TCN's Biblical Journey November 12th

Tell City Nazarene Church's Biblical Journey

With Pastor Charles Areson

Today's reading is Romans 4-7

When most people look at Romans Chapter 7 it is with hopelessness. This is where they believe we as Christians live. We want to do good, but we can’t. This chapter has been used to prove that the carnal man it always part of our lives and that we will sin in thought, word, and deed every day.
However, the problem with this thought is what we read in Romans chapter 8. Which talks of the victorious life of those who walk in the Spirit. It also seems to contradict what Paul just said in chapter 6, so there must be another explanation.

I will admit that I have struggled with this chapter myself for a long time. In a review of John Wesley’s Notes on the New Testament, I saw the answer. The answer is considering the entire context of what Paul was talking about the purpose and usefulness of the Law.

Paul at the beginning of this section of the book is discussing that though the Law is good it doesn’t help us do what is right. Verse 14 is the key, “We know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.” Following this verse, Paul explains what it means to be a slave to sin. As a slave to sin under the Law, you want to do what is right, but you find yourself still doing wrong. It is a depressing place ending with Paul’s cry, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” (verse 24).  However, Paul answers with what he has said for the whole book: Jesus. This is why Paul can end saying “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”(verse 25a) and then reaffirms what he has been trying to teach by saying, “So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin” (verse 25b).

The answer to how we live in Christ as Paul talked about in Chapter 6 is described in chapter 8.