EXPLORE IT - Romans 7:13-17

Romans 7:13-17  Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.  ¹⁴ We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.  ¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.  ¹⁶ And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.  ¹⁷ As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.

Have you ever known the right path to take, but you went in the opposite direction for some reason?  Or you knew the right thing to say, but chose to not be so nice?  It seems, in life, we know what we should do, but for some reason or another we choose to do something else.  We know we should have vegetables with dinner, but instead we have ice cream.  We know we should apologize, but instead we accuse and blame someone else.  What makes us do that?  How come we can’t get it together?!?

As we continue our sermon series this week, we journey a little deeper into Romans 7 where Paul addresses this very topic.  It’s oddly encouraging that the Apostle Paul says, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do,” (Romans 7:15).  Paul struggled too with doing what he knew to be right!

The previous verse brings light to this struggle.  Paul says that “the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual…” (Romans 7:16).  The word for “spiritual” here is “pneumatiko,j (pneumatikos).”  This refers to something that is caused or filled with the Holy Spirit.  The law is filled with the Holy Spirit!  So like the Holy Spirit it is holy, perfect, divine, blessed, etc.  Paul on the other hand (and we fit in this category as well) is “unspiritual” or “sarkiko,j (sarkikos),” meaning fleshly, an earthly thing, weak, and sinful.  The Law is of God and we are earthly.  We are set up to fail from the beginning!

This is why once we accept Jesus as Lord, we must follow the command Paul gives the Church at Ephesus when he says, “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.  Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:17-18).  The “be filled” here is a Present Imperative Passive verb in the Greek.  The Imperative means that it is a command.  The Present tense tells us that this is something we must continually, habitually follow; so we are ordered to continually, habitually be filled with the Holy Spirit.  The most interesting part is that this is a passive verb, which means this is something that happens to us.  The Holy Spirit must fill us Himself, we cannot do this on our own.

Have you asked the Holy Spirit to fill you today?  If not, how come?  This is not a once and done thing, this is something we must do every day…sometimes multiple times during our day.  With His infilling, we then have the power to do the things we know we should do…we are not unspiritual any more, but spiritual!

Blessings,
Pastor Amy