Well, welcome to another edition of Struggling Wellcast. And if you listen to Last week, we told you where we were going to go this week, which is to the book of Romans. And what a rich book. and but where I find myself often times,
can I get a little background as to why we're in Romans?
Sure. Go right ahead.
You know, you all need to be a fly on the wall here because if you could see Jimmy's face when I jump in like this, he like he doesn't look surprised. He looks like, "Oh, here we go again." That's how many years? 48.
48.
48 years of me interrupting you.
Yeah. 48.
Happy anniversary. By the way, please
pray for us that we have 48 more. Of course, then I'll be like 120.
Anyway, okay. Romans. Why it started why it's been on our minds is I do a Bible study with some girls here in my home and decided we should do Romans. So, we are actually writing out the book of Romans and by the time we're done, we will have written the entire book out which is a an incredible thing to do. and as we have been going through it, a lot of things have been stirred in me as well as the girls in the group. A lot of Romans is so rich and yet it's hard and but it's so it's such a an incredible foundation because he refers to before we knew Christ, being slaves to sin and then after knowing Christ, being a slave to Christ and through in the law in there and boy that gets a little squirly, what does the Oh, now I have the hiccup. Sorry. What does the law mean? is it abolished? etc. etc. So, that's how it came up. And Jimmy and I have been talking about it back and forth. And so, we're both we are both in it.
Yeah. And, you know, Romans 7 and 8 to me are pivotal chapters just in understanding this dynamic that goes on inside of all of us. And as he begins In the seventh chapter, he talks about having died to the law through Christ and being freed from the law. and he says this in verse six, but now we are released from the law, having died that which held us captive. So, we serve in the new way of the spirit, not the old way of the written code. And there's that dynamic that I want us to maybe take a little bit of time to talk about and ponder this morning. which is so the law, he goes on to say it's not sin. He says by no means is it sin, but this dynamic between being bound to the law, being freed from the law, being freed to live the new way of the spirit. What does that look like in our everyday life to be free to live in the new way of the spirit?
You know, I'm going to do this again. I'm going to backtrack a little bit.
You just
I know I do it all the time. time. It's cuz my brain is like pingpong balls in a dryer. It's just binging bing all the time. as I've been thinking about the law and, you know, it gets confusing there. But it kind of hit me this morning as I was reading over this is that the you know, it says, before if you read through Romans where it gets confusing is when it says that before the law, I didn't know that basically Paul's saying sin wasn't we didn't know we weren't held captive to sin in the same way. Did I say that right or no?
Yeah. Go ahead.
Okay. I don't want to botch up scripture. But it's like when Adam and Eve sinned, they didn't have the law, but they inherently because of the way God designed them and with that desire to please him and walk with him, they knew immediately that they had done something wrong because they hid themselves. And then they tried to cover up their naked So the law then comes and what it acts as for the Israelites and still to me this day is it's like a reflection a mirror that unless I look into it and I understand the law to some degree when it says don't kill when the ten commandments say don't kill or honor your father and your mother when I look in the mirror and see that I'm not doing those things that I don't look like I am messing this up so can we start over again.
You're not. So, just go on. So, so here's the thing.
what I realize when I see the law is that if that's what's required of me to have a relationship with God, I'll never get there. And so, the law comes up short.
Not that the law is bad, but it points me to Jesus
and it exposes who I am,
right?
And it exposes that I'm living in the flesh and to when I live in the flesh, what it does is it binds me to this life and the concerns of this life and then I make decisions and behave without regard for God or anything to do with the spiritual realm.
Yeah. And so in Romans 7, Paul is explaining all those things and then he says, I don't understand my own actions. He says, I don't do what I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate. So, there's this battle that's going on inside of the Apostle Paul that points to the battle that I think is there for all of us is that there is and he says it later on is that there's a war going on
that it internally there's this war waging inside of him and I would say that's because the redeeming work of Christ will be finished. completely when we get to eternity. But because we live in our human bodies, our frail human bodies, there is a war that's going on internally that causes me at times to go, "Here's what I want to do. Ah, but I don't do it. I do the things I hate."
And I think this is a powerful picture of the fact that we will not find the completion, the peace, the shalom that we long for until we reach eternity.
I love the way Peterson says in the message when in those latter verses in Romans, basically he's saying the power of sin keeps sabotaging my best intentions and I need help.
Yeah. Exactly. And so I don't know that I wake up Well, I don't I it's not a matter of I don't know. I know I don't wake up every day living here in South Charlotte and living a life that we have that is really beyond anything we deserve. wait don't wake up every morning realizing there's a war. There's a war going on.
No.
And it's an internal war. And it's a war that's in my soul that my body, which is still sin racked, is facing every day with the choices I make. And it's not always big things,
right?
But it's but it is everyday things. And that's what Paul describes in Romans 7 in with this or that's going on
in verse 23 in the ESV. It says, "But I see in my members another law raging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members." Peterson says in the message and I love this, "Sin happens with such regularity that it's predictable. Parts of me covertly rebel and they take charge."
And so this power within me that is at war in my mind makes me a slave to sin. And Paul, I think he says, does he say it at the end? He goes, "What in the world? What am I going to do?"
Right.
And he says in
No, he's wretched man that I am.
Yeah. Who's going to deliver me? Again, in the message, this is what it says. I've tried everything and nothing has helped. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question? The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. And listen to this now. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but I'm pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.
Yeah. And so we're here we are. We're talking about a man who writes half the New Testament, a man who takes the gospel all across the known world at that time. And he's describing himself as a wretched man. He's in desperation. How do I how do I solve this? And that goes back to, I think, how the chapter began. What am I bound to the law? Am I bound to those things that are fleshdriven with an inability to accomplish? Or am I going to find a release and a freedom to live in the new way of the spirit, which is to re recognize that I can't do this, that only Christ can do this. And I know people will say things like, "Yeah, but we're new creation in Christ. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new." And almost as if that battle doesn't exist anymore.
I am and always will be a sinner saved by God's grace. And it's not ever going to change in this world. And I think Paul in a masterful way and a self-revealing way describes the battle in his own heart. That is a battle that we all can understand.
Yeah.
I still wrestle with things that I wrestled with as a young man. hopefully gaining victory more than I used to. but the pride within me will always get sucked back into not doing the things I want to do.
You know, we think that in this culture that we live in now that it's hard to maintain a steady faithful walk with Christ. We have to understand that when Paul is writing Romans, he's writing to a small group of Christians within the Roman rule that are faced with the same stuff we're being faced with. It's just they didn't have the internet and they didn't have, you know, 24/7 news to hear every little bit of everything. But they knew what was going on and they had to struggle with the fact that, you know, their flesh was as tempted and as tried as ours is today. And the idea of being faithful to Christ and to the gospel was a struggle for them just like it is for us.
Yeah. And I think sometimes the again it's not big issues. It can be big issues but it's the everyday things like how we treat other people, how we respond to other people when we don't like their choices and the choices that they make to realize that am I going to respond out of the flesh and out of things that I know that are not Christlike or do I respond with this freedom as he talks about of living in the new way of the spirit?
Just a little conclusion maybe okay
is that God in his compassion, unconditional steadfast love and mercy shows us who we are, but then also shows us and takes us by his righteous right hand to who we can be
in Christ. And I'm glad for that. And as difficult as these chapters have been for my little pea brain, it has been satisfying in a way and grounding in a way that I've been in strong need of. And I'm thankful for that. That God not only says, "Hey, you are a sinner and your sin is all this. Every time you turn away from me, that is sin. You choose against me. You disobey. But now I'm going to like you did with Adam and Eve. Now I'm going to I'm going to make a clothing for you through my son Jesus. And I will continue pursue you and love you with a desire to bring you closer to be in the image of my son.
Yeah. And so next week we're going to look at the beginning of chapter 8, which is one of the great declarations that God's made about us. Because right now, I know I could feel pretty lousy about myself because of the struggles that go on every day, but there's a statement that begins the eth chapter that changes all of that. So, I hope you'll be with us next week. Thanks for joining us. To learn more about the Struggling Well podcast, visit tandemspirituality. com.