《The Biblical Illustrator – Romans (Ch. 6b~8a)》

III. Sudden or rapid realisation of the ideal is not to be expected. If a cannon ball should be fired through an organ, and I should say, “Return, you ball; and you, broken pipes, get up and put yourselves in your places,” it would not be more absurd than for a man to say to himself, “Now everything in me has got to be harmonious at once.” Harmony in a man is the result of a life-long education and drill. A man feels, “It was my duty to have acted thus and so.” Yes, just as it is the duty of my apple trees to bear fruit; but my apple trees will not bear fruit until they are grown. And a man wants, in every process of his development, to wait for its ripeness. No one expects a young man just graduated from the law school to be an old-headed lawyer at the beginning. He may have the making of one; but there must be a great deal of unfolding by which he shall come to it. No man imputes blame to the child because he does not know the exercise of the gymnasium at first. And yet it is supposed that when a man is converted the whole weight of responsibility instantly rests upon him; and men feel, “There I come short; there I overreach; and God sets down great black marks against me”; and one and another give up. Now, rawness is not sinfulness, nor is imperfection disobedience. Where a man knows what he ought to do, and can do it, but deliberately omits it, that is a sin; but the omission is not sinful in one who is not competent or who does not know. How much more the Psalmist knew than we do (read Psalms 103:13-17). It is under the benediction of this God that I say to nervous and self-condemnatory people, who fear God and desire to obey His commandments, but who are constantly stumbling from imperfections, Be not ashamed; for you are under the administration of a God that pities as a father pities, and that bears with the world’s imperfections as a schoolmaster bears with the imperfections of his scholars. If a child of eight cannot write a fine hand, how shall a man without a period of education write the invisible letters that come from the inspiration of God’s Spirit?

IV. The attempt to realise ideals is nearer perfection in those great natures who have been at once the stars that guided human nature upward, than the comets that have fallen on it and blasted man’s hopes. Jonathan Edwards was a type of Christianity that flew, and he has developed a conception of possible being. It is transcendent literature that we cannot afford to lose; and yet, let men take Edwards’ writing to test themselves by, and it will drive nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand into despair; and they will say, “If that is the test of being a Christian, I am not one, and I never can be one.” And by holding up this conception before the young and the infirm, we shut the door of heaven. It throws a pall over the Christian life; whereas the voice of wisdom says, “All her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke; it is easy. Take My burden; it is light.”

V. The way of religion in this matter is a great deal easier than the way of nature. The way upward is easier than the way downward. At every step gained the complication grows less, and the impulse grows more. The religion of the New Testament is hopeful. It is dark only to those who know what it is, and whose reason recognises it as being holy, just, and good, but who deliberately say, “I will have none of it.” They are on the same plane with him who knows very well what fire is, but who says, “I do not care, I will walk in the fire.” So he can, and he will take the consequences. They are on the same plane with the man who says, “I know that drink fires the blood; nevertheless I will drink.” So it is throughout the whole sphere of God’s law of moral conduct. God says to every man that wants to learn, “I will give you time, opportunity, and encouragement; and I will forgive all your infirmities and transgressions so long as your face is toward the heavenly land”; but if a man says, “I do not care for the heavenly land,” and does not strive to rise toward it, but follows his own devices, woe be to him. (H. Ward Beecher.)

The Christian’s conquest over the body of sin

The text is one of those hard places of St. Paul which, as St. Peter says, the ignorant and unstable wrest to their own destruction. For the proper stating of this case of conscience there must be considered--

I. What are the proper causes which place men and keep them in this state of a necessity of sinning, so that we cannot do the good we would? etc.

1. The evil state of our nature which we may know by experience.

2. The evil principles which are sucked in by the greatest part of mankind. We are taught ways of going to heaven without forsaking our sins, repentance without restitution, charity without hearty forgiveness and love, trust in Christ’s death without conformity to His life, once in God’s favour always in it, that God’s laws are for a race of giants. No wonder, then, that men slacken their industry, and so find sin prevail.

3. Bad habits. An evil custom is as a hook in the soul which draws it whither the devil pleases. Thus evil natures, principles, and manners are the causes of our imperfect willing and our weaker acting in the things of God. But what then? Cannot sin be avoided? Cannot a Christian mortify the deeds of the body, or Christ cleanse us from our sins? The next particular to be inquired of is--

II. Whether or no it be necessary and therefore possible for a servant of God to hate evil and avoid it? “He that saith he hath not sinned is a liar”; but what then? Because a man has sinned it does not follow that he must do so always. “Go and sin no more,” saith Christ. The case is confessed “that all have sinned”; but is there no remedy? God forbid. There was a blessed time to come, and it has long since come; “Yet a little while and iniquity shall be taken out of the earth, and righteousness shall reign among you”; for this is the day of the gospel. When Christ comes to reign in our heart by His Spirit, Dagon and the Ark cannot stand together--we cannot serve Christ and Belial. As in the state of nature no good thing dwells within us, so when Christ rules in us no evil thing can abide. “Every plant that my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.” “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” As there is a state of carnality in which a man cannot but obey the flesh; so there is a state of spirituality, when sin is dead and righteousness alive. In this state the flesh can no more prevail than the spirit could in the other. Some men cannot but choose to sin (Romans 8:7); but we are not in the flesh, and if we walk in the Spirit we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh (see 1 John 3:9; Matthew 7:18). Through Christ that strengtheneth us we can do all things. So it is necessary and possible to mortify sin and escape the slavery of “the good that I would I do not,” etc.

III. In what degree this is to be effected, for no man can say he is totally free from sin. All men’s righteousness will be found to be unrighteous if God shall enter into judgment with us: therefore after our innocence, we must pray for pardon. But concerning good men, the question is not whether or no God could not in the rigour of justice blame them for their indiscretion, or chide them for a foolish word and a careless action, a fearful heart and trembling faith; these are not the measures by which He judges His children; but the question is whether any man that is covetous, proud, or intemperate, can at the same time be a child of God? Certainly he cannot. But then we know that God judges us by Jesus Christ, i.e., with the allays of mercy; with an eye of pardon; with the sentences of a father. By the measures of the gospel He will “judge every man according to his works.” These measures are--

1. In general, this. A Christian’s innocence is always to be measured by the plain lines of the commandments, but is not to be taken into account by uncertain fond opinions and scruples of zealous or timorous persons. Some men say that every natural inclination to a forbidden object is a sin; if so, then a man sins whether he resists his inclinations or not. And there is no difference but this: he that yields, sins greatest; and he that never yields, but fights on, sins oftenest: hence the very doing our duty supposes sin. But God judges of us only by the commandment from without, and from the conscience within. He never intended His laws to be a snare to us. He requires of us a sincere heart and a hearty labour in the work of His commandments: He calls upon us to avoid all that His law forbids and our consciences condemn.

2. In particular--

IV. By what instruments all this is to be done.

1. Faith. He that hath faith like a grain of mustard seed can remove mountains: “All things are possible to him that believeth.” We pray in the Te Deum, “Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin.” Have we any faith when we so pray?

2. Watchfulness--by running away from temptation, being always well employed, and laying in provisions of reason and religion.

3. The mortification of sin, which should be so complete that no nest egg, no principles of it or affections to it, be willingly or carelessly left. But if sin be thus eradicated some argue that we shall become proud. But how should pride spring up if there be no remains of sin left? Will a physician purposely leave the relics of a disease and pretend he does it to prevent a relapse? Is not a relapse more likely if the sickness be not wholly cured?

4. Experiment. Let us never say that we cannot be quit of our sin before we do all we can to destroy it. Put the matter to the proof, and trust to the all-sufficiency of grace.

5. Caution concerning thoughts and secret desires. “Lust, when it is conceived, bringeth forth death”; but if it be suppressed in the conception it comes to nothing.

6. If sin hath gotten the power of you, consider in what degree it has prevailed; if only a little, the battle will be more easy, and the victory more certain. But then be sure to do it thoroughly. If sin has prevailed greatly, you have much to do; therefore begin betimes. Conclusion: Every good man is a new creature, and Christianity is a Divine frame and temper of spirit, which, if we pray heartily for and obtain, we shall find it as hard and uneasy to sin as now we think it to abstain from our most pleasing sins. (Jeremy Taylor.)

Verses 21-25

Romans 7:21-25

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

The inward conflict

There is no word with which we are more familiar than “conflict.” We see strife everywhere; amongst the elements of nature, the beasts and birds, nations and families. On the arena of political, mercantile, and social life there is ever a ceaseless conflict between opposing interests and wills. But there is no strife so severe as that which is carried on between the principles of good and evil in the soul.

I. The ground of the Christian’s complaint. “The law in his members,” which--

1. Prevents him from attaining that standard of excellence which is presented before him in the Word of God. He “cannot do the things that he would.” His desire is to be perfectly conformed to the law of God, but it is thwarted by corrupt inclinations, and often he is betrayed into acts which he bitterly deplores.

2. Hinders the full development of his spiritual life. Every Christian has the outline of Christ’s image. Just as the oak is folded up within the acorn; just as the first beam of light is the sure precursor of noon; just as in the child there is the man, so in grace are all the elements of glory. The imperfection of Christ’s image in the Christian arises solely from the corruptions of his nature; hence it is like the sun obscured by a mist, or a plant whose vitality is impaired by a poisonous atmosphere. The brightest light burns but dimly if the atmosphere is impure, and an instrument that is out of tune will give forth discordant notes, even though the hand of a master should sweep the chords. It is this corrupt nature that weakens your faith, contracts your knowledge, and damps your zeal.

3. It produces much mental distress. How can there be peace when there is constant warfare within? How can “a holy God” look with approval on beings so sinful? Hence doubt, discouragement, and fear. Moreover, anxiety is sometimes felt as to the result of the conflict.

II. The source of the Christian’s hope.

1. Deliverance from the power of evil comes to us from without, not from within. Sin never works its own cure, nor does the sinner ever release himself from its miserable bondage, A poison may lose its virulence, and for a broken or a wounded limb nature has a healing art. But who ever heard of sin dying out from the soul?

2. This deliverance is vouchsafed to us by God through Christ. In no other way can deliverance from the power of sin be achieved. A man who has nothing to oppose to temptation but the power of his will, or his fear of consequences, is like a man walking on thin ice. Christianity finds an infinite evil and proposes an infinite remedy. Beholding us under the dominion of sin, it provides for us release, for “if the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” And He does so through His Spirit. What we need is no external reformation, such as law or moral precepts effect, but an inward and spiritual change. And God alone can do this. It matters not what is the evil that you dread, by the grace of God you can overcome it.

3. This deliverance will be progressive and eventually final. There may be many an alternate victory and defeat; but courage, the work is begun, and perfect freedom will come at length. (H. J. Gamble.)

The inward conflict

Notice--

I. The leading desire of all true believers: “they would do good.”

1. Every real Christian would be conformed to the will of God in heart and life. Whatever advance he has made, he is still sensible of deficiency, and presses after higher attainments.

2. The spiritual principle imparted in regeneration has a necessary tendency to what is good. What the enlightened understanding approves the sanctified will prefers.

3. This prevailing inclination of the will to what is good is a manifest token of Divine grace, for it is God that worketh in us to will. The will is the man, and the obedience of the will is the obedience of the man (2 Corinthians 8:12).

II. The impediments to this desire: ‘‘evil is present with me.”

1. Sudden and unseasonable discursions of the mind, unfitting and indisposing us for duty (Job 15:12; Jeremiah 4:14).

2. Unbelieving jealousies and suspicions, either with respect to ourselves or God. Faith animates the soul, but unbelief weakens and destroys its energies. If the soul makes some efforts heavenwards this clips its wings (Psalms 13:5; Psalms 73:13; Psalms 87:9).

3. Unworthy motives and sinister ends. We are in danger of being influenced by selfishness, pride, or legality, in all our religious duties; and ere we are aware they become polluted with some evil which is present with us (Isaiah 58:3; Zechariah 7:5).

4. Worldly thoughts and cares. If we do not decline the invitation of the gospel, and go to our farms and our oxen, yet our farms and our oxen will come to us. In running the Christian race we must lay aside every weight, and the sin which easily besets us; and the world is a weight sufficient to impede our spiritual progress (Psalms 119:25).

III. The reason why the attainments of believers are so inadequate to their wishes and desires. “I find then a law,” that when I would do good, evil is present with me.

1. This “law” is indwelling sin, which is said to be--

2. It is a law within us, which we carry with us into the closet, into the temple, into the city, into the wilderness, and even to a sick and dying bed. It mingles with our choicest duties, and spoils our sweetest enjoyments. It makes this world a Bochim, a place of tears (Romans 7:24; 2 Corinthians 5:2).

3. Indwelling sin still has the force of law, maintaining a complete ascendency over every unrenewed heart; and though it was not a law to Paul, yet it was a law within him, and the source of daily vexation.

Conclusion:

1. We see that the Christian is better known by what he would be than by what he really is. If his progress were as rapid as his desires are strong, how happy would he be!

2. The best of men have no need to be proud of their performances, every work is marred in their hands.

3. Since the saints on earth have no perfection in themselves, let them be thankful for that perfection they have in Christ (Colossians 2:10).

4. We see the difference between the hypocrite and the real Christian. Sin has the consent of the will in the one, but it is not so with the other.

5. It is no wonder that amidst the conflicts and dangers of the present state the Christian longs to be in heaven (Romans 8:22-23). (B. Beddome, M. A.)

The inward conflict

I. The condition of the awakened sinner.

1. Miserable.

2. Salutary.

3. Hopeful.

4. Perilous.

II. The startling discovery of the awakened sinner. He finds--

1. That he is not free to do good.

2. That evil predominates over him.

3. That this is the law of his corrupt nature.

III. The happy change effected by Christ in the heart of the awakened sinner.

1. Condemnation succeeded by peace.

2. Sorrow by joy.

3. Complaining by gratitude.

4. Conflict by conquest. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

The daily struggle

A “law” here means an habitual thing: as we speak of the laws of nature, the laws of electricity, etc.

I. The law of the new man.

1. The Christian “would do good,” etc. The desires are an index of the affections. If a man loves a thing he desires that thing. The mother parted from her child desires her child again; the patriot, far from his country, desires and seeks to return to it. The child of God would do good, not merely to escape hell, but because he has a love for holiness.

2. He delights in what is good (Romans 7:22). “O how I love Thy law!” is the language of all the children of God. What excites the repugnance of the unrenewed mind is delightful to the new mind. “I love it, though my utmost efforts only show me how far I come short of its perfection; I welcome it, though it condemns, and I long to wake up after its perfect image.”

3. He actually does good. We have no right to use a lower language than God uses; and therefore every child of God is called upon to do good, and may do good, and God is well pleased with the good he does. God hears the prayers and praises of His people, and has complacency in them. God marks the labours of love of His people, and will reward them. As far as anything we do is of the new nature it is good, for whatever is of the Spirit is spiritual, and whatever springs from the new nature is of God; “for we are His workmanship, created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works.” And not only so, but being a law, it lasts, and being lasting, he will persevere in doing good. “He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.”

II. But that the Christian may know the conflict he is to maintain, let us look at the law of the old man. “I find a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me.”

1. Now this is not the mere sense of natural conscience that now and then reproves and then evil inclinations rise and burst like the waters when they are dammed up; for the spiritual conflict issues in habitual, I do not say invariable, victory. If a man were all holy, as he will be in heaven, there would be no conflict; but if a man is a heavenly scion grafted by the Spirit upon the old nature, so that the old stem is still corrupt, whilst the new branches of the new tree are holy, and therefore their fruit good, then there will remain the old stem. Still in the old man the imaginations, desires, affections, motives, are always downward, earthward, sinward; the desires, aspirations, affections, hopes of the new man are pure and heavenward and Godward: so you have the man as he was, and the new man as through grace he is. No man this side of heaven is out of the reach of sin and out of the danger of temptation. Opportunity acting upon sinful inclination may lead the best of men to fall into sin.

2. Then we have an evil world. This world which is ever about us, in our families, relationships, business; the world with all its show and pride, tempting some with its pleasures, baiting the hook for others with its riches, how tempting a world it is--when the Christian would do good it is present with him.

3. And when the believer would do good, the evil spirit is present with him. Satan with his emissaries is trying to hinder, harass, and destroy.

Conclusion:

1. Does not this teach us that we have constantly to watch and pray, that we enter not into temptation? If you have not looked upon your Christian life as a conflict, you have not taken a right view of it.

2. And then, is there not in all this an encouragement to go continually to Him in whom we have righteousness and strength? “If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father,” etc. (Canon Stowell.)

The bondage of sin

I. Wherein it consists.

1. The will desires, approves, attempts what is good.

2. But is overpowered and led captive by that which is evil.

II. Why is it the source of so much misery? Because it makes man at variance--

1. With himself.

2. With the law of God.

3. With his own interest, bringing condemnation and death.

III. How we may be delivered from it.

1. By the grace of God.

2. Through Christ. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

The law of sin in believers an evil ever present

Learn--

I. That there is an evil principle even in the hearts of true believers. By nature it is treated as our familiar friend (Romans 7:20); not as a wayfaring man, or as a stranger that tarrieth for a night. It is ever ready to betray us into evil, or to interrupt us in duty, so that when we would do good evil is present with us, at all times, in all places, and in all duties.

II. This abiding principle has the force and power of a law. As the word, when applied to the principle of grace, in Romans 7:18, implies not merely the presence, but also the activity of it; so here. And though it be weakened, yet its nature is not changed, and this teacheth us what endeavours it will use for regaining its former dominion; and what advantage it has against us. It “doth easily beset us.” An inmate may dwell in an house, and yet not be always meddling; but this law so dwells in us that when with most earnestness we desire to be quit of it, with most violence it will force itself upon us. “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”