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Welcome to our look together at Romans chapter 7 in our daily drive-time
devotions. This is our fifth look, day five of that look at this incredible
chapter, Romans 7, 21 to 25, of the verses we're looking at today. Yesterday we
talked about our confusion as those who are unspiritual.

Today we're going to take a look together at the conclusion and the solution.
Yesterday the confusion was, "I see there's in me this desire to do good, but I
don't do it, and I'm confused by that. " Paul has a conclusion to that whole
problem, that struggle that we face in verses 21 to 23.

He says the conclusion is, "Evil is present in me. There's something broken in
me. " Romans chapter 7, verses 21 to 23, "So I find this law at work.

When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I
delight in God's law, but I see another law at work in the members of my body,
waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin
at work within my members. " Paul paints a picture of this battle between our
inner being, what we want to do, and our outer actions, what we actually do, the
inner being and the members of my body.

Now be careful to understand here, he's not talking about a division between
body and spirit. He's talking about a division between our will and our actions.
And his conclusion is, "Evil is present with me.

" His conclusion is in verse 24, "Who will rescue me? " Verse 24 in many ways is
the low point of the book of Romans, but it's immediately followed by the high
point in all of chapter 8, in verse 25 of chapter 7. In verse 24 he says, "What
a wretched man I am!

Who will rescue me from this body of death? " How does all that we've been
talking about the last few days make Paul feel? Like a person losing the battle.

In fact, Paul uses battle terms in these verses. In verse 23 we talked about
waging war against the law of my mind. And here he uses the word wretched.

What a wretched man. The Greek word wretched here was used to picture a person
who was exhausted, just totally depleted after a battle. What can be more
exhausting than discovering that even your best is not good enough?

So he says, "Who will rescue me? " Another battle picture, an expression for
someone who is wounded in battle, desperately in need of help, crying out for
help. Well there is hope.

I need someone to save me. I need someone to rescue me. I can't save myself.

There is hope. The answer doesn't come through your strength and energy, or the
strength and energy and wisdom of others. It doesn't come through circumstances,
or seminars, or promising to try harder, or some new spiritual technique.

The answer, the rescue, comes through a person. It comes through Jesus Christ.
We've looked at the confusion and the conclusion, but here's the solution.

Verse 25. "I have victory through Christ. " Verse 25 reads, "Thanks be to God
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I, myself, in my mind,
am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. "
Paul says, "I have victory.

Thanks be to God. " When Christ comes into the picture, everything changes.
Everything changes.

It's interesting. Romans chapter 7 is really all about "I" problems. The pronoun
"I" is used 27 times in this one chapter.

"Me" is used six times. "My" is used four times. "Myself" is used two times.

That's 39 first-person pronouns in just 12 verses. Incredible. It's all focused
on himself.

Romans chapter 7, the emphasis is on the "I. " Romans chapter 8, the emphasis is
on the Spirit. And everything changes.

And in between Romans chapter 7 and 8 is Jesus Christ and the change, the rescue
that he can bring into our lives. Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. It's interesting here.

Paul says, "Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ," but then gives a
quick reminder that the struggle continues. In my mind, I am free, but I also
see the struggle still in my life, he says. What he's saying here is that
victory is assured, but the battle continues.

Let me give you, as we end this chapter, two pictures of that battle. Two
pictures that help me as a young Christian. A couple books that I read.

I read a little book by Lane Adams as a new believer in Christ titled "How Come
It's Taking Me So Long to Get Better, So Long to Grow. " And in that book, he
pictured our Christian life somewhat like occupied territory on an island out in
the Pacific during World War II. In those islands out in the Pacific, the
Marines, if they were going to reoccupy the island, had to come in and first
establish a beachhead.

And from that beachhead, they then had the strength and the power to eventually
take over the entire island. He says that's really what happens in our lives as
believers. Jesus Christ establishes a beachhead in our lives as he saves us, but
we still have struggles in our mind.

We still see sin at work in our lives. Why is that? Because we haven't allowed
him to take control of those areas of our lives, and he will.

Once Jesus has established a beachhead, it is inevitable, it is inevitable that
we will grow to be more and more like him. When we get to heaven, when we see
him, we will be like him. Through this life and this world, we become more and
more like him as we trust in him.

You see, as you hear this picture of a battle, maybe on an island, it's very
important for you and I to understand who's going to win this battle and what
the picture is. The battle is not two equal powers doomed to struggle. So we
have to battle harder and harder, and then we battle by our own power, and by
battling for our own power, by our own power, we bring to life the very thing
that we're trying to battle against.

When you try to live the Christian life on your own power, you bring sin back to
life. Paul says in Romans chapters 6 and 7, it really has happened as we have a
new ruler. The battle is won, and the key to victory is in our personal
surrender.

The only way to defeat the enemy of sin is to surrender our lives and hearts to
God. But when we surrender to him, we're not surrendering to someone who wants
to use us in a way that would take away our life. We're surrendering to someone
who wants to fulfill us.

We're surrendering not to the enemy, but to the victor. It's a great paradox
that in order for us to be free from sin, we have to become a slave to God. But
there is great freedom in what we live for him.

That's one picture of the battle. There's another picture that I read as a new
believer that was very helpful to me, a little book. Maybe you've read it called
My Heart, Christ's Home.

And that picture is our Christian life like a house. The moment I come to
Christ, Jesus moves into that house. Let's say he moves into the kitchen dining
room of your life, and he sits down at the table and he begins a relationship
with you, and you begin a relationship with him.

The picture that's in this little book is that then Jesus begins to wrestle
around the rest of the house. Look at the other areas of your life and how he
can become a part of those areas. And some of those areas you may not want him
to become a part of.

You might have some hidden clauses that you'd rather Jesus didn't open. You
might want to just sort of keep him in the dining room, but Jesus doesn't do
that. He continually walks through the entirety of our lives, looking into every
nook and cranny not to catch us, not to shame us, but to grow us.

And one day for all of us, we have to have this talk with Jesus Christ where
maybe we say to him in our heart and our mind, "Jesus, I'd rather you stay out
of those parts of my life. " And we hear Jesus saying back to us, "When you
invited me into your life, it was all of your life. I didn't come in just to be
a guest in your home.

You invited me in as the owner. You invited me in as the one who can give you
life like nobody else. " And that's what we do.

Truth is, you will never, never rid yourself of the old desires to sin as long
as you and I live in this world. There's no magic formula for doing that. Romans
7 is not some one-time experience that you grow through and then you're finished
with and somehow you're a perfect Christian the rest of your life.

There is no such thing as complete victory while you're on this earth. But there
is such a thing as continuing victory, as daily victory. So let's not pretend
that we never sin.

Let's not lie to ourselves that we don't struggle with sin. Let's not give up in
our struggle with sin. Stop pretending you're perfect.

You don't have to pretend that you have it all together. Recognize that Jesus
Christ, through his forgiveness, wants to begin to take over each room of your
life. Truth is, as we've looked at Romans chapter 7, we've just read together
the process that you and I have to go through to find victory.

And you'll go through this again and again and again on different levels and in
different areas of your life. As you go through that process, you're constantly
going to be tempted to depend on rules again. Oh, here's a new struggle.

Maybe I can come up with a rule that'll help this one. Human willpower will
never cut it. You cannot live the Christian life on your own.

And so Paul says, "Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. " In fact,
that's our prayer. As we end our look at this chapter, let's pray that prayer to
God.

God, we say to you, "Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thanks be
to God that Jesus died on the cross so that my sins can be forgiven. Thanks be
to God that Jesus died on the cross so that I can begin to live a new life that
you're giving me to live through his resurrection.

Thanks be to God that I have died to sin because of what Jesus did to me. Thanks
be to God that sin no longer has a hold on me. Thanks be to God that when I sin,
I am forgiven.

Thanks be to God also that when I sin, I have a new power to live a new way. I
don't have to be controlled by that sin any longer. Thanks be to God, Jesus
Christ, that you love me.

And thanks be to God that you've given me a new life by the Spirit to live in
you. Help me to live that life today. I pray it in Jesus' name, amen.

Well next week we're going to begin our look at one of the most incredible,
awesome chapters of the Bible, Romans chapter 8. You might want to even read
that chapter before we begin to look together at that chapter this next week.
Romans chapter 8 especially helps us to focus on the power that God's Spirit
gives us to live the life that he made us to live.