Please stand.
Turn to
Romans 7:5-25.
The War Within
Please use a pew Bible if you
didn’t bring a Bible with you.
Pg. 834
FLESH
• There are a few ways the word flesh is used in
the Bible.
–“And the Word was made flesh” (John
1:14).
• Man’s physical being
–“In the flesh”
• Sinful sphere of fallen mankind
BACKGROUND
• Romans 7:5
– “For when we were in the flesh, the
motions [passions] of sins, which were
[awakened] by the law, did work in our
members to bring forth fruit unto death.”
My Flesh + a Rule =
a “Potential” Conflict
A Rule
My
Flesh
My Flesh + a Rule =
A “Potential” Conflict
JAMES 4:1
• “From whence come wars and fightings
among you?”
– What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?
• “come they not hence, even of your lusts that
war in your members?”
– Is it not that your passions are at war within you?
UNDER GRACE
• Romans 7:6
– “But now we are delivered from the law, that
being dead wherein we were held;
–that we should serve [without a choice] in
newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the
letter.
New Covenant
Dispensation of Grace
In this dispensation of
Grace, what should my
view of the law be?
ROMANS 7:7
• “What shall we say then?
• Is the law sin? God forbid.
• Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I
had not known lust, except the law had said,
Thou shalt not covet.”
The law is NOT at fault—my
sin nature is.
See vs. 8.
ROMANS 7:8
• “But sin, taking occasion by the
commandment, wrought in me all manner of
concupiscence [strong desires].
• For without the law sin was dead.”
So then should we just eliminate the law?
NO
• The law serves to reveal:
– God’s standard of righteousness
– The depth of my depravity
– How much I need help
PAUL’S TESTIMONY
• Romans 7:9-11
– “For I was alive without the law once: but
when the commandment came, sin revived,
and I died. And the commandment, which
was ordained to life, I found to be unto
death. For sin, taking occasion by the
commandment, deceived me, and by it
slew me.”
SIN’S DECEPTION
A person who is deceived into
thinking he is acceptable to God because
of his own merit and good works will see
no need of salvation and no reason for
trusting in Christ.
- J. M.
PAUL’S TESTIMONY
• Romans 7:9-11
– “For I was alive without the law once: but
when the commandment came, sin revived,
and I died. And the commandment, which
was ordained to life, I found to be unto
death. For sin, taking occasion by the
commandment, deceived me, and by it
slew me.”
When?
Has there been a time
when you saw yourself
as dead?
ROMANS 7:7 & 12
• Vs. 7
– “What shall we say then? Is the law sin?”
• Vs. 12
– “Wherefore the law is holy, and the
commandment holy, and just, and good.”
The issue is not with the law!
We don’t blame the RR crossing for the wreck.
Likewise, I don’t blame the law for my sin
problem.
Paul explains
in verses 14-25 that the issue is him
and his flesh.
Some suggest that this is NOT
Paul, but the subject is an
unbeliever who needs to be to
be delivered from sin.
PAUL’S STRUGGLE
• This is Paul getting really transparent with us
about his own, personal battle with sin.
• There are 46 first-person, singular nouns or
pronouns in vs. 7-25.
• We see Paul’s maturity as a believer because
of his concern over personal sin.
LAMENT #1
• Romans 7:14-15
–“For we know that the law is spiritual:
but I am carnal, sold under sin.
–For that which I do I allow not:
• (For I do not understand my own actions)
–for what I would, that do I not;
–but what I hate, that do I.”
Can you relate to Paul’s inability
to understand his own actions?
Do you ever get so frustrated with
your inability to overcome sin?
For Example
• Selfish • Prejudiced
• Ungrateful • Unforgiving
• Bitter • Overly Sensitive
• Rude • Anxious
LAMENT #1
• Romans 7:16-17
– “If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto
the law that it is good.
– Now then it is no more I that do it,
– but sin that dwelleth in me.”
The “I” is the
new creature
in Christ!
Matthew Henry says this
concerning vs. 14-25:
“Here is a description of the conflict
between grace and corruption in the
heart, between the law of God and the
law of sin.”
THE WAR WITHIN
The New
Flesh Creature
COMMENTARY
The more seriously a Christian strives to
live from grace and to submit to the discipline
of the gospel, the more sensitive he becomes
to . . . the fact that even his very best acts and
activities are disfigured by the egotism which
is still powerful within him—and no less evil
because it is often more subtly disguised than
formerly.
- C.E.B Cranfield
LAMENT #2
• Romans 7:18-20
– “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,)
dwelleth no good thing:
– for to will is present with me;
– but how to perform that which is good I
find not.”
LAMENT #2
• Romans 7:18-20
– “For the good that I would,
• I do not:
– but the evil which I would not,
• that I do.
– Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I
that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.”
Someone fears,
“If I were saved, I would not
‘sin’ as I do”; Paul says,
“It is sin living in you that sins.”
LAMENT #3
• Romans 7:21-23
–“I find then a law, that,
–when I would do good, evil is present
with me.”
LAMENT #3
• Romans 7:21-23
– “For I delight in the law of God after the
inward man:
– 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 LAW OF SIN
• The law of sin is the reality that a Christian
will battle with his sin nature until God finally
delivers him from the flesh.
THE ULTIMATE QUESTION
• Romans 7:24-25
– “O wretched man that I am!
– who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
THE SOLUTION
• Romans 7:24-25
– “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
– The gospel of Christ . . . is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth (Romans
1:16).
THE CONCLUSION
• Sanctification, the process of becoming more
like Jesus, is normally an exceptionally long
process, NOT an event.
• This is why I need the gospel now more than
ever.
• Have you been saved from sin? Are you being
saved from sin? Will you be saved from SIN!