13 Oct Rescue

Read: Romans 7:13-25

Last Sunday, Pastor Ken preached a message from Romans 7:1-13 on what it means to be dead to the law and married to Christ. This Sunday, he will preach from Romans 7:13-25 on the Christian’s ongoing battle with sin and ultimate rescue in Jesus Christ our Lord. As you prepare your heart for our corporate gathering, let these words from Tim Keller encourage you and further point you to the divine Rescuer, Jesus Christ.

Heart Preparation

Paul’s words here are both a two-fold warning and a wonderful comfort to us.

First, they warn us that no one ever gets so advanced in the Christian life that they no longer see their sin. This is the apostle Paul talking! If we ever perceive ourselves to be “over” sin, if we ever feel ourselves to be pretty good Christians, we are deceived. For the more mature and spiritually discerning we get, the more we see of the sin in our hearts. The more holy we become, the less holy we will feel. This is not false modesty. Even when we know and see ourselves making progress against many bad habits and attitudes, we will grow more aware of the rebellious, selfish roots still within us. The holier we are, the more we cry about our unholiness.

Second, we’re being warned that no one gets so advanced that they don’t struggle with sin. It is quite important to expect a fight with our sinful nature. In fact, just as a wounded bear is more dangerous than a healthy and happy one, our sinful nature might become more stirred up and active because the new birth has mortally wounded it. The seventeenth-century Puritan John Owen wrote:

“As a man nailed to the cross, he first struggles and strives and cries out with great strength and might [though] as his blood and [life energies] waste, his strivings are faint and seldom … [So] when a [Christian] first sets on a lust or [sin] to deal with it, it struggles with great violence to break loose; it cries with earnestness and impatience to be satisfied and relieved … It may have … a dying pang that makes an appearance of great vigor and strength, but it is quickly over, especially if it be kept from considerable success.” (On the Mortification of Sin in Believers, page 30)

But this passage also greatly comforts us. It is typical, when we struggle with sin, to think that we must be terrible people, or very wicked or immature to have such wrestling. But Romans 7 encourages us that temptation and conflict with sin, even some relapses into sin, are consistent with being a growing Christian.

This means that the Christian heart cries two things at once, as Paul does. First, there is the desperate cry of discouragement as we look at our own efforts and failings: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (v 24). When we read God’s law properly, and when we look at our own lives honestly, we can only conclude that we are “wretched.” Without accepting this, we will never grasp the glory of the gospel. We will never truly appreciate the gospel of received righteousness. Only if our hearts truly cry at our wretchedness can we then know the hope and liberation of looking away from ourselves and to what God has done. Who will rescue Paul, and us? “Thanks be to God— through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (v 25).

By his own efforts, Paul knows that he will fail. He may “in my mind [be] a slave to God’s law;” but “in the sinful nature [he is] a slave to the law of sin” (v 25). And so in a sense, verses 24-25 look both back to all that has gone before in Paul’s letter, and beyond to what will come. There is no hope in ourselves for our salvation, nor our obedience. All we are and all we have done merits only judgment. For our salvation, we can only ever look to God’s Son, dying on a cross for us, as Paul showed in chapters 1 to 4. For our hope, we can only ever rest in his righteousness, as we saw in chapters 5 and 6. And for our ongoing obedience, for any real change, we will need to rely not on our own efforts, as chapter 7 has established, but on the work of God’s Spirit, which will transform our lives and our relationships, as the rest of Romans will show.

We are “wretched.” God is not. Through his Son he has rescued us, and through his Spirit he is changing us, so that we can enjoy him for ever. Thanks be to God— through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Excerpt from Romans 1-7 For You, by Tim Keller

Song List for Sunday
1. “Cornerstone,” Arr. by Shane & Shane
2. “From the Inside Out,” Hillsong United
3. “Nothing but the Blood,” Arr. by Charlie Hall
4. “O Great God,” by Sovereign Grace Music
5. “Scandal of Grace,” Arr. by Shane & Shane