Romans 7:14-25
14 We know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
There are countless people throughout the world who will tell you that they try to live a good life. Of course there are some people who are really nasty pieces of work, but they’re the exception. The vast majority of the human race are what we would call ‘nice people.’ And I know that all of us here today try to be just that.
Yes, there are times when we go a little off-track and we might lose our tempers and we may say and do things we regret, but generally speaking we’re not that bad, because despite our all too obvious flaws, human beings are capable of doing some really good things for each other.
So why then did God have to go to such extremes?
Why did Jesus have to die for us?
These are important questions for us to consider, because it is one of the main arguments we face as Christians. I’m basically a good person, and as far as I possibly can, I try to do the right thing. I’ve never really harmed anyone, at least not deliberately, so yes; I believe there’s a God, and that when I die, I will end up in Heaven.
There is however, a fundamental flaw in this statement.
The world tells us that we are basically good, and that God just loves us, isn’t that wonderful and we’re all going to be one big happy family in heaven one day.
But that’s not what God tells us. It is simply not true.
And this is Satan’s biggest lie and his greatest deception. If he can get us to believe the lie that we are basically good, then he has made huge strides in drawing us away from God’s truth, and also blinding us to our greatest need – salvation.
In John 8:44 Jesus is talking about Satan when He says, “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
And the biggest lie of all is that we’re basically good.
If Satan can get us to believe that, then everything changes. Truth and reality no longer apply.
It’s important that we understand the crucial difference between our sins and our sinful nature.
If I take something which is not mine, then I have committed a sin. What causes me though to want to take it, and my inner motive, is my sinful nature, and that is my deep-rooted problem.
My sinful acts are the symptoms of an inner cause. It’s not so much that my sins make me a sinner, although that certainly is true.
The bigger problem is that I am first and foremost a sinner, and therefore I commit sins. My sins are simply an expression of my inner self – the real me.
Now this is where we can begin to go off track.
I can train and teach myself to not take something which doesn’t belong to me. We can all do that, and we can achieve this goal with varying degrees of success. And it is here where we so easily begin to believe the lie of Satan.
If I see something which is not mine and I’m tempted to take it, but I resist the temptation, then that must mean that I’m not such a bad person after all. I feel good about myself because I have done something good. I haven’t taken something which isn’t mine, so I’m basically a good person.
But this is not the picture that the Bible paints of the human condition.
Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
This is the reality of our situation without Jesus Christ, but tell that to an unbelieving world and what do they say?
“Don’t be ridiculous. Man is basically good. A loving God could not possibly send anyone to hell.” And so it goes on.
The apostle Paul though, certainly understood the truth. “What a wretched man I am!”
In Galatians 5:17 he writes, “The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”
We have to be so careful. We need to be constantly praying that God will grant us the discernment to filter out the lies which the world keeps bombarding us with.
We have our faults yes, but we are essentially good, and because of that there is no need for a Saviour. But think of the logic here.
If there was no need for a Saviour, why would Jesus have come and subjected Himself to what He did? God is all-knowing and He has wisdom infinitely greater than ours, so why would He have sent His Son to die unless if it was necessary?
Let’s just consider that for a moment. If it was not necessary for Jesus to die, then we could live our lives here, being as nice as we can possibly be, and God would weigh up the good versus the bad at the end of our lives, and this would determine whether we go to heaven or not. Factor in His love for us, and guess what? We’ve all got a pretty good chance of making it!
Does this sound familiar?
It should, because this is exactly what the world teaches. It’s that same lie again.
A lie that does not and will not take into account our biggest problem – the sinful nature that Paul writes so passionately about at the end of Romans 7.
Sin destroys us from the inside.
James 1:14-15 says: “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
You can try to resist temptation, and you may even succeed. You can try to be a nice person and succeed at that too.
But you can do nothing about the sinful nature within you. That is your biggest problem, and salvation is your greatest need.
Ask any child why Jesus died, and they will usually say, “To save us from our sins.”
And that is quite correct. We all know John 3:16. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
But we often fail to read what comes after John 3:16, because in verse 18, Jesus makes it very clear that it takes belief in Him to be saved.
Salvation is not for everyone. It is offered to everyone, but it is only given to those who put their faith in Jesus Christ, and what He did for us.
Verse 18 says, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
Jesus also said in John 8:24, “I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am He you will die in your sins.”
You are not a good person. I am not a good person. We are sinners who have betrayed God, who deserve eternal condemnation.
But, as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:15, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”
The glory of the Gospel is that Christ died for those who put their faith in Him.
Salvation is not found in our own righteousness, but in His.
Salvation is in Jesus Christ, and in Jesus Christ alone.
14 We know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
There are countless people throughout the world who will tell you that they try to live a good life. Of course there are some people who are really nasty pieces of work, but they’re the exception. The vast majority of the human race are what we would call ‘nice people.’ And I know that all of us here today try to be just that.
Yes, there are times when we go a little off-track and we might lose our tempers and we may say and do things we regret, but generally speaking we’re not that bad, because despite our all too obvious flaws, human beings are capable of doing some really good things for each other.
So why then did God have to go to such extremes?
Why did Jesus have to die for us?
These are important questions for us to consider, because it is one of the main arguments we face as Christians. I’m basically a good person, and as far as I possibly can, I try to do the right thing. I’ve never really harmed anyone, at least not deliberately, so yes; I believe there’s a God, and that when I die, I will end up in Heaven.
There is however, a fundamental flaw in this statement.
The world tells us that we are basically good, and that God just loves us, isn’t that wonderful and we’re all going to be one big happy family in heaven one day.
But that’s not what God tells us. It is simply not true.
And this is Satan’s biggest lie and his greatest deception. If he can get us to believe the lie that we are basically good, then he has made huge strides in drawing us away from God’s truth, and also blinding us to our greatest need – salvation.
In John 8:44 Jesus is talking about Satan when He says, “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
And the biggest lie of all is that we’re basically good.
If Satan can get us to believe that, then everything changes. Truth and reality no longer apply.
It’s important that we understand the crucial difference between our sins and our sinful nature.
If I take something which is not mine, then I have committed a sin. What causes me though to want to take it, and my inner motive, is my sinful nature, and that is my deep-rooted problem.
My sinful acts are the symptoms of an inner cause. It’s not so much that my sins make me a sinner, although that certainly is true.
The bigger problem is that I am first and foremost a sinner, and therefore I commit sins. My sins are simply an expression of my inner self – the real me.
Now this is where we can begin to go off track.
I can train and teach myself to not take something which doesn’t belong to me. We can all do that, and we can achieve this goal with varying degrees of success. And it is here where we so easily begin to believe the lie of Satan.
If I see something which is not mine and I’m tempted to take it, but I resist the temptation, then that must mean that I’m not such a bad person after all. I feel good about myself because I have done something good. I haven’t taken something which isn’t mine, so I’m basically a good person.
But this is not the picture that the Bible paints of the human condition.
Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
This is the reality of our situation without Jesus Christ, but tell that to an unbelieving world and what do they say?
“Don’t be ridiculous. Man is basically good. A loving God could not possibly send anyone to hell.” And so it goes on.
The apostle Paul though, certainly understood the truth. “What a wretched man I am!”
In Galatians 5:17 he writes, “The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”
We have to be so careful. We need to be constantly praying that God will grant us the discernment to filter out the lies which the world keeps bombarding us with.
We have our faults yes, but we are essentially good, and because of that there is no need for a Saviour. But think of the logic here.
If there was no need for a Saviour, why would Jesus have come and subjected Himself to what He did? God is all-knowing and He has wisdom infinitely greater than ours, so why would He have sent His Son to die unless if it was necessary?
Let’s just consider that for a moment. If it was not necessary for Jesus to die, then we could live our lives here, being as nice as we can possibly be, and God would weigh up the good versus the bad at the end of our lives, and this would determine whether we go to heaven or not. Factor in His love for us, and guess what? We’ve all got a pretty good chance of making it!
Does this sound familiar?
It should, because this is exactly what the world teaches. It’s that same lie again.
A lie that does not and will not take into account our biggest problem – the sinful nature that Paul writes so passionately about at the end of Romans 7.
Sin destroys us from the inside.
James 1:14-15 says: “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
You can try to resist temptation, and you may even succeed. You can try to be a nice person and succeed at that too.
But you can do nothing about the sinful nature within you. That is your biggest problem, and salvation is your greatest need.
Ask any child why Jesus died, and they will usually say, “To save us from our sins.”
And that is quite correct. We all know John 3:16. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
But we often fail to read what comes after John 3:16, because in verse 18, Jesus makes it very clear that it takes belief in Him to be saved.
Salvation is not for everyone. It is offered to everyone, but it is only given to those who put their faith in Jesus Christ, and what He did for us.
Verse 18 says, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
Jesus also said in John 8:24, “I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am He you will die in your sins.”
You are not a good person. I am not a good person. We are sinners who have betrayed God, who deserve eternal condemnation.
But, as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:15, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”
The glory of the Gospel is that Christ died for those who put their faith in Him.
Salvation is not found in our own righteousness, but in His.
Salvation is in Jesus Christ, and in Jesus Christ alone.