The Struggle For Freedom
While many professed Christians believe that they are living the Christian life of freedom, the reality is that they are fighting a losing battle, as they will honestly and consciously admit, of an experience of being in bondage to sin. Until delivered from such a deception, they shall continue to remain in this condition of struggling for freedom. Here is where we may draw the line between a genuine Christian experience of victory in Jesus Christ and the experience of unwilling slaves but still in bondage to sin. In this study we shall prove that the experience described in Romans Chapter 7 is not the true Christian experience as many suppose but one of an intellectually enlightened conscience struggling to do what is right but still being brought into bondage to sin and wrong. Paul the Apostle in Romans 7 is simply giving us a flashback to his previous struggle with sin as an unregenerate unconverted man. He then proceeds in the next chapter (Romans 8) to describe the true genuine Christian experience of victory and freedom.
Let us read Romans chapter 7 verse 9 through 25. Let us consider now the following points:
1. In the fifth verse of the chapter Paul said,
“When we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.”
While married to the first husband, the flesh or the body of sin, the only fruit which could be produced from this union is the dead works of the flesh. ( Gal 5:19-21).
2. Paul then gives us a flash back to his experience; when he was in bondage to sin. In verse 9 he said,
“For I was alive without the law once .” This means that he lived his life without reference to the commandments of God, had no conviction, and as such was a willing sinner. He was not conscious of the deep spiritual claims of the law upon his life. He lived in carnal security.
“but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.”
Since by the law is the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20, Rom. 5:13, Rom. 7:7), when the commandment came, it brought the conviction of sin and showed him his guilt. He became conscious (sin revived) or aware of sin and the fact that he was a sinner and deserved only death. His life without the law is also mentioned in Acts 26:5 and Phil. 3:6.
3. In verse 14, the Apostle admits
“For we know that the law is spiritual: BUT I AM CARNAL, SOLD UNDER SIN.”
Paul possessed about everything that he needed, a knowledge of the law, a deep hatred of sin, a recognition of his own desperate condition of sinfulness, a firm decision to serve the Lord, and a putting forth of utmost effort to serve the Lord, but lacking the knowledge of God’s way of righteousness, he could only confess himself as being “carnal, sold under sin” still.
A person who is sold is a slave and one sold under sin is under bondage to sin as a slave.
4. What is the evidence of this slavery or bondage? It is plainly described in this language:
“For that which I do, I allow not; for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I …. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” Verses 15-21.
Free men do that which they wish to do. Only slaves do that which they do not wish to do, and are continually prevented from doing what they wish to do.
The Reformer E J Waggoner commented on this experience thus:-
“Have we ever had any such experience as that in our so-called Christian experience? Yes; we have fought, but with all our fighting, did we keep the law? No, we have made a failure, and it is written upon every page of our lives. It is a constant service, but at the same time it is a constant failure. I fail, I make a new resolution, - I break it and then I get discouraged, then I make another resolution, and break that again. We cannot make ourselves do the thing we want to do by making a resolution. We do not want to sin, but we do sin all the time. We make up our minds we will not fall under that temptation again, and we don’t – till the next time it comes up, and then we fall as before.” Bible Studies on the Book of Romans pg 53-54.
If a person has the law before him and acknowledges that it is good, and yet does not keep it, is his sin any less in the sight of God than the sin of the man who cares nothing for the law? No.
What is the difference between the would-be Christian, who knows the law, but does not keep it, and the worldling who does not keep the law, and does not acknowledge that it is good? Simply this; We are unwilling slaves, and they are willing slaves but both are still slaves. Better to be a willing slave than an unwilling one. The fact that we do not wish to do the sins that we are committing shows that we acknowledge the righteousness of the law which forbids them. BUT conviction is not conversion. It is not enough to wish to do right or even to try to do them. We must be doing right all the time. 1 John 3:7,8; 1 John 2:29; 1 John 5:4.
Now all of us will allow that a Christina must do what is good, at least some of the time. But this experience in Romans 7:21, “When I would do good, evil is present with me,” shows that the man having that experience does not do good at all. Yet he wants to do good.
5. All this language in Romans 7:15-21 describes one who is unable to do good and instead does what he hates.
Is this the true Christian experience? Jesus Christ is the only perfect example of the true Christian experience. Therefore the Christian experience can only be explained in terms of Jesus Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. ( John 14:6).
Paul describes the true Christian experience in these words, found in Galatians 2:20:
“I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
(See also 1 Cor 15:34, 57; 2 Cor 4:10,11; 1 John 2:1; Phil 4:13; 2 Cor 2:14)
So the Christian life is a reproduction of the life of Jesus Christ in and through us. It is a dynamic victorious life, full of faith, trust and confidence in God and obedience to His will.
6. Was Jesus Christ in His life on this earth ever known to have said, “the things I would I do not, and the evil I hate that I do…” No! Was this the experience of Jesus Christ in any way? NO!
Therefore the experience and struggle described in Romans 7:14-24 is not the experience or struggle of the Christian but one of a man in bondage to sin, seeking and struggling for freedom, one of defeat, sinning and repenting, sinning and repenting,
It is the experience of the average church member of today and is an exact picture of the lives of the majority of professed Christians in the world today. Should any man in this spiritual condition come to the end of his life’s probation, he would be lost for he has not yet gained salvation or deliverance from the bondage of sin.
7. The root cause of the problem of the man in this experience is found in verses 17 and 20:
“Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me …. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sinthat dwelleth in me.”
The real problem is not the sins which are being committed by the person but INDWELLING SIN. We commit sins because of the power of sin in us. (See booklet on the Law of Freedom in Justification by Faith” by same author).
8. This Man of Romans 7 knows what is right and desires to do what is right, hates what is wrong and has even set his will to do the right but he finds he cannot get the good and right done. He is forced to do that which is wrong against and contrary to his will, because the performance aspect of his will is paralyzed.
“… for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” Verse 18.
Intellectually this man is converted or persuaded of the rightness of God’s truth but spiritually unconverted. He confesses
“For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” Verse 22.
His inability to do that which is good, and which he knows he ought to do, is due wholly to the indwelling sin of the carnal mind which produces or results in war within him.
9. The Apostle next proceeds to outline to us the struggle which he was experiencing before he got the freedom for which he longed in verses 23 and 24:
“But 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.”
Here in this verse, three entities which make up the unconverted man are distinguished.
(i) “another law”
(ii) “my members’ and
(iii) “the law of my mind .”
The “another law” is not the members because it dwells in the members. Neither is the “another law” the law of the mind because it is warring against the law of the mind. So long as there is war , there cannot be peace at the same time. This “another law” in his members forces Paul to cry out, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” verse 24.
The “my members” which Paul refers to, is his FLESH and BLOOD BODY which can be used either as instruments of righteousness or as instruments of unrighteousness, all dependent upon whom they are yielded to. (See Romans 6:12,13,19).
The “law of my mind” refers to Paul’s own intellectual thinking mind, with the will to do good and which delights in the law of God. This involves the learning, the choices and the will. This is the mind which knows good and hates the wrong but just can’t get the good done, simply because it is controlled by the “another law” or mind which is the carnal mind.
This “carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be.” Romans 8:7. But Paul’s will (mind) delights in the law of God, therefore it cannot be enmity against the law of God. (See also James 4:4) The carnal mind, then, is another power apart from and within the intellectual thinking mind which controls a person against his will as a disease does in the body of a man. Whatever a person may want to do, he finds it impossible to do it because the disease (carnal mind) which dwells within the flesh and blood body is a power much stronger than the person’s own will power. Remember that the disease is not the flesh but it dwells within the flesh.
10. This experience then, is one in which the mind is brought into captivityto the law of sin which is in the members. It is also a description of a war that is transpiring in the mind. (Compare with Romans 5; Isaiah 32:17 and Psalms 119:165). In this experience the man is crying out for deliverance, and the only person who cries out for deliverance is a man who is in bondage or slavery.
E. J. Waggoner in his book “ Christ and His Righteousness” pages 86 and 87 correctly concludes,
“Call you this a true Christian experience? There are some who imagine that it is. Why then did the apostle in the anguish of his soul cry out, ‘O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Romans 7:24. Is a true Christian experiencing a body of death so terrible that the soul is constrained to cry out for deliverance – nay verily….
“What this bondage and captivity are has already been shown. It is the bondage of sin, the slavery of being compelled to sin even against the will by the power of inherited and acquired evil propensities and habits. Does Christ deliver from a true Christian experience? No, indeed! Then the bondage of sin of which the apostle complains in the seventh of Romans is not the experience of a child of God, but of the servant of sin.”
So the Bible makes it abundantly clear, that while the man in Romans 7 has gained much, he has not yet gained salvation. True, he has a knowledge of the law of God, he has deep personal conviction of his own sin, he is repentant so far as he hates the sin and with his own power has turned away from it. He has frankly and openly confessed his problem, but because he still has the carnal nature (mind) he is still a slave to sin. The realization that the experience is not one of a true child of God, can be a very disappointing and distressing revelation to those who have prided themselves for years that they have been God’s true children. The whole experience of Romans 7 is designed by divine providence to bring us to such a realization of ourselves and our needs that we will be led to take hold of the wonderful gift of salvation which is freely offered to us. Blessed is the man that accepts this revelation and not reject or refuse it. Without the Romans 7 experience we would never learn to give up trying to save ourselves, we would never learn what our real trouble or problem is and so would never be able to seek and to find a solution to it.
There are many who have never been delivered from this experience. This experience brings us to the point of conviction and seeing our great need of deliverance from bondage. It was only intended to be a transition point before yielding or surrendering all to Jesus, but many have been content to remain at this stagnated position, assuming that it is the genuine experience.
The Apostle Paul does not leave us in doubt as to the solution and how it can be achieved. More than this he reveals to us the nature of the real, true, genuine Christian experience. The solution is outlined as follows:
(a) First, there is an awareness of our true condition as sinners in God’s sight by the Holy Spirit.
(b) There is awaken in us a desire to do what is right and good, and the need for a change.
(c) We recognize our condition of wretchedness.
(d) We confess and repent of our sins which crucified the Son of God. We abhor or loathe the sin.
(e) We cry out for deliverance from bondage. We ask God to break the power of the carnal mind over our will and set us free.
(f) We believe that God has already done it for us because He has promised and because we have asked. (Mark 11:24; 1 John 1:9; 1 John 5:14-15; John 6:37; Isaiah 65:24)
(g) We claim the promise as our own.
(h) We thank God through Jesus Christ for having granted us deliverance from bondage and we go our way rejoicing. Hebrews 10:35.
We then enter the true genuine Christian experience of victory which is described in Romans Chapter 8: In this experience our minds are nowset free from the bondage and condemnation of the law of sin by a new law, even the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. (Romans 8:1-4; Romans 6:12,14,17,18,22). See booklet on “Man on Romans 8”
THANKS BE TO GOD, WHICH GIVETH US THE VICTORY THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST!!!
Elder Saul Leacock
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