Years ago when I was a new Christian, I struggled in fear regarding losing my salvation. I was imprisoned in a religious vicious cycle of repenting and repeating the sinner's prayer each time I felt I had missed the mark or “fell from grace.” I was terrified that I would disappoint God and possibly lose my security in Christ Jesus.
One particular night I was so anxious about this, I telephoned a prayer hotline. An elderly woman’s voice came over the phone line with such tenderness and graciousness that I felt instant relief. I explained to her how frightened I was of losing my salvation and she began to share with me the reality of the grace of Jesus Christ. It sounded too good to be true!
“Do you mean to tell me that the Lord isn’t angry or disappointed in me when I fail Him?” I asked her. Her response was something I never forgot and was what the Lord used to release me from my prison of fear. She answered with rejoicing in her voice, “I would rather take advantage of the grace of Jesus Christ and fall down so that He could correct me and show me the right way than to remain stagnant the rest of my life in fear of making a mistake.”
I did not believe her at first. I had been convinced that my salvation was dependent upon my daily obedience and that I was to try as hard as I could not to mess up. Nevertheless, I was messing up all the time and in great fear that the Lord could disown me. My own heart was condemning me on a regular basis and telling me there was no way I was good enough for God no matter how hard I tried.
I was experiencing anxiety attacks, insomnia, nightmares, restlessness, depression, doubt due to my fear of not measuring up to what a Christian ought to be. I was driving myself up a wall trying to figure out the right formula to keep on the straight and narrow. And yet something told me in my heart that I could never accomplish perfection that was worthy enough for such a Holy God.
One day I could deal with it no more. I begged the Lord to please open my eyes to the truth as my life was nothing like that of the Apostle Paul’s joyful abandonment to Jesus. “Please show me why Paul was so confident in You, Lord Jesus! Please show me why that lady on the phone had such confidence in You!” And the Lord answered me. He opened my eyes to the Word in the Book of Romans.
Romans 7:
[SUP]7[/SUP]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 had said, Thou shalt not covet.
[SUP]8 [/SUP]But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
[SUP]9 [/SUP]For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
[SUP]10 [/SUP]And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
[SUP]11 [/SUP]For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
[SUP]12 [/SUP]Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
[SUP]13 [/SUP]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.
[SUP]14 [/SUP]For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
[SUP]15 [/SUP]For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
[SUP]16 [/SUP]If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
[SUP]17 [/SUP]Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
[SUP]18 [/SUP]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.
[SUP]19 [/SUP]For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
[SUP]20 [/SUP]Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
[SUP]21 [/SUP]I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
[SUP]22 [/SUP]For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
[SUP]23 [/SUP]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.
[SUP]24 [/SUP]O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
[SUP]25 [/SUP]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. (Paul is saying, "With my mind, I believe Jesus Christ IS God's law fulfilled!)
There is a rest for the people of God. It is trusting the Lord Jesus himself to keep you in His will. The Lord empowers us to obey Him, it is not we ourselves. All of our righteousness is as filthy rags. If we could obey Him in our own strength, we wouldn’t need Him and His crucifixion was in vain!
I am amazed when I look back and see how the Lord Himself is miraculously changing me from my old carnal self to His image more and more each day. I am amazed! I cannot even put into sufficient enough words how He has gotten me to fall onto my face in submission many times and turn away from impulsive, ungodly attitudes and conform to His holy nature more and more every day. Not of my own doing. I can’t boast of anything of myself! It has been and always will be Jesus Christ Himself who is finishing the work He began in me so many years ago.
My eyes are on Jesus Christ. My ears are open to His Voice. My heart is captured by His perfect love. My mind is stayed on Him. Not because I willed it. But because He has purposed it. And nothing I have done in the past nor will do in the future will prevent Him from finishing His work in me to glorify Himself… to me.
I am not anxious that there are some who don’t have that intimacy and reality in Christ Jesus because I know we are all at different stages of growth and yet are one body in Him. My hope is in the faith of Jesus Christ that He knows and will take care of it. I only pray in the name of our great Savior Jesus Christ that there are some here who would fall down in submission and surrender their intellect and pride to Him that they may find that rest in the marvelous abundant life He offers us. I hope one day soon you will have decided to believe Jesus Christ. The Lord’s will be done.
If you would have just believed 1 John 1:9 there would have been no need to be in anxiety. But the Scriptures do say to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Not on the level of what you had went thru. But you have to realize that the fear of the Lord men depart from evil; And perfect love casts out fear.
As for Romans chapter 7: Well, most Christians are wrong for believing that Romans chapter 7 is talking about Paul struggling with sin as a Christian. Actually, Paul is speaking to his ex Jewish brothers (or those trying to keep the Law of Moses). He is referring to his experience as an outward Jew (Before He came to Christ) trying to obey the Law. Paul gives these outward Jews the solution to overcome their struggle to keep the Law with Romans 8:1 (in the next chapter).
#1. Paul is repeating a point He made in chapter 5.
For there was no such thing as chapter breaks in the Bible. They were added later. Anyways, to understand chapter 7, you have to know what was going on in chapter 5.
In Romans chapter 5 we learn, "For by one man sin entered the world and by one man many shall be justified."
Now, under the Mosaic Law there was an accounting and those under that Law had to bring their sacrifices accordingly. Prior to the Mosaic law, the Patriarchs offered sacrifices to God, but not as a result of particular sins–not because God said to them if you do such and such sin then you have to offer such and such sacrifices. The sacrifices of the Patriarchs were offered based upon faith, not law. Which explains the context of Romans 5:13.
For sin was no doubt in the world prior to the law and so was transgression, hence there had to be some kind of law. For obviously Paul does not contradict himself here. He says that sin was not accounted until the law came. The point is that there was no law from God to this point that had been codified, that is, placed into written form. Before the Law of Moses, sin was not imputed because there was no written Law to transgress. Then how was sin imputed to those living before the written Law? Well, sin was imputed to those living before the Law because the "death of sin" was passed down to them thru Adam's disobedience (Romans 5:12, 14, 17, 18, 19). Those living before the Law, were exclusively justified by faith and those who did not live by faith were condemned. In other words, the Old Testament saint living before the Law was justified by following Romans 8:1. Yes, they did not know who Christ was yet or this passage, but the Spirit of Christ was in fact within the prophets, though (1 Peter 1:10, 11).
This point of the Law in Romans 5 is made in Romans chapter 7. Compare Romans 7:8-10 with Romans 5:12-14 and Romans 5:20.
#2. This passage is an answer to the question “Did that which was good [the Law], then, become death to me?” (Romans 7:13) Paul is not primarily interested here in discussing anyone's struggle with sin. He is explaining how the Old Testament Law – good in itself – was used by sin to bring death to pre-Christians.
#3. Paul knows that Christians struggle with sin; after all, many of his letters are written to help churches deal with sin. But he discusses the Christian struggle with sin in the next chapter (Romans 8:10-14). His conclusions about the struggle there do not seem to me to be consistent if chapter 7 is also about the Christian struggle with sin.
#4. Paul’s only positive description of the “me” in this passage is elsewhere applied to Jews, not Christians. “I agree with the Law, that the Law is good” (Romans 7:16) and “I delight in the law of God in my inner man” (Romans 7:22). But this is more in line with Paul’s description of Jews: “If you call yourself a Jew and rely on the Law” (Romans 2:17). In Romans, Christians have “died to the Law” (Romans 7:4) and thus “delight in the Law” is not most naturally applied to Christians.
#5. Paul’s negative descriptions of the “me” in the passage are elsewhere applied to Jews, not Christians.
“I am fleshly, sold into bondage to sin” (Romans 7:14). Compare to “we were in the flesh” (Romans 7:5); “we were freed from sin” (Romans 6:18); “we were slaves to sin” (Romans 6:20); and “you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit” (Romans 8:9).
“But I see another law… making me a prisoner of the law of sin” (Romans 7:23). Compare to “but now, freed from sin and enslaved to God” (Romans 6:22); and “the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2).
If Paul says that Christian are no longer in the flesh and are no longer slaves or prisoners of sin, then it seems to make the most sense to say that he is talking about his pre-Christian experience when he was Jew here in Romans 7:14-25.
Anyways, I hope this helps.
And may God bless you.
Sources Used:
Paul is not Talking about Himself: Why I take the "pre-Christian" Reading of Romans 7:14-25
Theology Online | Christian Forums & More - View Single Post - ECT Christians and the Old Testament
