Bodies of Death
by adamsteins
“O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”-Romans 7:24
In Romans 12:3 Paul instructs his readers, “not to think of [yourselves] more highly than you ought to think, but… think soberly.” Oh, how easy it is to say that we do not need this instruction for ourselves. We are Christians. The basis of our faith is built upon the structure of humility. As we look to our great Lord Jesus Christ we know that we are now reborn into His likeness. You are right, my beloved, but I must ask you where these thoughts truly derive from. Do they derive from the Spirit or from your own heart? For to have these thoughts spewed from your heart is nothing more than vomit on the street. It is a defilement to our faith to say with our own understanding and our own self-aware heart that “we are humble.” Romans 3:12 (originally found in Psalm 14:3) says, “There is none who does good, no, not one.” When you read that, Christian or not, do you believe that you are above that statement? My beloved, I say this not to beat you down, but to open your eyes to the sin that is within us all: we are that statement.
Even Paul, the great writer of over half of the New Testament, did not consider himself to be good. He knew how good Christ was to him, thus allowing him to continue to do good works for His Kingdom. However, in Romans 7:14-25 Paul describes his current life as a believer, as well as speaking to other believers in these passages. At first, it seems as though Paul is contradicting himself, for he spent the previous chapter explaining how we are no longer enslaved to sin, and now he is writing that we are “sold under sin” and have “nothing good” in us. Despite what it may seem, Paul is only reinforcing what we as believers must know about ourselves by sharing his own testimony of the sinful nature that still resides in his unredeemed flesh. Far from bringing Christians down, Paul articulates the concept that a believer does “desire to obey God’s Law and hates his sin. He is humble, recognizing that nothing good dwells in his humanness; he sees sin in himself, but not as all that is there; and he serves Jesus Christ with all of his mind” (MacArthur Bible Commentary, 1528). So you see, it is a matter of understanding the difference between your new nature and the old. We cannot say of ourselves that we are good without then recognizing that we are utterly awful in our flesh. That is the nature of sin. It keeps the Christian back from being all that he can be for Christ. It is as Peter writes, “for he who has suffered (died) in the flesh has ceased from sin” (1 Peter 4:1). The only way to remove this wretched sin in us is to be dead.
Christ has broken the chains of sin. He has beaten death. We are aware of this and we live our lives in gratitude towards our Savior. But we still celebrate this truth within bodies that are unredeemed. Paul says, “I am carnal, sold under sin” (Romans 7:14). It is important to understand the inflection that Paul makes in this comment so that we can understand our own nature as well. Carnal literally means “of flesh.” This means that as we are still mortal, we live with carnal flesh. But Paul does not mean to say that he is still in the flesh, but the flesh is in him. When we were in the flesh we were sinners without Christ. Now as the flesh is in us, we are a new creation in Christ and we deal with this mortal, carnal flesh that our redeemed spirits temporarily reside in.
So as redeemed spirits living in unredeemed flesh in an unredeemed world around carnal lusts, passions, debauchery, unlawfulness, drinking parties, etc. we face a dilemma in our walk with Christ. It is natural to say that we are fine because we have Jesus near us, but again, that is out of ignorance towards the absolute sin that resides within us. To say that I am good is to compare myself to someone with a sinful nature, a sinner, and that in itself is a sin of judgement. We sin so much that we do not even realize all of them. David prayed for God to forgive him for his conscious sin as well as his secret sin (Ps. 19:12). Paul was right in lamenting the law of sin, that what he wills not to do, that he does. He says, “But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me” (Romans 7:17). Paul is not rejecting personal responsibility for his sin. On the contrary, he is fully aware of his sinful nature (v.14). He is saying that no matter how much he sins (which he knows he will), he will never approve of it in his new Christ-like nature.
As Christians, neither shall we approve of our sin, nor lie to ourselves that we are well off. I leave you with this image to exemplify our walk. Paul laments, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death” (v.24). Tradition has it that an ancient tribe near Tarsus, where Paul grew up, tied the corpse of a murder victim to its murderer, letting its spreading decay to slowly infect and execute the murderer (MacArthur Bible Commentary, 1529).
Perhaps Paul is using this metaphor, perhaps not. But this is an image that we as Christians must constantly reflect upon so that we can see the sickening, devastating effects of sin on our lives. This “body of death” will be attached to us until we are dead and we find ourselves being taken up into the perfection of heaven. But because of Jesus’ intervention in our lives, we do not have to live with this dead body’s infectious decay spreading onto us. The Holy Spirit in us is the doctor, but Jesus is our cure. We have a Savior who has given us protection over the decay and death of sin, and He is cutting the bonds that tie us to this body of death each day as we come closer to being with Him. Be humbled in these unredeemed bodies. Be gentle in all your conduct and remember that we would not be any different than those flaunting their sin if it were not for Christ, and Christ alone, who has saved us. We are a new creation, but we are a not yet a perfected creation. Keep living for the will of God and continue to humble yourselves before His grace and mercy, for without it we are nothing more than a body of death with no value.
Really can appreciate this word….
Be gentle in all your conduct and remember that we would not be any different than those flaunting their sin if it were not for Christ, and Christ alone, who has saved us. We are a new creation, but we are a not yet a perfected creation. Keep living for the will of God and continue to humble yourselves before His grace and mercy, for without it we are nothing more than a body of death with no value.