Avoid Guilt, Appreciate Grace

For me, the start of a new school year always initiates thoughts of reflection on the past year: my accomplishments, my failures, and what I could have done differently had I the chance to change things. It also motivates me to create a new set of goals, or resolutions, as I attempt to make the upcoming year better than the last. Think for a moment back to the beginning of last school year, or perhaps around New Years. What were some of the resolutions you had set up for yourself? How many of them actually came to fruition? Some of you may have a check mark next to a few goals signifying the accomplishing of the goal you had set for yourself. Others of you may identify with me: No matter how many goals I set, I somehow can never seem to get a handle on them. Days, months, and years go by with little change on my part. Why is it SO HARD to follow through? Even our best intentions in and of themselves are not enough to bring our goals to completion. Our actions need to line up with the intentions if anything is going to happen.

Likewise, in our struggle with sin we discover that no matter how much we want to do right, no matter how much we try to do good, we still seem to fall short because our actions prove our desires otherwise. This could be a source of much discouragement, but as we will see in Romans 7:14-25 this need not be the case. Because sin for a Christian is a fact of life, we must avoid guilt and appreciate grace.

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Romans 7:14-25 (New International Version)

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
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You’ve just read a very intimate passage where we see Paul’s personal experience with sin. Can you identify with anything he just said? I sure can, and it’s easy for me to beat myself up because of it. However, as I stated before, sin for a Christian is a fact of life, and because of this we must avoid guilt and appreciate grace. How exactly do we go about this? In the text we discover first of all that we must COPY PAUL’S CONFESSION OF SIN.

Verse 14 states, “For we know that the Law is good, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.” Paul makes a clear contrast between the nature of the Law and himself. In his mind there is no question what he is like, and he doesn’t hide from the truth. Instead, he accepts it when he says “I am of flesh”; it couldn’t be made clearer. Then, he continues in this acceptance when he says immediately following, “sold into bondage to sin.” Paul basically confesses twice in a row “I am a sinner.” So, by the end of this verse, there is no question of Paul’s understanding of who he is by nature.

But he doesn’t just stop at accepting the fact that he is a sinner, he continues on to prove how this is true. Verses 15-17 read, “For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.” In these verses we are able to sense the reality of the conflict between the spirit and the flesh. Paul says that he doesn’t understand what he’s doing. This doesn’t mean that he doesn’t know why, but rather that he cannot gather the depth of meaning of sin’s presence in himself; it points to the struggle within his own heart. It doesn’t make sense that he would do what he hates when he would really like to do something else. Obviously Paul knows what the law says, agrees with it, and wants to do it, but he still ends up not doing it.

Verse 17 concludes this saying it is because of sin that this struggle is happening. We all know that we sin. But how often to we recognize this truth? Are we actively aware of it, are we well-acquainted with it, are we familiar with it? Are we honest with ourselves? Groups like Alcoholics Anonymous or Overeaters Anonymous exist for people who struggle with certain issues. Though I’ve never personally attended something like this, the movies portray it going as such: a group of people sit around a table and begin introducing themselves, “Hi, my name is Jane and I’m an alcoholic.” For these people, the first step in dealing with a problem is admitting that they have a problem. Paul did this, and we must also. In this last week, what have been some of the specific sins you’ve struggled with? Let me encourage you not only to write these down, but pinpoint specific examples of how that sin has had a hold on your life so that you might have a clearer picture of what you struggle with.

Next in the passage, we see Paul expand on the concept of confessing his sin as he reveals his confusion with sin. We too must CONCUR WITH PAUL’S CONFUSION WITH SIN. After looking up the word “confusion” I found this definition, “disorder resulting from a failure to behave predictably.” This confusion reminded me of a disease that is rampant in our country and other parts of the world called AIDS. The reason AIDS is so deadly is because the immune system basically shuts down leaving a person exposed to even the most harmless germ. Inside the body, we have these things called B-cells, T-cells and T-helper cells. T-helper cells activate the B & T cells to produce antibodies and attack the germ. But in AIDS, this process can’t happen because the T-helper cells are taken over by the AIDS virus, which means antibodies aren’t released and the virus can’t be attacked. In a sense, the body is now in a state of confusion because it is not behaving predictably.

Confusion is exactly what Paul was experiencing in verses 18-19, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.” There was disorder and tension inside him. Based on what Paul knew to be good and willingness to do so, it would be predictable that what would follow are good actions. But in reality, he fails to behave so. Do you ever find yourself telling yourself, “I’m so stupid! I can’t believe I did that again!”? I know I struggle to deal with the reality of my sinful actions. I get down on myself because I fail. I get mad at myself because I seem so double-minded or two-faced. This same confusion exists within my own self, “the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.” Do you see this same confusion happening within yourself?

Finally, we should KEEP TO PAUL’S CONCLUSION CONCERNING SIN. What good is it to know all of these things about our sin and not do anything about it? Verse 20 reveals the culprit: sin is what causes Paul to sin. Verses 21-23 seem to sum up the truth of the matter, “I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.” Paul, again, states what he’s been stating all along. He joyfully agrees with the law of God, but because of the evil, the sin, that resides in him, he ends up doing otherwise. Therefore, there is a constant tension between what he wants to do and what he doesn’t want to do.

In spite of this his next reaction is so natural, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” Isn’t it true that we also face a similar conclusion about ourselves? The guilt that stems from our failure to do good plagues us. We find ourselves looking for freedom from ourselves, our “body of this death.” But the passage doesn’t stop in this rut. There is an answer. Paul exclaims, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” This is the sigh of relief. What Jesus did on the cross, paid for the guilt and shame of our sin.

We don’t have to experience life in bondage because Christ set us free 2,000 years ago when he died and rose again. As Christians we hear this all the time, and it almost seems to not have as much impact on us. What would it be like to be Paul? That’s all he ever talked about! But does he dismiss the impact of Christ? No! He exclaims in thanksgiving his acceptance of grace through Christ. The rest of verse 25 reads, “So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.” So, after Paul accepts the grace through Christ, he seems to be saying, “So this is the way it is…I will struggle with sinning, even though I have decided to follow God.” He can live with himself in spite of his shortcomings because he fully appreciates the grace bestowed on him through Christ.

When you feel guilt creeping in on you, when it seems to be eating at you time and time again, what are you going to do about it? Will you ignore it and live life as if nothing’s wrong? Will you wallow in it thinking “Woe is me!”? These are the extreme options, neither of which Paul seems to be advocating as solely the proper response in this passage. Instead, we see that we should follow his example: 1) COPY PAUL’S CONFESSION OF SIN by accepting it to be true. 2) CONCUR WITH PAUL’S CONFUSION WITH SIN by realizing and understanding sin’s presence in us. 3) KEEP TO PAUL’S CONCLUSION CONCERNING SIN by living life in appreciation of grace in spite of sin.