The Members

The Members
October 1, 2011 5:30 AM -0500
Manuscript
Outline
Notes
Bibliography
Satan doesn't just attack us in the mind. Sometimes, he ambushes us in the members of our body, tripping us up when we least expect it.
Thesis: A second battlefield in the spiritual war is that of the body, which is prone to sin and needs the salvation which is available only through Jesus.
Objective: Call believers to recognize that they need to be ready to fight temptation and failings with the grace of Jesus.
  1. Temptation is lurking (21).
    1. We want good (“When I want to do what is good;” As Christians, the goal of salvation is that our intention would be the same as God’s, i.e., good.).
    2. Temptation is lurking (“evil is with me” (21); Even when our intentions and desires are exactly in line with God, temptation is watching, waiting for an opportune time to strike and entice us to sin.).
  2. Temptation aims to imprison (22-23).
    1. We endorse God’s law (“I joyfully agree with God’s law” (22); As Christians, we readily endorse God’s law as the source of freedom.).
    2. Our members war against our will (“I see a different law in the parts of my body” (23); Even though our desire and decision is obedience, something within us fights tooth and nail against that desire.).
    3. Our members would imprison (“and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body” (23); The result of succumbing to temptation is imprisonment to sin. That is the objective of those remaining pockets of sin in our lives: to expand and occupy more of us.).
  3. Jesus saves (24-25).
    1. We’re still broken (“What a wretched man am I!” (24); As long as we remain in human form, we will be susceptible to temptation and sin.).
    2. We can’t save ourselves (“Who will rescue me from this dying body?” (25); We are not adequate to save ourselves, no matter how far we may have come.).
    3. Jesus saves (“I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (25); Thankfully, God sent Jesus to take care of our own inadequacy.).
  4. Conclusion
    1. Romans 7:21-25 (MSG): “It 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. 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? The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.”
Ryrie
  • (15-25) “The intensely personal character of these verses and the use of present tenses indicate that this was Paul’s own experience as a believer. This is his diagnosis of what happens when one tries to be sanctified by keeping the law.”
  • (17) “Though Paul has written of acts of sin (Rom 1:21-32), here he speaks of sin as a disposition deep in a man’s life that produces those acts.”
  • (18) “Paul uses ‘flesh’ in several ways. (1) It denotes the persnoality of man controlld by sin and directed to selfish pursuits rather than to the service of God (here; v25; 8:5-7; Gal 5:17). (2) It sometimes refers simply to physical descent (1:3; 9:3). (3) It also stands for the physical existence of a person, i.e., being in the body (Eph 2:15; Philem 16). There is no blame attached to the last two meanings of the word.”
  • (22) “An unbeliever would not say this, further supporting the view that Paul is relating his experience as a believer.”
  • (24) “The body dominated by sin endures a ‘living’ death.”


Reflecting God
  • (13-25) “Whether Paul is describing a Christian or non-Christian struggle has been hotly debated through the centuries. That he is speaking of the non-Christian life is suggested by: (1) the use of phrases such as ‘sold as a slave to sin’ (v 14), ‘I know that nothing good lives in me’ (v 18) and ‘What a wretched man I am!’ (v 24) - which do not seem to describe Christian experience; (2) the contrast between ch 7 and ch 8, making it difficult for the other view to be credible; (3) the problem of the value of conversion if one ends up in spiritual misery. In favor of the view that Paul is describing the struggle of Christians who are not living life in the Spirit are: (1) the use of the present tense throughout the passage; (2) Paul’s humble opinion of himself (v 18); (3) his high regard for God’s law (vv 14, 16); (4) the location of this passage in the section of Romans where Paul is dealing with sanctification, which includes both initial and entire sanctification.”
  • (13) “Sin used a holy thing (law) for an unholy end (death). By this fact the contemptible nature of sin is revealed.”
  • (14) “The law had its origin in God.”
  • (14) “The personal pronoun and the verb, taken together, suggest that Paul is describing his present (Christian) experience.”
  • (14) “Even a believer has the seeds of rebellion in his heart.”
  • (14) “sold as a slave to sin” is “a phrase so strong that many refuse to accept it as descriptive of a Christian. However, it may graphically point out the failure even of Christians to meet the radical ethical and moral requirements of the gospel, and to live the life that holiness demands. It also points up the persistent nature of sin.”
  • (15) “The struggle within creates tension, ambivalence and confusion.”
  • (16) “Even when Paul is rebellious and disobedient, the Holy Spirit reveals to him the essential goodness of the law.”
  • (17) “no longer I myself who do it” is “not an attempt to escape moral responsibility but a statement of the great control sin can have over a person’s life.”
  • (18) “nothing good lives in me” is “a reference to man’s fallen nature, as the last phrase of the sentence indicates. Paul is not saying that no goodness at all exists in Christians.”
  • (21) law = principle
  • (22) “The Mosaic law or God’s law generally. It is difficult to see how a non-Christian could say this.”
  • (23) “another law” = “A principle or force at work in Paul preventing him from giving obedience to God’s law.”
  • (23) Paul’s desire was to obey God’s law.
  • (24) “body of death” is “figurative for the body of sin (6:6) that hung on him like a corpse and from which he could not gain freedom.”

Archaeological
  • (25) “In the NT the word ‘mind’ frequently occurs in the ehtical sense ()referring to the will and moral disposition of a person), as here and in Col 2:18.”

ESV Study Bible
  • (13-25) “If the law is not sin, is it the case that the good law is responsible for death? Paul argues that the fault lies with sin, not with the law. Through the law, sin is revealed in all its hideousness, and the law is vindicated as good.”
  • (13-25) “The section can be subdivided into vv. 14–17, 18–20, and 21–25.”
  • (13-25) “A long-standing debate centers on whether Paul is describing believers or unbelievers. Although good arguments are given by both sides, the most widely held view—beginning especially with Augustine and reaffirmed in the Reformation—is that Paul’s primary reference is to believers. In support of this position: (1) the shift to the present tense; (2) unbelievers do not desire so intensely to keep God’s law (v. 21); (3) the distinction between the “I” and the “flesh” (v. 18); (4) the delight in God’s law (v. 22); (5) deliverance from the sinful body is future (v. 24; 8:10, 11, 23); (6) the tension between good and evil in the concluding statement in 7:25; and (7) the fact that Christians are already righteous in Christ but are not yet perfected until the day of redemption.”
  • (13-25) “A second position, not as widely held but supported by a number of evangelical scholars, is that Paul is referring to unbelievers. In support of this position: (1) the structure of the passage (vv. 7–25 matches the life of the unregenerate previewed in v. 5, whereas 8:1–17 fits with the life of believers identified in 7:6); (2) the Holy Spirit is not mentioned in vv. 13–25 but is referred to 19 times in ch. 8; (3) to say that Christians are “sold under sin” (7:14) and “captive to the law of sin” (v. 23) stands in tension with chs. 6 and 8, which trumpet the freedom of believers from slavery to sin; (4) the suggestion that the present tense does not denote present time but the spiritual state of Paul when unconverted; (5) the desire to keep God’s law reflects the mind-set of the pious Jew who wanted to live a moral life (as the verses emphasize, such people do not and cannot keep the law); and (6) the section’s opening verse (v. 13) explains how the law brought death to Paul as an unbeliever.”
  • (13-25) “Advocates of both positions agree that (1) Christians still struggle with sin through their whole lives (see Gal. 5:17; 1 John 1:8–9); and (2) Christians can and should grow in sanctification throughout their lives by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling within them (Rom. 8:2, 4, 9, 13–14).”
  • (13-25) “Those who hold to the first position usually see this passage as describing both Paul’s own experience and the experience of Christians generally. Although Christians are free from the condemnation of the law, sin nonetheless continues to dwell within, and all genuine Christians (along with Paul) should be profoundly aware of how far they fall short of God’s absolute standard of righteousness. Thus Paul cries out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (7:24). The answer follows immediately: the one who has delivered Christians once for all (see 4:2–25; 5:2, 9) and the one who will deliver them day by day is “Jesus Christ our Lord!” (7:25).”
  • (13-25) “As in many other places in Paul’s letters, this reflects his emphasis on both the “already” aspect of salvation (that believers have been saved) and the “not yet” aspect (that believers will be saved ultimately and for all eternity at the return of Christ), and that they live in the tension between the already and the not yet.”
  • (13-25) “In the section that immediately follows (8:1–11), Paul shows that the means by which Christians are delivered daily from the indwelling power of sin is: (1) by walking “not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (8:4); (2) by not “set[ting] their minds on the things of the flesh, but … on the things of the Spirit” (8:5); and (3) by the indwelling presence of “the Spirit of God [who] dwells in you” (8:9, 11).”
  • (16) “Paul’s reference to the goodness of the law reflects the main point of these verses.”
  • (17) “Paul is not absolving himself of personal responsibility but emphasizing the power of sin.”
  • (21-23) “The meaning of the word “law” in these verses is the subject of debate. Some think that every use of the word refers to the Mosaic law, but most argue that in vv. 21 and 23 the term means “principle.” All agree that the Mosaic law is in view in v. 22. The Greek word nomos can take either meaning.”
  • (24-25) “The living presence of Jesus Christ is the answer to the problem of sin in one’s life.”

HCSB Study Bible
  • (13) “The correct understanding is that sin used something good to bring human death. God used the law to accomplish His purpose to clarify and to overcome sin.”
  • (14-25) “This section is probably the most difficult and controversial passage in the letter to the Romans. For the most part the Eastern Church has interpreted it as referring to an unregenerate person (e.g., Paul before his conversion). The Western Church has followed Augustine, Luther, and Calvin in thinking it refers to a regenerate person (Paul after his conversion). Some suggest a mediating position. One such view interprets the subject as an OT believer who loves the law (Pss 1; 119) but struggles to perform it. Living before Christ and Pentecost, this person does not have the permanent and empowering gift of the Holy Spirit, as do new covenant believers. Another view holds that the subject is almost converted to Christ and is now under conviction of sin by the law.”
  • (14-25) “The view that the subject of 14-25 is a regenerate person is sometimes modified in the following ways: (1) The subject is saved but has not had "baptism" in the Pentecostal sense or a second work of grace (as held in some types of Wesleyan theology). (2) The subject is an immature believer, not yet equipped for warfare with his fleshly desires. (3) The subject is a believer trying to become sanctified by legalism.”
  • (14-25) “The view outlined here takes the position that the subject is a regenerated believer, most obviously Paul himself but generically every believer. Paul describes the new man in relation to the law of God and is looking at only one aspect of the person. The new man will be considered in relation to the Holy Spirit in the next section where the Holy Spirit is mentioned 21 times. The main reason for the position offered here is a consideration of what this man's problem really is. In verse 14 he is said to be made out of flesh (Gk sarkinos, not sarkikos). Many translations confuse these two Greek words. The first word emphasizes composition while the second emphasizes tendency ("fleshy" vs. "fleshly").”
  • (18) “in my flesh means the whole fallen nature that needs the resurrection body (Php 3:21).”
  • (24) “the wretched man cries out to be rescued ("out," Gk ek) from this dying body. As a believer in Christ, Paul longed to be delivered from the fallen human body which still has indwelling sin.”
  • (14-15) “The law is from God and is therefore spiritual, but Paul is made out of flesh (a metaphorical reference to spiritual fallenness) and thus finds himself conflicted with the heavenly law of God.”
  • (16-17) “Paul agreed with the law and its goodness, but sin is an alien power that has residence within him and causes him to do things he hates.”
  • (18-19) “Even after conversion, there is no part of a person that is sinless, no place without sin's presence, and the believer is unable to keep the whole law. The only good in a believer is the presence of the Holy Spirit.”
  • (20-23) “In his inner self (Gk eso anthropos), in his deepest recesses, the believer delights in God's law, but he finds this alien power living within, waging war with him and taking him prisoner to the law of sin.”
  • (24-25) “Many modern commentators and translators try to reorder these verses, but the order makes sense if the interpretation outlined above is followed. In verse 24 the subject cries out for deliverance from the fallen human condition. A cry of thanksgiving is then offered to God because the subject knows that Jesus will deliver him from his body. The believer recognizes that in his mind he wants to serve God's law since it is holy, just, good, and spiritual, but at the same time his fallen nature is in the service of this alien power—sin.”
  • Ryrie, Charles C. Ryrie Study Bible Expanded Edition. Chicago: Moody Press, 1994.
  • Barker, Kenneth, ed. Reflecting God Study Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2000.
  • The ESV Study Bible. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008.
  • The HCSB Study Bible. http://www.mystudybible.com
  • Archaeological Study Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: The Zondervan Corporation, 2005.
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