The Believer and Indwelling Sin, Part 1

And so I believe this is Paul's own testimony of how it is to live as a spirit controlled, mature believer who loves with all of his heart the precious, beautiful, holy, majestic law of God and finds himself wrapped in human flesh and unable to fulfill the law of God the way his heart wants him to. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. The challenge of the Christian life is to consistently think and act biblically. Yet no matter how many right moves you make, you don't make every right move, you still sin. So why is that?

Why can something you truly hate still have so much power over you? Consider that today as John MacArthur continues his look at the book of Romans in a series titled Freedom from Sin. Now, before today's lesson, John, here it is November 1st, and we have some encouraging broadcasts planned for this busy month.

Tell our listeners what they can expect when they tune in. November is going to be a great month, that's for sure. Today through Friday, we're going to continue our study of Romans 6 and 7.

That's a study we've called Freedom from Sin. And then next Monday, November 7, we'll get you thinking about the Christmas season. I know, it's coming up pretty fast. And that's going to be an excerpt from The Best of Christmas, a collection of classic Christmas messages that I've preached over the many, many years. And we're airing it now to start setting you thinking about the profound truth of the Christmas season, the birth of our Lord, and hopefully to help you strategize about how you can use the coming weeks to tell others about our Lord and why He came into this world.

And then November 18 to 25, that's going to be a thanksgiving focus. Of course, we also want to take time to concentrate on giving thanks, as we'll be doing all across the country later in the month. And you may find it hard to be grateful these days. There's a lot going on in the world that is very frustrating and painful.

And it can rob you of your joy and gratitude. But we're going to try to ramp that up a little bit. Six days of messages that will put your focus where it needs to be on the continuingly amazing reasons you should continue to be thankful and rejoice, in spite of what's happening around you. Then beginning November 28, an opportunity to review some fundamentals of the Christian life, a study called Getting in Step with the Christian Walk. From Ephesians 4, 1 to 6, a practical look at the Christian's life in submission to Christ. Wonderful days of Bible study ahead. Don't miss any of them.

That's right. Tune in as often as you can. These lessons are sure to deepen your devotion and love for Christ. And with that, to continue his study called Freedom from Sin, here's John. Let's open our Bibles and look together at Romans chapter 7.

Romans chapter 7, verses 14 through verse 25. Now some people say this is a Christian being described. And some people say this is a non-Christian. And people have been saying those two things ever since Romans 7 was written.

Whole movements have depended for their very life on the interpretation of Romans 7. One side says there is too much bondage to sin for a Christian. The other says there's too much desire for good for a non-Christian. You can't be a Christian and be bound to sin. And you can't be a non-Christian and desire to keep the law of God. And therein is the conflict of interpreting the passage. Let's talk about the non-Christian view for a moment. Now the people who want us to believe that this is speaking of a non-Christian say, verse 14 is the key, I am carnal, sold under sin.

And so they would say that that has to be an unbeliever. And then verse 18. 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.

And they say that has to be a non-Christian because a person who's a Christian knows how to do what's good. Where is the evidence of the Holy Spirit's power there? And so they question the very obvious ignorance of the person in verse 18, not able to figure out how to get his results that he wants. Should one in Christ be so impotent? And then again, verse 24, O wretched man that I am, seems rather far from the promise of chapter 5, verse 1, therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through Jesus Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And then he goes on to talk about the fact that we not only have the hope and the joy but all the benefits.

How can this man be so wretched with so many benefits? How can he be carnal, sold under sin when chapter 6, verse 14 says, sin shall not have dominion over you? And then they invariably go into chapter 6 in detail. For example, chapter 6, verse 2, how shall we that are dead or have died to sin live any longer in it? Verse 6, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Verse 7, for he that has died is freed from sin. Verse 11, reckon yourselves to have died indeed unto sin. Verse 12, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body. Verse 17, God be thanked that whereas you were the servants of sin, you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. Verse 18, being then made free from sin. Verse 22, but now being made free from sin and become servants to God. Now with all of that in chapter 6, how in the world can it be said in verse 14 of chapter 7, I am carnal, sold under sin as a Christian?

You understand the problem? Now we'll deal with each one of these things as we go through the passage. But here let me just say in general reference to chapter 6, that the emphasis in chapter 6 is on the new creation, the new nature, the new identity, the new person in Christ, the redeemed eye. The emphasis therefore is on the holiness of the believer. And in his new creation and in his redeemed self, he has broken sin's dominion.

The emphasis in chapter 7 does not necessarily have to be the same as in chapter 6. And every Christian knows that even though he is new in Christ and sin's dominion is broken and sin no longer has mastery over him, sin is still a problem. And so whether or not you want to see a Christian in chapter 7, you've still got to see a Christian having conflict with sin even though his new creation, his new self is holy. And that is why it's so important to understand what we taught in chapter 6, that that which is recreated is the new eye. And that new redeemed self is holy. But there's still going to be a conflict.

And whether you see that conflict in chapter 7 or not, there is still a conflict and it is pointed out, may I add, even in chapter 6. Notice chapter 6 verse 12. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts.

Now wait a minute. You just said we died to sin. You just said that the body of sin, verse 6, was destroyed and we would henceforth not serve sin. Now why in verse 12 are you commanding us not to let it reign?

You see, you have the same problem in chapter 6. You still have to deal with the problem of the believer and sin. And in all that Paul said in chapter 6 about our new nature and our new creation and our new essence, he never said that from then on we wouldn't have a battle with sin. Verse 12 implies that sin could still have a reigning place.

It could still be shouting out orders which we are submitting to. We could still be obeying sin. Follow into verse 13. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, which is to say that you could do that. And so you have to be commanded not to do that. So on the one hand, the problem in chapter 7 is the problem in chapter 6. Because you have all of those statements about you've died to sin, you're dead to sin, sin has no dominion over you, your service to sin is broken, you are now servants of God, and you're free from sin, you're free from sin, at the same time you have the commands to not let sin reign over you.

So there are no problems found in the interpretation of chapter 7 that aren't also found in the interpretation of chapter 6. Look at verse 19 of chapter 6. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. Now remember what we said about that? When you sin, it isn't the new you.

What is it? It's your flesh, your humanness. And so he says, I have to remind you of these things because your flesh is still there. For as you have yielded your member servants to uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity in the past, even so now yield your member servants to righteousness unto holiness. And the implication again there is that you could yield your members to sin.

You could yield your members to sin. So arguing that chapter 7 cannot refer to a Christian because of statements in chapter 6 is to really misunderstand the intention of chapter 6. And I think it to be a rather weak argument. Now let's look at chapter 7 verses 14 to 25 and look at it as if it were a Christian, as if it were a Christian in view. Verse 22, For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.

That's a very strong statement, isn't it? I delight in the law of God after the inward man. On the other side, we ask the question, does an unbeliever delight in the law of God after the inward man?

You don't find such indication in the Scripture. In fact, in chapter 8 of Romans and verse 7, in the middle of the verse, it says that the unregenerate person is not subject to the law of God, not subject to the law of God. Look at verse 25, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God. That sounds like a Christian to me for two reasons, thanking God through Jesus Christ our Lord and serving the law of God with His mind. It's the service of the heart.

It's the service of the deepest part of man. And I remind you of what it says in chapter 8 again that the one who is apart from Christ cannot be subject to the law of God. Now look back at verse 15, For that which I do I know not, for what I would that do I not, but what I hate that do I.

You know what that says? To me that says that there is a battle here because the deepest truest part of this individual wants to do what is right, but something keeps him from doing it. Is that true of an unsaved person? That they really long to do what is right, but are inexplicably prevented from doing it? Not according to Jeremiah who said the heart of man is deceitful above all things and what?

Desperately wicked. Look at verse 18, For I know that in me, that is in my flesh dwells no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find out.

And again it's the same idea. Something deep inside me wants to do what's right. You have it in verse 19, For the good that I would I do not, the evil which I would not, that do I. You have it in verse 21, I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. So the heart and the soul and the mind and deep within the individual longs to do what is good. The bent is toward good, but there is an evil principle there that causes that to be not so easily accomplished. Whoever this is, get this, he longs to do good things and finds himself doing what? Bad things. As far as I can read Romans chapter 3, the evil person has no longing to do the will of God.

There is none good, no, not one. In Romans 3 he says everything about them is bad, everything. There is none that understands. There is none that seeketh after God. Verse 11, nobody seeks God's purposes, God's holy will, God's holy moral law. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

They have no regard for him or his law. The conflict here, the tension, the battle between what Paul says I delight in, I love, I approve, I want, I long to do, and that that he actually does, I believe can only be true in a redeemed person. I don't really think in an unregenerate person, an unredeemed person, an unsafe person, that there really isn't much of a battle at all. I mean, we don't believe for a moment that people without God are basically really good people who just can't seem to pull it off. We believe they're really evil people who act out the evil that's inside them.

Now, another question comes up at this point, and this has been an equally furious debate. Okay, let's say it's a Christian, just to make MacArthur happy. Let's say it's a Christian. What kind of Christian is it? Some people say it's a description of a Christian on a low, low level of spirituality.

I mean, this guy hasn't even figured out what's going on. He's trying in his own strength to keep the law. One writer says, this is the abject misery of failure of a Christian who attempts to please God under the Mosaic system. Sort of a super legalistic kind of Christian trying to crank out his own righteousness and he's unable to do it in his own flesh. Well, is it a legalistic Christian? Is it a low level, sort of self-righteous Christian?

I frankly don't think so. And the reason I don't think so is because all those kinds of Christians usually don't have this kind of perception. If you ever learn anything about a legalist, you will always learn that they are under the illusion that they are very, very spiritual.

Never for a minute do they think they're like this. You know what kind of Christian this is? My friend, this is the most mature, spiritual Christian there could ever be who sees so clearly the inability of his flesh as over against the holiness of the divine standard, you see? And the more mature he is, and the more spiritual he is, the greater will be the sensitivity of his own shortcomings. You show me an infantile, quote unquote, carnal, fleshly, legalistic, self-righteous kind of Christian and I'll show you somebody who lives under the delusion that everything he's doing is really very spiritual.

You show me a person with this kind of brokenness. You show me a person agonizing in the depths of his own soul because he can't do everything written in the law of God and I'll show you a spiritual person. And so I believe that what you have here is Paul. That's right, Paul. And you see the word I 46 times in this portion of Scripture. And Romans said, if I remember it correctly, don't count them now. Anyway, he says it a lot.

And I think what you have... Some people say, well, this was Paul before he was saved. This was Paul when he just got saved and he was infantile and he was still sort of carnal. I think this is Paul at the very heights of his Christian perception. This is Paul at the level of maturity. And what he sees is that he does not live up to the holy law of God though he desires it with all his heart. And he finds himself debilitated by that ugly reality that sin in its residual reality is still hanging on.

And that is a profoundly sensitive realization. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 9, he says the same thing in other terms. For I am the least of the apostles, that I'm not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God, but by the grace of God I am what I am. You see that? He didn't say I wasn't fit to be an apostle. He said what? I am not fit now to be an apostle.

I am the least... This is Paul far along in his apostleship, mature in the Lord, walking in the dynamic of spiritual life, having experienced the mighty power of God and the wisdom of God and the knowledge of God. And the more he knows and the more he experiences, the more he hates the sin that he sees hanging on.

And the terms that he uses in Romans 7 are so precise that I think we can't miss this picture. Whoever this person is, he hates sin. Verse 15, I hate it, he says. Whoever this person is, he loves righteousness.

Verses 19 and 21, I would do good. Whoever this person is, he delights in the law of God from the bottom of his heart. Verse 22, Whoever this person is, he deeply regrets his sins. Verse 15, 18, 24, a wretched man. Whoever this person is, he thanks God for the deliverance that is his in Jesus Christ our Lord. Don't tell me this man is not a Christian. The Christian then lives in two extremes.

He holds them in tension. Temporarily, he lives in this world as a man of flesh and blood, subject to the conditions of mortal life. He is a son of Adam. Adam is his fellow.

And all other men as well who inherited the sinful seed. But spiritually, he has passed from darkness to light, from death to life. He now shares in Christ's death, burial, resurrection, and is now the possessor of an incorruptible eternal seed, the divine nature. He is a new creation.

He is no longer in Adam. He is in Christ. But sin hangs on in his humanness. And so he is conscious of the presence and power of indwelling sin.

And he despises it, and he hates it, and he loathes it because he has tasted of the incorruptible seed. This is the man in Romans 7. Now, just to reinforce this, there is a rather dramatic change in the verb tenses in the chapter. The verbs from chapter 7, verse 7 to 13 are in the past tense. And I believe they speak before his conversion. And we went through that in detail to point out that this was his pre-conversion conviction experience when he was face-to-face with the law of God. And the verbs are in the past tense.

Erist. As soon as you hit verse 14, they are in the present tense, right down through verse 25. The change in the verb tense is a very important linguistic note. It tells us Paul has moved out of the past before he was redeemed into the present. There is also a very interesting change in circumstance relative to sin. From verses 7 to 13, sin kills him. Sin slays him.

He says that in verse 11. Sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and by it slew me. Sin killed him. It killed all his self-righteousness, all his hopes, all of his securities. When he found out he was really a sinner seeing the law of God, it just devastated him.

It just wiped him out. Sin killed him. But all of a sudden when you come to verse 14, he is fighting sin and he will not let it kill him.

He will not give in to it. And so I believe this is Paul's own testimony of how it is to live as a spirit-controlled, mature believer who loves with all of his heart the precious, beautiful, holy, majestic law of God and finds himself wrapped in human flesh and unable to fulfill the law of God the way his heart wants him to. I also believe that in this section he continues his discussion of the law and he is affirming to the Jew that there's nothing wrong with the law. The law can't save.

We saw that. The law can't sanctify. But it's still good because it does what?

It convicts of what? Sin. And that is true before you're saved.

And guess what? It's true afterwards. And I believe in 714 to 25 he's following the same argument. That's why the word for appears in verse 14.

It just flows right along. Just as sin did not obviate the goodness of the law before he was saved, it doesn't obviate the goodness of the law after he's saved. The law reveals sin to be sinful before you're saved and it reveals sin to be sinful after you're saved. You know, when you become a Christian and you read about sin in the Bible, are you less concerned about your sin because you're now a Christian?

No, you should be what? More concerned about it. And the law will always reveal it. When David said, Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin, he was saying that the word of God in the heart becomes the point of conviction. It isn't just information. You understand that?

We don't go through life just needing information. We need conviction. And the law has that power. So while telling us that the law cannot save and the law cannot sanctify, he affirms that it is good and holy and just because it does convict of sin before you're saved and bring you to Christ and after you're saved so that you'll understand God's holy standard and long with all your heart to fulfill it.

The problem is not the law. The problem is us. . That's John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. Today's lesson described every Christian's great struggle. It's the conflict between wanting to do what pleases God and yielding to the sinful tendencies of your own flesh. John calls this study freedom from sin. Here on Grace to You. And now, friends, we want to help you take in all you can from this practical series. So let me mention the companion study guide that we've created.

It expands on the truths John covers in this series, helping you systematically study these important passages and really absorb what's there. To order the freedom from sin study guide, contact us today. Our toll-free number is 800-55-GRACE and our website, gty.org. The freedom from sin study guide costs $8.50 and shipping is free. Again, to get a copy of the freedom from sin study guide for yourself or a few to give away, call 800-55-GRACE or go to gty.org. And to learn even more about how to experience victory over temptation and God's design for the church or any other biblical topic, let me encourage you to download our app. It's simply called the Study Bible. It's a free app that gives you the full text of Scripture in the English Standard, King James, or New American Standard versions, along with access to thousands of free online resources. And for a small price, you can add the 25,000 notes from the MacArthur Study Bible. So this is a powerful tool for your smartphone or tablet. The Study Bible app is yours to download now.

Just go to gty.org. And now for John MacArthur. I'm Phil Johnson inviting you to join us at the same time tomorrow when John continues his look at the power of indwelling sin and how to overcome it. It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Grace To You. .