jesus.
Application: Can you see the power of covetousness in your life? It is so deeply ingrained in us before our salvation that it is a difficult battle after salvation. Are you at the point of despair and ready to turn things over the Jesus? Are you saved?