THE INWARD BATTLE OF ROMANS SEVEN I AM A WRETCHED MAN Virtually every version of the Scripture uses the word "wretched." Some paraphrased translations use the words "unhappy" (DARBY,BBE) and "miserable" (NLT). The word "wretched" means one who is enduring troubles and afflictions, and is in deep misery. It speaks of one who has been given "the bread of affliction" to eat (Deut 16:3; 1 Kgs 22:27). It is the kind of cry that came from Isaiah when he saw the Lord "high and lifted up." "Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips" (Isa 6:5). To even a greater degree than Isaiah, we have reason to lament, for the remnant of our fallen nature remains in our bodies. We would long ago have escorted it from our frail tabernacles, but we have not been able to do it. It lives where we live, and goes where we go. "Wretched man that I am!" It is humiliating and fatiguing to have to deal with an enemy in the land! "Who will deliver me from this body of death?" Notice that the association is with the "body," not the heart or a condemning conscience. That is a critical distinction. The body is our source of shame, being a "vile body," weak and frail, and requiring subjugation (Phil 3:20-21; 2 Cor 4:7). This is the point of our vulnerability a "lowly body" (NKJV), that makes for "humiliation" (NRSV). This is Groaning The exasperating expressions of Romans seven are included in the groans of the eighth chapter of Romans. "And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body" (Rom 8:23). Our spirits long for the time and the place when there will be no more struggle. The Reason for the Condition There is a reason for this experience. In it, we reveal our preferences. The strength of our determination is made known in this inner conflict. Our faith is tested, and our affection examined. -- Tomorrow:
"O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (7:24)
This is the eighth conclusion provoked by the incessant struggle with the sinful nature. What a heart-wrenching cry! This is no casual word of a half-hearted church member! Here is the cry of a person with an undivided heart, but a divided nature. It pours out of a person whose inward man is growing strong, but whose outward man is weakening, and in the throes of death. This is a person with the law of God upon his heart and in his mind, and the law of sin in his earthly nature.
The is not wretchedness because of the guilt of sin, as expressed by David when he sinned against Uriah the Hititte. "I have sinned against the LORD" (2 Sam 12:13), or when he numbered Israel: "I have sinned greatly in that I have done" (2 Sam 24:10). This is not penitential wretchedness! It is not the wretchedness expressed by Judas when he betrayed our Lord. "I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood" (Matt 27:4).
This is the wretchedness that comes from knowing everything that is said or done is expressed imperfectly, and not as the pure heart desires. It is the lament of Galatians 5:17: "For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please" (NASB, Gal 5:17). Blessed is the person who is able to so lament. Such a person reveals a tender heart, a determined spirit, and a sanctified will.
Our body is called "this body of death" because it has no inheritance in the kingdom of God. It is a part of the order that has been cursed--given the sentence of death. From yet another view, it is dead toward God. As the Spirit says later, "And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin" (Rom 8:10).
If our bodies are to be employed in the service of the Lord, they must be "quickened," or given life through the Holy Spirit. As it is written, "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you" (Rom 8:10).
The "deeds of the body," or the things it is inclined to do, must be put to death, for they have nothing to do with God. In fact, those deeds stand between us and God. If they are not mortified, they will exclude us from the everlasting kingdom. Thus it is written, "if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Rom 8:13).
The body is also associated with death because we can only be "present with the Lord" when we are "absent from the body" (2 Cor 5:6,8). All forms of suffering, from temptations to persecution, come because we are in the body. It is the arena of battle in which the Spirit and the flesh converge for war. When we are liberated from our bodies, we will be done with the inward struggle, persecution, and every form of inability and restraint.
It is also the groaning of the fifth chapter of Second Corinthians. "For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life" (2 Cor 5:2-4).
The first responsibility given to us as kings and priests unto God is the subduing of our own bodies. Bringing them into subjection is the testing area. How much we receive from God will be determined by how well we do in subduing the body and bringing it under subjection. In the work of subduing it, we will personally experience the feelings and frustrations of the seventh chapter of Romans. Although the battle wearies us, it also produces proof that we have a new nature. It confirms we have something from God. Truly, this is a "good fight."
PRAYER POINT: Father, in this warfare with the flesh, I confess my total dependence upon You and the resources You give me through the Spirit. In Jesus' name, help me to consistently avail myself of these resources, while living in anticipation of deliverance.