The fully surrendered follower of Jesus Christ does not find sin impossible. He finds it unbearable! The convicting work of the Holy Spirit comes quickly into the heart and mind of the fully surrendered child of God. He instantly sees himself as he really is at that moment – a sinner, a rebel, a spiritual failure. Repentance is not something finally achieved some time in the future. It is instant. It is heartfelt. It is genuine. The pathway of holiness is instantly regained, and the chastened believer, chastened only by his conscience is once more at peace with God and enjoys full fellowship with his Lord once more.
Long ago I learned that many believers have little, if any, interest in living holy, blameless lives. Many have bought into the devil’s lie that God already sees them as truly holy. They believe that from the very moment they “accepted” Jesus Christ, or were baptized, all sin was removed from them – even future sins, and that when God looked upon them all He could see was the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And what a doctrine of demons that is. And what a plethora of scriptures one must ignore to entertain that devil’s lie for even a moment!
“But God be thanked that you WERE (past tense) the servants (slaves) of sin, but you have obeyed FROM THE HEART (from the depths of your being) that form of doctrine which was delivered (to) you, being THEN (yes, THEN, when your surrender to the Lord was wholehearted, total, all consuming) made free from sin (the tempter’s power finally broken) you became the servants (slaves) of righteousness” (Romans 6:17-18).
And then follows that KEY verse that unlocks for the reader of the Roman letter the true meaning of what Paul is and is not saying in the 7th chapter of Romans. Notice, Paul says, “I speak AFTER THE MANNER OF MEN (and spiritually defeated men at that), because of the infirmity of YOUR flesh (not Paul’s flesh – THEIR flesh), for as you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity (sin after sin after sin), even so now yield your members servants to righteousness (utter continual obedience) unto holiness” (Romans 6:19). Even though Paul uses the personal pronoun “I” thirty-three times in Romans 7, he is NOT speaking of his own condition. He has placed himself in the shoes, so to speak, of these defeated Roman believers in order to show them their problem and, also, to show them the only solution to that problem – Jesus Christ AS LORD! (See verse 25 of Romans 7).
One of the most misunderstood texts from the pen of the apostle Paul is the 7th chapter of Romans, especially verses 14 through 24. Here are a few of the surprising statements Paul makes in those verses: “I am carnal, sold under sin” (verse 14), “What I hate, that do I” (verse 15), “Sin dwells in me” (verse 17), “How to perform that which is good I find not” (verse 18), “The good that I would (do), I do not, but the evil which I would not (do), that I do” (verse 19), “When I would do good, evil is present with me” (verse 21), “I see another law in my members…bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members” (verse 23), and, finally, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (verse 24).
It seems that many who read those plain, clear statements in Romans 7 forget that in the previous chapter, chapter 6, Paul had just made these plain and clear statements, too: “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? GOD FORBID. (And He DOES forbid sin in the life of the believer). How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (verses 1 and 2). “Our old man (the former YOU) is crucified with Him, that the body of sin MIGHT BE DESTROYED, that henceforth (from the time of conversion forward) we should not serve sin” (verse 6). “He that is dead is freed from sin” (verse 7) – NOT “sold under sin!” “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin” (verse 11). “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof” (verse 12). “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God” (verse 13). “For (then) sin shall not have dominion over you” (verse 14). “What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under (the penalty of) the law, but under grace (unmerited favor and forgiveness)? GOD FORBID!” (verse 15). “But God be thanked, that ye WERE (past tense) the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart (from the core and depth of your being) that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you (by none other than Paul himself). Being then MADE FREE FROM SIN, ye became the servants (slaves) of righteousness” (verses 17 and 18).
Remember, Paul said, “I keep under (control) MY body (his own fleshly pulls and appetites), and bring it into subjection (to the Holy Spirit’s leading and control) lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway (from fellowship and union with Jesus Christ).” (See I Corinthians 9:27).
The teaching device of applying the problem or actions of another to his own self was used by Paul more than once. Notice these words in I Corinthians, chapter 4. Paul writes, “And these things, brethren, I have in a figure TRANSFERRED TO MYSELF AND APOLLOS for your sake (in order to teach or show the Corinthian believers) that you might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another” (verse 6). Paul again refers to this same methodology of teaching in chapter 9, writing, “TO THE WEAK BECAME I AS WEAK, that I might gain the weak; I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (verse 22).
Paul had the victory over sin in his own life. Approximately six years before writing the Roman letter, Paul had written the believers at Thessalonica: “You are witnesses, and God also (notice now Paul says God will attest to what he is about to say), how holily and justly and unblamably we behaved ourselves among you that believe” (See 1 Thessalonians 2:10). Paul had long lived a holy, just and blameless life! That is WHY Paul could dogmatically state to both Timothy and Titus that a bishop (spiritual overseer, a pastor) MUST BE BLAMELESS…JUST, HOLY!” (See Titus 1:7-8 and I Timothy 3:1-7). Paul wasn’t a hypocrite, telling these men THEY had to be holy and blameless while he, himself, had to admit that he was “carnal, sold under sin!” How ridiculous that any Bible teacher would even think so!!! Paul well knew that God had said through the Psalmist words long ago, “he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me” (See Psalm 101:6). God is not so hard up for earthly representatives that He will anoint the ungodly to represent Him and speak on His behalf.
In Hebrews 12:14, we read “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” Yet in 2 Corinthians 12 Paul speaks of a man who was caught up to heaven. Most all Bible scholars agree the man Paul speaks of in this text was Paul himself. Then, too, Paul also speaks of seeing Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road. (See Acts 9).
Remember, Peter warned that Paul wrote some things hard to be understood. Some, indeed, think Paul was speaking of his own present condition in Romans 7. After all he DOES use the present tense and uses the personal pronoun “I” in all those statements about sin overcoming him and holding him captive. But they fail to consider the plain, clear VICTORY statements of Romans 6 and 8. They also fail to grasp the true meaning of that 19th verse in Romans 6, wherein Paul says that he is now going to speak “after the manner of men” who have weakness in the flesh. And, further, they fail to consider all the other statements Paul makes in his other epistles about our living dedicated lives of holiness and purity, and how he, himself, led such a life as a shining example of a true minister of Jesus Christ.
That’s not all they forget. Here are a few other statements Paul makes that they obviously overlook when reading Romans 7. Paul wrote the Corinthians: “I know of NOTHING against myself!” (See I Corinthians 4:4). He could search his mind, his heart, and life without one twinge of guilt over unforsaken sin. The New International Version words it this way: “My conscience is clear.”
In writing the Philippian believers, Paul said, as touching the righteousness required in the law, he was blameless. (See Philippians 3:6). He told them that Christ was magnified in HIS body, and that for him to live was for Christ to live anew. (See Philippians 1:20-21). How could Paul seriously exhort the Philippian believers to be “blameless, and harmless, and without rebuke” if he, himself, was ever giving in to the pulls of the flesh? (See Philippians 2:15). Paul would have been a hypocrite!
Paul exhorted the believers at Corinth, “Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ” (I Corinthians 11:1), and cried out to the Galatian believers, “Christ LIVES in me!” (See Galatians 2:20). It would be a pathetic joke today for many believers, even many ministers, to make such statements and apply them to their own lives and conduct.
When Paul wrote, “I am carnal, sold under sin” (Romans 7:4), he wasn’t speaking of himself for just a few verses later he wrote, “To be carnally minded IS DEATH” (See Romans 8:6), and “the carnal mind is hostile against God” (See Romans 8:7). Do you really think this apostle was hostile against God??!! Let’s wake up and forget our preconceived ideas for a moment, and yes, we will have to forget much ERROR that has been spoon fed us from the pulpit and from “theologians” who were in gross error in this matter as well as many other matters having to do with what the scriptures actually do teach and reveal.
Jesus Christ lived His life marvelously and victoriously in and through the apostle Paul. Paul wrote the Galatian believers that he was travailing in birth that Christ might be formed in them, too. (See Galatians 4:19). (Is it quite obvious that YOUR pastor is striving diligently week in and week out to see Jesus Christ’s purity of life obviously manifested in YOUR life? How about your pastor’s life?)
The personality Paul speaks of and describes in Romans 7 is “sold under sin” – not freed from sin, as was Paul. All that is said in Romans 7 can fit a Christian’s experience if he, or she, is not submitted to Christ for deliverance, or who continues to yield the members of their body to various fleshly appetites. Peter wrote that it was cursed spiritual adulterers who could not cease from sin. (See 2 Peter 2:14). Do you think Peter saw his fellow apostle Paul as a cursed spiritual adulterer?? (Come on, pastor, rethink some of your warped theology for the sake of your own spiritual welfare as well as the spiritual welfare of those who look toward you as a spokesperson of divine truth if you are one of the multitudes who believe and have taught that Paul was speaking of his own spiritual condition in Romans 7).
Paul told the Galatian believers it pleased God to reveal His Son in him. (See Galatians 1:15-16). Paul wrote the Corinthians that when he was weak that was when he was actually strong, for that is when he depended most upon the Lord Jesus Christ to give him continued victory over sin or some temptation to err or do evil. (See 2 Corinthians 17:10). In Romans 8:37, Paul affirms that believers are MORE than conquerors through Christ!
Paul urged the Corinthians to bring their every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. (See 2 Corinthians 10:5). Paul was not a hypocrite. He had done the same in his own life years and years before and was continuing to do the same day by day, allowing Jesus Christ to truly live in him!
Paul wrote the Thessalonian believers: “Abstain from all appearance of evil, and the very God of peace sanctify you WHOLLY (completely), and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body (your total person) be preserved BLAMELESS unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (that is, for the rest of their lives). Faithful is He that calls you (to this walk of holiness), WHO ALSO WILL DO IT” (See I Thessalonians 5:22-24). How could he be so sure God would bring these Thessalonian believers into a blameless walk before Him – and, remember, God sees it all? BECAUSE HE HAD BROUGHT PAUL THERE, THAT’S WHY!
Here are a few other scriptures that show absolutely, conclusively that Paul taught absolute holiness of life for the fully surrendered believer: Romans 8:2, 12 and 37; I Corinthians 10:13; I Corinthians 15:34; 2 Corinthians 4:10-11; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 2 Corinthians 6:16-18 with 2 Corinthians 7:1; 2 Corinthians 10:3-5; Galatians 1:3-4; Galatians 5:16; Ephesians 1:3-4, 18-19; Ephesians 3:14-21; Ephesians 5:25-27; Philippians 3:20-21; Colossians: 1:9-13, 21-23, 28-29; I Thessalonians 4:7; 2 Timothy 2:19 and Titus 2:11-15. How anyone with a thinking mind can read those texts and think Paul himself was a carnal believer, sold under sin is absolute PROOF there is a deceiving spirit called Satan much alive and well and at work on this planet!
Also, bear in mind that “with God nothing shall be impossible” (See Luke 1:37). God is fully able to bring forth holy righteous character in His sons and daughters while they yet live in the flesh on this earth. To say that God cannot do this is to say God cannot do what He has promised He will do for all who submit totally to His Son as their Lord and Savior. God help you to understand!
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley