Romans 7:15-25
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Five Words of Gospel
I just can’t help it. I pick at it like a scab. I have to have the last word. I have to get my digs in. I have to be right and s/he has to know it. They can get their way all they want, as long as they know that I am right and they are wrong.
It’s hard to write a sermon on this text and not get autobiographical. I mean, Paul couldn’t even do that. That whole first paragraph is a mess. It’s word vomit. The emotions are spilling out of him and onto the page, to the degree that you have to stop and reread what he wrote 2 or 3 times just to understand what he’s saying.
“I don’t get it! I am in complete control of my body. No one else can tell me what to do. No one else is forcing my hand. I’m a free man and more than anything I am free in Christ! He died for my sin! I’ve died to my sin. I was baptized as a baby. I’ve heard the Word my whole life. I’ve supported myself every other week with the Lord’s Supper ever since I was 14 years old. And still I do the same stupid thing over and over and over again.”
There’s something distinctively Christian about guilt-induced self-loathing. We know a thing or two about lacking self-control. Paul doesn’t understand what he does, but we understand the feeling because we’ve all been there. Maybe it’s the stubborn pride that doesn’t let something go. Maybe it’s the utter, clueless selfishness that isn’t even aware how insensitive it’s being toward others. Maybe it’s that sexual sin or substance abuse that we just can’t shake. Gossip behind someone’s back. Bad-mouthing our government. We give in every chance we get.
I’ve struggled with ways to describe it. It’s like sin is a cancer that’s grown around my heart. It’s calloused and so interwoven into who I am that it can’t be cut out without killing me. It’s like this foreign body that’s invaded my body and is slowly killing me.
The problem with thinking about sin as a cancer is that that doesn’t explain why I like it so much, why I lean into it and hand it the reins of my life. Paul says that there’s something waging war against my mind and making me its prisoner, so that it has complete control over me.
Is sin more like the classic angel on one shoulder, demon on the other? Again, this foreign intrusion into my life that’s pulling me one way or another. I have the desire to do what is good, but I can’t deny the appeal of what that demon is enticing me to do. He makes it sound so good, so fun, so satisfying to sin. If I just say that one thing I know it’s going to cut that person to the heart. It’ll be so satisfying to see them so upset. If I just give in to that impulse or urge it’ll be so cathartic and gratifying.
The problem with thinking of sin that way is that it leaves all the power in my hands to choose between the two. If I can just be strong enough I’ll listen to that angel and always do what is right. But I know that nothing good lives in me, and that I don’t possess the power to resist doing what is evil.
No, I think sin is most like addiction. We give into it once and find that we like the way it tastes. We know it’s wrong, but we want to do it again. And the more we do it, the more natural and automatic it becomes, until we don’t even realize that we’re doing it anymore, until we’ve stopped thinking of it as a bad thing.
Sin holds the steering wheel of our hearts and we don’t have the strength to wrench it away. Honestly, I find the kind of moments that Paul talks about here kind of rare. I don’t even always have the presence of mind to realize that I should be doing something other than what I’ve done. I’m not even always ready to agree with Paul, “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”
Most of the time I let sin take the wheel and willingly sit in the passenger seat not caring where it takes me. But when I hear the law of God and what God wants me to do, that’s when I realize that my sin is taking me somewhere I don’t want to go. When I hear the law of God and think about the kind of person he wants me to be, that’s when I realize I’m not even close.
Do you want to be a good person? Do you want to be that Christian that’s always level-headed and at peace with whatever God has given you? Do you want to be compassionate and caring, i.e. the kind of person who doesn’t wait for others to call you asking for help, but you’re there on the front step before they know they need you? Do you want to be that generous person who gives and gives without worrying about what it costs? Or that strong person who knows what needs to be done and does it?
Do you want to be a good person? Are you one? Or do you feel like Paul does? “I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”
To be a Christian is to live in constant conflict – and not with this exterior, foreign enemy. Sin lives inside of us, i.e. in our hearts. It’s part of who we are. It drives us away from God, and the farther we get from him, the colder and darker it gets. Paul isn’t kidding when he cries out in frustration, “Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” That’s what we deserve. Death is the wages of sin.
And the worst part is that I am my own worst enemy. I’m the one standing in my own way of being the kind of person God wants me to be. Sometimes in my uniquely Christian, guilt-induced self-loathing I even think that the world would be better off without me. What hurt, what pain, what problems I cause. What a wretched man I am!
To which Paul says, “Thanks be to God!” Thank God that he doesn’t see us the way we see ourselves. Thank God that no sin is too great for him to forgive. Thank God that even though I am in reality an irredeemable mess of humanity, God redeemed me anyway through Jesus Christ our Lord!
The most recent edition of our NIV translation of the Bible expands this little verse to include the idea of deliverance. You might remember that as few as 9 years ago verse 25 simply read, “Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” That’s literally all it says in the Greek. After pouring out his soul on the page and venting his own frustration for a paragraph and a half, Paul says 5 words of Gospel and that’s it! That’s all he needed to find his peace.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
I am not the champion of my soul. I can do nothing to rectify my situation. I cannot erase my past or escape the power of sin in my present, but I am not the reason for my hope of rescue. That comes only through Jesus Christ our Lord.
His name says it all. Jesus literally means, “He saves.” Christ refers to the Savior God promised to Adam and Abraham and David and Daniel, i.e. this hope that God has extended to generation after generation of sinners like you and me. Jesus is the Son God sent to save you from your sin by taking on himself his own body that was subject to death.
See, Jesus never had this internal struggle. Jesus always had the strength to resist sin’s temptation. Jesus always knew what was good… and did it! He always knew what was evil and avoided it! Jesus was not a wretched man who needed rescuing; he was the rescuer who came to save wretched humanity, and he did that by being subject to death for you, in your place, on your behalf. Jesus became your substitute.
Imagine all the things that you deserve for all the wrongs that you have done. Now put them all on Jesus. That’s what his cross means for you. That’s what he carried when he died for you. He went to the grave without any guilt of his own, but with all of yours and all of mine, to set you free from the power of sin, to rescue you from the fear of death and hell, and to deliver you to eternal life, no longer wretched but redeemed, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
5 words were all the Gospel Paul needed. I can’t promise that that’s all you’ll need to stop sinning for the rest of your life. In fact, I guarantee that they won’t be. The most seasoned and mature Christians still fight that war every day. But Paul doesn’t thank God because he’s suddenly done with sin. He thanks God because Jesus is. No matter how many sins we continue to commit, they are all forgiven through Jesus Christ our Lord.
When you are troubled by your sin – when you are in the depths of despair and sin-induced self-loathing – I pray that these 5 words can bring you peace: through Jesus Christ our Lord. He is your rescuer. He is your salvation. He has won the victory over your sin so that you can live in his grace. Thanks be to God! Amen.