Romans 7:13-25

Deliverance:  Full and Free

Throughout Romans 5-7, Paul has been unmasking our hypocrisy in thinking that we have within ourselves the ability to save our lives from the destructive power of sin.  Every attempt to climb from the pit of despair has ended in utter frustration and ultimately death and condemnation.  Sin is a powerful master that no matter how much we attempt it, we can never flee its oppression by our own strength.  We need a Savior.  Like Israel under the oppressive hand of Pharoah, we must have a deliverer who will lead us into the land of promise. 

In vv. 13-25, Paul continues exposing the impotence of the law to rescue man from the controlling power of sin.  While the law certainly informs us of our duties before God, it does not give us the power to fulfill those duties.  But this is exactly the purpose of the law.  It was not given as a means of righteousness or holiness before God.  It was God's instrument to expose our sin showing us the utter sinfulness of our depravity before the Holy God.

But why is the law ineffective in making us the kind of people that God commands us to be?

It is because of the kind of people we are.  We are sinners.  And while the law is good, perfect, holy and righteous, when the law comes to us, it ends only in frustration and despair because we cannot do what it says.

As Paul further explains this dilemma that we all find ourselves in under the law, he again continues to look at himself as a representative of all the Jewish people under the law of Moses (cf. Gal. 3:19-4:3).  In vv. 7-12 Paul unfolded the lives of the Jewish people once they received the law at Sinai.  Now in vv. 14-25, he describes his own personal experience of what it was like to live as a Jew under the law, a life that ended only in despair of Paul's inability to keep the law.

But remember that Paul has already made clear that when he speaks of Israel under the written law of Moses, that he is giving us a picture of all mankind who have the law written upon their hearts.  Ultimately then, while Paul is specifically focusing our attention upon Israel under the Mosaic law, he is showing us how the law is unable to conquer sin in the lives of all humanity.

Now, as we unfold Paul's continued revealing of the ineffectiveness of the law this morning, we need to see where he is going in Romans 8:1-4 (READ).  Here Paul makes it clear that he has arrived at the only answer that will conquer the power of sin in our lives:  the gospel of Jesus Christ.  What we could not do, God has done for us in Christ Jesus our Lord.  That is why Paul ends our passage this morning with that climatic outburst of thanksgiving:  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

In v. 12, we noted last week that Paul clearly sees the law of Moses as being holy, righteous, and good because it has been given to Israel by God.  But this leads to another question similar to the question raised in v. 7:  did that which is good in and of itself lead to death?  Doesn't the result of death in me prove that there is something inherently sinful about the law itself? 

No!  God Forbid!  The death that came upon me through the law came because of my sin.  But that is what the law came to do.  In order that I might see sin truly manifested in my life that which was good (the law) was used by sin to produce death in me.  It was through the law that my sin became exceedingly sinful (v. 13).

In other words, the law, by strictly defining my sin, exposed my sin as what it truly was:  conscious and willful rebellion against God.

Before the law, sin was always inherently evil.  But now that the law comes in, we have now seen just how exceedingly sinful sin truly is in that it is a deliberate violation of God's holy will.

In v. 14, Paul explains how it is that sin was able to work death in us through that which was good.  Paul says this could happen because even though the law was good and spiritual, in that it came from God, nevertheless I am of the flesh.  I am a man who belongs to this fallen creation and no matter how many good laws you put before me, sin will always keep me from obeying the good commandments given to us by God.  The law itself has no power to put to death the power of sin. 

In other words, all the rules and commands in the world will not make you holy but only drive you into deeper and deeper despair and frustration with your inability to obey.  This is why Israel's attempts to keep the law ended only in death -- because they were under the captivity of sin.  Note how Paul brings in all the Jews into his own experience in v. 14 with the words "we know" (cf. 7:1).  All Jews would have readily agreed with Paul that the law is spiritual in that it is from God, but it is because man is of the flesh, of this fallen world, that we are enslaved to sin and therefore unable to obey that which is spiritual. 

This is why we cannot deliver ourselves from our sinful condition through the use of the law.  Someone else, outside of us, must come to our rescue if we are ever going to be saved. 

In vv. 15-20, Paul now drives home the frustration he personally experienced under the law in trying to keep it (READ vv. 15-20).  On the one hand, Paul "wills" or "wants" with everything in his being to obey God.  In v. 16, he says he agreed with the law that it was good.  In vv. 15, 18, 19, Paul says that he would like to do it, he wants to obey the law.

But he sees another power in his life that is at war with this desire to obey.  Therefore, he concludes in v. 17 that it really isn't Paul that the one doing the very things he deplores.  Paul doesn't mean by this that he is not responsible.  Rather, he is trying to drive home his utter failure to do the very things that he knows he should be doing.  There is a part of Paul, in his own mind, that he reason or rationalizes that he should obey the law, but then there is another part of Paul in the members of his flesh that ends up doing that which is sinful.  Sin rules over Paul like a master rules his slave (vv. 18-20).

Therefore, Paul concludes in v. 21 that while he wants to do what is good, nevertheless he cannot because he is evil and there is no good in him.

How can Paul speak this way about his former life as a Jew under the law?  What is it that has lead to such despair under the law?

Look at Phil. 3:4-6.  There was a time when Paul thought he was doing pretty good under the law.  As long as he compared himself as one man with other men, Paul could say that under the law he proved to be "blameless."  Even if he had a few small infractions now and then, overall he proved to keep the law to a degree that most others could not.

He thought so, until, he met one man on the road to Damascus, in all of his glory, and then suddenly all Paul's former self-righteousness melted away (READ Phil. 3:7-9).

Now in light of Christ's perfect righteousness Paul has a completely new perspective on the law of Moses.  Now that he has seen what true holiness looks like, he sees how miserably he has failed to keep God's law.

And he can look back on his life as a Jew under the law and see just how frustrated he truly was.  All the running, all the trying, every attempt has ended in failure.  All that he thought he had accomplished in his flesh proved to be nothing before the glorious face of Christ.

It is like a runner who thinks he is in first place only to cross the finish line and find out that every other runner finished an hour ago and the trophies have already been handed out.

As a Jew, Paul longed to do the good that the law demanded but because he was a sinner he just could not obey.

Do you hear the frustration and desperation in Paul's voice?  He wants to do what is right, but the law offers no help to make him do it.  And yet, he does not approve of what he is doing.  This is not what he wants.  But what he hates, he finds himself doing.

Back in Romans 7:22, Paul says that he had a deep-seated delight and joy in the law of Moses.  Throughout the Old Testament, many Jews expressed this same joy in the law of God.  In Ps. 19, King David declares:

The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.  8 The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.  9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether.  10 They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb (Ps. 19:7-10).

The law is the delight of God's people because it comes from God and it shows us his will for our life.  He has not left man without direction, but he tells us what we are supposed to do so that our lives will operate as he intended them to do.

But like Paul we cannot get outside of our own skin and so in v. 23 Paul finds yet another power at work in him that is fighting against the law of Moses.  On the one hand he fully agreed with the law of Moses but sin made him a prisoner of war and his enemy has proved to be too strong to enable him to comply with the demands of the law. 

Finally, driven to ultimate despair of his fallen condition, Paul cries out from under the heavy weight of the law for deliverance from God, "Wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from the body of this death?" (v. 24).

Now only in Christ Paul can look back over his former condition as a Jew under the law and he now realizes just how wretched a condition he was in.  The law comes to us and wears us down until we have no way of escape from the condemnation that awaits all who are under the law:

Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God; 20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:19-20).

There is no hope in us.  Try as we might, but in the end each of us will only fail to keep God's holy commandments.  That is why Paul must turn outside of himself for the answer which leads to the only answer to his question in v. 24:

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

There is no other answer.

"I need not other argument, I need no other plea.

It is enough that Jesus died, and that he died for me."

"A debtor to mercy alone, of covenant mercy I sing,

nor fear, with your righteousness on, my person and offering to bring."

The terrors of the law and of God with me can have nothing to do,

My Savior's obedience and blood hide all my transgressions from view."

While Paul can certainly declare that with his mind he fully desired to obey the law of God, nevertheless in his own flesh all he could do was sin.

Therefore, who but God can deliver me?  That is why in Rom. 8:1-4 Paul now declares (READ).  What we could not do, praise our Lord Jesus Christ, he has done for us!

Amen!

-SDG-