Romans 7:7-25 Every Day a Battle
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Continue with series on Canons of Dort.
We are going to spend a couple weeks on the final point, the one we call “Perseverance of the Saints.”
There is one phrase I want us to remember that we will be repeating over the next couple weeks:
God preserves so we can persevere.
God preserves so we can persevere.
God preserves, so we can persevere. It’s all about who God is that changes who we are.
This is important to know because the Canons, Paul, which we read today, and we need to think about if we have been chosen by God, out of sheer grace, even though our lives have been spoiled by sin, but yet, through his Spirit, has kindled in us a faith that turns us towards him, why do we still sin?
Today, Makenna has made profession of faith. In her profession, she has committed herself to love Jesus and belong to him. In that promise, she affirms that she wants to live for Jesus, and that means she is going to do her very best to say no to sin.
Yet, Makenna did not promise that she would never sin again. No matter how much she tries, that is a promise she can’t keep.
Why is that?
I remember several years ago before I came to Hope there was a woman who had graduated from college and hadn’t yet made profession of faith. It wasn’t as though she had been putting it off. She wondered if she could make her profession of faith with integrity. Even though on the outside she was doing everything that showed a life of faith—she was a GEMS counselor, she played organ and piano in church, and lived from all observations a genuine Christian life, she knew herself and the struggle she had with sin. She also wondered that if she made profession of faith, what the people who knew her best would think of her—since they knew everything about her—even the things that most other people didn’t know.
Now, for all that I am aware of, this woman wasn’t living some secret life and didn’t harbor any deep secrets, but she did know that sin was an active part of her life. To make a public profession of faith was to stand before God and others that she wanted to turn away from sin. And I think she, as a person who was very careful and meticulous, took very seriously the things in her life that didn’t coincide with how God wants to live. She didn’t want to be a hypocrite.
Why does sin continue to live in us, even though we believe?
The Canons even make it more pointed. How can those who are elected—chosen by God—how can they still be active participants in sin?
At the heart of the disagreement with the Arminians there is this question: “Isn’t there a danger that those who have been chosen by God can fall so badly that they can lose their salvation?”
In the text and the Canons, we wrestle between two opposite sides. We consider the faith we profess, the forgiveness and freedom we can have from sin, and living a thankful life to God.
On the other side, we recognize the temptations we still face and the sins we still commit. As the Canons state, even those who God has chosen and have been made alive through the Holy Spirit —even then, we still wrestle with sin. We wrestle with “the flesh,” as Scripture says.
Satan has a knack for taking good things and twisting them. We still are affected by the depravity of sin that affects every part of our lives. Sin continues to be a part of who we are, body and soul. Only when Christ comes again, are we made new. In the meantime, we continue the fight against sin and Satan.
When we read flesh—understand that “flesh” is our human nature—our sinful human nature, that involves all of who we are.
What I want to remind us today is that what the canons teach are rooted in Scripture. I say this because we are often Reformed in doctrine, but Arminian in practice. We say God is in control, but then we turn around and we look at others or ourselves and ask, “Are we good enough?”
The text today summarizes that conflict? If God has chosen us and saved us, why can’t we stop doing bad things?
Let’s start with verses 7-13. Here Paul speaks from the perspective of someone who isn’t a Christian. He describes the function of the law—the Ten Commandments or anyplace in Scripture where God tells us how we should live.
The Law was given by God. The law isn’t sin, but it is like a light that illuminates and shows us what sin is. Without the changing work of Jesus, the Law not only convicts us of sin, but because we can see what sin is, it also tempts us like forbidden fruit. There is a close correlation with Adam and Eve in the Garden. If God said, “Don’t.” We wonder, “Well, why not? Is it so bad? It can’t hurt that much, can it? Maybe I should try it, just this once.”
For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.
Vs. 14-27—is written from the perspective of a believer. In vs. 7-13-Paul speaks in a past tense—as what happened to him before he believed (known, produced, I died, it brought death, deceived, etc.) Now, in vs. 14-27, Paul speaks as one who believes. The verbs change to the present tense. (I do, I agree, sin lives).
Paul is wrestling with the fact that in the past before he believed, the law condemned. Now through Jesus, should he want to keep the Law, but he still sins. “When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.” (vs. 21)
That’s us too. We know that Jesus saves us, so why do we still break God’s commands? It causes to wonder and question our own salvation.
The Canons recognize this too. Can someone who has had the Holy Spirit change them with the same power that was used in Creation and in raising the dead to life—can a person who has been changed by God sin anymore? People still sin; I still sin. Why?
Fight the battle against sin.
Fight the battle against sin.
Ultimately we say that it is because sin will continue in the world until Christ comes again. That’s the unfortunate truth.
The fact is that we continue to sin. Our flesh continues to fail. We are still suffering the effects of the fall.
Canons of Dort Article 2: The Believer’s Reaction to Sins of Weakness
Hence daily sins of weakness arise, and blemishes cling to even the best works of saints, giving them continual cause to humble themselves before God, to flee for refuge to Christ crucified, to put the flesh to death more and more by the Spirit of supplication and by holy exercises of godliness, and to strain toward the goal of perfection, until they are freed from this body of death and reign with the Lamb of God in heaven.
Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, and Peter, and Paul, too. Even though there are times when we sin and fail, the promise to us is that God holds on to his children. He preserves them. Not only that—he perseveres with them. He won’t let go, no matter how far we run away.
I think of the parable of the Lost Sheep in . It isn’t as though the shepherd is out looking for new sheep. He isn’t hunting for what wasn’t already his. The sheep that he is looking for was a part of the flock—but has wandered away. He brings that sheep back home.
We can see that sheep as a person who was chosen, but came to faith later in life through the Gospel. Or, we can also see that sheep as a person who belonged, but then walked away. If they are truly one of the flock—one of God’s own—God perseveres in his search. He will hold. He will preserve.
This doesn’t keep people from sinning though. In fact, there are those who can be tempted. Not only tempted but with emphasis, the canons say that people can be carried away by the flesh.
The hardest part of this text is not that we can be carried away, but as the canons state, somehow God, at least for time permits it. That’s hard.
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
Romans 7:15
There would be so much suffering that could be avoided, if we could stop sinning. Yet, we deal with this divine mystery that God gives us free will, and that free will chooses to sin. Yet, due to his grace, he moves our spirits to turn to him. By the work of the Holy Spirit, our dead hearts are made alive so we can respond in faith.
Even though we slip and fall he preserves so that can persevere. We are saved by grace, not by our ability to learn from our mistakes.
Canons of Dort Article 5: The Effects of Such Serious Sins
By such monstrous sins, however, they greatly offend God, deserve the sentence of death, grieve the Holy Spirit, suspend the exercise of faith, severely wound the conscience, and sometimes lose the awareness of grace for a time—until, after they have returned to the right way by genuine repentance, God’s fatherly face again shines upon them.
That’s hard news for us. For reasons we can’t explain other than sin, even those who belong to God sometime take their lives of the rails. Even though they know better, God’s children can sink into addiction, rationalize affairs, hate their neighbors, and all in all, “give into the flesh.”
If you ask me why this happens, all I can say is that I don’t know other than God, in his greater plan, permits it for a time.
Yet, if God has put his claim on us, we will not and cannot fall out of his care. He will bring us back.
We are not alone. God holds us.
We are not alone. God holds us.
Faith means nothing if we aren’t will to exercise it. But even with the exercise, we need help. We might do everything we think that is right, but then we injure ourselves or we’re stricken with some illness or disease that cripples our bodies. We need help. We can’t do it alone. Yet, that is our greatest word of hope.
Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
Romans
Have comfort that sin is not the end of the story. God holds, preserves, and perseveres with us. Maybe its today we stop blaming others for the choices we’ve made. Maybe it’s today that the Holy Spirit says enough and gives us the strength to leave whatever sins we are caught up in make our way closer to God.
Maybe you have a loved one who knows better, but still seems to be running away. Take comfort that if God has his hand on them, we remember , there is no where they can hide from His Spirit, “even the darkness is as light to Him.”
May we keep fighting the fight, but even when we fall and cry out, “Who will rescue me?” God will save. Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.