When you think of Jesus’ apostles do you think of them as men of a higher echelon in the Kingdom? Most people do because, after all, not everyone was appointed by the Lord Jesus to be included in His “inner circle”. And how about Peter, James and John? Those three were chosen by Jesus to be in His intimate inner circle. Although Paul came into the picture a bit later than the others, God used him in mighty ways to propagate the good news. The all seem to be the “perfect” followers of Jesus - except Judas, of course. But Paul let’s the cat our of the bag and shows us that he’s not as much of a “saint” as we have him canonized to be.
Read Romans 7:14-25 then continue reading this page.
One of the many things I’ve never fully understood is this passage in Romans where Paul writes about his ongoing struggle with sin, even though he is a follower of Jesus - an apostle: “What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God’s command is necessary.” He is obviously talking about God’s Commands - the Law. In my religious/spiritual training, I’ve always heard that “we are no longer under the law but under grace”. As true as this statement is, I was under the impression that the Law (God’s Commands) are to be discarded, ignored, they are obsolete. Unfortunately, this is one of the things that became part of my belief system that led me on a more carnal path in my “Christian walk”. Despite what you and I believe, the Word of God is always true. 100 people can take the same passage of the same Bible and form various beliefs but there is only one truth.
The truth that Paul is communicating here is that when Jesus did what He did He didn’t abolish the Law. Even Jesus stated, in Matthew 5:17, that He came to “fulfill it”. As a scale is used to obtain a balance of weight of the objects placed on either side, so a balance scale also is a picture of what Jesus actually did. Romans 7:25 states, "He (Jesus) acted to set things right…” Jesus “balanced” the scale, so to speak. Now, Paul is talking about his (and our) struggle to live in the balance that Jesus established.
I can intimately relate to what Paul shares in verses 20-23:
“Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. It (falling into sin) happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.”
Can you relate? I certainly can! I have tried and tried to live a holy Christian life, doing and saying the right things and I seem to get nowhere. Retreats, conferences, seminars, books, counseling, accountability groups, Bible studies, mission work, vocational and volunteer ministry, “correct” doctrine - It feels like I’ll never be free from sinning. Back to verses 17-20…I love Paul’s honesty:
“But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.”
And verse 24: “I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?”
This is the APOSTLE PAUL, y’all. He is sharing his real struggles with his audience. The opposite of what we do today, right? Don’t we get embarrassed when people find out we struggle with sin? And don’t we make the meeting house of God a sanitary place where real struggles shouldn’t be shared because (1) we don’t want to offend anyone, (2) turn people away from God, (3) it would be bad PR for the church, (4) people would actually know that we’re not perfect, or…etc. What we do delivers a blow of death to the body of Christ. What Paul did here is breath life into all of us!
Many believe, like I did, that if we only exercise spiritual disciplines and religious duties that our behavior, speech and thought life would somehow become sanctified and holy. That’s not what sanctifies us. It’s not what makes us holy. A dirty dish is incapable of making another dirty dish clean.
So Paul’s “at the end of [his] rope”. He’s “tried everything and nothing helps.” Then there is JESUS. Paul is resolved to knowing that while he still resides in his earth suit, he will continue struggling with sin but that there is grace and forgiveness through the work of Jesus Christ. Jesus “can and does…set things right”.
Paul did not claim to “have been the Chief of sinners”. He made a claim in the active present tense. He said, “I am the Chief of sinners.” Like Paul, I have and do struggle with sin. I struggle constantly. I desire to live by God’s Commands but not all of me feels the same way, and I sin. I have and do hurt people I love. I have and do thought/think things I shouldn’t have. I have/do said/say things I shouldn’t. I have done/do things I shouldn’t. I am a broken vessel - a sinful man in desperate need of Jesus. The Law of God shows me that. If it wasn’t for His Law I would not know right from wrong. If it wasn’t for the grace of God through Jesus Christ my wrong could not be made right.
We’ve got to stop “dressing up” to look good for everyone. It’s OK to be you. If getting real is good enough for Paul it’s good enough for us.
Don
