The Man Of Romans Seven

George Burnside

The man of Romans 7 is a popular refuge for the modernistic advocates of the New Theology. From this chapter they would have us believe that we do not need to obey God’s law. In fact any attempt is branded as “legalism.” Further, they teach that Christians will keep on sinning until Jesus comes. They claim obedience is impossible, even with Christ in the life. This theory was made popular by some and is now echoed by hundreds of his followers. I have heard people boast that they sin a thousand times a day. I answered, “If so, he would give the devil a run for it.” I don’t know if the devil could claim more.

Jesus answers, “You err, not knowing the Scriptures and the power of God.”

So what said the Scriptures? Is the child of God to continue sinning to the end? Note God’s clear answer -

ROMANS 6:1-2 “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”

Now note the sinless gem that are studded right through this chapter that gives the setting and leads up to Romans 7.

ROMANS 6:6 “We should not serve sin.”

6:7 “Freed from sin.”

6:11 “You be dead indeed unto sin.”

6:12 “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body.”

(This will not be after the Advent of Jesus.)

6:14 “For sin shall not have dominion over you.” Does sin have dominion over you?

It is now, while we are in our mortal body.

These wonderful verses 15-20 show that righteousness is not sin, but the opposite to sin. Holiness is also the opposite to sin.

ROMANS 6:22 “Now being free from sin.”

“You have your fruit unto holiness.” 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death.”

I thank God, He enabled me to quit before payday. Sin may bring a moment of pleasure, but it robs you of an eternity of “pleasures for evermore.”

But I hear:

WHAT ABOUT ROMANS 7?

Romans 6 shows that sin is not our master. Romans 7 now shows that sin is not our husband. It is not the law of God that has died, but that we have died and buried the old life in baptism. We can now be married to another. ROMANS 7:4 “You are become dead-that you should be married to another.” To Jesus our lord “Even to Him who is raised from the dead.”

Jesus our Living and Loving Lord.

“For” - and here is the reason. Here Paul draws a contrast and what a contrast! It is one of the greatest and most wonderful contrasts found anywhere in this greatest and most wonderful of books.

ROMANS 7:5 “For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.”

Note carefully Paul is dealing with the past. Underline “When”, “were,” “In the flesh”. “Were” is past tense.

At that time, “In the flesh the motions of sin did work in our members.”

The margin “passions” “Of sin, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.” That was where we were heading. “Now” what a contrast.

ROMANS 7:6 “But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”

“Now we are delivered. “Now” - “that being dead wherein we were held” - Christ has delivered us. “Now” we can “serve in newness of spirit.”

The contrast is made between the doomed past and the bright “Now.”

PAST

ROMANS 7:5 “When we were in the flesh” To be carnally minded. Margin - “the minding of the flesh.” Death.

ROMANS 8:6 “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Conversion does not change the body. At conversion our minds are changed.

ROMANS 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” There we get a change of mind.

1 CORINTHIANS 2:16 “But we have the mind of Christ.”

PHILIPPIANS 2: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” This leads us into the wondrous experience of:

ROMANS 8:5,6 “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”

Truly we must be born again.

Then Paul uses his own life, before, and then after, as he walked “After the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.”

It is interesting to note the plural personal pronoun is used right through Romans 7 until 7:7 and not picked up again until Romans 8:1.

In Romans 7:14-18 the personal singular pronoun is used fourteen times. In Romans 8 “Spirit” is used seventeen times. The contrast is between the “flesh” and the-Spirit.

ROMANS 7:18 “In me (that is in my flesh).” Our flesh is not changed until our Lord’s return.

PHILIPPIANS 3:21 “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”

The child of God lives not for the flesh and to satisfy its cravings but his desires now are after the Spirit of God.

ROMANS 8:4-7 “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”

There are two opposites.

ROMANS 8:2 They both cannot dominate in the same person. For instance. The jet plane still feels the pull of gravitation, but it has a stronger power that lifts it and holds it in the azure blue above. That power it always needs. So the saints have a greater power than the pull of sin. This makes us overcomers.

ROMANS 8:2 “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death

This is the overcoming Power.

We do well to know that only twice in the New Testament do we find the word “wretched.”

ROMANS 7:24 “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” It is also in the message to the Laodiceans.

REVELATION 3:17 “Because thou said, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knows not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”

Can it be that too many of our people, in the face of all our God’s wonderful privileges, are still in the wretched condition of the truly unconverted of Romans 7. Self-satisfied, like the Pharisee of Luke 18:11. Lost, but think they are on the way to the Glory land. They need to be in Romans 8. “In Christ” and not merely “in the flesh.”

ROMANS 8:13 “For if you live after the flesh, you shall die: but if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.”

The message of Romans 8 was the message our Lord sent to this people in 1888.

ROMANS 8:12 We all need to move out of the “wretched” state of Romans 7 into the glories “in Christ Jesus” as found in Romans 8.

ROMANS 8:11 “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you.”

ROMANS 8:14 “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”

This was the message of 1888. Read the following from the Lord’s three messages of that meeting.

“Paul also says, putting himself in the place of an unrenewed man: ‘For we know that the law is-spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin.’ (Romans 7:14). A man who is sold is a slave, therefore the man who is sold under sin is the slave of sin. The prominent characteristic of the slave is that he cannot do as he pleases, but is bound to perform the will of another, no matter how irksome it may be. Paul thus proves the truth of his saying that he, as a carnal man, was the slave of sin: ‘For that which I do I allow not. For what I would, that I do not; but what I hate that I do.” – E. J. Waggoner, Christ and His Righteousness, page 85.

“The impossibility for the unrenewed man to do even the good that he would like to do has been shown from Romans 8:7 and Galatians 5:17.” - E. J. Waggoner, Christ and His Righteousness, page 86.

“Their (unregenerate] experience was one of constant struggle against sin, it is true, but of constant defeat as well. Call you this a true Christian experience? There are some who imagine that it is. Why, then did the apostle, in the anguish of his soul, cry out, ‘O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

“Does Christ deliver from a true Christian experience? No, indeed. Then the bondage of sin, of which the apostle complains in the seventh chapter of Romans is not the experience of a child of God, but of the servant of sin.” – E. J. Waggoner, Christ and His Righteousness, page 87.

“[Romans 7:18 quoted] He [Paul] hates the evil and declares he never will do it; and yet against his will and against all his being, for that Matter, it is done. But what is it, and who is it that actually does it? (Congregation: ‘Sin that dwells in him and who rules that? (Congregation: ‘Satan’). Who then is his master? (Congregation: ‘Christ’).”-A.T. Jones, General Conference Daily Bulletin, 1893, page 266.

“Then Christ came into the world revealing the true gospel as never before-Christ came in man. Then Satan took that same Carnal Mind which in paganism had made itself equal with God, and now he covered it with his own idea of faith and passed it off as Justification by Faith. Oh, that we might have the mind of Christ-and not the carnal mind! Oh, that we may have the Lord’s idea of Righteousness by Faith.”

“Then Christ carne into the world revealing the true gospel as never before - Christ came in man. Then Satan took that same Carnal Mind which in paganism had made itself equal with God, and-now he covered it with his own idea of faith and passed it off as Justification by Faith. Oh, that we might have the mind of Christ-and not the carnal mind! Oh, that we may have the Lord’s idea of Righteousness by Faith and not Satan’s! Then shall we indeed receive the latter rain, ‘the teaching of righteousness, according to righteousness. Then let us go at it in the fear of God, seeking for His Holy Spirit to make it plain to us, so that the Teacher of Righteousness may teach us righteousness, according to righteousness! A. T. Jones, General Conference Daily Bulletin, 1893, page 266.

“How can a man know the righteousness of God for himself with the carnal mind-the mind of Satan; for that is what the carnal mind is. Now can that man do it? (Congregation: ‘No’). Can the mind of Satan know the righteousness of God?” - A. T. Jones. General Conference Daily Bulletin, 1893 page 296.

“The Christian’s life is not a modification or improvement of the old, but a transformation of nature. There is a death to self and sin, and a new life altogether.”-Desire of Ages, page 172.

“The converting power of God can transform inherited and cultivated tendencies; for the religion of Jesus is uplifting. ‘Born again’ means transformation, a new birth in Christ Jesus. “-Adventist Home, page 206.

“Be converted; for the character you bear in probationary time will be the character you will have at the coming of Christ. If you would be a saint in heaven, you must first be a saint oil earth. The traits of character you cherish in life will not be changed by death or by the resurrection. You will come up from the grave with the same disposition you manifested in your home and in society. Jesus does not change the character at His coming. The work of transformation must he done now.” - Adventist Home, page 16.

“He [Paul] exclaimed, I consent unto the law that it is good.’ ‘The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.’ But he added, in the bitterness of his soul anguish and despair, I am carnal, sold under sin.’ Romans 7: 16, 12, 14. He longed for purity, the Righteousness to which he himself was powerless to attain, and cried out, ‘O wretched mail that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?’ Romans 7:24, margin. Such is the cry that has gone up from burdened hearts in all lands and in all ages. To all, there is but one answer, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.” John 1:29. Thus was made known to Jacob that which met the need and longing of his soul-a Savior. With joy and gratitude he saw revealed a way by which he, a sinner, could be restored with God.” - Steps to Christ, pages 19-20, chapter entitled ‘The Sinner’s Need of Christ” (the chapter before “Repentance and Confession,” etc.)

“Through faith we may receive spiritual heating. By sin we have been severed from the life of God. Our souls are palsied. Of ourselves we are no more capable of living a holy life than was the impotent man [at the pool of Bethesda] capable of walking. There are many who realize their helplessness, and who long for that spiritual life which will bring them into harmony with God; they are vainly striving to obtain it. In despair they cry, ‘O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?’ Romans 7:24, margin. Let these desponding, struggling ones look up. The Savior is bending over the purchase of His blood, saying with inexpressible tenderness and pity, Wilt thou be made whole?’ He bids you arise in health and peace. Do not wait to feel that you are made whole. Believe His word, and it will be fulfilled. Put your will on the side of Christ. Will to serve Him, and in acting upon His word you will receive strength. Whatever may be the evil practice, the master passion which through long indulgence binds both soul and body, ‘Christ is able and longs to deliver. He will impart life to the soul that is ‘dead in trespasses.’ Ephesians 2:1. He will set free the captive that is held by weakness and misfortune and the chains of sin.” Desire of Ages, page 203.