Join us as we uncover the depths of spiritual identity with renowned Christian thinker, Colin Cook. Through an analysis of Paul’s teachings, we explore how one’s relationship with the law shapes their spiritual journey. Discover the pivotal role of Christ in transforming our identity from one condemned by sin to one liberated by grace and delivered from a body bound by death.
So we’ve seen the remarkable descriptions that Paul gives of a relationship with the law. That is, a relationship with the law that is designed to bring obedience and their godly life, and yet the very opposite takes place. Let me just remind you of these verses. They’re just remarkable. In verse 5, he says, “…the passions were aroused by the law.” And then comes verse 8. By the commandment, all manner of evil desire is produced. And then, verse 10, the commandment brings death. And then, verse 13, sin, that it may appear sin, produce death in me through what is good, that is, the law. These are passages that you would hardly imagine to be in a religious letter like this. What this is saying to all of us is that if we choose to develop a relationship of obedience to law instead of fellowship with God, it will lead us to a deathly experience. How can I put that in a better way, in a more understandable way? If you are one who goes to church and seeks to comply with all the rituals and the traditions and to do things according to form exactly, and you do the same in your life, but there is no fellowship with God or Jesus Christ in that religion, you are walking in a spiritual death. It’s an astonishing thing to say. Not only are you walking in a death, but you are stimulating the sins that you’re trying to avoid by the law. And this is why Paul then says, and this is where we came to last time, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal sold under sin. And as I pointed out last time, he’s making it clear that it is the law that is spiritual and that I am carnal, not the other way around. It’s not, the law is carnal and I’m so spiritual that I don’t need to keep the law. Rather, I’m so broken and wounded that I cannot reach the spiritual level and depth and purity and beauty of the law. And therefore, Paul says, 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. Now, many people have debated this over the centuries. Whole books have been written on this. Is Paul talking about himself? And if he’s talking about himself, is he talking about himself before he was a Christian or after he was a Christian? Surely some people say he can’t be a Christian when he’s describing himself as not doing what he wants to do and doing the very thing he hates. Let me read again verse 15. For what I am doing I do not understand, but what I will to do that I do not practice, but what I hate that I do. But you see, the discussion there is on the wrong point, because the issue is not whether Paul is talking about himself before he was a Christian or after he was a Christian. The issue is that Paul is talking about humanity in relation to the law. When you set the law before you as the standard of living— then you will find that the very thing I want to do is the thing I do not do, and the very thing I hate to do is the thing I do. He’s talking about humanity in relation to the law. And so he says in verse 16, If then I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. Okay, you see, so here he is talking about his relation to the law. If the law is in your mind, and you’re aware of it, and you agree that it is good, that’s certainly something that a Christian would agree to. But the problem is, when he has that relationship to the law, then he does not do the very thing he wants to do. If then I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. If the law is out there and I agree it’s good, then I am faced with the fact that I do not do what it requires of me. Why? Not because the law is ineffective, but because I am a sinner with a human nature that cannot comply with the law. But now it is no longer, he says. Now here’s something astonishing. But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. Oh, now wait a minute, Paul. Are you starting to blame someone else for your situation? Are you starting to make excuses? He says, it is no longer I who do it. but sin that dwells within me. Now how can he do that? How can he say that? If we are Christians, we take responsibility for our actions, don’t we? But Paul is going much deeper than that. Paul now knows that he is identified with Jesus Christ. Jesus has taken the burden of his sins and his guilt and shame and condemnation, and he has taken it to the cross. And therefore, Paul understands that he is no longer the person that he was in the sense that he is no longer identified as a sinner. He’s no longer identified as under condemnation. And so he’s able to say, when I don’t come up to the law, or when I do the very thing that the law says I should not do, it’s no longer me doing it, because I don’t agree with what I just did. Now this is where the Christian has such a wonderful power in faith. You and I are sinners, we fail at times, and we seek to overcome, and sometimes we succeed, but sometimes we don’t. And instead of throwing ourselves off a cliff of despair as a result of that, we say no. What happened there was not the true me. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. But Christ is the one who lives in me. It’s not I. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who gave himself for me. And so, the I that I am identified in by the law, a sinner condemned, is no longer the true me. The I that is in Christ, declared innocent without condemnation, that’s the true me. This is how you and I build our faith, build our sense of who we are in Christ. Then he says in verse 18, I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells. So here is Paul, you see, saying as a Christian, there’s nothing good in my broken, fallen human nature. And he’s able to say, For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. This is Paul, the bold, courageous Christian following Jesus Christ. committed to him, loving him with all his heart, and yet he’s still able to say, in my humanity, nothing good dwells because I will to do good, but I do not perform it. This you and I have the courage to say. Just because you have temptations, just because you have sins, it doesn’t mean you are not a Christian. You are acknowledging that you are a follower of Jesus, but in your natural humanity there’s nothing good that dwells within you, and even when you want to do good, you do the evil that you don’t want to do. You recognize that as a reality, and that is the reason why you keep clinging to Christ. And when you fail, you bounce back, and you get up again, and you go forward. And so Paul then says, for the good that I will to do, I do not do, but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. So he’s saying, in my humanity, as a person standing singularly before God, I’m corrupt. And the only person that is worth knowing, therefore, is me in relation to Christ. That is, as he says in Galatians 2.20, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives within me. And the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who gave himself for me. So Paul doesn’t identify himself in his humanity anymore. That identity in his humanity is broken. And once again, he says what was startling a little earlier in verse 17. In verse 17, he says, “‘But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.'” And now he says it again. “‘Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.'” The astonishing thing that Paul is teaching us is that though sin dwells within us, causing us not to do what we ought to do and to do what we ought not to do, that is no longer identified as us. we are now recognized in Christ. It doesn’t mean to say you’re in denial. You don’t deny what you did. You acknowledge it, but you know that it is not the true you anymore, because the true you abides now in Christ. And so Paul says, I find it then a law that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. In other words, every time I want to do good, evil is present. for I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. Ah, now look at that. Here is Paul saying we’re dead to the law, but he recognizes the law is very good. He delights in all it’s trying to say to us. I delight in it inwardly, but I have to say I can’t deal with you, though. I can’t relate to you. I will not have a relationship with you, law, because I’m a broken human being. because I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. So Paul is faced with this wretchedness of being human. O wretched man that I am, he says in verse 24, who will deliver me from this body of death? I’m in this body of death. I will always be in this body of death until Jesus returns and I put on immortality. But who is going to deal with me now? And he says, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That’s the answer to the question. Jesus Christ took my identity upon himself and was crucified for it, so that I have been condemned in his name. And therefore, even though I stand in this broken, fallen human nature, I am no longer identified with it. And that is why I can say, thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, I have been delivered from my own body that I even now live in, but I’m delivered from it. Thanks for listening today. This is Colin Cook. And if you would like to make a donation to the program, it would be so much appreciated. You can send your donation to Faith Quest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado, 80160, or make your donation online at faithquestradio.com. You can hear this program any time of the day and night or on your smartphone. Simply download a free app, soundcloud.com or pudbean.com and key in how it happens with Colin Cook when you get there. Thank you for listening. Thanks for your support. See you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
