Explore the depths of human nature as Paul candidly discusses the struggle between our carnal nature and the spiritual law. As believers, acknowledging our inherent sinfulness leads us to a deeper reliance on Christ’s atoning sacrifice. This episode invites listeners to recognize the astonishing reality that humanity’s confidence in its own progress is futile without God’s mercy, and it emphasizes the transformative power of divine love and righteousness in Christ.
And as you know, we’re still in this section in Romans chapter 7, freedom from the law, delivered from the law, not lawlessness, but delivered from the judgment and the power and the condemnation of the law. And as a standard by which we meet salvation, that’s out of it altogether. And Paul says, as we talked about last time, therefore the law is holy and the commandment is holy and just and good. He says that because it wasn’t the law that was the problem, but sin. Taking opportunity or occasion by the commandment, it deceived me and by it killed me. And I explained what that was to you last time, but I want you to take note of this, that Paul is about to say for the third time that it is the law which… It is sin, rather, or the temptation of Satan, which uses the law to stimulate sin in us, because the law has only condemnation to give us and judgment, and Satan… wants to taunt us with that condemnation and judgment so that we will be afraid of God and withdraw from Him into the darkness of our own soul where we will be so isolated and lonely that the only thing left will be the comfort of sin. So now he says for the third time, Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not. It wasn’t the law that brought death, but sin, sin that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, that is through the law, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. What an astonishing reality this is talking about. Paul, as I told you many times now, is giving an entirely new interpretation of history. God did not send the law to the world to put a brake on sin, but to reveal it and to stimulate it and to make it exceedingly sinful so that mankind would no longer be confident in its own progress and its own performance, but would call upon God for mercy and see the relevance of Jesus when he came to the earth and died for our sins. It’s an astonishing reality. We, you see, as human beings, do not know our condition. We are like fish in water, and we’re trying to convince them they are wet. But they can’t comprehend it because they’re surrounded by it. And we cannot comprehend sin because it’s the norm. It’s what we do. And nor can we comprehend death because it seems like the norm and everybody goes through it. But our God is helping us through the law to see there is an abnormality in humanity. Humanity is not in a normal state. How many times do we have to cry out and tell the world this? That death is not normal, it will not last forever, it is a result of sin, it is a judgment upon sin, and sin will be eradicated. So let’s look at that verse again. Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not, Paul says. But sin, that it might appear sin. Wow, look at that. Sin that it might appear sin. Well, apparently sin does not appear sin. A sin, really? To us blind human beings, it’s just the normal way of life. We love and hate. We’re jealous. We’re envious. We take advantage of people. All of these things seem pretty normal. We don’t realize they’re sin. And so God has to make it clear to us that sin is sin. So certainly not, he says, but sin that it might appear sin. God didn’t show us simply the law to make sin clear. He gave us the law and it started interacting with our human nature and with our fear and guilt and shame, and it created something in us. When the law meets human fallen flesh, it’s like throwing the cat among the pigeons. There’s a fight, the fur flies, and chaos results all over the place. That is what the law does when it meets human nature. It’s like fire meeting gasoline. And so we have to consider what the law does. It does not simply reveal sin. According to verse 5, it arouses sin. And according to verse 8, it produces all manner of evil desire in me. And in verse 11, it deceives me and by it kills me, by the law that is. And then verse 13, It produces death in me through what is good. So don’t simply see the law as something that reveals sin. If you are in a relationship with the law that is legalistic and that you think you have to obey it in order to be saved, I’m telling you it will do all of these things. It will arouse sin. It will create all manner of evil desire in you. It will deceive you and kill you emotionally and spiritually, and it will produce a death in you. So that’s verse 5, verse 8, verse 11, and verse 13. Do you want it any clearer? And why is Paul telling us all this? So that we may recognize that through the death of Jesus, we have died to the law. We have taken, Jesus has taken the judgment of the law upon himself on our behalf. We are free from its condemnation and judgment so that we might have a fellowship with Jesus that is a fellowship of love and friendship and security, all the good things that are so beautiful in a love relationship. That is what Paul is getting to. That’s what we need to get to. And to put it in another way, he’s saying all this, verse 14 now, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. That is why we have to die to it. Not, let me make it clear, not because the law is carnal, and I am spiritual. That’s what some people get so screwed up about. They say, oh, we don’t keep the law. We don’t obey the law because that’s all to do with outward form. That’s all to do with works. We don’t believe in works, so we ignore the law. No, that’s not why you are dead to the law. The law is spiritual, as I said the other day. Jesus made it so clear that the law is spiritual when he said, You have heard that you shall not kill, but I tell you, whoever hates his brother is a murderer. And the other commandments, talking about the inner core of the commandment, the law then is spiritual, it speaks to the heart, to the spirit. But the trouble is, when it speaks to our heart, it condemns our heart, because we are not spiritual, we are carnal. So Paul is teaching us that the law is elevated and lifted high, and we are low and at the dregs. And if we try to reach that law by obedience to it, it will destroy us spiritually and And finally, physically. I’m telling you, this is really serious business. This is psychology on steroids. This is such a serious issue that if you want to be a Christian, if you want to have faith, to be a Christian, you must have faith in Jesus and not be married to the law. You must take a stand on this and do not be apologetic when your friends insist on all this obedience to law. So then, Paul says, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. Now, we are about to enter into a very controversial passage. And some Christians who are law keepers or perfectionists cannot stand what Paul says here. What do you mean, Paul, that you are sold under sin? You’re a Christian. You said you as touching the law blameless. How can you say you are carnal? He’s talking about his human nature, which is bent towards evil. It is bent southward. It is bent downwards. It is not in its proper state. Our human nature before Adam fell was bent and inclined upward to heaven. The line of least resistance before the fall of Adam was goodness. All you had to do was just flow with the flow and you were good and loved good and beautiful things. But after the fall, the line of least resistance was badness. All you had to do was nothing and you would sin. You would be inclined towards sin. So Paul is talking about this natural now, fallen human nature that is inclined towards sin. It is not inclined towards the law. Now, the ones who find this passage very objectionable say that Paul was talking when he said, I am sold under sin. He was using himself as a type of the whole human race and was talking about the human race before its salvation or a human being before his salvation. And so what follows, these people say, is a description of a human being before he has been converted. Now, I want to tell you that the whole of the book of Romans is against that interpretation. This is not Paul talking about his life before his conversion, nor is it Paul using himself as a type of any human being before his conversion. He’s talking about himself as is. Let’s go with that and see where we come. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing I do not understand, for what I will to do that I do not practice, but what I hate that I do. Could this possibly be Paul as a converted Christian? I say it is. I know that Paul was devoted to God, that he loved Jesus Christ with all his heart, that he was an obedient soul. But he was a fallen obedient soul also, and this is why he needed Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice every day. This is why he needed mercy every day. He knew that he had a sinful nature, a fallen human nature, that inclined towards bad, towards evil, and he often found himself not doing what he wanted to do and hating what he did. That is surely what we all experience. You say, well, there’s no hope for us then. Yes, there is, because Christ is our righteousness. And as we learn that Jesus is our righteousness and has been so kind to us as to treat us as if we were good when we’re not, then a love begins to spring up in our lives and in our hearts, and we love him. So we’re motivated by love, and we go forward by love. But still there is that human nature that wants to try to drag us down, and it does sometimes. But we bounce back up again, and we come before God in humility and confession, and we continue on the road. But this reality here that Paul is talking about is an incredibly honest way of speaking. It’s not pretending. When we count ourselves righteous in Christ, we count ourselves that. We know we’re not. If we say we are righteous in Christ, in ourselves, are righteous in ourselves, we are fake. But to know that, or to say, I’m a sinner in myself, but I’m not counted as a sinner, I’m counted as if I were righteous, that is eternal life. Thanks for joining me today. I’ll see you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
