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An Identity Crisis

Dec 4, 2022 5:15:00 PM

So far, for some of us these illustrations and arguments in Romans have spoken to the thoughts and feelings we’re currently wrestling with--things like a sense of condemnation from our sin, or doubting about what awaits us after we die.  

For others, these passages may feel so culturally distant that they’re hard to relate to.  In either case, how do we engage with God in these verses?  What is he trying to show us about himself, about us, and about the world?  What might we miss if we’re too quick to rush past these sections?

Up to this point in Romans, you’ve probably noticed that dealing with “the law” is something Paul is especially focused on and diligent to explain for the Christian.  In chapter 7, he continues by using an illustration from Jewish law and marriage. Then, to our surprise, he paints a very intimate picture of the struggles Christians face when sin is “waging war” within them; even telling us through the first-person lens of his own life.

Released from the law (7:1-6)

We’ve got some things to work through, but let’s start with a quick play-by-play summary of Romans 7:1-6 from one commentator:

  • Death severs one's bondage to the law…Christians, in dying with Christ, have suffered a death that severs their bondage to the law and that makes possible their new relationship with Jesus.

Fair enough, but why is Paul making his point through the analogy of marriage, adultery, and death?

As another author explains, "This is perhaps the only example in the New Testament of a situation in which death frees some living person who is then able to enter new relationships. It is not only the dead man over whom the law has no authority; this is true of the living woman as well. The man’s death alters her obligations."  

Put another way, Jesus’ death alters our obligations as far as the law is concerned.  Where we stood condemned under the demands of the law, Jesus’ death nullifies the law and its demands.

So here’s the challenge for me (and maybe you as well) in finding an emotional connection to this passage upon first reading: I don’t often sit around thinking how joyful I would be that, in the case of my wife’s death, I’d be freed to remarry. Especially for someone who’s single, one might read this and feel unengaged by Paul’s analogy.

So what’s the point, and why is he using this specific example?  He’s trying to drive home the point that we have been freed to enter into a new relationship with Jesus.  

More than that, the purpose of our being freed from the law is specifically so that we “may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead”; and through our relationship with Jesus, “we may bear fruit for God.”  

It is with this truth in mind that Paul will go on to describe his identity crisis and the brutal war that wages within the Christian.

The law and sin (7:7-25)

But before Paul goes further, he wants to make sure we don’t forget that the law is good and we shouldn’t despise it.  

It is the tool used by God to show us our sin; a standard, a diagnostic tool, and even a “tutor” that leads us to Christ.

This is an oversimplification but you don’t wake up in the morning, look into the mirror, and curse the mirror because of your crazy hair or wrinkles. It’s not the mirror’s fault.  

Even more so, if that mirror showed you something like a concerning melanoma on your skin, you’d actually be grateful, because you wouldn’t have known that you were diseased without the mirror.

Instead, Paul says that it is sin, not the law, that brings about death: “For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.”  

Sin has so corrupted our flesh, that Paul says “the very thing I hate… it is no longer I who does it, but sin that dwells within me.

So we see these two types of “law” at war within the Christian: the law of God with its demands (to obey God and do good), and “another law”, the law of sin, with its demands (to do evil, our inherent tendency).

On the one hand, for the unbeliever, no war is being waged internally to obey God.  There is only spiritual death, blindness, and complete slavery to sin.  

On the other hand, for the believer, as long as we live in these bodies and on this earth, we will contend with our sinful flesh.  This is what Paul is encouraging us with; not only to set our expectations, but also to give us courage in the fight. 

The life of the Christian is an arduous one of stumbling, failure, repentance, restoration, and growth.  We’ll hit the lowest of lows and wonder with Paul, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?”  In response, as a church, we should sing together “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

The language Paul uses in this passage describes in gritty detail things I have experienced since becoming a Christian.  

It encourages me in my failures and lifts my head to remember God’s grace towards us.  

It has been a constant reminder that my struggles are common, both to an apostle like Paul and to every other Christian.  May this passage do the same for you and lift us into freedom in the gospel.

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