0169 – Dr. Jekyll
& Mr. Hyde
(Freedom in Christ
Jesus)
Romans 7:
July 7, 2024
Quacco Baptist Church
Savannah, GA
O God, you
have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor:
Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our
whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through Jesus
Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Introduction
Paul
used an analogy of marriage to illustrate how we all relate to the law of God.
In Roman law and Jewish law, the woman was bound to her husband for life. The
only way she could be freed from this was through the death of her husband.
Then she was perfectly free to marry again.
He applies the analogy to the believer and his relation to
the law, the woman is the believer, and the law is the husband. But in that the
law can’t die he has the woman, the believer, die in verse 4: Likewise, my
brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you
may belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, in order that
we may bear fruit for God.
Identifying with the death of Christ, we died with Him,
we’re married to Him and the Law has no claim on us. The dissolution of being
married to the Law results in our serving in a new way of the spirit.
There now is absolute freedom, no death but life. We don’t
belong to the Law but to Christ. Paul then asks the question is the Law then
sin? He says no that the Law is good because if it hadn’t been for the Law he
wouldn’t have known sin. He says “If it had not been for the law, I would
not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law
had not said, “You shall not covet.”
I attempted to explain this by using the analogy of traffic
laws. Speed restrictions serve a purpose, they’re good for your safety and that
of others. The
point is, that the Law reveals sin. Exceed the speed you are in the wrong. Now
we can, like Paul had been, be oblivious to the Law. But, the Law also
activates sin. Take the commandments. You can do ok and keep them. But what
about the last one? Don’t covet. Paul had realized that the rest of the
commandments all are broken through sins, that originate in coveting. And what
is to covet? A verb, yearn to
possess or have (something).
In Verses 7&8
he writes: I would
never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not
covet.” But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires
within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power. (NLT).
Now, all Paul can do it seems is to covet. Romans 5:20
he writes, God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they
were. And 1 Corinthians 15:56, for sin is the sting that results
in death, and the law gives sin its power.
In his book Confessions, Augustine describes how this
principle works: “There was a pear tree near our vineyard, weighed down with
fruit alluring neither in appearance nor in flavor. To shake this tree and make
off with its produce, we no-good youths made haste in the dark night when we
had carried on our game in the streets according to our pestilential custom. …
not to feast upon ourselves, but to throw them to the pigs, though we ate
enough to have the pleasure of the forbidden fruit. ...they were nice pears, but
it wasn’t the pears that my wretched soul coveted, I had plenty at home, and
better. I picked them in order to become a thief. … What was it that I loved in
that theft? …. it was pleasing to us to do that which was not allowed. … The
desire to steal was awakened simply by the prohibition of stealing”.
The law says don’t covet. But my nature says, “It sounds
exciting.” You’re about to enter a building you can follow the walk around a
manicured lawn. There’s a sign that says keep off the grass. But it’s easier to
just walk across the grass.
It’s pleasurable to speed, it’s fun to see what you can get
away with, and feel the need for speed and danger. The law reveals and
activates sin. Keeping the law would bring life, but breaking it brings death.
Before you learned of the traffic laws, many were very
unaware of the depth of the violations one commits. There are 48 contiguous
United States and many of them have different laws concerning crossing an
intersection when the traffic light is yellow.
Well, before we
came under the teaching of the gospel, many of us were blissfully unaware of
the depth of our sin. Then we began to see God’s righteous requirements and our
sinfulness became very apparent. Because life is then a continuing revelation
of the radical nature of sin, as we grow in Christ we become aware that though
we’re born again and we are covered by the blood of Christ, at least as for me,
I find myself thoroughly sinful. The more I read, listen, study, and understand
God’s Law, the more I see that my sin is FUBAR. Fouled Up Beyond Repair.
We come to what
it’s like for the believer to struggle against the Law on his own. By himself. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it,
but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me,
that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the
ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do
not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no
longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law
that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the
law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging
war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that
dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this
body of death?
There’s
been controversy over the centuries as to who is the subject. There are three
views: 1. The non-christian, view taken by the Greek fathers; 2. The normal
Christian; view taken by Augustine, Luther, and Calvin; and 3. The carnal
Christian. Paul talking of himself doesn’t see himself as a carnal Christian
but as a normal Christian. He’s not putting on any prissy piety. He speaks with
a candor that can be praised. He states the problem of the struggling Christian
in verses 14-16: For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the
flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not
do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not
want, I agree with the law, that it is good.
Here
we come to the title of this message, Do you all recall the story of Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde centers a conception of humanity as dual in nature. Jekyll asserts that “man is not truly one, but
truly two,” and he imagines the human soul as the battleground for an “angel”
and a “fiend,” each struggling for mastery. But his potion, which he hoped
would separate and purify each element, succeeds only in bringing the dark side
into being—Hyde emerges, but he has no angelic counterpart. Once unleashed,
Hyde slowly takes over, until Jekyll ceases to exist. If man is half angel and
half-fiend, one wonders what happens to the “angel” at the end of the novel.
Perhaps the angel gives way permanently to Jekyll’s devil.
How many of us know what we want to do
but don’t do and what we don’t want to do we do? How many have said this to
counselors, a pastor a close friend? One finds themselves in a quandary, this
is the cry of a believer who is trying but is relying on himself. Paul finds
himself dominated by sin. Verses 17-20: 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells
within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.
For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep
on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but
sin that dwells within me.
Thomas Kempis a German-Dutch Catholic canon regular of the
late medieval period and the author of The Imitation of Christ wrote of this
frustration.
I desire to enjoy thee inwardly, but I
cannot take Thee. I desire to cleave to heavenly things, but fleshly things and
unmortified passions depress me. I will in my mind to be above all things, but
in spite of myself I am constrained to be beneath, so I, unhappy man, fight
with myself and am made grievous to myself while the spirit seeketh what is
beneath. O what I suffer within while as I think on heavenly things in my mind,
the company of fleshly things comes against me when I pray.
Kempis writes for all, and I mean all of
us. How many times have you tried with all your heart, mind, and soul to follow
Christ only to be pulled by your own flesh? Paul knows and understands
what’s really going on and records in verses 21-23: 21 So I find it to be a law that when I
want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God,
in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against
the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my
members.
Paul recognizes that man has two
natures. One delights in the Law of God. The other wages war against God’s Law.
The Christian is subject to two forces at the same time and therefore lives a
life of tension. Like Jekyll and Hyde. Galatians 5:17 - For the desires of
the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the
flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things
you want to do.
Here, a believer who tries to please in
his or her own strength will always come away disheartened, and frustrated.
Always, This happens to “good” Christians, more so to “Super” Christians.
Paul was perhaps the greatest Christian
ever, and buddy, this was his experience. He had more theology and passion in his
pinky finger than any of us, anyone will have in their entire lifetime. Paul
understood how sin defeats us through the Law and he may have come out, in time
from under the bondage of sin, but never came to “perfection.”
He cries out: verse 24 Wretched man
that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Wretched, What
a miserable distressed condition. Paul has come to the end of the rope. This
takes us to the very place where Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount. Matt. 5:3
– Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the bankrupt, the wretched .. When the believer realizes his/her
complete helplessness, the believer will receive God’s help. As long as we
think we can do it by ourselves we’re going to be stuck back in verses
17-20.
How does Paul handle the situation? He
cries out who will deliver me from this body of death? Verse 25: Thanks be
to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Paul anticipates the power of the
indwelling Holy Spirit. Paul’s words can help us get rid of the graveclothes of
the Law…
Some teachers say that a Christian goes
through this condition in Chapter 7 only once and then goes on. But that’s not
true. When a mighty man like Paul went through it time and time again, what
makes one think that they won’t?
Here is a description of what every
believer goes through. Sin has the power to deceive us and will cause us to
trust in ourselves. The Law is what will expose the Mr. Hyde in us and drive us
straight to the place of wretchedness which then, in the devotion of spirit cry
out Lord Jesus, help, it is your problem; please take it.
If you are Christ’s, call out to Him. If
you don’t know Christ, then today is the day to come to Him so that He may also
deliver you from the body of death.
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