Romans 7:15-25

Because it is so hot [it was 91º in the sanctuary this morning – the church is not air conditioned], this is going to be a short message. It will be based on the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans, the seventh chapter. Here Paul is dealing with a basic human problem: why do we do the things that we know we shouldn’t do? Here is one way the Apostle Paul describes this very human problem: “For the desire to do good lies close at hand, but not the ability.”

Why is that? How can we want to do a good thing, want to do the right thing, maybe we even know what the good or right thing to do is, and still not be able to do it? We can blame other people, but in the end, that is a cop-out. We are each responsible before God for ourselves. I’ll share an example: when I am stressed and have too much on my plate, the way that stress comes out for me is that I get grouchy, crabby, and internally angry, angry in my spirit. I have too much German blood in me to be outwardly angry and I instead do what the Saturday Night Live German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, did – she does the German scream. The skit was that when she was angry, she would scream into her stomach and no one ever hears it. That’s me. I don’t wake up in the morning wanting to have an angry spirit. I try many times not to be like that. But sometimes I am that way and it’s wrong and it’s not fair to the people I love and are closest to me. 

Older Christians called this concept your ‘besetting sin’. In more modern language, it’s your biggest flaw, the thing that you do that you shouldn’t but seems to come naturally, the sin you are most comfortable with. This is different for each of us and may show up differently in each of us. I think each of these things for us has their root in what the ancient Church called the seven deadly sins. They are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony (which is the desire to consume or use more than you need), wrath, and sloth (which is the willing avoidance of physical, emotional, or spiritual work).

Here is the human dilemma: no one wants to be any of these things. You don’t hear people say I am so proud that I am greedy or being full of wrath is what gets me out of bed in the morning. And yet, in some way, we each are. Here is the Apostle Paul again, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”

This is the human inner conflict. The good news, the gospel message, is that God has decided to do something about it. God’s doing something about it is like an operation. First, the Lord helps us to diagnose the problem. One of the gifts, the graces of God and signs of growth in the Christian life is that you get to know yourself more. That’s the first step in the diagnosis, understand you and what motivates you, scares you, gives you hope, and makes you feel loved. Understanding that about yourself helps you to build character. The teachings and examples of Jesus, God’s commands in the Scriptures, God’s law, teach us what is right and wrong, good and evil. Knowing yourself is the first part of God’s grace.

The second part of God’s grace is that he doesn’t leave us as we are. One of the images of the Lord is that he is like a divine physician. Just like a good doctor doesn’t leave a sick patient without trying to provide help, so the Lord doesn’t leave us alone. If you have a moral conscience, you know that your inner life is sometimes a struggle between your best and worst instincts and impulses. Do you lash out when that person makes you angry? To you consume more than you need even though it feels good?

The promise of the gospel is God helps you to not be the same person today as you were yesterday or last year. Paul ends this section on character with a sort of play on words. “Wretched person that I am, who will rescue me from this body of death?” Death here is figurative. The seven deadly sins are deadly not because they will kill your body, but because they will whither and shrivel your spirit down to nothing. They wilt someone’s heart, mind, and soul. But the Apostle Paul ends with this, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord” as an antidote to spiritual shriveling and moral whithering. The promise of the gospel is that the Lord Jesus heals our souls, revitalizes our moral core when needed, and sometimes if necessary, revives our heart, mind, and spirit if they are on life support. 

Thanks be to God. Amen.