Different Law in my members
Romans 7:21-23 · Roger Henderson · Jan 14, 2024
Romans (2022-25), No. 057
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261933516750

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Well, good morning. We're going to continue on in chapter 7. And as you notice, you read through that and you say, boy, it seems like he's going over and over and over the same thing, time after time after time. And away he is, but in each each cycle through that it seems like he adds a little bit more so actually my focus today at the end is going to be on 21 through 23 the principle that evil is present in me that's one of his revelations that he comes to in this section but I'm going to go back and actually I kind of came across You know, you always look for something that puts verses together or an outline or something that says, well, what are these verses about? So, the second half of Romans 7, 14 through 25, I came across an outline. And Mike didn't come across this, I got to come across it first, so it doesn't mean I'm any better, it just means I found it. And I'm thankful that I found it, I think it helps in understanding it.

So let's, we'll talk about, but let's do some definitions first. So what we're going to see in here, in this section, and actually all through Romans 7, Paul's going to speak about himself as a believer, as a new creation in Christ. He's a believer, but he's also going to talk about another side of himself, his conditional side. And he's gonna talk about those at the same time.

And he's gonna go through these sentences where he says, I do this, but there's something else that does that, and I do that, something else does this, and it seems like he's, Mike says, is this guy sane? Has he lost his sanity? No, he hasn't lost his sanity. He's actually come to a realization that in looking through many commentators, they say, wow, he realized, Paul realized, as every believer realizes, that he has a nature from Adam that's alive and active in him. And it can lead him down the wrong path.

So anyway, so Paul uses I and me to designate, I believe, his position. But then, in his condition, he's gonna say, flat out, in 714, I'm carnal. And we're gonna look at those three men in scripture. The carnal man is not the Christian doing his best job. He's not walking with the Lord. In fact, he's struggling, as Paul's gonna show us. So we see Paul's position in these statements, I do this and I do that. But his condition comes out when he says, I'm carnal. And here's what the carnal man does.

So we're gonna see that Paul's condition is carnal even though he's a new creation in Christ. And we can say the same thing about ourselves. We're a new creation in Christ, but we do things that we know we shouldn't do. We sin, we act in a carnal fashion. So we're gonna see, as we see in many places, the sin nature. It's called different things in different verses. Sometimes it's called the sin nature. It's also called the flesh or it's called evil. There's actually a few more that I don't have on this definitions chart.

And then we're gonna see in particular this idea of a law system or a law principle. There's several verses where he's gonna talk about, Paul's gonna talk about, I have all these principles of law going on in my mind. All this stuff is hitting, is in my mind and is causing me to be carnal, basically. So this is much about Paul's struggle.

Okay, so the three men in Scripture, so actually this is the third week we've talked about the three men in Scripture. So if you learn nothing else in these sessions, you'll learn there are three men that Paul describes in Scripture. They're all in 2 Corinthians, I mean all in 1 Corinthians chapters 2 and 3.

So the first man, is called the natural man. Psychikos, he's the unbeliever. He doesn't accept the things of the Spirit of God for they're foolishness to him. He can't understand them because they are spiritually appraised. And then the second man that Paul talks about is this pneumatikos man, the spiritual man.

This verse doesn't say a whole lot about him. He says he appraises all things, or virtually it's the idea that he understands things. Let me see, I made a note about that. He's able to discern and examine things. So it really doesn't give us a lot, but it does distinguish as a natural man and a spiritual man.

So we have the unbeliever and the believer. But then we have a third category. We have this man that's described in verse 1 of chapter 3 of 1 Corinthians. And Paul says, I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual man, but to men of the flesh, or sarkikos, or the carnal man, as to infants in Christ.

What I really found, and this is something that we all can find, is that when Paul gets into chapter 7 of Romans, he takes the carnal man to a whole new level. He goes beyond the babe in Christ, and he says, this carnal man is a man who's not walking with the Lord. He's wrapped up in self. He's wrapped up in his own nature from Adam. So that's what much of, almost all of chapter seven's about, this carnal man. And Paul's gonna describe it many different ways.

Okay, so now, so here's, so I came across this in listening to Ron Merriman back in 1972. So if you were here in 1972, this is somewhat of a repeat. So there's only a couple people in this audience that could have been here in 72. One is Bob and Wayne and maybe Sue. That's about it. Everybody else, this is gonna be new to everybody else. So, anyway. So here we go.

So, you can look at those verses, 14 through 24. Paul gives, he states a reason for why the believer can't live the Christian life. He can't live under some system. some law system now Paul talks about the law system the commandment thou shall not covet shall not desire and Mike's been through that quite a few times in the last two weeks about how Paul with that just really bought brought him to his knees so to speak but I think it's beyond that it's beyond the fact that any particular thing that we establish as a principle of law or actually the thing we realize that we shouldn't be doing, we know what God wants us to do but we don't do it, then we fall short of God's best and we can be in this condition. So in Paul's case, he uses his own experience, thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not desire. And he says, well, what happened when that commandment came along, rather than helping me, it brought me down. I realized I couldn't keep that commandment. I couldn't fulfill that commandment in my own strength and my own power.

So we're gonna see here, there's a repetitive pattern. A reason is stated, then Paul gives some proofs, using a couple verses, and then he gets a conclusion. So we'll start into these verses, 14 through 24. So in verse 14, he gives his first reason, just the last half of it. You could include the whole verse.

And he states, as I mentioned before, I am fleshly, or carnal, permanently sold under the sin nature." That's a pretty incredible statement. Here's Paul, a man who spent three years with our Savior, face-to-face, being taught by him, and he says, I'm carnal. Permanently, he doesn't say occasionally, permanently sold under the sinful nature. So we're gonna examine that shortly here. And then he says, here's some proofs of how bad it is.

For that which I desire, this I do not practice, but that which I hate, this I am doing. And number two proof, 16b, what I do not desire, I do. And his conclusion is, and the conclusion kind of sticks out because it has that so now, in verse seven, so now, no longer is it I, this new creation in Christ in my wonderful position that's doing it, but the sinful nature which indwells me.

So we're gonna see that that reason and proof and conclusion is a pattern that goes through two more times in this passage. But let's just look at a couple additional points about the reason and the conclusion. Okay, so Paul, just back to that first part of the verse, that B part of the verse there. I'm fleshly, carnal, permanently sold unto the sinful nature.

So here's some more comments from Merriman. So Paul is saying, and if you look at the verb tense, it's present tense. In fact, almost all the verbs in this section are all present tense. And present tense is continuous action. I'm continually doing something.

So Paul says, I'm not occasionally carnal, I'm continually carnal. So I imagine I come up to Mike, I say, Mike, I'm continually carnal today. And Mike says, well, Roger, should we have a talk? Shouldn't you be concerned about that, that you're continually carnal? So Paul right here is telling us, I'm continually carnal. Okay, Paul, you got my attention.

Okay, and it's even worse than that. Next he says, he's sold under the sin nature. So he's continually carnal, and he's sold under the sin nature, and it's perfect tense. And perfect tense is past completed action with abiding results. It's the idea of permanence. So this sold under the sin nature is a permanent condition. So some little light bulbs all start going off here.

Bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. So here's what Merriman said, which I really like. He said, somebody in the past sold out mankind. Hmm, who could that be? Who sold out mankind? And he said, somebody sold me out. I'm afraid our buddy Adam sold us out. So now, we got this thing called the sin nature, Adam's nature, and it's there. We can't change it. We get it in the moment of our birth. So we've been sold out by Adam. So I think that's pretty amazing. I tell Mike, I'm Cardinal Mike, and I've been sold out by Adam.

Okay? Pretty bad stuff, right? So Paul is not comparing himself to a spiritual Christian. He says, well, I'm pretty good. I'm almost a spiritual Christian. He says, no, I'm in deep doo-doo, as my grandkids would say. OK, so Paul is stating that his condition as a believer with an indwelling sin nature is in control.

That's what's in control of his life in Romans 7. That's what's controlling his life. And that's why Paul is so exercised and so on himself and so vehement about his condition. And then the conclusion he comes to, he said, and this is a wonderful conclusion. He says, so now, no longer is it I who do it. So it's not my new creation in Christ, but it's this thing I was sold out to, this sinful nature which indwells me.

That's what's doing the doing. And our brother Hal has this. He says, this is a giant leap forward. This kind of reminded me of Hal. He always had these things. This is a giant leap forward in his restoration of his fellowship. The light bulbs went on.

It's not me, it's my sin nature. A recognizing the source of his sin. And I think that's a key part. And as Mike pointed out, that's a key part for every believer to recognize what's the source of your sin? Where does it come from? You can't, you know, the point is that you realize that you have it, and you realize that God will show us a solution here shortly. But right now, he's, Paul's gonna show us all the, all the negative sides of the sin nature, and how it permeates a believer. Okay, so continue on.

Reason two, in verse 18a. And I'm using the Weiss New Testament here for the translation. I know positively that there does not dwell in me that is in my flesh good. So that's a reason that could cause him not to walk with the Lord, right? Proof one. So here we go into this kind of pattern.

For the willing is present, but the doing of the good is not. So I'm willing to do good, but I can't do it. I can't make it happen. I can't be good. And then number two, proof is 19, for that which I desire, for that which I desire good, I do not do. But that which I do not desire evil, this I practice. That's hard to say. His conclusion, that which I do not desire, this I do.

No longer is I who do it, but the sinful nature which indwells me does it. Okay, so more. This is our brother Hal again. This is a wonderful discovery. And if you remember how he would tell his testimonies about his talking with his family, maybe Andrew's listening. He'd talk with Andrew and he'd say, Andrew, oh, you wrecked your car. Oh, well, that's wonderful. Well, Hal, what are you thinking about?

Anyway, so this is what every believer needs to discover. He needs to discover that he has a sinful nature and that it can impact his Christian life. And the important point, we cannot will to live the Christian life. We can say, you cannot will yourself. I will not be upset with my children, or with my spouse, with whatever. I will not be upset with this or that. You can't do it in your own power. You have to depend upon the Holy Spirit to do that.

And we're gonna see that down the road here in a bit. And that's the point that comes across here. Okay, so the third cycle through, and this actually starts into the verses for today. I kind of have the charts maybe flipped a little bit, but anyway. So this is the third cycle through this reason, proof, conclusion cycle.

Verse 21, I find then that the law principle, that evil, the sin nature is present in me, the one who wants to do good. So I want to do good, I have a desire to do good, but I have an internal nature from Adam that is preventing me from doing that. Proof one, proof one actually is, I have this desire for good, for I joyfully concur with the law of God and the inner man.

We're gonna look at more detail at these. And then 23 is, but I see a different law, a different kind of law in my members, waging war against the law of my mind, making me a prisoner of the war of the law of the sinful nature which is in my members.

And then the conclusion is, the conclusion is, Actually, in the Greek, this is, Weiss does a good job about bringing it across in the Greek. It literally is in the Greek. Wretched man, comma, I. There's no verb. Wretched man, comma, I. Who shall deliver me out of this body of death? So this is the turning point. This is the turning point where he realizes he cannot do it in his own strength.

And I think that somewhat happens in our lives, maybe not as forceful as this, but when we realize that we Sometimes you say, well, I can't please, I can't please my husband, I can't please my wife, you know, I can't do it. Well, you're right, you can't do it. God has to do it. And that's a hard thing to maybe take in. I really can't do it. God has to, he has to live his life through me. And maybe it's a situation where you have issues with substances or whatever it might be, even believers. You know, I can't stop doing that thing or I can't, you know, whatever it might be. God wants to take you. He wants to live his life through you, and that means that you have to stop trying. So this is actually from Macaulay. This is a cry of distress. I'm in pain, but I'm not giving up.

Okay, so actually, this probably should have been first, but anyway, one thing I want you to notice, I put it in blue here. Notice how many times Paul uses the idea of a law, the law of principle, the law of God, a different law, law of my mind, law of sin. It's to point out there's this thing that's going on, operating in the believer. We'll talk about those in detail in a second here. Okay, so now we're gonna dive into these verses here. Okay,

21. I find then the law principle, and the idea of find here is the idea to perceive, to learn, to experience, another present tense again, so he's continually finding, he's continually learning, about this law principle in himself. And he's gonna find out this law principle is a principle of evil. So it's like Paul isn't just content, if you will, with saying, yeah, I got Adam's nature. it's bad, he wants to tell us the depths of how bad Adam's nature is in the believer. He wants to show us in multiple verses how really bad off that, how evil that sin nature is and how it affects the Christian's life. So he just comes back at us verse after verse after verse and tells us almost, he said, well it's close to what you said before Paul, but he tells us again and again and again.

So he says, I find then the law principle, and we actually saw this same word earlier when he said, I found out in Romans 7.10, this commandment which was a result in life provided or was found to result in death for me. So Paul found out about different things in chapter seven. This is one of the things that he points out. I found out about this.

This law principle. What's interesting is, in all these cases, the word nomos, for law, shows up. But it's not so much the idea of the Mosaic Law, it's more this principle of operating, something operating in yourself. It's a force or influence. So now we're given what the principle is. The principle is that evil is present in me. In my new creation in Christ, not only do I have Christ's life, but I have this sin nature, which is in full operation.

Just waiting, if you will, just waiting to pounce on me. I mean, that's kind of the idea. It's waiting there. And all it takes, and we've all been there, right? I mean, I've been there when I'm driving down the road and somebody does just something crazy, and what do I do? Do I say, have a nice day, thanks for cutting me off and making me almost have an accident, or do I say some expletive-deleted word, or am I at the restaurant, and the waitress sits us in the worst place in the restaurant, and I say, and there's nobody else in the restaurant, and I say, Why? Why did you do that?

Anyway, and there's a hundred other situations like that too. Okay, so the evil is present in me and the evil here is a sin nature by the context we see. is present and another continuous action is continually present. The sin of nature just doesn't go to sleep one day. We become a believer, it doesn't just shut down, it's still there.

Now maybe we don't realize it for a while, maybe we go along, but sometime it's gonna come back and we're going to go there and hang out there. and the Lord wouldn't have us do it. And what I found in kind of preparing this and thinking about this, many times the sinful nature is so, I don't know how to say, stealthy, if you will, or it turns up in various ways. I think it turns up in, you know, many times in things you don't think about, like in worry. You know, maybe people, they worry so much and pretty soon they worry and they become anxious and even depressed, and so pretty soon, they're fighting themselves, they're fighting their sin nature. They're trying to get out of that, and they can't, and it's so hard. And the Lord says, no, you can't get yourself out of that.

You have to walk with me and trust me. That's a whole other discussion, anyway. Okay. So actually, back to the verse again. I find then the principle that evil is present, continually present in me, the one wanting to do good. So ego is the word for in me, in the new creation. So we have this law principle of the evil being present continually, the sin nature being there continually, and amazingly enough, the one who wants to do good.

We want to do good. We want to follow the Lord. We want to walk with him. But we have this nature that's in opposition to that. We all want to decide, seeing one's desire to execute. So we have this continuously wanting, and we have this continually evil principle in us. Both are continuous actions to do, to produce, The good, which means, the good is virtuous, it's after God, basically. So Macaulay says, I've got the good and the evil inside of me.

You know, it's interesting, you go back and look at, this is totally off the wall, but just look back at old cartoons. I wonder if the influence of, I'm not sure if it's this or this teaching, But man was looked at as having a good and evil side. Look back in old cartoons and you'll see they'll have the good guy popping out of Mickey or not Mickey, maybe it's Goofy or somebody. They'll have a good guy and a bad guy, he'll pop out.

And I, you know, after learning about that we struggle with this sin nature, I begin to think, wow, they seem to know more back then than we know now. We've excluded the bad guy, he's not even there, he's gone. Well, wait a minute, we have, you know, as a believer, we have good and evil within us, which is incredible. Okay, so some more comments. We says here, Paul finds a condition that when he desires to do good, the evil nature always asserts itself against the doing of good.

And the classic passage for that, which we studied back many years ago in Galatians, is Galatians 5.17.

The flesh, the evil nature, has a passionate desire to suppress the Spirit. And the spirit has a passionate desire to suppress the flesh. And that's the answer is there that we're going to see here shortly in Romans 8. But it's the spirit or his passionate desire that can suppress, that can allow us to walk in fellowship with the Lord. But we can't suppress it ourselves.

And then Newell says, this kind of goes along with, this is such an important point to realize, this is sin nature within you. He says, it, speaking of the sin nature, it's this denial of this fact that has wrecked thousands of lives, for evil will be present until the Lord comes, bringing in the redemption of our bodies. It's going to be around the rest of our lives on this earth. So now he, it's like, so here's this section where he goes, so now he's gonna talk about how he joyfully concurs. For I joyfully concur, indeed, I delight. And he delights for his own benefit. Paul's delighting in God's law. I think we all do this.

We delight in, when we read, like we're reading in, we're starting Philippians, you start reading some passages in Philippians and you just say, this is so marvelous. This is God's word. Look what it says. Look what it tells us about who we are and who Christ is. You know, Paul says, I delight in that. I delight in what God has said. And he says, in the law of God. And I thought, Paul struggled with that one commandment, thou shalt not covet. But even though he struggled with that, even though it produced desire and coveting within him, he still loved it, he still desired for it to be, to know and understand it. I delight in it because it is holy, righteous, and good.

So now we're gonna say, where does this law live, okay? It's talking about living with respect or in the inner man. So this, I've joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man. Now, I'm not gonna go down the path, we're not talking about the law being written on your heart. No, not that. So, and this is somewhat challenging, so it talks about that there's a sense of God's law within us, and we know that, you know, and I was kind of thinking, you know, we have, I go back to our brother Hal's picture. In fact, I was gonna do a chart. You guys are all familiar with it. So here it is. You're not going to be able to see it. So for the audience on Zoom. But anyway, it's a picture where you have, it shows there are two parts of you.

There's a sin nature and there's Christ's nature, Christ's life within you. Okay, so the inner man, where's the inner man? It talks about good being within the inner man. So I'm taking that to be within Christ's life. And then the only other part of you have, you have the sin nature. So you have two aspects to you. I think that's just critical to understand.

So he talks about here, now I'm getting a little bit off the topic here, with respect to the inner man, So who's the inner man? And actually, as with any part of scripture, what you do is when you see a phrase like that, you say, well, where else does it tell me about this thing called the inner man? So there's at least two passages that are critical to understanding that.

First one is in Ephesians 3.16. talking about, Paul's saying here, that he, speaking about God, would grant, or Christ, would grant to you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man. Boy, I look at that and say, that's gotta be, who else can be strengthened in me? It's gotta be Christ's life. So check one, Christ's life, it's gotta be there.

And inner is this idea of, the idea of, Zodiaty has this idea about inner means the mind. That's okay, I'm okay with that. It's our new creation in Christ, renewed and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. That's good. The other verse I found that was good.

Therefore we do not lose heart. but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. So the inner man, to me, is all good, all good. I've seen some commentators kind of say, well, the inner man, and they kind of go off here and there, but boy, the inner man, from these verses we've looked about, talks about that's a place where God operates in the believer, the Holy Spirit is there. And our brother Hal says the inner man is this new man in Christ.

Okay, so now, last verse for today. I'm gonna leave 24 and 25 for next week. Oh, wretched man, that'll be next week, and then we'll get in, we'll peak into eight next week a little bit, and then we'll get into eight, one, and two the following week. Okay, here we go.

But I see a different law in the members of my body. So in contrast to God's law in the inner man, he sees a different, so here we go, he's gonna go back and say, well, Paul, you've been over this about 10 times. He had this, I see in my inner man, I see God's law, so to speak, and then in this other, this different, I see a different law, it's operating someplace else. I see a different law in the members of me. That's how, that's interlinear, word for word from the Greek. I see a different law in the members of me. And I see here is the idea, it's more the thought, I perceive, I understand. And so, and he's continually seeing it. I'm continually seeing it.

This different law of principle. And different here is this word heteros. which means it's a quality difference, something that's qualitatively different. And so he sees this different, so what's different about this law? So this quality of this different law will be explained in the remainder of the verse. And to give you a heads up, it's not good. And it's only one of the things he's gonna explain.

We got our man, we got the sin nature, and we got Christ's nature, so he's gonna go back again, he's gonna say, here's two more aspects of what your sin nature is like, and they're not good. I see the different principle is, first of all, it's in the members of me, and members are our bodies, basically, basically our sinful bodies, and we can see that from Romans 7-5. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions were aroused by the law, and were at work in the members of our bodies to bear fruit for death. So he's talking again about our fallen nature, This different law principle is described as the law of the principle of evil, which is present in me. So now he's kind of nailed it, but it's back down to our sinful nature from Adam. And here are two aspects of what you're gonna follow.

It's just not, you know, the sin nature is just not there happily sitting, you know, it's waging war. Waging war against the law of my mind. And metaphorically, it's a word for war. It's only used in this particular verse. It's an opposition, waging war. And secondly, it's making me a prisoner of the law of sin, which is in my members. Making me prisoners to subjugate, to bring under control, literally capturing.

So our brother Hal had several comments about this. It can captivate us, put us in bondage, causes our deepest heartaches, When we're walking contrary to the Lord, that's a low point in our lives for almost every believer. That's probably the lowest, as a believer, that's the lowest point we'll be, and we're walking out of fellowship with Him. It's our greatest enemy, and it's enmity toward God.

And I find there's one verse in scripture which speaks to me of how the severity of our sin nature, and I'm gonna do it from the King James. Jeremiah 17, nine. The heart, speaking of this nature, the heart, the sinful nature, is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked who can know it. So Paul has spent, look at all these verses. all these verses explaining about how the sinful nature and how it resides in us, how it's in opposition to the good we want to do. So in closing, I'd just like to share a few comments from Merriman here. So he kind of tries to summarize part of this. Here we go. So basically this is, Paul describes himself as follows.

He's a new creation in Christ. He's a believer. He longs to do good and shun evil. He was conscious and aware of the righteousness of the law. He wanted to perform it, the law, because he thought it meant divine approval. And we're kind of the same way. In some ways, even though we know that God operates on grace, we still kind of, in the back of our mind, well, I'll do a little bit more and the Lord will like me even more. I'll just do a little bit more. He's done it all, but we do a little bit more.

No, no, that's not it. He sets out to do right in God's eyes, this is speaking of Paul, and he determines to do it in his own strength. His efforts were all marked by dismal failure, as will ours be. His problem was not the law itself, but it was the production of what the law commanded in his own strength. That's what he couldn't do. His problem was inside himself, the flesh or the sinful nature.

And that's the problem that Paul's trying to bring to us, that we have this nature from Adam that's there, don't deny it, don't say I don't have it, accept that you have it, and accept God's solution for it, which we're gonna see in the coming weeks.

God's solution is that you walk in fellowship with him and let him live his life through us. And actually, it shows you the absolute necessity of doing that. See how powerful the sin nature is. See what it can do. How Paul spent almost the entire chapter 7 describing what the sin nature can do to a believer's life. before he tells us of the solution.

And the solution has to be totally of God and not of you. Your part, just like you came to faith, was totally of God in his work on the cross. You totally accepted by faith. He wants you to totally accept his solution for your Christian walk in fellowship with him.

Okay, let's close in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You so much, Lord, for Your plans and Your provisions. We thank You for Paul's writing that describes our sinful nature from Adam, that nature that we hate. But Lord, You have the solution for it in Your Son and in Your indwelling Holy Spirit. We ask it in His name. Amen.