SunRidge Community Church
Romans 7
Once we understand the great lengths that Jesus went to solve the sin problem, then why, when we want to live as followers of Jesus, do we not carry it out? Why do I end up not doing the things that I want to do? I thought the sin problem was solved. Today, we want to look at how we overcome this dilemma.
Psalm 85:8
I will listen to what God the LORD will say; he promises peace to his people, his saints...
John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.
Romans 7:7
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”
Romans 7:8
But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. For apart from the law, sin is dead.
Romans 7:9
And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment sin became alive
Romans 7:10-12
and I died. So I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death! For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.
Romans 7:13-14
Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual – but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin.
Romans 7:15-17
For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want – instead, I do what I hate. But if I do what I don’t want, I agree that the law is good. But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me.
Romans 7:18
For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it.
Romans 7:19-20
For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want! Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me.
Romans 7:21
So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me.
Romans 7:22-24
For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Romans 7:25
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
2 Corinthians 5:17
So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed
away—look, what is new has come!
John 13:34
“I give you a new commandment—to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples—if you have love for one another.”
B: Begin with Prayer
L: Listen
E: Eat
S: Serve
S: Story
CHRISTIAN?
Why do I continue to Sin? (Romans 7)
SMALL GROUP QUESTIONS
Can each of you share how you were able to B.L.E.S.S. someone this week.
1. Read Romans 7:7-25
2. What strategies do you use to resist temptation? How well do they work?
3. Does the idea that sin doesn’t have to control you sound reasonable? Why or why not?
4. Read Colossians 3:1–4. What do you think Paul means when he writes that “you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ”?
5. When you wrestle with sin, which side of the argument do you identify with, Adam (“I can’t help it”) or Christ (“Sin is not my master”)? Explain.
6. What would it take for you to believe that sin is not your master? What practical things can you do to decide not to let sin rule you? How can this group support you?
Can you quote 2 Cor 5:17 to one another and then pray for one another.