Introduction The question today is HOW do we get OFF the beach and begin surfing? For it is so easy to HEAR an excellent sermon about that, as we did last week, and then . . . Nothing changes. As a brother mentioned to me this week, of all our modern sins, perhaps ACEDIA is our deepest. The worst sins are the ones we do not know we have, which is why we don’t know what that word means. It means “sloth”, but more like an emasculated inability to get off the couch while the world burns. So what or WHO is holding us back? The First Realization: the Frustration and the Futility Are Telling You Something Important Paul tells us in Romans 7, with a little help at the end from Romans 8. There are THREE realizations here that Paul wants us to make, if we are to change. Now there a some interpretive details we need to square up about chapter 7. But one thing is clear and unmistakeable. It’s that feeling of frustration from FUTILITY. FUTILITY is when you, v. 19, WANT to do the right thing, but find yourself powerless to do it. It can be a feeling of powerlessness against certain sins. That feeling of defeat, when you don’t do the GOOD and COURAGEOUS thing you WANT to do, but the thing you DON’T want to do, you keep on doing. Paul says it’s like a natural law, v. 21, like the law of gravity, that when he wants to do good, when he wants to step off the beach, there’s this invisible force holding him back. V. 22, he delights in the law of God, but v. 23, this evil makes war against that inner part of him that desires good. By v. 24, the frustration drips off the page: V. 24 Wretched man that I am? Who will deliver me from this body of death? Have you ever felt this? I have. Now, we have questions, but Paul’s big point here is that that feeling of frustrated futility is telling us something. Something crucial, the way a blinking check engine light on your car is telling you something. First, when you feel this, it means you are simply living in reality, as we will see. But secondly, this feeling of futility is saying, pull over, something’s wrong. Something’s broken. You might be traveling in the right direction, but you’ve lost power. When this happens, be assured it’s like you’re in quicksand: trying harder will get you nowhere even faster. Now, to properly diagnose what’s wrong with the engine, we need to return to the text. The Second Realization: There Are Two “You’s” In You, At Constant War A text which commonly confuses people. Because when you read it, you have a hard time keeping track of the “I’s” and “me’s”. This begins in v. 14, but it becomes most confusing in v. 19 19 For I do not do the good I want, (I do not get off the beach) but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Paul sums it all up in v. 25: I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. So which is it? Is Paul talking about himself as a Christian, or as a pre-Christian? I’m convinced that the words of v. 24, specifically “who will deliver me from this “body of death”” provides the key. We know that Paul came from Tarsus, which was on the outskirts of the Roman Empire. And we know that the further out from Rome you got, the more brutal and grotesque the policing got. There is historical evidence specifically FROM Tarsus that when someone was executed for first-degree murder, they did it by tying the murderer to a stake outside of town, and then tying a DEAD body TO them. This grotesque practice seems to be the metaphor for what Paul is talking about. Except that the dead body in the metaphor is not another person, but your old YOU. For we were, Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins Ephesians 2:5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— Colossians 2:13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, DEAD in our trespasses and sins. Yes, alive in our bodies, but the REAL version of you and me - a corpse. But God, all by His grace and mercy, Ephesians 2:5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— Colossians 2:13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, Made us ALIVE together with Christ. Thus, Eph. 2:8, even our faith is a gift from God, that no cadaver may boast. Salvation is not just being forgiven of sin, but, Romans 6:4, JOINING Christ in his death to sin, his burial in the ground, and in his resurrection from the dead. On the cross, Christ died to death, and so you Christian died to your old you, and a NEW YOU has been created. 2 Corinthians 4:6 - the same God who said Let there be light at creation said to your dead spiritual carcass, let there be life. And a new you, with a new heart, or, as Paul puts it here in v. 22 - a new INNER BEING was created. But that new you still inhabits this OLD dead you. It has not yet been fully clothed. So then, 2 Cor. 5:4, we still groan with the burden of living in this old tent, until this NEW ME, this NEW YOU is one day fully clothed, with a new, glorious body. On that day what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. So groaning as we wait for these new royal clothes - that’s normal. But is Paul talking about himself as a Christian or as a non-Christian? The answer is Yes. Two parts, and at least one of them is constantly at war with the other. The question is, does the new, second part of you fight back. This is why Paul can say, that though I have sin, v. 20, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. This is the second realization. We must realize there is a war between the two you’s, and not be surprised by it. It just IS right now, as Paul so clearly states in v. 25. But this FUTILITY and FRUSTRATION - is that NORMAL for a Christian? The answer is NO. Groaning is normal, but not FUTILITY. It SHOULD NOT be. In the same way that it is not NORMAL nor GOOD nor even POSSIBLE to drive around very long with a flashing light that says NO OIL. Eventually the engine dies, and does not make its destination. So here is what the FRUSTRATED FUTILITY is telling us: that we are seeking to do the GOOD thing by the power of the OLD, DEAD thing. We have drifted, into relying for power on our OLD self, on our FLESH. But what can a cadaver do to improve its situation? The groaning tells us we need a new body. But we do not have one yet. So we must rely on another body. Let’s see - who do we know that has a new, resurrected body? And this leads us to the third realization. The Third Realization: You Yourself in Christ Is Greater - By the Spirit This is why Paul immediately chases his “Wretched man that I am, who will deliver from this body of death” with v. 25: thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! For we are united to one who is BEAT death, who has RISEN from the grave. We gain the power we need today through HIS body, not our old one. For, 1 John 4:4 Christ HAS overcome the old you FOR you, and he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 1 John 4:4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. And it’s the Spirit of God that LINKS or CONNECTS or UNITES us to Christ and his resurrection power. Thus, skipping down to 8:2: we ONLY experience the power and freedom of Christ’s new life - we ONLY experience deliverance from this body of death, BY the Spirit. As we said on Easter, by the Spirit, we have MORE of Christ now than Mary Magdalene when she tried to cling to Christ outside the tomb. And that power is greater. Now, the Spirit is a person. So in order to experience the LIFE of the Father, through the Son, we must walk or live BY the Spirit, or as Paul puts it in Galatians - keeping in step with Spirit. Walking by HIS cadence. So what does that look like? So then, what does this mean, to walk by the Spirit? Well it begins by FAITH. The way we are saved is the way we live is the way we endure to the end. It begins by preaching to ourselves and believing that all that we’ve just said. We shift weight off of that old dead body, and onto the resurrected body of Christ. And that all that we’ve just said means this: 8:14-15 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” That we are adopted SONS of God. We are no longer dogs that just get the scraps from His table. We are firstborn sons, with all its privileges, THROUGH THE firstborn Son. We must believe this. Especially when it feels like a FIGHT, to believe past our circumstances and feelings. Here the battle begins, fighting back against our flesh. And then out of this identity of SONSHIP, we must do THREE things, in order to WALK by the Spirit. 1. Kill Off 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. If you live according to your flesh, by faith in the power of that old self, you WILL die with it. You cannot drive long without oil. You will not reach your destination. You will NOT inherit eternal life. But, if you make war, and put it to death, you will gain life. As the old Puritan John Owen put it: be killing sin, or it will be killing you. FOR, v. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God, you are a Son, not of the dragon, but of God. Jesus commanded us, in Matt. 18, if our eye or hand causes us to sin, we must gouge it out or cut it off. We obey this command not to BECOME a son, but because we ARE sons, and this body is NOT our body. So we make war. Constantly. There’s a reason why Christians in some parts of the world are not called Christians, but Repenters - because the Christian life begins with repentance, and then it’s a lifestyle of repentance. 2. Cry Out 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” - We cry out to our real father, asking Him for help. We do not have because we do not ask. Much futility is simply because we do not cry out to our Father, Who stands at the ready, full of grace and power in our time of need. 3. Carry On 8:17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Paul ends this section with this phrase, “. . . Provided we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him.” Part of walking by the Spirit is simply enduring to the end. When we fail, we believe, we put to death that sin, and then we get back to what the Lord calls us to today. We carry on, not understanding everything about the war, but simply doing our duty. By faith that we are sons, we • Kill off • Cry out and • Carry on And as we do this, we will discover more of the new you. That old emasculated self scales off, and the new man emerges, more and more. There’s a new peace, but it’s an active peace. A calm willingness to step into the fray. To say and do what’s needed. All of it in love. How Then Shall We Live? So then, how shall we live? Families This has two implications for the home. First, the home must be a safe place to do battle against sin. Which means it must be a place of grace and forgiveness. It’s the ABNORMAL Christian home where confession of sin and true forgiveness are NOT expressed. Forgiveness creates a TRUE safe space where we can FIGHT and GROW. This means as parents, having become saved by the Spirit, we must not train our children to obey by the flesh, but by the Spirit themselves. When our own children experience this feeling of frustration at their futility to obey, the best thing we can do is sit them down and tell them, “You know, you THOUGHT you needed that, but what you need most is GRACE. You don’t understand what that means yet, but you will. What you need most is grace.” Church For the church: we must ask ourselves - when I give advice or spiritual direction for others, how much of it is in the flesh, and not by the Spirit? How much of it is the wisdom of this world, and not the foolishness of God? By this I don’t mean practical wisdom. I mean offering a pill or the number of a therapist, rather than helping the other to believe who they are in Christ, and so then kill off, cry out and carry on. Society Lastly, this passage has great bearing for our society. For everyone around us lives every day in their own version of Romans 7. We are surrounded by good, pious environmentalists, atheists, capitalists, statists, or hedonists. And the further in and further up they go in their religion, the more frustrating and futile it becomes. But they have NOTHING to grab hold of, for power. So we can say to them two things: • That we understand the feeling. We’re no better than you. • But we are beggars who have found bread. So come, you are most warmly invited, you atheists and environmental zealots, you homosexuals and agents of the state - come! Receive the new life, the NEW YOU, the YOU you have looked for everywhere else - COME! Receive FREEDOM, receive POWER, receive REST, in Christ.