It occurs to me that as the Scripture passage was being read,
the name of a famous person came to your mind. A well known
"theologian." Flip Wilson. Did anybody have Flip Wilson’s name
come across your thoughts as you listened to the Scripture
reading? That well known "theologian" (through his comedy
actually) whose most famous line was "The devil made me do it!"
Didn’t that line come to mind in all that "do" language of this
passage? Especially, "Now if I do what I do not want to do,
it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that
does it" (verse 20). Doesn’t that sound a bit like "The
devil made me do it!" If Paul was striving for some humor
here—and I’m not sure to what extent the apostle Paul had a
sense of humor—but if Paul was striving for some humor here he
might have said it that way, "The devil made me do it."In
chapter 7 from Romans we see Paul in his most basic humanity.
Can we not closely identify with Paul here and his struggle with
temptation and sin? Do we not identify with his struggle over
the good I want to do I do not do it and the bad I do not want
to do...that’s what I do? It is Paul in his most basic
humanity—and in that there is perhaps some comfort. The apostle
Paul struggled with the sinful nature! Perhaps there’s hope for
me yet.
Some commentators grapple with the picture of Paul in Romans
chapter 7. They can’t imagine the apostle Paul having
this struggle. They explain it away by saying Paul is describing
himself "before Christ." It is "B.C. Paul," not "A.D. Paul." I
don’t think so. The tense is present tense. And the tension is
too real and too raw to be some past struggle that the
apostle Paul no longer battles. "What a wretched man I
am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (verse 24).
It is the struggle for every human being...including the apostle
Paul.
Two foundational points to make here:
(1) Our salvation is by grace and our works, especially where
we fall to temptation and "do the very thing I do not want to
do," do not nullify our salvation;
(2) The security of our salvation does not nullify the call
to do good works. What we do matters. We must strive always to
do good works. But when we fail, when our sinful nature that
keeps pushing against our faith trying to resurface in our lives
does break through, when we do the very thing we do not want to
do, there is always grace. We repent. We lament the damage that
was done. We seek God’s forgiveness and joyfully receive it
determined to be stronger and better. And we move on.
That brings to mind another famous theologian in our culture
today, the lead singer for the band U-2. Do you know his name?
Bono. B-O-N-O. Did you know he’s a Christian? His faith often
gets expressed in his songs and lived out in his life. He is
especially an advocate for social justice, much of his time,
energy and money focusing on Africa. He is not perfect. He is
not without his controversies. He is not without his Romans
7-like struggles. In fact, I came across a quote from Bono this
week that well describes this very humanlike journey: "Your
nature is a hard thing to change; it takes time...I have heard
of people who have life-changing, miraculous turnarounds, people
set free from addiction after a single prayer, relationships
saved where both parties ‘let go, and let God.’ But it was not
like that for me. For all that ‘I was lost, I am found,’ it is
probably more accurate to say, ‘I was really lost. I’m a little
less so at the moment.’ And then a little less and a little less
again. That to me is the spiritual life. The slow reworking and
rebooting the computer at regular intervals, reading the small
print of the service manual. It has slowly rebuilt me in a
better image. It has taken years, though, and it is not over
yet." That’s a spot on description of the journey of faith
and the struggle within the human nature—sin, good that I want
to do I do not do, the bad I don’t want to do is the very thing
I end up doing. By the way, if you share that information about
the lead singer for U-2 with your children or grandchildren,
make sure you pronounce his name correctly. It’s BON-oh, not
BOE-no, even though it’s spelled B-O-N-O like Sonny Bono, which
you’re probably more familiar with. You’re point will get lost
if you try to tell them about BOE-no, the lead singer for U-2.
What makes Christianity distinctive in the journey of faith,
in this pluralistic world we live in which seems guided by a
"whatever works for you is fine" philosophy is this—the pathway
to God has been secured by Jesus Christ. As you’ve heard me say
before, it’s not based upon what I do, but what has been
done for me in Jesus Christ. All other religions,
philosophies, what have you, are Chapter 7 religions. Their
status with God, their eternity is based upon what they do. In
the struggle with their sinful nature, their humanity, when
"they do what they do not want to do," there is separation in
their relationship with God, their status with God is in
jeopardy, their future with God is questionable. There is no
"Therefore" of chapter 8.
I am always struck by the "what I must do" messages of all
other faiths or philosophies, followed by something like
this—"Hopefully that will be enough." Do enough good, recite
enough prayers, help enough people, give enough time and money
to enough causes…and, hopefully, that will be enough. No
assurance. No certainty. No "therefore."
Now give them their due—people of other faiths can do some
amazing good works. It’s their motivation. If they take their
theology seriously, their future depends upon it. So, they are
highly motivated. And, frankly, it’s an area Christians can be
lax about. It’s called "cheap grace" and it fails to take
seriously the call to good works. It’s accepting Jesus as their
Savior but becoming complacent about following Him as Lord—or,
worse yet, stubbornly refusing to follow Jesus as Lord in some
area of their life, in some rising of their sinful nature to the
surface of their lives. It’s living on the other side of the
"Therefore" of chapter 8 and not struggling with the realities
and impact of chapter 7. We ought not do that. It does a lot of
damage to the witness of Christianity. I cringe when Christians
fall publicly…and fall hard. I cringe even more when I hear
people say, "If that’s how Christians behave then I don’t want
to be a Christian." So, we must take seriously what we do. In
the battle between our sinful nature and our Christian nature,
we must resist the sinful inclinations and pursue with greater
diligence the law of the Spirit of life.
But when we fail, and we will on occasion do that which we do
not want to do—hopefully with increasing rarity, becoming "a
little less lost, then a little less again, and a little less
again"—but when we do fail, our relationship with God remains in
place because of what Christ has done for us. Not in what we do,
but in what Christ has done for us. That’s the Christian
difference, the message we have to share with persons of every
other faith and philosophy—the assurance of our place with God
not because of what we do, but what has been done for us in
Jesus Christ.
This table is a reminder and a sign of what has been done for
us in Jesus Christ. That Jesus Christ would address the conflict
within our natures—our struggles with the desire to do what is
right and good, yet sometimes succumbing to that which is wrong
and bad, our commitment to the law of God, yet finding ourselves
sometimes a slave to the law of sin—and claim us for His own,
bringing us to Him and His care from which nothing can
remove us. So, I don’t know what your week has been like—perhaps
it’s been a Romans chapter 7 kind of week—but Christ Jesus calls
you today into Romans chapter 8, where "there is no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus." Because there’s not one
thing you’ve done that He didn’t already die for. So bring to
this table you’re struggle with "the do’s"—the good that you
want to do yet do not do and that which you hate you do—and
receive with joy and thankfulness what Jesus Christ has done for
you.
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