Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
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As our last episode indicated, there are two races, those people of the Devil and those of God. But this war we are speaking of today isn't external, it is indeed internal to each of us. As Paul eloquently describes, our new nature as a child of God is at war with our old nature.
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.
In regeneration, now that you are born again, you're a new person and you're identified with your born of God self. It's like who you are substantively. Um take a look at Galatians 2 20. No, let's go to first. Let's go to Romans.
This is another passage. A lot of dispute about this passage. I I take the understanding that Paul is describing his life as a believer before he understood how to live the Christian life. He knew, you know, the law and he knew what God demanded, righteousness, but he's he didn't know how to live that way. At first, he had to learn how to live the Christian life. So if you look in Romans 7, verse 8, what we're kind of looking for is to see that Paul thinks of himself as not the one who's the sinner. I'm not a sinner. Who am I? I'm the one who wants to do good. I'm the one who wants to please God. I'm the one who wants to obey. That's who I really am. I'm not the one sinning. It almost sounds like he's saying I'm not responsible for my sin. So check this out. 7-8. But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me. Now, you just said there's this thing called sin, and it's producing something inside of you, he says, coveting of every kind, he says, because apart from the law, sin is dead. In other words, sin highlighted, I mean, the law highlighted sin, right? That's what it did. He says, I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died.
And this commandment, which was to result in life, I mean, it's a good law. There's nothing wrong with the law that God gave Moses through Moses. Nothing wrong with it, he says, but it proved to result in death for me. Why? Verse 11, because sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it, it killed me. You know, it's just, it's that thing where if you tell a kid they can't have a cookie and you leave the room, the only thing they want to do is have a cookie. Like the sin nature exerts itself against an authority. The authority says, don't do this. The sin nature says, Oh yeah, watch this. And it does it. And he's describing this, especially he had a trouble with coveting, right? This was Paul's big issue was desiring what other people had. He'd look, he'd see what other people had, and he said, I don't want that. And um I imagine that's quite prevalent among people. They look at others, they say, I deserve that. That should be mine, that shouldn't be theirs. And all this goes on, and all that is is just sin, right? The sin nature is taking advantage of their conscience, and the conscience says, No, you shouldn't covet other people's things. Well, you violate your conscience, and this is sin. Verse 12. So then he says, the law is holy, the commandment is holy and righteous and good. There's nothing wrong with the commandment. Therefore, did that which is good, the law, become a cause of death for me? He says, No way, that's not the cause of the death. It was the sin, and these are all articular, the sin in the Greek text. It was the sin. The sin what? Well, the sin nature. That's what he's talking about. The sin nature inside of him, in order that it might be shown to be sin by affecting my death through that which is good, the law. So that through the commandment, sin would become utterly sinful.
And then he starts, he starts doing this separation. Okay. For what I am doing, I don't understand, for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I'm doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree the law. I'm confessing the law is good. So, conclusion, verse 17. No longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me is doing it. You see how he's almost saying, I'm not responsible for this. It sounds like he's saying that. It's no longer I who am the one doing it. Well, how can he say that? I mean, you did it, Paul.
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You are doing the sin.
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Yeah, but it's not who I really am.
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That's his point.
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It's not who I really am as a regenerate person. That's not the essence of who we are anymore. Before we believed, yes, the essence of who we were was just defined by sin. But now that we believe we're regenerate, and who we really are is not a sinner. So when we sin, it's not it's not who we are substantively, ontologically in our nature. We're acting contrary to our nature whenever we sin. It's not who we were reborn to be. That's what he means. Verse 18, for I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh. See, as a regenerate person, we still still carry the sin nature in our flesh, he says. He says, because the willing is present in me, the willing to do good, but the doing of the good is not. He's saying, I cannot affect the good just by myself. I want to do what's good, but I can't do it, he says. He says, for the good that I want, I don't do, but the pr I practice the very evil that I don't want to do. Ha! And we talk about this, this frustration in ourselves. He says, but if I am doing the very thing I do not want, look, he says it again, I am no longer the one doing it. You say, what do you mean? Yeah, of course you're doing it. No, he says, substantively, ontologically, that's not who I am anymore. I'm a regenerated person, but I still carry this sin nature within me, he says, it dwells in me, and it is warring against the law of my mind, which says, do good, do righteousness, I want to please God. And then there's this other principle or sin nature within me that's saying, no, you're gonna do this sin. And so he says, verse 21, I find then this principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good, right? Tension. For I joyfully concur with the law of God, it's good, inside my inner man. And this is there because he's regenerate, right? But I see a different law in the members of my body, it's waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.
You'll see here you've got the law of his mind, you've got the law of the sin, and then what you've got in chapter 8 is is verse in chapter 8, verse 2 is the law of the spirit of life. You've got these three laws going on inside of you. Okay? So Paul wanted to do good, right? But then he kept sinning. But he would say, It's not I who do the sin, but it's the sin dwelling in me that does that, meaning I'm not that's not really who I am anymore. And we're not supposed to sin, right? We're not supposed to. We're supposed to live in conformity with who we really are, and who we really are as regenerate people.
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