Post-WCG Life and Theology ARCHIVES

Good News April 21/07 Romans 7:7-25

You have heard me say before that the Christian life is a battle. And I believe that each and every one of us knows that, whether we would use those words or not. What I mean is that we experience it every day as we do battle against the temptations the world throws at us, as we struggle and agonize in the face of the injustices that are a part of this fallen world, as we try to cope with our own personal failures and shortcomings. While we might wish that the Christian life was all sweetness and light, triumph and victory, it is not. There is a great deal in this life that pushes the envelope pretty hard. We live in a world, for example, where an angry student can buy hand guns and indiscriminately murder innocent people in a senseless shooting rampage.

What scripture tells us is that there is a battle going on in our world and in our lives, between good and evil, God and the devil, if you will. The Apostle Paul made reference to this when he wrote to the church at Ephesus, “Put on the whole armour of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” The suggestion here is that the true battle is not against one another, but in resisting the forces of evil in a battle that is being waged on a more cosmic level. It appears that just as love and goodness are spiritual influences in our lives, so too hatred and violence seek to influence us.

In this passage in Romans, Paul speaks to us of the human condition that every one of us should be able to identify with – at least any of us who have ever tried to live righteously. He writes, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not what I want, but I do the very thing I hate….I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” I don’t know about you, but I can certainly identify with what he is sharing. I’ve had lots of experiences of agonizing before God, aware that I’ve blown it – again – put my foot in it – again – done the very thing I didn’t want to do – again – hurt someone I cared about – again!

I expect that most if not all of us can identify with what Paul is sharing. But I want you to notice how Paul explains it. I especially want you to notice how he personifies “sin.” He writes, “But sin, seizing an opportunity, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. “Sin, seizing an opportunity, deceived me.” “It was sin, working death in me.” Paul portrays sin as if it had a personality – as if it were alive – as if it had a mind of its own – as if it were actively plotting against us. And then in verse 17, Paul makes a very daring and potentially controversial statement to explain his tendency to do the very things he does not want to do. He writes, “In fact, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.” Listen again, “It is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.”
Now doesn’t that sound like a cop-out? Doesn’t that sound as if Paul is refusing to take personal responsibility for his choices and instead blames it on sin, as if sin had the power to force him to disobey? It reminds me of the words of a comedian that will date me: Flip Wilson. Some of you will remember his routine, and his phrase, “The devil made me do it!” That sounds exactly like what Paul is saying. And if it is true, if the devil did make me do it, then I am absolved from responsibility – it’s not my fault. And that is an attractive option. In fact, humans have been trying to avoid personal accountability from the beginning. You may remember that when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, and got caught by God, dam blamed Eve and even blamed God for creating Eve in the first place – “The woman you gave to be with me.” And Eve blamed the serpent.

But it’s important to note that the temptation to sin did not originate in either Adam or Eve – it came from an outside source – an outside source with a vested interest in trying to turn Adam and Eve against God. The desire to sin did not originate within Adam and Eve. It came from outside. And this is very important to understand. When God created us in God’s image, we were created with free will – the capacity to choose – the capacity to choose to follow God’s leading or not. God did not want our love or obedience unless it was freely offered, for love is not love unless it is offered freely and willing. If it is forced or coerced, it is not love. So God took an eternal risk by giving us free will. Our hearts, at the very start, were created by God, and they were good – indeed, they were designed for goodness – they rejoiced in God’s presence, they rejoiced in and respected God’s creation, they rejoiced in their relationship with God and each other. But because of the gift and curse of free choice, they gave in to temptation and gave sin a foothold. And we have been dealing with the consequence of that ever since. Once we allow sin to gain a foothold in us – it exerts its influence. Now that does not excuse us when we choose to act in ways that are not honouring to God or respectful of our neighbour. We are responsible for our actions. But it reminds us that we are not creating or inventing these temptations ourselves.

We might rather that God had organized the universe a bit better, removing the influence of evil, so that we would never experience temptation. Or we might wish that once we have made a commitment to Christ, God would shield us from temptation. But God did not. God does not. God did not shield Jesus from temptation – we see examples of that in scripture. And the author of Hebrews wrote, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are.” Jesus can identify with what we go through, because he too was tempted and he too struggled to overcome temptation. He was able to, because he was one with the Father. And we can debate until we’re blue in the face, why God did it the way God did, but it will not change the fact that this indeed is the way the world works – good and evil exist in this life and they are engaged in a battle for our hearts.

We know that there are times when we give in to temptation – when we sin. Paul wants us to know that when we do sin, it is in response to the actions of the evil one. One of the ploys of the enemy, you see, is to convince us that we’re no good – we’ve never been good – we’ll never be any good – so there’s no point in even trying. And our experience can easily confirm that kind of logic. Even when we try to live according to God’s standards, we mess up and fall short and seem to be particularly prone to repeating our mistakes. And we can beat ourselves up about it – convince ourselves that we’re hopeless cases – doomed to disobedience. In fact, if we do too much of that, we can convince ourselves that we’re beyond God’s forgiveness. And that’s exactly what the enemy wants us to think! That’s sin’s goal – to get us to give up on ourselves, so that we’ll take that next logical step and give up on God.

Paul is not trying to defend his poor choices or refuse to take responsibility for his actions or give us an easy out. He is trying to help us understand the human condition and the very real influence that sin has in our life. Sin has a life of its own – it is an active force seeking to ensnare us – it dwells in our flesh and it seeks to twist us and deceive us and steer us away from God. When Paul writes, “It is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me,” he is trying to explain his experience of doing things he doesn’t want to do, which feels like some other force at work in him. And isn’t that our experience? When we mess up, aren’t there times when you wonder if it was someone else controlling us? Sometimes we cat in ways that feel totally contradictory to who we know we really are! It’s not for lack of trying or wanting that we are unable to be perfect. It’s not that we are all terrible, horrible, very bad people, always looking for some sin to commit! In fact, I expect that for most of not all of us we’re trying to do exactly the opposite! But like Paul we find that far too often, we end up doing some of the very things we don’t want to do.

When I was a brand new Christian, working on a ranch in Alberta, I struggled mightily with sin in my life. I don’t mean that I was sinning more then I did before I committed my life to Christ. Actually I’m sure I did less than before – God worked a pretty impressive miracle in me, given my previously colourful behaviours. But I was more aware of my sin than ever before, and in particular, in my marriage. There were serious problems and I seemed to be incapable of fixing them – I felt incapable of being the husband I wanted to be – and I wanted to be a loving husband, believe me! It seemed no matter how hard I tried, I kept doing the wrong thing, saying the wrong thing, acting in ways I didn’t want to act. And it was driving me crazy – time after time, after some unfortunate “episode,” I would repent in tears before God, prayed for God to change me, resolve to never do it again, whatever the “it” was. And yet I still made the same mistakes. One day, after a particularly unfortunate “episode,” I remember running out of our “Little House on the Prairie” in total despair. I had messed up again and I concluded that I was a lost cause, that it was hopeless and I actually contemplated ending my life. I seriously thought about getting a rope, looping it around the beam in the garage and hanging myself. Fortunately, I was never able to get my knot-tying badge in cub scouts, so I wasn’t much of a threat to myself. But I knew a despair that was rooted in my belief that I was wrong, I was sick, I was twisted, I was beyond hope. And for a number of years I agonized over my inability to avoid sin. I identified with Paul’s cry, “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”

I realize as I look back, that I was a Christian living under the law, rather than living under the grace of Jesus Christ. I was evaluating my faith life according to my ability to eliminate temptation and to be completely free from sin. It wasn’t working. It wasn’t working, because it doesn’t work that way. Sin is real and it is a part of our life this side of heaven and it will plague us as long as we draw breath. I was assuming it came out of me – it was my fault – I was to blame. And to a degree, I was to blame, because I did choose to act wrongly. But I have a different take on things now. I’ve tried to learn from Paul. And one of the things I believe he is trying to help us to understand is that we’re not evil – we’re assailed by evil. We’re not “bad,” we’re tempted to do bad things. Our hearts are not evil – they were made good by God – but there is a battle going on for who will rule in our hearts. We can’t stop temptation from happening – indeed, the very fact that we being tempted is an indication that God is in us and we are therefore a threat to the powers that seek to draw us into the darkness.

We can’t resist sin all by ourselves. We can’t overcome temptation by sheer determination. But it can make a difference when we are able to identify the source and recognize that it’s not us. So when temptation comes, we can recognize it for what it is – something from the outside, over which we do have some measure of choice. When we are tempted to sin, we can remind ourselves that this is not us talking, it is sin talking and we don’t have to listen. Indeed, we can remind ourselves that our hearts are not made for sin, but for righteousness. If we assume that sin springs from our hearts, then we are lost and truly wretched. But sin springs from the one who would seek to have us give up on ourselves and give up on God. And we are not going to do that! Why not? Because Jesus didn’t give up on us, but determined we were worth saving. Sin does not have the last word, God in Christ does. Thanks be to God