This Body of Death

I find myself reading over and again the 7th and 8th chapters of Romans, and I am overcome, yet again, with the doxological response it requires. How can we read, as Christians, that nothing, in all of the created order, is “able to separate us from the love of God (8:38-39),” and not render praise to our God? Couple this with the fact that we are adopted as sons, being “children of God, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ (8:15-17),” and we have no answer but to be blown away!
But note from where such blessings stem: suffering (8:18); groans and birth pangs (8:22-23); weakness (8:26). Even this should come as little surprise, as we hear time and again of the sufferings of Christ’s followers throughout the pages of Scripture. We know, for example, the writer of Romans found himself beaten, stoned near to death, imprisoned, shipwrecked, in hunger and thirst, cold and exposure, and in dangers galore from innumerable fronts (2 Cor. 11:25-27).
We so often read these accounts and wrestle with a guilt complex, of sorts, as American Christians, since we have, by and large, seen very little, if any, of this type of suffering. But, we must not overlook the context in which Paul writes Romans 7 and 8. We find especially in chapter 7 that Paul has written at length of his wrestle with sin, finding that “nothing good dwells in me,” so that while the “willing is present in me, the doing is not (7:18).” Again, “the body is dead,” not because of floggings or imprisonment, but “because of sin” (8:10). He counts himself a “wretched man (7:24),” not because of physical travail, or loss of friend and countrymen. No. He is bound to this “body of death” by the “evil that is present” in him (7:21).


So, what does this mean for us? It would seem that, like Paul, our greatest struggle is not with those around us, or our circumstances, but rather it is against “the enemy within.” We must war with the flesh, especially as believers, because now we have been shown, “through the Law,” sin for what it really is; being, in fact, “utterly sinful,” “proving to result in death for me” (7:7, 13, 10).
At this point, however, we must be careful not to err in the opposite extreme. While Paul despairs at the wretched man that he is, he almost simultaneously lifts his song to Christ, in whom there is “no condemnation” (8:1). We must never fall prey to the idea that we somehow, in our own strength, can do that which the Law requires, so as to merit God’s favor. It is only in our constant admission of weakness, our “groanings too deep for words,” that we find how to “pray as we should,” and allow the Spirit of God to make us “overwhelmingly conquer” in all of these things (8:26, 37). While we may wrestle with “flesh and blood,” it is our own, acted upon by our own sin nature, as it succumbs to the “wiles of the devil” (Eph. 6:12, 11). And, “thanks be to God,” that through Jesus Christ our Lord, we have the victory (Rom. 7:25).
So, in your warring with sin, beloved, know that “He condemned sin in the flesh” already (8:3). He suffered, so that yours would not be in vain. In fact, His power and grace is perfected in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9), so that, when we are faced with temptation, we need simply give it to Him who has already conquered death and its condemnation, so as to experience true freedom in Christ, whatever our trial.