Romans 7:15 (ESV)
I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
My life does not measure up with my belief. There is a gap between what I believe about my position as a new creation in Christ and the constant urgings of the old nature of sin.
But, there is now an awareness of the new desires to please God and to obey. This was not a part of the old nature. Before Christ, one is content to follow the desires of the flesh. There was no conflict of heart – no psychological tension – no cognitive dissonance. But now, as Paul describes it, there is this struggle between desire and performance - “I don’t understand my actions – my behavior. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”
The life of living out the truth of the Gospel is one filled with tensions. It is a struggle, not with the truth of the Gospel message or its reliability and trustworthiness, but with the inbetween stage of now and not yet. We live in the world, but not of it. The stench of death is still all around us, even though we have been restored to new life (If we are in Christ). Just as Lazarus was walking out of the tomb by the power of Christ’s call, he had the smell of death in the grave clothes that bound him. Christian living in the power of the Gospel does not translate us into angels. We are as Luther described it, “Sinners at the same time Justified.” Again, chapter 7 is not the description of an unbeliever – someone in an unregenerate state. It is also not a description of a “carnal” or pre-Pentecost believer.
It is true that the Holy Spirit is only mentioned once in this chapter(vs. 6) - law is mentioned over 30 times. In ch. 8, the Spirit is mentioned 21 times. What he explains later in is not two types of believers, but the one believer who moment by moment, day by day must rely upon the Spirit, or he will return to the old ways of relying on the law. Therefore, there are not two types of believers – a carnal believer and then one who is has the Spirit. For one, this is no doubt someone who is regenerate. All believers have the Holy Spirit. “If you do not have the Spirit, you do not belong to him.”
The struggle is the believer who is using the law to please God, even as a Christian. It is the description of the in-between struggle of our heart that has been liberated and the flesh that remains bound in the old nature. We have a new heart and new desires – but not the liberty or power to live holy in ourselves. This is why chapter 8 becomes so crucial. (first point of sermon)
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