WWUTT 149 Romans 7: An Argument for Neither

Romans 7 and the Three Interpretive Views

Over the last couple of days, we've looked at Romans 7, verses 13 -25 from a couple different perspectives. Paul talking from a pre-Christian experience and from a Christian experience. Well, today we're going to consider a third option, when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, a daily study of God's word, that we may be filled with the knowledge of his will.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Kate. Thank you, Becky. We are in our last day of discussion on Romans 7, verses 13 -25. And before giving a final option on how to consider these verses, let's read them once more.

Romans 7, starting in verse 13. Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means. It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good.

So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh, for I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

For I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my members another law, waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am!

Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. On Tuesday we looked at Dr. Thomas Schreiner's view of Romans 7 verses 13 -25 and he was coming at it from a pre-Christian experience, Paul talking about himself before he was regenerated in the Spirit.

Yesterday we looked at John Piper's viewpoint of this section and how Paul is actually talking about a Christian experience, things that he goes through in a regenerated place. There is yet a third option to consider and it is the one that I want to present to you today and this is actually the view of Romans 7 verses 13 -25 that I hold and I share it with Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones.

Now these are articles that were featured in the Gospel Coalition this past January. Dr. Lloyd-Jones did not write this article but it was taken from his sermons and here is what the Gospel Coalition presented.

This is Martin Lloyd-Jones on Romans 7 verses 13 -25. Martin Lloyd-Jones began his sermons on Romans 7 with a warning, this chapter is one of the most controversial in the Bible he said. This was unfortunate, he argued, because the controversy misses the main point of the passage.

Trying to discern the man of Romans 7, whether he was regenerate or unregenerate, is a distraction, one that misses the Christian experience a believer should be seeking. Lloyd-Jones believed the main point of Romans 7 was to dramatically illustrate what happens if you seek sanctification apart from the Spirit through the law.

No matter who you are, if you seek your sanctification this way, it will slay you. Paul had already proven justification through the law is impossible. Now he seeks to prove the same with sanctification.

Lloyd-Jones certainly didn't think the chapter was unimportant. In his typical manner of hyperbole, the doctor called it the most famous and best known section of the entire epistle. Few chapters expose the deep power of sin and clarify the role of the law in a believer's life, quite like Romans 7, yet no section has fueled more debate.

For Lloyd-Jones, whether Paul was speaking about his pre-conversion or post-conversion experience is not important, therefore Lloyd-Jones had relatively little to say about it. Of the 27 sermons that he preached on Romans 7, 1 through 8, 4, only 6 dealt with the controversial passage Romans 7, 14 through 25.

Six sermons for 11 verses is practically flying for Lloyd-Jones. To understand Lloyd-Jones' interpretation of Romans 7, one must see how it functions within the logical flow of chapters 5 through 8.

He believed those four chapters, like a symphony, form one grand, majestic theological vision in which the glorious doctrine of the believer's union with Christ is on full display. Lloyd-Jones preached 144 sermons on chapters 5 through 8.

Lloyd-Jones believed Romans 5 is the theological heart of the book, with Romans 5, 20 through 21 being the controlling exegetical verses. Misunderstand chapter 5, and one will by necessity misinterpret 6 and 7.

They form a parenthesis dealing with objections to Paul's central assertion in 5, 20 through 21. And let me just read that section for you again so we don't get confused. Here's what Paul says at the end of chapter 5.

Now, the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The entire section, Lloyd-Jones argued, unpacks our union with Christ through the reign of grace. Chapter 6 proves our sanctification is guaranteed since we are united to Christ and can no longer live in sin.

Romans 7 proves our sanctification is guaranteed since we have been freed from the law and married to Christ. We are enabled to bear the fruit of the Spirit. Chapter 7 offers a dramatic warning of what happens when we seek sanctification through the law apart from the Spirit.

Chapter 8 unpacks the reality that a believer's sanctification is guaranteed because they've been united to Christ and are thus indwelt by the Spirit. There is now no condemnation for followers of Jesus, which, of course, is Romans 8, 1.

As Lloyd-Jones walked his congregation through Romans 7, he reminded them to proceed with humility. He encouraged them to seek that unction and anointing from the Holy One, for the matter with which we are dealing is beyond the realm of grammar and intellectual dexterity.

He didn't believe looking at verb tenses settled the matter. Paul is using a rhetorical device called the dramatic present. Lloyd-Jones asserted, noting that preachers, including himself, often use that literary device.

Lloyd-Jones' diagnostic and exegetical powers were taxed to the limit as he walked through the section. He fully embraced the tensions in the passage and warned his congregation against simplistic solutions.

The doctor's hermeneutic was continuously strained by statements he believed couldn't be made by an unregenerate man, such as, the law is spiritual, and, I joyfully concur with the law in the inner man.

He concluded, this man is not unregenerate, for no unregenerate man could make such claims. The man in Romans 7 is not unregenerate, nor is he regenerate. Romans 7 cannot be describing the regenerate, Lloyd-Jones contended, since it would contradict Paul's argument throughout the section and also what the New Testament says in many other places.

For example, Romans 5, 12 -21 emphasizes the reign of grace in a believer's life and can't describe someone who cries out, I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin, nothing good dwells in me. For chapter 6 shows the impossibility of continuing in sin when a believer has died to it.

Other verses seem to pull in the other direction. Romans 7, 4 shows we've died to the law and been united with Christ. And chapter 8 displays the glories of the indwelling spirit. Thus, no regenerate man would cry out that nothing good dwells in him when the Spirit of the Holy God lives in him.

As he moved through the tensions, Lloyd-Jones' exegesis at times became slightly convoluted. But he often made remarks like, this subject is difficult because sin is difficult. One of the terrible things sin did when it came into the world was to introduce complications.

Lloyd-Jones also said, this not only sounds complicated, but it is complicated. It is the complicated condition of a man who is enlightened by the Spirit of God and about the law of God. Yet Lloyd-Jones humbly had no power to overcome the difficulty.

For Lloyd-Jones, the real clue to understanding more of Romans 7 is to notice the Holy Spirit and the indwelling Christ are not mentioned. Hence, the trouble and the problem. Lloyd-Jones began his exposition of Romans 7 convinced Paul didn't intend to distinguish between the regenerate and unregenerate.

Instead, the apostle was giving us a hypothetical imaginary picture of a man who sees the complete hopelessness of salvation by the law. But by the end of the section, Lloyd-Jones tentatively stated that if it is a picture of a personal experience, then it's the experience of a man like John Bunyan in grace abounding to the chief of sinners who has come under deep conviction of sin and longs to be holy but cannot.

Lloyd-Jones knew that many might be unconvinced by his treatment of Romans 7. He counseled them to wait for his exposition on Romans 8 .15 in the next volume. The theme of this volume is no mere fascinating theological or intellectual problem, but one of vital importance to Christian experience and to the health, well-being, and vigor of the Church.

To end a reading of Romans 7 in a depressed condition is to fail to understand it. Why? It is preparation for the glorious truths of Romans 8 .15, or more appropriately, Romans 8 .14 -17, which Lloyd-Jones viewed as one long chain.

Why should his listeners wait for the later exposition? Because Romans 8 describes the Christian experience all should be seeking. By the time Lloyd-Jones preached through Romans 8 .15 he was confident Romans 7 describes someone experiencing the Spirit's work, whereby he is rescued from a spirit of bondage and fear, the essential prelude to receiving the Spirit's testimony of our adoption as sons.

Lloyd-Jones referred to this as the baptism or sealing of the Spirit. He would later say the 21 sermons he preached on Romans 8 .14 -17 were among the most joyful of his ministry, but he had to walk through the depths of Romans 7 to reach the heights of Romans 8.

Romans 7 as a Warning Against Seeking Sanctification by the Law

That is the conclusion of that article. Here let me give it to you in summary. Romans 7 .13 -25 is talking about how the law cannot bring about a person's sanctification. Obeying the law does not bring about justification, which we've talked about earlier in the letter.

Obeying the law does not bring about a person's sanctification. Both of these things are works of Christ. Justification and sanctification. We can obey the law in a way that is pleasing to God since we have been justified and are being sanctified where previously we could not do that.

But obeying the law is not our sanctification. That's what Lloyd-Jones is saying in Romans 7 .13 -25. That's the viewpoint that I agree with. Understand that when it comes to exegeting the scriptures, I look for the simplest explanation.

And honestly, though I love Dr. Schreiner and I love John Piper, both of their explanations on Romans 7 .13 -25 were way too complicated. And I just don't think that when you're a Roman Christian sitting in that church hearing this letter read out loud that they're sitting there going, what on earth are we talking about?

Now, I certainly think that there were things that Paul clarified when he got there because he's writing this letter ahead of his arrival. He's still not yet ever visited that church there in Rome. No apostle has yet come to them.

So I'm certain that there were things that he had to explain to them in his letter that maybe they didn't fully understand. But I just don't think it would have been some incredible mystery that they would have then begun arguing about whether or not Paul was describing himself unregenerate or regenerate.

I think it would have been. It should be easier for us to grasp it than it would have been for a Roman Christian sitting in that church, which is why I think that Lloyd-Jones explanation is the simplest to understand, especially when he said the reason why this section is complicated is not because we need to figure out whether Paul is talking about his unregenerate self or his regenerate self.

It's complicated because sin is complicated. Sin has been complicated thing, complicating things since Adam sinned. And it's because of sin that we're going to continue to disagree on this section of Scripture as long as we inhabit this earth and are meditating on the word of God.

You might disagree with me and Lloyd-Jones in the way that I understand Romans 7, verses 13 through 25. Maybe you find that Dr. Schreiner's explanation made more sense, or perhaps you think that Piper's explanation made more sense.

Either way, I don't think that we're compromising anything essential in these doctrines because we read Romans 7, verses 13 through 25 in different ways. Let us continue to edify and encourage one another in these things and be challenged as we discuss deep theological truths.

I hope that you have been edified and challenged over the course of the last three days as we have looked at three different perspectives on Romans 7, verses 13 through 25. Let me conclude with this. Paul said in verses 24 and 25, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?

And then in verse 25, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So what is the answer to his question? Who will rescue me from this body of death? Another dead body, Jesus Christ, who died for us so that through him we might live.

Our gracious God, I thank you for these scriptures that you have given to us to show us your mind and your heart. Through the word of God, I thank you for men like Dr. Thomas Schreiner and John Piper and the late Martin Lloyd-Jones who have offered their perspectives on what Romans 7, verses 13 through 25 is saying, a complicated passage.

But I pray that no matter which viewpoint we are accepting here, ultimately this is just giving glory to you. It is praising our God for being rescued from sin and death and the wretchedness that we were living in before Christ stepped in and we are justified by his blood, by his sacrifice, by his resurrection, we are justified before God and can know eternal life.

We praise you for this. We lift up your great name and help us to preach your gospel to the world. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

You can find a complete list of videos, books, devotionals, and other resources online at www .tt .com. Thanks for listening!