Presented
to Alberni Valley Ministries, 19 May 2019 by Captain Michael Ramsay
Originally presented
to Warehouse Mission 614 afternoon service, 04 February 2018 by Captain Michael
Ramsay Click here to read the earlier version: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2018/02/romans-7-holiness-odyssey.html
This last week I have been at Jackson’s
Point near Toronto with Salvation Army Officers from around this country. It
was great to see some old friends, get some great teaching and chat with the
Commissioner of The Salvation Army in Canada, Bible teachers Bill and Di Ury
and more. I was there for a ‘Holiness Institute’.
My sermon today is entitled ‘Holiness
Odyssey for the Holy Christian life is certainly an interesting one. Some of us
who have been Christians for a while have noticed a few patterns as people come
to know the Lord. Some new Christians can become very rigid at first: they
don't seem to do anything wrong: they don’t smoke, don't drink, don't swear,
don’t do this, don’t do that… but then sometimes this can lead to criticising
others who they don't think are living the way they think Christians should
live; they may even force their opinions on others about, for example,
abortions or gay marriage or divorce and remarriage, or smoking and drinking
or, when I was a kid, heavy metal and even rock 'n roll music. They can develop
quite rigid opinions with which they don't hesitate to bless others, with
fervour and without compassion. Eventually as these Christians usually run into
trouble with this. They then leave a congregation or two, or distribute
metaphorical torches to run their clergy screaming from the pulpit… and then
sometimes these Christians will even go to Bible College or Seminary
themselves.
And this can be quite troublesome for
someone who has been trapped by legalism. When a young legalistic mind that has
internalized self- or other-imposed rules on oneself and everyone else, runs up
against someone they respect in authority over them with a very different
opinion, it can cause a few challenges. I have actually heard of more than one
person who has walked away from the faith of their youth when they went to
Bible school. The child grows up in the church and holds onto all the rules and
traditions of their denomination or their parents as if they were gospel and
then when they find out that they are not, the child is disillusioned and
confused and if the professors aren’t discerning of what is happening, their
students walk out of their classroom and possibly even out of their own
salvation.
I have seen the tragedy of people leaving
the unlawful confinement of a strict rule-based religion and instead of
experiencing the freedom of Christ, they choose to ignore the Spirit’s signs
pointing to salvation and go their own hedonistic way only to be immediately
run over and killed by self-indulgent sin.
This passage is sort of addressing this
problem of what about the rules and our relationship to them. Paul spoke about
hedonist that gets run over by sin in Romans 1:18-32 and the rigid Law bound
person in Chapter 2. Paul is now talking
about how each of us reacts when we do know that there are things we should or
should not do but we feel this strange compulsion to do them anyway. Paul knows
that sometimes even when we do understand that there are some things that are
not beneficial for us we still do them. Has anyone ever been there? Paul says,
Romans 7:15-24:
15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do,
but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the
law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin
living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in
my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry
it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to
do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no
longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this
law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in
my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me,
waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of
sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from
this body that is subject to death?
Romans 7:18b-19: “For I have the desire to
do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to
do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” Any of us ever been
there?
This is an old problem. People smarter than
us and people older than others have wrestled with this one for a long time.
Horace said, ‘I pursue the things that have done me harm; I shun the things
that will do me good’ (Epistles
1.8.11). Plato said, ‘one may acknowledge evil things to be evil, and
nevertheless do them’ (Protagoras).
Ovid said ‘I see and approve the better course, but I follow the worse one’ (Metamorphoses 7.20ff). The Apostle Paul
said, “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For
I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep
on doing.”
I don't know if anyone has ever read
Homer - he wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Iliad is
about the Greek and Trojan War and the Odyssey is about the warrior
Odysseus' journey home. During his journey home, the main character Odysseus is
warned about the Sirens. In Greek mythology, Sirens are creatures with the head
of a woman and the body of a bird. (Sometimes they are portrayed as mermaids.)
They live on islands and with their irresistible song lure mariners to their
destruction as they crash on the rocks near their island. The mariners know
they shouldn't steer their ships to their death but once they hear the Siren's
songs they seemingly can't help themselves.
This reminds me of the dilemma before us
today - and particularly of struggles with addiction. In our time with The
Salvation Army, relating to addiction, we have had many friends, some as young
as elementary school age who have been tempted by this Siren song to a slow (or
quick) slide into destruction due to getting hooked on various substances and
many of my friends from my time at Stoney Mountain Penitentiary wound up there,
in part, because they succumbed to addictions’ Siren song; for them addictions'
Siren song ended in the song of sirens coming to take them away.
The Siren's song is not only calling us to
addiction, it can call us to any sin - in the full range from licentiousness to
legalism - to which we are susceptible. Romans 7:18b-19, “For I have the desire
to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want
to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” So what can we
do? What can we do when we are trapped by licentiousness, legalism, struggles,
temptation… sin?
Paul talks about the Law being good ropes
to tie us up as Odysseus to the mast of his ship but not so good that we no
longer have that struggle, that compulsion within us, so that we may even in
our tied up state find some way steer our life out of the ocean of holiness and
salvation and crashing our lives on the rocks on sin. So what can we do? What
can we do?
What can we do when desire to the destruction
of sin is pulling harder and harder upon us, like a giant magnet moving ever so
slowly towards us? Sometimes we grab hold of rules or laws tightly and even
make more for ourselves. Sometimes we try really hard, so hard to avoid an
addiction or a sin that that all we think about is that sin. Whether we are
trying to stop lying, lusting, or smoking crack cocaine; the more we think
about ways to avoid it, the more we wind up pondering ways to imbibe it. Soon
our every thought is consumed with that sin that we are trying to flee. It is
everywhere! It is even in our very flesh…and then it has us.
Horace said, ‘I pursue the things that have
done me harm; I shun the things that will do me good’ (Epistles 1.8.11). Plato said, ‘one may acknowledge evil things to
be evil, and nevertheless do them’ (Protagoras).
Ovid said ‘I see and approve the better course, but I follow the worse one’ (Metamorphoses 7.20ff). The Apostle Paul
said, “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For
I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep
on doing.”
This brings us to the Christians' secret
weapon for holiness and seeing sin defeated even as it is in our flesh. Now I
am not saying that if you are a Christian you will never have given into sin.
God knows I have sinned. I know many Good Christians who have fallen prey to
sin but here is the path to freedom, should we choose to take it. Paul says,
Romans 7:24-8:5
7:24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body
that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, [He] delivers me through Jesus
Christ our Lord!…8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are
in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives
life has set you free from the law of sin and death...5 Those who live
according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but
those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the
Spirit desires.
The one who can
deliver us from all of this is Christ Jesus. The Spirit of God Himself will
transform us. Instead of wrestling with our sins, we can know that Jesus has
defeated sin and death between the cross and the empty tomb. We can seek first
the Kingdom of Heaven and then God will add to us everything else we need.
We've all heard
the analogy about how one spots a counterfeit bill. It is not by studying fake
money, it is by studying the real thing. Likewise we do not avoid sin by
focussing on sin, rather we avoid sin by focussing on God. They say that as a
husband and wife are a long time in a good marriage they become more like each
other and maybe even finish each others sentences. Likewise as we spend more
time with God, we find that we know what He is saying and He can finish our
sentences.
I truly believe
with everything in me that there in nothing that you or I or anyone else can do
to defeat sin, only Jesus has done that. But we can experience a life holy, free
of sin. God is Holy. As we spend more and more time with Jesus, we will
naturally sin less and less for we will become be more and more like Him. As we
pray and read our Bible, as we sing our songs, as we come to Church, as we
serve God by serving others in Jesus' Name, as we tell others about the Gospel
of Salvation we will be transformed into the very likeness of God Himself!
Focus on God and His Holiness and that will be reflected in our life! And this,
I think, is a good encouragement for everyone of us today! What can we do to
defeat sin? Nothing, Jesus has already done that! What can we do to experience
our life free from indulgence in sin and instead living out the joy of
Salvation with our Lord and Saviour? Spend time with the Lord. Seek ye first
the Kingdom of God and holiness and everything else will be added unto us!
Let us pray.
This prayer for us from 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, ‘May God himself, the God of
peace, sanctify you (us) through and through. May your (our) whole spirit, soul
and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who
calls you is faithful and he will do it.’
---
[1] F.F. Bruce, The Letter of Paul to the Romans. Tyndale NTC (Leicester, UK: IV Press, 1985),146.
[2] Cf. NT Wright, Romans for Everyone Part 1: Chapters 1-8 (Louisville, US: WKJ, 2004),122-123. He uses a great analogy relating to a neighbour installing a good alarm system in one's house to explain how the Law is indeed good.
[3] F.F. Bruce, The Letter of Paul to the Romans. Tyndale NTC (Leicester, UK: IV Press, 1985),146.
---
More Salvogesis blogs daily at
Posts
