WWUTT 148 Romans 7: An Argument for the Regenerate

When the Apostle Paul wrote what we have in Romans chapter 7 verses 13 through 25, was he talking about a pre -Christian experience or Christian experience?

Yesterday we gave you the argument for the pre -Christian experience, today an argument for the Christian experience, when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you Becky. We are continuing our study this week on Romans chapter 7 verses 13 through 25.

Let's go ahead and open up the text, we'll read through it, and then I'll tell you where we're going with this today.

Romans chapter 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, for 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. So this week what we are doing in studying this section of Romans chapter 7 is trying to understand where the

Apostle Paul is coming from when he writes this. Is he talking about a pre -Christian experience, or is he talking about a

Christian experience? Is this him relaying his experiences prior to the regeneration of the

Holy Spirit, or is this something that every Christian who has been regenerated in the

Spirit in fact deals with? A desire to do what we want to do to please

God, but we still are conflicting with desires of the flesh. Who is going to save us from this body of death?

Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who saves us. Yesterday I presented the view from Dr.

Thomas Schreiner from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary who presents the perspective that Paul is talking about his pre -Christian experience.

Today I'm going to give you John Piper's opinion who offers that Paul is describing a

Christian experience. These are articles that came from the Gospel Coalition back in January who were writing on different perspectives on Romans chapter 7.

Here is what John Piper offers. When I teach on Romans 7, I expect that there may be pushback to my argument that Romans 7, 13 -25 refers to Paul's, and thus to our,

Christian experience. Good friends like Tom Schreiner think that when Paul says, I delight in the law of God in my inner being, that's verse 22, or when he says,

I my very self serve the law of God with my mind, verse 25, he is expressing a pre -Christian experience.

This is because Paul also says, I am of the flesh sold under sin, verse 14, I do the very thing

I hate, verse 15, I see in my members another law making me captive to the law of sin, verse 23, wretched man that I am, verse 24, and with my flesh

I serve the law of sin, verse 25. These statements of defeat do not sound like the person who says in Romans 8, 2, the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

I know that when it comes to a positive description of what the Christian life should be and what it normally is, that Tom and I do not differ significantly.

In other words, our difference in exegesis on this passage does not signal a significant difference in what to call for, hope for, and expect from genuine

Christians. But biblical faithfulness and clarity is always good for us, so it might be helpful to make a few clarifying comments.

For more extensive argumentation, I preached six messages on Romans 7, 13 -25 under the title,

Who is this Divided Man? The ten reasons I gave for my position in those sermons are summed up in these five clarifications.

So now, John Piper offers these five clarifications on this section of Romans 7.

Number one, I'm not convinced Romans 7, 5 and verses 7 -25 both refer to Paul before he was converted.

Dr. Schreiner and numerous others see a strong argument for the pre -Christian view in the claim that Romans 7 -25 unpacks

Romans 7, 5 while Romans 8, 1 -17 unpacks Romans 7, 6.

Since Romans 7, 5 refers to pre -Christian experience, they infer that the verses that go from verse 7 -25 does as well.

I don't find this point compelling. For one thing, they agree that verses 13 -25 answer the question of verse 13, did that which is good then, the law, bring death to me?

I agree, that's what verses 13 -25 are doing. Paul's answer is, no, it is sin, not the law, that kills.

But it begs the question to assume we know how Paul would argue for this in verses 13 -25.

How will he show the exceeding power and ugliness of sin and the goodness of the law?

I would make the case that he argues from his own Christian experience in dealing with sin to show how powerful and deadly sin is and how good the law is.

Further, notice the similarity in thought and language between verse 6 and verse 25.

In verse 6, which we didn't read, but Paul says here, Now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the

Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. There is the victory over bondage to the law, followed by the great result, so that we serve in the new way of the

Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. Similarly, in verse 25, there is another victory, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our

Lord, followed by another great result. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh

I serve the law of sin. Both of these verses, 6 and 25, express the effect or result to serve

God in a new way. This service, in verse 25, Paul makes explicit, is not the service of the law of sin with the flesh.

Therefore, it is the service of God by the Spirit. Five verses later, Paul makes clear that the only alternative to living by the flesh is living by the

Spirit. Therefore, the argument of Romans 7, verses 14 through 25, is not limited to unpacking pre -Christian experience of Romans 7, 5.

It is also unpacking the Christian experience of Romans 7, 6. And it is supporting verse 5 by using

Christian experience to spotlight the exceeding power of sin as our great enemy, not the law.

Here is John Piper's second reason. Paul genuinely delights in the law.

When I say that an unregenerate Paul would not say, I delight in the law of God and my inner being, verse 22,

I don't mean that a first century Jew couldn't say that. I mean that the term inner being is

Paul's way of saying, I don't mean this hypocritically or superficially or pharisaically. I mean that I myself really do in the depths of my new regenerate man love the law of God.

I don't doubt that there were regenerate first century Christian Jews like Zechariah and Elizabeth who were both righteous before God walking blamelessly in all the commandments.

I am sure they delighted in the law of God and said so. And I don't doubt that there were unregenerate

Jews who said, I delight in the law of God with their lips while their hearts were far from God, an example being

Matthew 15, 8. The unregenerate Paul was not like Zechariah, but like the vain worshiper.

But the Paul speaking in Romans 7, 22 is trying to tell us he really means it. That's why he says delight in my inner being and why he says,

I, my very self serve the law of God with my mind. Here is Piper's third reason.

Paul is referring to an occasion and not total captivity to sin. When I say

Romans 7 verses 14 through 25 describe Paul's Christian experience, I don't mean his steady state experience.

I mean that this sort of defeat happens to Paul, for example, when he says, if I do what

I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. He is referring to an occasion in life, not the totality of life.

Or when he says, 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.

That's verse 23. He does not mean he lives in the steady state captivity. He means captivity happens to him.

So when I describe Romans 7 verses 14 through 25 as Christian experience,

I don't mean ideal experience or normal steady state experience. I mean that when a genuine

Christian does the very thing he hates, as in verse 15, this is what really happened to Paul, the

Christian in moments of weakness and defeat. Here is Piper's fourth reason.

Triumph is connected to war. One of my arguments for the Christian experience view is that Paul follows his exaltation of triumph in verse 25 with a strong inference, therefore, that returns us to the conflict and war of verse 23.

The Christian experience view makes good sense of this sequence, but I have not seen a compelling answer to this argument.

Paul cries out, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? He answers with an exalted expression of the victory of Christ.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. If that victory signaled the warfare of verses 14 through 25 and it was behind him, how natural it would have been for Romans 8, 1 through 2 to begin next, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

But instead, Paul not only gives one last expression to his conflict with indwelling sin, but he makes this conflict a strong inference from the victory he just expressed.

He says this victory is done through Christ, therefore, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh,

I serve the law of sin. How does this therefore work? It seems to work like this because God has won a great and decisive and final victory over the forces of sin that take my members captive.

I am now able to serve the law of God with my mind, even though at times my flesh gets the upper hand and takes me captive to serve the law of sin so that I do what

I hate. In other words, there is a massive difference between the Christian experience of deliverance from the wretched control of the body of death and the pre -Christian experience when we existed in the flesh and our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work and our members to bear fruit for death, which was verse 5.

Here is Piper's fifth argument, warfare is made possible, not passed.

But Paul is at pains to make clear in Romans 7 25 that the difference does not put the warfare behind us.

Our death in Christ to that which held us captive and are serving in the new way of the spirit.

Verse 6 does not mean we never stumble back into experience of captivity.

In fact, the therefore of Romans 7 25 explains that the victory does not make the warfare past.

It makes it possible and real. It seems to me that the groaning of Romans 8 23 as we wait for our adoption, the redemption of our bodies is essentially the same as the cry of Romans 7 24.

Oh, wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death. In Romans 7 24, the focus is on the moral crippling connected with the body.

And in Romans 8 23, the focus is on the physical. But the reference to the not yet of adoption in Romans 8 23 that climaxes in conformity to our older brother in Romans 8 29 being

Christ reminds us that both morally and physically there is a massive not yet for the

Christian. And my contention is that there is a lot more continuity of the not yet from Romans 7 to Romans 8 both spiritually and physically than is sometimes realized unquote.

That's the article from John Piper as it appeared in Desiring God and also on the

Gospel Coalition website related to Romans chapter 7 verses 13 through 25.

All right. So those are two views that we have looked at thus far with Dr.

Thomas Schreiner arguing for a pre -Christian experience and John Piper arguing for a

Christian experience. Paul is talking about either a pre -Christian experience or a Christian experience.

I want to propose to you now having presented those two viewpoints that there is yet a third option that has not yet been argued.

And that would be an argument that is presented by Dr. Martin Lloyd -Jones. And that is the argument that I'm going to present to you tomorrow.

Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find out more online at www .tt