Peter Barnes | Romans 7:14-25
SERMON NOTES
MIND VERSUS FLESH! (part 3)
(Romans 7:14-25)
– It is a struggle all round.
1. The more we grow, the more we realise that we fall short.
– 7:18; Charles Wesley in 1738: ‘I never knew the energy of sin till now that I experience the superior strength of Christ.’
– Paul wrote 1 Timothy 1:15!
– the better our eyes, the more dirt we see (Rom.11:8; 2 Cor.4:6)
2. We must be thankful for victory in Christ.
– Rom.7:24; James Denney said that is not the cry of a Christian, but it is – see 7:25a
– like the victory over death in 1 Cor.15:55-57
– there is a battle but it is far more encouraging if you know the outcome of the war.
3. We are divided within ourselves.
– Rom.7:25b; seems like an anticlimax, not unlike 1 Cor.15:58 when we might expect a description of the new heaven and the new earth.
– we battle ourselves as well as the world and the devil (James 1:14-16); Augustine on verse 25: ‘These are the words of one who is now under grace but still battling against his own lust, not so that he consents and sins but so that he experiences desires which he resists.’