LIVING IN THE SEVENTH OF ROMANS

 

Dr. W. A. Criswell

 

Romans 7:7-25

 

09-26-54

 

 

Tonight, I am preaching on Living in the Seventh of Romans.  And I suppose that means practically nothing to everybody.  But, by the time I get through with this sermon, I hope you’ll never forget it: what it is to live in the seventh chapter of Romans.

If you will turn with me tonight to the seventh chapter of the Book of Romans, we’re going to read from the seventh verse to the end of the chapter.

Are you ready?  The seventh verse of the seventh chapter—and you follow it as I read the Book:

What shall we say then?  Is the law sin?  God forbid.  Nay, I had not known sin but by the law; for I had not known lust, except the law said, Thou shalt not covet.

But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence.  For without the law sin was dead.

For I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, just and good.

Was then that which is good made death unto me?  God forbid.  But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.

For we know that the law is spiritual; but I—I am carnal, sold under sin.

For that which I do I allow mw; for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that I do.

If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.

Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

For the good that I would I do not; but the evil that I would not, that I do.

Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man;

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.

O wretched man—wretched, wretched man that I am!  Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

I thank god through Jesus Christ our Lord.  So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

That is the seventh of Romans.

            There is a whole library—I mean a whole library, literally, about that passage.  It is the introduction to one of the great chapters of the Bible. 

The eighth chapter of Romans is one of the great chapters of the Bible.  The eighth chapter of Romans is the habitat of the Christian.  It is the life of the believer in all its high and sublime wonder. 

But, before the eighth chapter of the Book of Romans is the seventh.  And the seventh is the introduction to it.  And I say that there’s a whole library written about it—a whole library.  And these men who are theologians and scholars and commentators—how vastly do they differ about this seventh chapter of the Book of Romans. 

Do you know many times he says “I—I—I” here?  All through that passage, I—“for what I would do, I do not”—I—I—I, all the way through. 

Now, just to take the opposite extreme as they try to investigate this chapter in the Book of Romans: the great evangelist and author of a century ago, Charles G. Finney, said that this was a picture of an unregenerated man.  It is a picture of Saul, before his conversion.  It is a picture of Saul, in the days when he lived under the Law.  It is a picture of an unregenerated and unconverted man.

And he says that the only reason that Paul uses “I” here is by way of illustration—that it is nothing personal at all.  And then, he says, if this seventh chapter is a picture of you, you are unregenerated and damned and going to hell. 

That’s what Charles G. Finney says about this passage: If your experience is like that of the seventh chapter of Romans, you are unregenerated.  You are damned.  You are lost.  You never were saved.  And you are going to hell.  That’s what Charles G. Finney says.

Now, another extreme: not long ago, a wonderful theologian and a matchless interpreter of the Bible, A. C. Gaebelein, says that this chapter of Romans is a picture of every Christian.  It shows the struggle of the Christian against the presence of soul in his soul and in his life.

And those are the two extremes.  Now, Pastor, what do you think of the seventh chapter of Romans and the picture that Paul has written here? 

This is what I believe.  I believe the seventh chapter of the Book of Romans is a universal experience of all mankind everywhere—everywhere—you—I—we—yesterday—today—in generations past—in generations to come.  It is a picture of humanity.  And it is an experience, I say, common to all mankind.

It was the experience of the Apostle Paul in the day that he lived under the Law.  And by works, by ritual, by effort, he was trying to be saved by keeping the Law, and failed at it ingloriously and miserably, and, finally, found salvation in Jesus Christ.  He found liberation apart from the Law in the Lord, which is the glorious eighth chapter of the Book of Romans. 

Now, it is a picture of you and me, and all of us, before we were converted.  We tried and failed and then threw ourselves at the feet of Jesus and He saved us.

And it is a picture of all of us who have been saved.  There is an internal war—and we struggle and we fight and we battle and we fail.  And finally, in the eighth of Romans, we take it to the Lord.

And it happens again and again.  You will struggle with it today and tonight, and then again tomorrow.  It will not go away. 

It is a picture of all mankind.  It is a universal picture of the struggle of all the people, everywhere: a picture of the saved; a picture of the lost—for I find a law in all of us, and it never ceases and it never leaves.

I will never get so righteous; I will never get so holy; I will never get so close to God; I will never get so high up spiritually; I will never get so nigh unto heaven that I will not continue to face this struggle.  I find that principle everywhere—and I mean in you all, too—in you all, too.

There are no people that I have around me that are holy.  We are all sinners—every last one of us.  We all fall into mistakes and error.  We all continue to commit sins—we all do—we all do.  There is just nobody that I’ve ever seen that is so sanctified and holy that they don’t struggle and sin.  It is a universal experience of the saved and the lost.  It was the experience of Paul—he battled against that thing.

This passage speaks of the ongoing presence of the “old man” in the life of the life of the Christian.  It is the experience of the young man and the old man.  It is the experience of the civilized man, with all of his education and all of his culture.  It is the experience of the heathen, whom all the missionaries encounter and to whom they preach the true God.  It is the experience of the lowly and the unworthy.  It is the experience of the high churchman and the low churchman and the no-church man. 

We are divided by so many geographical divisions.  There are different races.  There are different creeds.  There are different religions.  There are different cultures.  But, there is one common factor, one common denominator that is present in all of our lives.  And it is this: when I would do good, there is evil present within me.  All of the struggles and all of the misery of all the generations are summed up in the seventh chapter of the Book of Romans.

            However things may be on the outside, and however circumstances may change, I still have to live with myself.  And on the inside of me, there is a principle of evil.  There is a struggle—and however moral or however intelligent or however cultured or however scholarly I am, that same old me is still there on the inside.

            A writer one time said it like this: “I locked myself within myself; and there was the principle of evil, destroying myself… .”  So Paul says in the seventh chapter of the Book of Romans: there is a war inside of every man—“and the law within my members wars against the law of my mind, sending me into captivity to the law of sin.  Though with my mind—my spiritual highest goals, I serve the Lord, but with my flesh the law of sin.”

            And those two, Paul says, war on the inside.  And that conflict is a universal experience and an ongoing experience and that does not change when you become a Christian.  You might say, “Pastor, I’m coming down there tonight and I’m going to give my heart to Jesus.  And the devil will no longer be able to touch me.  And he will leave me alone.  And he will never come to me again.  I’m going down that aisle and win that battle forever.”

            Well, you can come down that aisle, but you will not win the war that way. It will make a difference, though.  You’ve taken sides in the war.

            Oh, wouldn’t it be great if, when you give your heart to Jesus, the Lord would give you a Lamb’s heart in place of your pig’s heart?  But, theirs is still the “me” heart.  You have not won the war.  You’ve just enrolled in the army.  That’s the way it is.  That’s the way it is.  You’re just getting ready to fight.

            Now, I know that there are a whole lot of people—a whole lot of people—who say, “I’m removed about that.  I’m sanctified.  I’ve gotten above sin.  I’ve had the blessing.  I’ve been set aside.  I’m holy and removed.”

            And some of the greatest teachers of all time, like John Wesley and all those all Methodist preachers—every one of them—the old-time Methodists—was a Holiness preacher.  John Wesley was a Holiness preacher.  He believed that you could get to the place where you did not sin—they believed that you could get to the point where you did not sin.

            Now, that’s a marvelous thing.  That’s wonderful thing.  And I would glory if there was a man who could stand up here in this pulpit and preach that he had come to the place where he did not sin—that he had advanced in his Christian life to the point where he could not sin.  Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

            There’s only one thing about that that scares me and threatens me, and it is this: you know, the sin above every other sin is the sin of the Pharisees—the sin of the self-righteous—the sin of the self-proud.  It is the sin of the Pharisees, that says to God: “I’m not like other men.  They do this.  They do that.  They do everything.  But, I don’t do this and I don’t do that and I don’t do the other thing.”

            That’s how the sin of pride and the sin of self-righteousness comes into our lives.  You think you are better than those ungodly and defiled people on the outside.  And you look down on all others, as sinners, when you are above that—you look down on all others.

            My Brother, I am persuaded that, as long as we live in this world, as long as we live in this life, we live in this body of death.  And Paul tells us what’s going on in this seventh chapter of the Book of Romans.  This godly, godly man has written this thing which is at the heart of all of us who have given our hearts to the Lord Jesus and who pride ourselves on the fact that we don’t go out here and live like the world lives—who don’t go out and drink and carouse on Sunday night and Saturday night—we don’t live that way.  We’re not like that.

            But, that doesn’t mean that the principle of sin and evil does not live within us, even within a godly Christian man like this author.  What he’s talking about here is that indescribable thing.  Listen to him:

 

It is not what my hands have done

That weighs my spirit down.

It is how sad I feel inside.

Don’t you?

Alas, they cannot but see in part

Because they cannot look upon the heart.

But, I can see myself within.

And there I find the principle of sin.

That spreads its poison through my frame.

That’s what therein me to blame.

 

“O wretched man”—of all the tentacles of the Law—why, I’m a good citizen and a member of the church, when you start to get close to God, there is that sin on the inside that made you lust.

            O God—O God, how far—how far apart we are!  And I’ve always felt that, the nearer you get to God, the more you see, in the light of the gospel, that you’re not worthy to stand in Thy presence.  “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.”

            F. B. Meyer said he was out calling on his parishioners when he encountered a washer woman.  And he saw out there on the line this beautiful, beautiful laundry—that washing that he put out there on the line.  And he complimented her on it: how fine it looked and what a wonderful thing it was—that white wash.

            And it pleased the old washer woman.  And she asked the pastor inside to have a cup of tea.  And they went inside and had a cup of tea.  And while they talked, the sky clouded up and there came a sudden snowstorm.  And when the pastor left, the ground was covered with white, white snow.

            And the pastor looked at the clothesline and said to the lady, “Your laundry is not that white now, is it?”

            And the washer woman replied and said, “Pastor, there’s nothing wrong with that wash.  Nothing can compare to God’s almighty white.”

            Compare yourself to another man and you may look pretty “white.”  But, if you compare yourself to God Almighty, you will fall to your knees and say, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.”  Me, too.  Me, too.

            And I say: this battle goes on throughout our lives—all throughout our lives.  When we think of all the kinds of sins that dog our heels—from the sins of youth all the way up through the sins of pride, self-righteousness and achievement, to the sins of old age, such as littleness and cynicism and criticism and bitterness.  You never get beyond such sins.  You never get beyond it.

            There are some things you wrestle with in your youth.  There are some things you wrestle with in manhood.  There are some things you wrestle with in middle age.  There are some things you struggle with in old age.

            As long as you live in this body of death, the seventh of Romans will be your experience.  And these words will be your cry: “O wretched man that I am! Where shall I turn—Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

            I can’t really preach about it tonight.  I’ll start and then I’ll have to pick it up next Sunday.

            “O wretched man that I am—wretched man that I am!  Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”  Long as I live in it—this house of pain, this crucible of sin, I will struggle.  “O wretched man that I am!  Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

            But, there is an answer: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord”—deliverance comes through Jesus our Lord.  It is a gift of God, not by strength inside of him, not by education, not by power.  It is only by the strength and glory and righteousness of Jesus Christ.

            “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  It is He that makes the deaf to hear.  It is He who makes the blind to see.  It is He who made the leper whole.  It is He who raises the dead.  And He that can do that can touch a man’s life and transform it.  “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord,” forever and ever.

            And tonight we ask you to come to Jesus Christ.  It is He that can reach into the deepest part of a man’s life and transform him.  He never lets us down.  He’ll always see you through.  And if you feel, “Lord, I’m not equal to this, remember that you are placing you life in His hands.”  He will hold you and keep you.

            Will you come forward tonight?  “Preacher, here I come.”  Wherever you are, come.  From the balcony or from this lower floor, come.  “Pastor, here I come, along with my wife and family.”  Or, just one somebody—you, come now.

As the Lord shall speak to your heart, come now, while we stand and while we sing.

 

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