Theme:
How God Takes Care of Your Greatest Need
1.
He
tells you the truth about your situation
2.
He
accomplishes what you could not
I will praise You, O
LORD, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works.” Psalm 9:1
Let’s
play a round of “funny or annoying.” It’s just how it sounds. I say something
and you think to yourself whether it’s funny or annoying. Ready? Blonde jokes. The
super intense body-building guy at the gym who takes everything so seriously
but really is only intent on checking himself out in the mirrors. That parent
who always has his go-to joke, which you’ve heard 15 times. That person at work
who plays really nice in front of the boss but is lazy and mean with everyone
else. Chances are, even with just those few examples, we are going to answer
differently. Some things in life are utterly hilarious to one person while at
the same time completely annoying to someone else. We’re all different.
How about
when it comes to the phrase, “It’s easier
to ask forgiveness than permission.” I’m sure you’ve heard it before;
probably even used it before. Is it funny or annoying? Perhaps both. To the
person who is doing it or saying it, it’s probably funny. To the person who’s
being acted upon, it’s most definitely annoying.
Here’s a
tougher question though. Is that phrase true? Is it actually easier to ask
forgiveness than permission? Simplistically, yes. Getting permission for
something is usually a headache. Think of a teen with their parents or a young
entrepreneur with investors. Sometimes, a great idea to you takes a lot of
convincing for someone else. Why not bypass the permission step and just do it?
Surely, in many instances in life, that is a very attractive idea.
But,
realistically, it’s not actually true. If we’re talking about true forgiveness,
the kind that means something and doesn’t just sound good, it doesn’t work if
we ignore obedience at the same time. We explored this idea a bit last weekend
as we talked about hypocrisy. Is there a greater example of hypocrisy than a
Christian who exalts the forgiveness of Christ yet ignores the boundaries of
permission in God’s Word? James tells us that that kind of attitude really
isn’t true faith in Christ, because “faith
without works is dead.” That’s kind of a no-brainer right, faith that is
hypocritical is not truly faith.
Then,
what of sin? What about the main issue we all face, even though we confess
faith in Jesus? How are we proven to be more than hypocrites? We wrestle with
that theme in our text today from Romans 7:13-18, as we take part two of our
series on the Heritage of our Fathers.
We see today the great need we have before God and what He has done to take
care of it:
Romans 7:13-18 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. 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. 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.
Part 1: God tells you the truth about your situation
When most
people think of God taking care of our needs, they immediately jump to the
supernatural. They think of God’s aid as something as simple as snapping His
fingers and doing whatever He pleases. Along with this notion comes a lot of
pent up bitterness against God. After all, if He is able to accomplish anything why doesn’t He help everyone,
exactly in their moment of need? Why all the pain, struggle, hostility, and
unfairness that we witness in the world? God should be able to just wipe all
that away.
It’s true
that God could do that. In some ways, God has used the miraculous to accomplish
His will. He has stepped beyond the limits of natural law and affected the
outcome of events. But, those situations are really the outliers of how God
normally operates and even when they happen, there is always a bigger goal on
the horizon. Many of the miracles in the Bible were done, not so much because
they were noble and right on their own, but that they served a greater purpose
in the long run, often to confirm or protect the promise of a Savior in Jesus.
Now that Jesus has come and salvation is fully accomplished, God doesn’t have
as much of a need to go beyond the realm of our reason, though He certainly
can.
I believe
that one of the reasons that God often doesn’t just snap His fingers to solve
mankind’s problems is because He wants us to be aware of what He is doing. He
could choose to simply operate on a plane above our understanding. We would
never know what’s going on and God would control everything, like a puppet
master behind the scenes. But, this would not be very fulfilling for our
relationship with God. God wants us to discern His will. He wants us to learn.
He wants us to understand what we can about Him, until we reach heaven and we
no longer have any limits on our understanding. And so, God condescends, if you
will, His will to us. He helps us see.
We see
this as the first part of looking at our great need. God is honest to us about
the truth of the situation, and with that honesty will come struggle. Our text
begins with Paul talking about how the Law of God is good in our lives. We
don’t often think of the Law as good because it has a condemning message
because of our sins. In fact, it’s the opposite of the Law, the gospel, that
literally means “good news.” But Paul is pointing out the Law’s usefulness in
our lives and in that sense it is good. Essentially, the Law tells us the
glaring truth about who we are. Paul goes on in verse 13 that this Law, which
is good, helps us to understand sin to be “exceedingly
sinful.”
This
phrase is a bit jumbled. What could Paul mean by saying that sin becomes
exceedingly sinful?
Think of it
as knowing something “beyond the shadow of a doubt.” The Law’s purpose is that
we would know exactly what sin is. People naturally have different feelings and
opinions about everything in life, just as we mentioned before. God knows this
and He knows it will be that way when it comes to discerning His will too.
That’s one reason He has given us His Law – to know without mistake what is
good and what is bad, or to put it another way, to know what is sinful. Even
when it comes to sin itself, God wants you to know it is exceedingly (without a
doubt) sinful.
Earlier
in verse 13 Paul also said that the Law does its job so that sin might “appear”
sinful; literally so that sin would be exposed for what it is. “Appear” means
to illuminate something, to shine to light on it and make it known. God removes
all “shadows of doubt” through the Law. We know what is right and what is
wrong, so long as we use the Law in truth. I hope you see the importance of
this. We know how easy it is to make God’s Word say something it doesn’t. People
regularly adjust the boundaries of the Law so that it no longer shines the
light on that which God has called sinful. Imagine someone who changed the
parameters of a ship navigator’s instruments. By themselves, the instruments
would still work, but they would lead to a much different destination, even if
one or two degrees were changed in a long journey. The same holds true with
God’s Law. Change it ever so slightly, just one or two degrees, and it has
drastic consequences on your destination. It will start to condemn things which
God does not, or it will no longer condemn something which God does.
Part 2: He accomplishes what you could not
Okay, so
we see how we should be using God’s Law. But, here’s exactly where Paul
describes the next problem, we are carnal humans trying to use the spiritual
Law. That’s like trying to use that navigation equipment with no training. In
addition to being carnal (think physical, mortal) we are also sold to sin. We
are slaves of the devil. We have no claim to our own personal freedom. It’s
like having the antidote for a deadly disease right in front of you but not
knowing how to open to the bottle. So is our struggle with sin. We see the Law,
we understand the Law, but we can’t accomplish it on our own.
No wonder
Paul says in the very next verse that he has no idea what he is doing. What
Paul is describing is what we often refer to as the struggle between old man
and the new man. Christians have both within their hearts. The old man is the
sinful flesh that keeps us bound to sin, both the sins we have inherited from
our parents that the sins we commit daily. It is an enemy that we can’t even
detect on our own, let alone conquer. But, God tells us in our text, the Law is
meant to bring that sin to light, to expose it, to show it as “exceedingly
sinful.” But, what do we do with this tremendous gift? We fumble around with
it, we misuse it, we ignore it, we reject it. And all the time, we know we’re
doing this.
And yet,
in the same moment, we are forgiven and renewed in Christ. We are given the new
man, the life of faith. We are truly able to serve God in righteousness and
holiness. Our acts are counted as worthy before God, as if Christ Himself were
doing them because it is Christ who works in us. As chaotic as it sounds, the
Christian life on this earth is one where these two extremes exist
side-by-side. We are in a constant battle between the old and the new. To the
world, this makes no sense. Paul’s personal confession here sounds ignorant at
best, psychotic and schizophrenic at worst.
Here’s
where we come back to our phrase from the opening. Does the reality of the old
man make Christians hypocrites? Are we simply running around telling others
what to do all the time while we just ask forgiveness from God? Does a trust in
the Gospel forego the desire for obedience? These are questions we should
genuinely wrestle with because they show we care about our beliefs. But, they
are also accusations leveled against justification by Christ. It was this very
thing that caused many to reject the Reformers during the time of Luther. These
individuals had discovered this profoundly simple truth – that God forgives
sinners by His grace alone. Yet, many rejected such a thought because it didn’t
make sense to them. In their minds, Christians would then ignore the Law of
God, forget about trying to be obedient, and just use forgiveness as an excuse
to do anything. To them, there would be no way to control the people any
longer.
And right
there, in their own position, they show their biggest mistake. The work of the
Church is not about controlling others, it’s about sharing the simple truth.
Leave the work of conversion and regeneration to the Holy Spirit. And when we
start with the truth, we start where Paul did – at our need. Whether we want to
believe in God’s grace or man’s work, one thing we cannot deny is that we have
a great need. We suffer because of sin. We struggle with the old man. Paul took
the time to point out these basics truths, not to confuse us, but to set us off
on the right track. If this struggle is real for you, if you are aware of it,
if you seek relief from it, then it proves that you care about more than just asking forgiveness. No one who ignores
their sins thinks about the need for obedience. On the other hand, those who
are plagued with despair because of sin are pressed down precisely because they
desire to obey, but cannot. They suffer the same as Paul, and the hope is that
they are restored the same as Paul.
On the
surface of our text it may not seem like it, but accomplishment is a
major theme. Verses 13,15, and 17 all use the exact same word, which means to
achieve something.
Verse 13:
But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me…
Verse 15:
For what I will to do, that I do not practice…
Verse 17: But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me
In each
verse Paul speaks about what is being done in his life, but in each case he is
helpless. Sin accomplishes death through the Law. He wills to accomplish what
is right but can’t. Sin accomplishes what he hates. This is the crazy,
psychotic cycle of sin. This is how Paul describes the inner battle; the same
struggle we all endure. No wonder that Paul exclaims in verse 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver
me from this body of death? His next words provide the answer: “I thank God – through Jesus Christ, our
Lord!”
Jesus is
the one who has accomplished what we could not. As the Father promised, so
Jesus delivered, as One who “redeemed
those under the law.” Paul reminded the Galatians of the cost, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of
the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is
everyone who hangs on a tree ") (Galatians 3:13). The Law is good
because it continues to point us to obedience. It does not relax the importance
of God’s commands. Yet, God, through sending His Son to earth, has made a way
possible for salvation that does not rest with us accomplishing the Law. We
continue to use it to expose, to illuminate the truth, but not to be saved. For
that, we look alone to Jesus, who loved us and gave His life for us.
Today, we
struggle internally with this battle between the old man and the new man. But, tough as it may be, not all
battles are without purpose. Our great need reminds us that we are not fools.
We are not simply seeking forgiveness at the expense of obedience. We do not
take the easy way out. For our great need gives way to our great God and
Savior, Jesus Christ. He suffered the divine wrath for our sins. His difficult,
nay impossible for us path, makes life eternal easy for us. But, lest we
forget, let us always remember and treasure the great cost of our need; the
debt our Savior paid by His grace. Amen.
The peace
of God which surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus. Amen.
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