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Articles, Bible studies, and sermons that contain Romans 7:18:
Romans 7:13-25
Excerpted from: The Christian Paradox (Part Two)So we begin in verse 13, as Paul does, with the law. And he has, as I said, just called this holy and just and good. Now remember earlier I mentioned what the law does. The law defines what sin is. That is, attitudes and behaviors contrary to God's will and way of life. He had talked about that up in verse 7.
The principle is that the law defines what sin is. And the law, of course, has punishments. When you contravene the law, the punishment comes into play. You are guilty and you have to take the punishment, which is death.
So what we have here is Paul saying, "Look, the law is good. It's there for a good purpose. It does good things for us. We wouldn't have known what sin is except the law had told us what it is, so it provides a good function for us, a standard." So we should not want to get rid of the law if it is good, if it does something good for us. It is sin that is evil. That is what produces the death. The law does not produce the death, it is the sin that produces the death. We could go back to chapter 6, verse 23, "The wages of sin is death." It is very clear.
We should not want to get rid of the law, but sin. That is what is really hurting us. Sin is wrongness. It is evil, wickedness. It is corruption. And these evil things, wicked things, corrupt things happen because we contravene the law. The important term there is we. The law does not make us break it. We break the law. The fault is in us, not in the law. Nothing about the law is bad. Although if you want to get around your own human nature, you could point at the law and say, "That's bad. It made me sin." Well, that is the lie.
I just said that the fault is in us and that is where Paul goes next in verse 14, "For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin." It is saying we are still in the flesh. We are still subject to human nature and it is like we are slaves of it. We have been freed through Christ. We should be slaves of righteousness, but because it is so entrenched in us, or I said before, embedded, we still function as if we are slaves to it. So even after they are converted, human beings are still carnal and fleshly and material, whereas the law is spiritual, it is godly, it is a codification of God's mind and way of life. We, in our weaknesses, are the problems. We are the weakest link, if you know what I mean.
So, using himself as an example, he takes us through his thought process. And he is mystified why he does what he does. He cannot fathom that he is this evil, but he sees it. Why? Why do I do this? He wants to do what is right but he instead does the exact opposite. He does what is wrong, and he hates that. And he concludes that it is the sin that lives in him that has control of his behavior. We could think of sin in terms of sinful habits. We know in our heads that we should not be doing these things, but it is like we are on automatic pilot and we just do them because it is so ingrained in us to sin.
That sin, he said, that dwells in me is his human carnal, fleshly nature and it is no good. He knows it is no good, but it is powerful and he has not risen to meet it strength-to-strength yet. Because he is weak. And then he says that he cannot find, he cannot figure out how to do good. Could you imagine this, the apostle Paul saying, "I don't know what I can do to do good! How am I going to overcome this beast that lives in me? It's making me do these horrible things that I don't want to do!"
He sincerely wants to behave. He wants to do what is right. He wants to follow Christ in everything. But how can a person who has been driven by his human nature all of his life suddenly just prevail over it and do good the way he wants to good? He is saying, "I'm out outmatched. I don't know what moves to make as a wrestler or a boxer or whatever to contain this evil." And he comes to the conclusion it is physically impossible, humanly impossible. There is no human solution to the problem. Human nature … . . .
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