I believe that the scripture, which is before us this evening, is intensely practical, helpful and necessary. Let’s say that a young man comes under God’s conviction for sin; he repents and believes on Christ as his Lord and Saviour. He begins to attend church, is baptized, and begins to serve the Lord, witnessing to his friends. What might happen to him when the honeymoon is over, and he finds that the same old temptations and sins still plague him? He might question the quality of his faith or repentance; he might question the Lord’s ability to save, or he might even question the gospel itself. That young man may fall into the slough of despair, stifle his praise of God and return to Vanity Fair. He needs to know that the battle against temptation, sin and unbelief may actually intensify after his salvation, and that the Bible warns him of these things.
As I said this morning, I believe that Paul is talking here about his own experiences. He was born a sinner, just all the rest of us. As we look at our little church babies – Logan, Abigail and Sahalie – it’s hard to believe that there is an “old man” inside that miraculous little body, but theologically, that is the case. Paul calls the sin nature that is universal in humanity – the “old man.” There is an “old man” in that very young little girl. But when someone is born again, or re-generated, he becomes a “new creature” spiritually speaking.
That verse to which I just referred can cause a thinking person just a little bit of trouble. II Corinthians 5:17 says – “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Someone might wonder if the “old things” don’t include the “old man” to which Paul refers here in Romans. And if “all things are become new,” doesn’t that just prove that the “old man” is gone? I’m afraid not, and this verse must be kept in the context of the rest of the Word of God.
Since we will come back to this in the next chapter, let’s skip ahead to Colossians 3. I know that I refer to this scripture very frequently, but that is because it is so important. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Naturally speaking, it doesn’t make any sense for Paul to tell his readers that they are dead. Dead people don’t read, they don’t listen to the reading of God’s Word; they can’t. Obviously, Paul is not referring to physical death, but to some sort of special spiritual death. This takes us back here to Romans – We are crucified with Christ and dead with him. But then going on in Colossians – “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.” If we are already dead with Christ, why does he tell us to mortify or kill our members which still sin? He not talking about killing church members who sin, although sometimes that seems like a good idea. He’s using the same language that he used in Romans 6 – talking about putting down sin in our Christian lives.
The point is this: living the Christian life as it was meant to be lived was never meant for sissies. It is tough; it is a battle; but it is worth living victoriously. And for me to know that Paul had the same struggles that I have is a blessing to me in my fight. I wouldn’t for the life of me, want to say that Paul was not talking about his own struggles.
But as I say, the regenerated spiritual nature that every saint of God possesses, resides in a fleshly body. Nine times the Greek word “sarkikos” (sar-kee-kos’) is translated “carnal,” & twice it is translated “fleshly.” Christians are both fleshly and spiritual at the same time. But some Christians cater and please their flesh more than they do their spiritual beings. For example, when Paul wrote to the Corinthians he pointed out their terrible spiritual condition: “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” But just because some Christians are more carnal than others, it doesn’t mean that we all don’t have the same constant bi-nature struggle.
Verse 15 – “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.” Here is Paul, going about his daily business there in Corinth, but all of a sudden he thinks about Peter and he gets jealous of that other Apostle living in Jerusalem. Where did that come from? That thought came out of no where and knocked me silly. I allow not – I didn’t recognize it. And I know that I should hate all forms of covetousness, envy and jealousy, but there it is again. “What I hate, (yet) that I do.”
“If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.” As a Christian, when I know that my envy is evil and sinful, I agree that the Law of God, which exposes my sin, is holy, just and good. But that unwilling evil thought, that unrighteous anger, that lust is not the true me, the spiritual me, the regenerated man that Christ created me to be – rather it is my old man. “Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. “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. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” Why is it that knowing that I shouldn’t be jealous, I am still jealous? Why is it that I still long for the alcohol to which I was once addicted? Why is it that lust still plagues my soul, when I know that it is condemned by the Lord? It’s because my flesh, my “old man” lusteth for sin, even though the new man hates it as much as my spiritual father hates it. “Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.”
Paul next brings up a word that he has often used, but this time it has a different meaning. “I find then a law.” Here is a general principle – in fact it is a universal principle to be admitted by all Christians everywhere. “I find then a law that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 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.” Clearly, Paul is saying that there was a battle going on inside him – a battle between good and evil. “So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” On some days, he was able to serve the Lord in a relatively sinless fashion, but then just when he thought that he had his spiritual life under control, he’d find that sin was running unchecked once again.
The second and third points of contention are in regards to the words “body” and “this death.” Our first stab at an explanation would be to his physical body and physical death. But what do we do with the word “this” – “this death.” One of my commentaries explained it this way: The apostle speaks of the “body” here with reference to “the law of sin” which he had said was “in his members,” but merely as the instrument by which the sin of the heart finds vent in action, and as itself the seat of the lower appetites; and he calls it “the body of this death,” as feeling, at the moment when he wrote, the horrors of that death into which it dragged him down. But the language is not that of a sinner newly awakened to the sight of his lost state; it is the cry of a living but agonized believer, weighed down under a burden which is not himself, but which he longs to shake off from his renewed self. Nor does the question imply ignorance of the way of relief at the time referred to. It was designed only to prepare the way for that outburst of thankfulness for the divinely provided remedy which immediately follows.
Who shall deliver us from the body of this death?