Abiding in Christ: The Battle You Can't Lose
by James Lincoln on August 21, 2005
Last Sunday, we began to consider the two kinds of battles believers face. The first battle is the battle you face before you trust Christ. That's a battle that you can't win. Paul describes it in v.7-13. It's the battle between your conscience and your behavior without grace and without Christ. It takes place when you attempt to make yourself acceptable to God by keeping His law or keeping the dictates of your conscience. The reason that it is un-win-able is that no one can live up to the righteous demands of the law or even the demands of conscience unless that conscience has been seared and distorted. R.L. Stevenson does a masterful job of describing the intensity of this battle in his book, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Frustrated by this battle between his virtuous self and his grasping self, Dr. Jekyll invents a potion that is supposed to separate the two selves so he can find some peace. His evil self can't get over the restraints of his virtuous conscience and the virtuous self can't overcome the temptations of the wicked self. So, he drinks the potion and he splits. However, he finds that he underestimated his grasping self and discovers that he is exponentially more grasping than he imagined. After a brutal murder, Jekyll attempts to hold Hyde down. He says,"Hey, that's enough! No more! I'm going to hold him in." So, for three months he doesn't take the potion. But he discovers that Hyde was not only more wicked that he thought he was also more powerful than he thought. Hyde won't stay down. The center of gravity shifts in the book. One day, he's sitting on a bench in Regent's Park and without taking the potion he automatically becomes Edward Hyde. And now he has to take the potion to become the virtuous Dr. Jekyll. Hyde takes over and eventually takes both Jekyll's and his own life. The story ends with hopelessness and cynicism about the battle of life. It's as if the author is telling us that no matter what you do you just can't win. If you try to live by your virtuous self your behavior will contradict your conscience and you will be miserable. If you give in completely to your wicked and grasping self you'll self-destruct. There's no hope. Paul's story is different. The Gospel gives us hope.
Sin: Hidden & Hideous
The name Hyde itself is a play on the words hidden and hideous. Sin gets its power by remaining subterranean in your consciousness and minimizing the depth of its darkness. Sin is more hidden and hideous than we ever imagine. Paul also discovered his Mr. Hyde. However, the catalyst wasn't a chemical potion. It was the law or the tenth commandment.
"Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.." Rom 7:9-12
When the weight of the tenth commandment came home to his heart it absolutely devastated him. For the first time in his life he knew that he was dead in the water with God. You see, coveting defines sin in such a way that it tells you what all the other commandments are getting at. Paul could say, "Look, I don't carve idols. I don't swear. I don't commit adultery and I honor my parents and so forth." But then there was that thenth commandment: COVETING. Coveting is that black hole in the soul that says, "I need money, love, beauty, status, success, comfort or anything else to be content. I need everything to be just like this or that for me to be content." Coveting is not wanting something. Coveting is not loving or resting enough in God that you can be content. When you covet, God is not enough. That's why it's idolatry. The reason why many of us are unhappy, bitter, despondent, lustful and angry is that something or someone had come between you and that thing or circumstance you think you have to have to be content. Wanting things is fine. God made you with wants. However, coveting is inordinate wanting; it governs your gladness, joy, peace, holiness, contentment, anger and worship. The commandment slew him. He began to understand that all his religious passion and all his morality was nothing more than coveting (cf. Philippians 3:7 ). It's OK to want to be morally upright. But Paul coveted it. He wanted God to accept him on his own terms. He didn't want to rely on God for his mercy like the average sinner, alcoholic, liar or cheat or common failure. Not him. Underneath all his Jekyylness, there was this grasping/coveting Mr. Hyde. So, Christianity is the only religion that tells you to repent of your goodness, because your religious and moral effort can be coveting your own merit as the means of your salvation. And this strategy is deeply imbedded into all of us before we hear the gospel. And it continues to rise up and claim our allegiance and affections.
OK. Now, this is the battle without Christ that you can't win. It's both every bit as surprising and awful as Stevenson describes it. Moral determination and religious effort can't rescue you from it. So to win this battle you must be willing to say, "I see what Jesus Christ has done for me. He lived for me, died for me, was raised up for me. He claims me as His bride. I am guilty of coveting and of failing to live by His law, but, by His grace, I receive Him as my Lord and Savior. And I die to this law way of making myself acceptable to God." In Christ, you are no longer bound to your body to keep the law as a way of becoming acceptable to God. In Christ, you have new resources and there is a new battle fought on different terms and with different weapons.
The Battle You Cannot Lose
With Christ this is the battle you can't lose, because if Christ is for you no one can stand against you! In v. 25, Paul says, "Who will save me?" not "Who is able to save me?" This battle Paul describes in v.14-25.
Now, today I want to ask the question, "Why did Paul describe this struggle?" Why does he write this?
"For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law 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."? Rom 7:14-23
1. Grace Is Not Lawlessness.
The first reason has to be that Paul is defending himself against the charge that his gospel of salvation by grace disrespects God's law and leads believers to a life of disobedience. Notice how he does so.
In (7:7) he tells us that the law is good because it defines sin for us.
In (7:12) he tells us that the law is holy, righteous and good. It exposes sin for what it is: utterly sinful.
In (7:14) he tells us that the law is spiritual and in (7:16) that the law is good.
In (7:22) he says, "I joyfully concur with the law" and in (7:25). I serve the law of God with my mind."
All of these verses echo what he has already said in 3:31. "Do we nullify the law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the law. "So, When Paul says that we were made to die to the law, he means that we were made to die to it in some ways but clearly not in every respect. So he writes about the struggle because it is his deep respect for the law that exposes indwelling sin that remains in his body. However....
2. Believers are Made to Die to the Law.
Second, he shares his struggle to remind us that there is a sense in which believers must die to the law. That's why he begins the chapter with his note about marriage and death. Just as a bride must die to her former and primary allegiance and affection for her parents and transfer them to her husband, so we too as believers in Christ must die to the law as our primary allegiance and affection and transfer them to Christ. A bride doesn't leave her parents in every respect, but in some ways she must if she is going to know the love of her husband.
Look, we used to be bound to these bodies to do good and to be righteous. Now, we are bound to Christ as His bride (7:4). Now, our way of gaining righteousness is not through our self-determination to be holy by keeping the law. Instead, we depend on Christ; we trust Christ for His enablement, we call on Him to see us through; we rely on His love and grace and the indwelling Holy Spirit. And through His grace, God gives us these things and a billion more. We have died to the power of the law to condemn us (Christ has forgiven us). We have died to the power of the law to make us feel unworthy. Christ has given us His worthiness as a gift. We die to the futility and hopelessness of these bodies to make ourselves righteous. Christ is our righteousness. We are no longer bound simply to these bodies as the way we bear the fruit of righteousness. The law is powerless to make us love it. Grace can. The struggle Paul shares is there to remind him and us of these things.
3. The Battle is Daily & Ongoing
Third, this is a battle believers wage every day. It's the struggle between our bodies (our lives) that have been habituated by sin and the greater reality of who we are in Christ.
15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
The reason that we have this struggle is because our bodies are not yet redeemed. Before we were saved, these bodies learned to cope, succeed, find pleasure and satisfaction, defend ourselves and justify ourselves in ways that were opposed to the gospel. In unbelief, we trained ourselves to live this way. That training got carved in the grooves of your mind and body.
Although Paul says that our "inner man" has been redeemed, we still carry around with us in these bodies what the Puritans called "indwelling sin". We trained ourselves to make ourselves acceptable to God or to satisfy ourselves. And when we are not thinking straight or not seeing our lives through the grace of the gospel we can easily default to sin because that's the way we got on before we were saved.
Look, a few weeks ago I was mowing the grass and I found myself pushing the mower really hard but it wasn't going much faster. Do you know why? It's a self-propelled lawn mower. Why was I pushing it so hard? Because, when I was a kid and mowed lawns for my summer job we didn't have self propelled mowers. I know you can't believe that I'm that old. However, through repetition, I trained myself to push a mower in order to make it go faster. It became a habit. So now when I don't think about the greater reality of my self-propelled mower I can default to a lesser reality that bound itself to my mind and body prior to the new technology. Can you see how this works? You learned strategies for making life work for you that were opposed to the gospel. Now your body wants to keep living that way even though you don't. All of us have this battle. Paul wants to give us some hope as we fight it.
Now, Paul is quick to say that sin is not consistent with who you are in Christ. It's not consistent with your new goals, aspirations, affections and overall direction of your life. Your new identity is that you are God's child and the Bride of Christ. However, you're still in this body that has yet to be redeemed. So, if you move away from the greater reality as Christ's bride, from His love, grace, promises, word and kindness you can default to sin. So, don't do it. Offer yourself or present yourself to Christ and his grace. We'll say more about this latter.
This is why I think Paul says in vs. 17, "It is no longer I that sins but sin in me." Please don't misunderstand him here. He's not dodging responsibility for his role in his own sin. That would contradict everything he says about himself elsewhere. If we had no responsibility for our sins there would be no reason to confess our sins and repent.
The other day my friend Greg Anderson made a mistake in a work project we were doing. I can't even remember now what it was. But I thought, "That's not Greg." However, I didn't mean that Greg didn't do it or that Greg wasn't responsible. I meant that Greg just never makes a mistake like that. It's inconsistent with the pattern of his life and the stellar record of his skillful work. That's just not Greg. The same is true with sin. When a believer sins, that's just not consistent with who you are in Christ, who you are becoming your ultimate goal and desire in life. That's not the greater reality of who you are. But if you forget or neglect who you are in Christ you can default to the way your body or life worked for you before you got saved.
Peter did this. After Pentecost and the inauguration of the Holy Spirit, Peter got caught up with some people who wouldn't eat with Gentile Christians. Before he became a Christian, his life was habituated by the need for the approval and fear of others more than the approval or fear of God. In this season of testing he defaulted to that habit. Paul heard about it and confronted him. Immediately, Peter repented and got back on track. That was not who Peter was in Christ or consistent with his long range goals. But at that moment he ignored the greater reality of who he was in Christ and defaulted to a lesser reality (his flesh).
Yes, our body of sin has been mortally wounded. It just hasn't stopped competing for your allegiance and affection. And if you belong to Christ it can't win. It will eventually lose. Paul says in verse 25 that Christ will save him from the body. Our bodies will someday be redeemed. Although we do sin, it isn't because we disregard the law of God. It's because we have a law or a principle (7:21) at work in these bodies that's competing with the greater reality of who we are in Christ. Now this is grievous and makes us groan. He writes in 8:23, "We groan eagerly waiting the redemption of our bodies." He wants us to know that we must wait for our bodies to be redeemed to finally escape this battle.
4. Two Hopeless Alternatives
I see one last reason that Paul shared his struggle. The struggle as he has described it saves us from two hopeless alternatives. He's being a good pastor here. First, he saves us from the hopelessness of Lawlessness. Paul says that he, "joyfully concurs with the law" and he calls it holy, righteous and good. To disrespect God's law will lead you to ruin and shipwreck your faith.
Second, he saves us from the hopelessness of Perfectionism. After attending a series of meetings at Oxford where a teacher promised perfection in life through consecration to the Spirit, J.I. Packer almost committed suicide. He dedicated his life and rededicated his life to the Holy Spirit and instead of perfection the Holy Spirit revealed that in the light of God's perfect law he fell far short. He felt hopeless until he returned to the Cross of Christ and Him who is our only perfection. If you move away from grace and default to law (and I think this is what Paul is describing here in his experience), here is the outcome, "Wretched man that I am." That's an accurate response if you are seeing yourself before God's perfect standard.
In each description of Paul's struggle he acknowledges the glory of God's law and the power of indwelling sin that keeps him short of that glory. Next to law he always comes out short and wretched. If you don't live by grace or by the love of God that has been poured out into your heart by the Holy Spirit you will minimize sin or be devastated by guilt. This is all that law can do. Sin will cause you to be puffed up by pride or devastated by guilt before the law of God. In 1 Sam.15:20 ff., God equates disobedience with divination and idolatry! Without grace how can we stand? We can't. Paul shares his struggles to save us from the hopelessness of perfectionism.
So, what do we do? (7:25)
First, don't jump to chapter eight yet and miss the treasures of vs. 25. First, admit with Paul that your status before the law of God apart from Christ is wretched. James says that if we disobey one piece of the law we are guilty of all." Jesus came to call sinners to repentance not the righteous. If you compare your life (without Christ and grace) before the perfect standard of God's holiness this is the only reasonable outcome. Paul says, look, I stopped minimizing, rationalizing and pretending and defending my record. In Christ, you can be honest, truthful and face it head on. Christ came to save sinners not winners.
2. Give Thanks To God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Here is Paul's counsel. Learn to give thanks for the gospel! Paul finds redemption for his wretchedness through a heart that has been made full of thanks to God through Jesus Christ his Lord. This exultation and thanksgiving is the means through which Paul is able to recover and rejoice in the Lord. In chapter eight, Paul gives us specifics about why we can be thankful. However, when you face this struggle of wretchedness before the holy law of God thank Him through Jesus Christ. Do you give thanks? Do you give thanks that He has loved you, lived for you, died for you, rose again for you, poured out his love through the Holy Spirit on you, claims you as His bride, loves you more than his own life. He became sin and received the wrath of God for you. He makes an eternal covenant of love with you and the Father on your behalf, all of this and a billion blessings more! Give Thanks! This is what the unbeliever can't do (Rom.1:21, "they neither honored God as God nor do they give thanks,")
Do you have a grateful heart? Are you an exulting Christian?! If not, sin is crouching at the door with thoughts of bitterness, guilt, shame, resentment, lust and envy, coveting and much more. However a thankful heart is a holy heart! How can you disobey and be thankful at the same time? Only by forgetting, rejecting or ignoring grace and who we are in Christ. So, give thanks that Jesus Christ is our Lord and find the joy of the Lord to be your strength not your record before His perfect law.
This gratitude for the gospel liberated Paul from the sense that he is wretched before God's law. It opens up his heart and mind to the greater reality of who he is in Christ. It reminds him of the vast treasures of belonging to Christ. It speaks to him of the one who loves him as no other can or will. It's the expulsive power of a greater affection . Who will rescue Him? Jesus Christ will. From what? From this body of sin. Yet, for now at the end of 25 the battle goes on between these two enemies. However, look at his next verse, "There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus our Lord." Beloved, abide in Christ and His gospel and live a life of obedience to Jesus Christ our Lord!
From: John Newton, 1725-1807I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith and love and every grace,
Might more of his salvation know
and seek more earnestly his face.'Twas he who taught me thus to pray
And he, I trust, has answered prayer.
But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair.
I hoped that in some favored hour
At once he'd answer my request,
And by his love's constraining power
Subdue my sins and give me rest.Instead of this, he made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart,
And let the angry powers of hell
Assault my soul in every part."Lord, why is this?" I trembling cried,
"Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?"
"'Tis in this way," the Lord replied,
"I answer prayer for grace and faith.""These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set thee free
And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
That thou mayest seek thy all in me."