The Misery of the Man of Romans 7 | Romans 7:15-25

Scripture

• Romans 7:15–25
• Romans 7

About this sermon

Introduction: We have taken considerable time, over the past few weeks, to explain why we understand the man of Romans 7 in the way that we do. We believe that Paul is vividly describing what his condition was, indeed, the condition of every person trying to be saved by law keeping, prior to salvation in Christ. He is making use of the dramatic present. He is standing now in the place of salvation but looking back at what someone experiences when they are sufficiently enlightened as to the true nature of the law, but not yet enlightened as to the limitations of the law. This is NOT just a personal testimony. This a vivid way of DEPICTING what he has just given us, in the previous section, DOCTRINALLY. This depiction is in the interest of making a doctrinal point about the purpose of the law, the inability of the law, due to man’s fallen nature (8:3a). And when I say, the experience of anyone trying to be saved by law keeping, I mean anyone who is in the position that Paul describes. This is an unregenerate person, but not just any unregenerate person. This is the person, Paul describes in the 9th verse, to whom “the commandment came.” This is someone now experiencing the work of the law in the hand of God’s Spirit. They have been granted insight into the true nature of God’s holiness, into the true nature of God’s commandments, and therefore into the true nature of their own sinfulness. We said, last time, that the two categories in which people dwell spiritually (lost or saved, in darkness or in the light, in Satan’s dominion or God’s kingdom) are fixed categories. But there is variety within those fixed categories. And it is God’s grace that explains that variety in the realm of lostness. All lost men are lost. But there are some lost men who have received more light than others. There are some lost men in whom God is at work, granting conviction and a growing understanding of their inability to be saved by the law. That is the kind of person Paul describes. They are discovering that the problem in their life is NOT that there is anything wrong with the law, but rather, that there is something desperately wrong with them. And yet, that awareness does not save them. To be saved they must look to Christ. This is the description of someone being brought to that point of desperation where they cry out to God looking for God’s answer to their problem. God’s answer, of course, is His Son. This explains why you have statements in this section that don’t seem to fully accord with the view that this man is unregenerate, and yet you have other statements that don’t seem to fully accord with the view that he is regenerate. There is a sense in which he is standing between two worlds. It is comparable to someone like Nicodemus who comes to Jesus by night. Nicodemus has enough light that he knows Christ is not who His most ardent enemies say that He is, but at the same time, not enough light to understand the new birth or to declare his faith in Jesus. Nicodemus was an unregenerate man experiencing an enlightenment, a stirring, taking place in his soul. So, again, I wish to be clear. We are not saying that there is a 3rd category. We are saying that God is at work bringing people to a sense of their lostness, shutting up every possible way of escape in their own mind, as He leads them to His Son. Every other way of salvation, every other hope of deliverance, MUST be exhausted in a sinner’s heart and mind before they can ever trust in God’s Son.