By:
Arthur J Licursi
Romans
7:7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it
never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except
through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the
Law had not said, "You
shall not COVET."
Romans
7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that
is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing
of the good is not. (NASB)
God
knows that no good thing comes out of, or originates from, the flesh of
the regenerated Christian (Rom 7:18), or non-Christian – their flesh
is equally impotent toward God. The sinful flesh of the body, in which
it dwells, will one day be exchanged for an incorruptible body –
putting on immortality (1Cor 15:53). Our human spirit is already
regenerated 100% by Christ’s indwelling life, our soul is being
renewed (2Cor 4:16), but this is body perishing and must be exchanged.
However, right now, by the power of the indwelling spirit, and the
effect of our identifying with our co-death with Christ, we have power
over the sinful body of the flesh (Rom 6:6-7, 8:13). We’ve been made
free from the tyranny of the flesh, in which we dwell while living upon
this earth. The sinful flesh is reduced to an impotent liar and accuser.
God
knew of our pitiful flesh a long time ago; …but we don’t know it,
that is, until He reveals it to us – usually through our frustration
of trying to keep the law – thinking we can get more or Him or please
by such effort. You see, the flesh and its proclivity toward sin is
activated and made most powerful by one trying to keep the law. Cor.
15:56b …the power (dunamis, e.g. dynamite) of sin is the
law…In Romans 7 we repeatedly see verses connecting the
empowerment of sin to the effort of trying to keep the law.
Romans
7:8-13 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment,
wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was
dead. [9] For I was alive without the law once: but when the
commandment came, sin revived, and I died. [10] And the commandment,
which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. [11] For sin,
taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
[12] Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and
good. [13] 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 exceeding
sinful.
The
flesh is useless, impotent, and incapable of being genuinely righteous.
The flesh of all mankind is of the sin nature of the
Serpent himself, which we all possess as being of the offspring or the
lineage of the first Adam.
God
gave the law via Moses to
Israel
, in order to expose
Israel
to the fallen nature of their sinful flesh, as preparation for receiving
the Messiah who would one day come to fill their need. The primary
purpose of the law, both then and now in the dispensation of the grace
of God, is to prove to us that man is sinful and powerless to be
righteous, of his own self. The law was not given with the expectation
that we could keep it. God knows that we cannot keep the law. After
salvation by regeneration we may then have thought, “Now that were
saved, I’m going to try to be a good Christian and do all the
Christian things that the preachers commonly promote.” We thought
that by being saved we were now the normal human that God desires; we
did not know this fact of the activity of the fallen flesh we still
possess. Actually, God may have permitted us to be tangled up in the
effort to keep the law at the hands of law-keeping religion at some
church or denomination. My experience was with a law-preaching Baptist
church that forbade women to wear sleeveless blouses, open toed shoes,
etc., as an outward indication of her apparent righteousness. To the
Lord this is all of self-righteousness that Scripture calls “filthy
rags”. They preached to us what we should do and should
not do, but never showed us they way of the resurrected
indwelling Christ’s empowering life within us, as the new us. Yet, God
will even redeem erroneous teaching to provide us the black-drop upon
which we may receive the light of the truth. Of course, we should
come to plainly see that, now, the members of the body of Christ are not
under the law. Romans 6:14 For sin shall not be master
over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. Paul
tells us Jesus nailed the law to His cross, taking it out of the way. Col.
2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was
against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way,
nailing it to his cross;
Our
righteousness is by faith, apart from works of the law –
just as was Abraham’s. Romans 4:5 But to him that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith
is counted for righteousness.
God
has an entirely different means of empowering us to live righteously
than may have been preached or taught to us – it is by being partakers
of and co-operating with the life and nature of Christ Himself who
dwells in us as our new life. God gave this revelation of the “mystery”
gospel (Rom 16:25) to Paul, for us (Eph 3:1-5). Col. 1:27
to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this
mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of
glory.
So,
God knows that apart from Christ operating in us we will break the law,
but we do not initially know this. Therefore, He gave the law to us and
allows us to break it. He let sin become exceedingly sinful in order to
slap us in the face, cause us to awake to the reality of our sinful
flesh body. In this way we will come to know what God already knows, and
we will become aware of our neediness to rely upon Christ. The law was
given to cause our sin to be increased, that we might turn to find and
receive Christ’s lordship within us and to enjoy grace of His love and
empowering life. Romans 5:20 And the Law came in
that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased,
grace abounded all the more,
God has to bring us to the point
where we see, confess and even cry out that we cannot make it by our
self-effort no matter how hard we may try to imitate Jesus of Nazareth.
We see that Paul came to that place here in Romans 7, crying out for an
answer to the dilemma. Romans 7:23-24 but I see a different
law (operating principle) in the members of my body,
waging war against the law (operating principle) of my
mind, and making me a prisoner of the law (operating principle)
of sin which is in my members. 24Wretched
man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
Only
then will we acknowledge God's wisdom in crucifying us on the
cross in Christ.
Romans
6:6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him
so that the body of sin might be made of no effect, that we
should no longer be slaves to sin –
Every
person has his specific weakness that God may focus up to get their
attention. We must ask God to enlighten us and show us our utter
weakness and inability to live righteously out of his own resources.
Every person has at least one thing chronic that he cannot overcome in
order to get our attention – once we come to see this we soon realize
that we can do nothing apart from Him.
John
15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in
Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do
nothing.
Once
we see that we are unable, we will see that God, by the Spirit of the
indwelling Christ in us is able.
Romans
8:1-2 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who
are in Christ Jesus. 2For
the law (operating principle) of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law (operating
principle) of sin and of death.
For
Christians, condemnation of God is not an issue; and we now possess a
new, overcoming, life in us that overcomes sin and ultimately overcomes
death – Christ’s life.
Philip.
2:13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to
work for His good pleasure.
If
you do not see your own weakness, you will not see and enjoy the power
of Christ. <END>