“The Conflict of the Law”

Scripture: Romans 7:7-25

Life is full of conflict. We see it living in the news nearly every day. Divorce, murder, war, hatred, divisiveness, as well as the general and all too obvious death spiral of unity. Government seems to always function in conflict; business competition is often founded in conflict; conflict is even alive and well within the church! And the problem, as I see it, is two-fold: first, we sometimes make very little effort to fully understand the opposite point of view, and second, we always seem to believe that our way is the best way, regardless of whether it is right or wrong.
And when this “attitude of self-centeredness” enters the church, it can tear congregations apart. It’s true – it’s happened before and will happen again! We have a tendency to be self-centered, when we should be focused on being Christ-centered. We want faith to be easy and clean and straightforward, and when it isn’t, we try to force-fit it into our imperfect mold.

Pastor Jim Benedict wrote:
We want Jesus to be a certain way. We want God to solve our problems as we perceive them, in the way we think is best. We want Jesus to be the champion of our causes, whatever they may be. We want God to take our side in every conflict, from family squabbles to football games to international politics. And when things don't go our way, we are quick to conclude that God or Jesus has let us down.

But the Palm Sunday story should remind us that this is not how it works. Jesus will not simply step in to champion our causes any more than he would champion the cause of Jewish independence two thousand years ago. Jesus on a donkey's back was a sign and we ought to take heed.
Jesus is not interested in our agenda; Jesus has his own agenda.
--Jim Benedict, "Not what we had in mind," Union Bridge Church of the Brethren website, April 1, 2012. cob-net.org.

Palm Sunday is rapidly approaching, and so is the conclusion of our journey in Romans. You may have noticed that the focus these past 5 weeks has been about sin - what it does to us and what God has already done about it. And sin has brought a conflict into our lives – a three-way conflict that exists between the law of God, the standards of the world, and our faith in Jesus Christ.
In our shattered and hopeless and confused state, God created a new and simple covenant – a new relationship – for us, but we have not only ignored it, we have broken it. Our sin is all about death, and for some strange reason, humanity seems to prefer that outcome to the one of Life that Jesus offers. We think that our goodness is sufficient, that keeping a portion of the rules of civility will be enough, but Paul has been diligent in dispelling that myth. He writes that the law offers us no hope whatsoever. And the world stands back and chuckles at our uncertainty – which is it? Covenant or Law? Do we even have a clue?
Today, the apostle brings a different perspective to the law – that maybe it isn’t useless after all, and maybe it really does fit with faith.

Read Romans 7:7-12

How can we possibly understand the difference between right and wrong if we don’t have rules? The truth is that we can’t! But that doesn’t mean that we will like them, or even that we will follow them, because we see rules as necessary for others, and not so much for us. The problem with rules is that they need to have a universal application – whether they are family rules, governmental rules, or rules of faith. We want to believe that we are basically good, and that our goodness is adequate justification for all the bad things we do in life. But as Paul writes in verse 11, sin deceives us into thinking that it is perfectly “legal”, even as it draws us into a verdict of DEATH.
So, rules are important – not just for a few, but for all. Paul says that the law itself is good, because it sets the boundary between good and evil - it establishes the line that separates right from wrong, good from bad, life from death. Observance of the law doesn’t make us righteous, though, but it does set the standard for what a righteous life must look like. James 2:26 tells us that “As the body without the Spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is also dead.” It’s all about being saved by grace, and living as though it really means something!

But Paul is also telling us that even though the law is “holy, righteous and good”, it only establishes the boundaries that delineate goodness versus evil in our life. And when we begin to see the law, we suddenly discover that, because of the law, we now have to see ourselves as sinful beings. But the law, though impotent in salvation, is not the source of our problem. It is merely the conduit that sin takes to flow into our lives.

Read Romans 7:13-20

This passage is bordering on being a tongue twister! In 6 verses, I counted 21 “do’s”, “doing”, and “does”! But let me try to boil the message down to a few words – “I know what I should and should not be doing, but my very nature seems to lead me to do just the opposite! And it is all due to the sin that is in me.”
When I was growing up, my buddy Wayne and I used to go fishing down at the Apalachin Creek. We never caught much, but I guess my folks figured that it was a good way to keep us both out of trouble. UNTIL, that is, the day came when they told me that the creek was OK, but that I should never go to the river to fish. The river had never entered my mind, as it was about a mile away, and even if we followed the creek, which would knock off some of the distance, it still wouldn’t be a very easy trip.
But you know exactly what happened next. The next fishing excursion that Wayne and I took found us making our way to the Susquehanna! We followed the creek so we wouldn’t be seen, and with the route that we had to take to get around bends and heavy brush, the trip took longer than usual, and when I was asked about the extra time that we were gone, I made up some excuse, and that seemed to suffice. I don’t know if Mom and Dad ever suspected where we had gone, but they never let on if they did. I think that this was our first and last trip to the river – the creek was good enough!

That is what Paul was saying. Life was good until he began to understand what the law was really requiring of him, and then sin laid hold of him, and it was all downhill from there. In verse 15, he writes that he doesn’t “understand what he does”, implying that his sin is inadvertent. If that is the case, then sin is certainly to blame. But in verse 20 he writes – “Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” Now here, personally, I think Paul is copping out. If you do what you know is wrong, then fault has returned to you. “It’s not my fault – the devil made me do it!” We all laughed when Flip Wilson used that line, but when Paul says it, we all just nod our heads in agreement, and go on our merry way.
It may be true that it is sin that tempts us to do those things, but here is where “free will” comes in to play again. We have the will to say “no” to sin! We can no longer afford to simply blame our sinful ways on Satan – we have the opportunity to do what is right, even though we have a tendency to do the other. This is about the only time that you will ever hear me disagree with Paul, so mark this day well, and remember that we have the ability and obligation to “Just say no!” to sin. No, it isn’t easy, but do you think the Spirit will help us? You had better believe it!

Read Romans 7:21-25

And, in faith, guilt over our succumbing to the allure of sin will haunt us for the rest of our lives. But there is hope! Jesus is always there for us, whether we are in sin or in righteousness. He will be the one who reminds us of the errors of our ways, and he will be the one who rejoices when we make the right choice in him. God’s ways are always appealing, but the call of the “forbidden fruit” is very strong, too. We make a conscious choice to be a servant of the Most High God, even while our sinful nature is urging us to make concessions in our service.
It may be a comfort to know that the great apostle Paul struggled with sin in his day, just as we do in ours, but it is no excuse for us to let down our guard. Jesus gave up his life at Calvary so that we might be freed from the ravages of sin. But we also need to remember that he also spent 3 years of that life teaching us the better way to live. What will it be – a wretched life in sin, or a righteous life in Christ?

Just say no to sin, and not only will your righteous life will be fulfilled, but the conflict will evaporate, too.