Paul’s words concerning the war between the flesh and the spirit are greatly encouraging to all believers. Romans 7:7-25

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. 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. 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. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! 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. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 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. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

This is undoubtedly a difficult text to understand, but there are several empowering truths here that I will attempt to draw from the text.

1 ) The purpose of the law was never to save us, but to show God’s perfect standard in contrast to our sinfulness. This is perhaps a truth many people know, but I think we fail to apply it too often. The law as Paul says “proved to be death to me.” As we go through our lives we selfishly want credit for our righteousness, but as we compare ourselves to God’s standard, the law, His standard continually tells us, “we are dead, we are dead.” There is nothing good about the law if we look at it as a means to save ourselves. In fact, Paul says that it actually causes sin to come alive. When we are told what not to do, there is an increasing urge to do it. The thing we must be careful of, and that which Paul guards against, is thinking negatively about the law. It would be easy to curse God’s law simply because it only produces death in us. However, Paul says “the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” As believers we must continue to view the law this way. It is a holy and righteous revelation of God’s standard, but it is not a means of our salvation. One teacher puts it this way. The law is like a scalpel; something that can be used to perform surgery and give life. However, Satan, and our flesh seize this scalpel and use it incorrectly; therefore producing death. Jesus was the only one to use this righteous standard correctly. And this is why only He could impute to us perfect righteousness from His perfect obedience. In the hands of the rest of us, the perfect law only produces death.

2) I think this text should guard us against self-righteousness that judges ourselves or others too harshly. Paul states that he does not do the good that he wants to do. This is the hard part of the Christian life. Christians, unfortunately, still commit sin. This is because though God has “chosen us before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight” (Eph 1), we remain in our sinful flesh until Jesus returns. The question this should lead us to is this: “What do we do when we sin?” The Christian, as Paul depicts here, does not want to sin and the flesh is opposed to the mind and the spirit. Thus, the Christian lives a life of repentance, striving for holiness, and dependence on Jesus’ righteousness. This is an important distinction to make. Ask yourself how you respond when you sin. Do you think you have failed as a Christian? Or does your sin drive you to repentance and ultimately closer to Christ? I think Satan would love us to view the law as a means of salvation because when we sin in that system, we are driven away from God and to despair. However, when we view the law correctly as Paul does here, our sin just serves to show us what we already know - that we are dead and we need Christ. So, yes, we strive against sin. When we succeed, we praise Christ for His grace. When we fail, we repent and praise Christ for His grace. We are not perfect, and until the day of glorification we should not expect anyone around us to be perfect. We must begin to live the truth that we are saved by grace, both in our failure to follow God and in our success in following God.

3) The failure of our flesh should drive us to the manner in which Jesus defeated the flesh. This is explained in detail in Romans chapter 8, one of the most encouraging chapters in the Bible. Until then, remember the grace of God in your life. When you sin, rather than being led to depression, confess your sin and rejoice that you are forgiven. When others around you sin, rather than judging them, show them the grace of God and try to lead them to repentance. I think Paul’s point is this, we must stop beating ourselves up with the law, for all it can do is kill us. Yes, it is a helpful guide and a glorious picture of God’s holiness, but we do not trust in it to be saved. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God.” (Eph 2:8) If you have sinned today, run to His grace and rejoice. If you have done what is right today, run to His grace and ask for more grace.