Romans 7:21-25 “Wondering”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²¹Therefore I am finding the law that, me desiring to be doing the good, the evil is being present with me, ²²for I am approving the law of God according to the inner man, ²³but I am seeing another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and taking me captive in the law of sin which being in my members. ²⁴I [am] a wretched man! Who will rescue me out of the body of this death? ²⁵But thanks [be] to God through our Lord Jesus Christ! Therefore, I myself in mind am being a servant to the law of God but in flesh to [the] law of sin.

I’ve decided I’m done studying this chapter and ready to move on. However, just for the fun of it, I want to record some thoughts before I head into chapter 8.

I am aware that Romans 8 will lead us into the victory of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence in the believer’s life. I have read the chapter seemingly a million times and even memorized large portions, but I’ve never actually slowed down to truly study it. When I do, I’m interested to see if a lot of questions I have get answered. Just for the fun of it, I want to try to write them down, so I can come back later and see what I’ve learned.

What my basic question comes down to is that I am surprised the Holy Spirit’s indwelling doesn’t do more good that it seems to. What do I mean? This very indwelling is at least a partial fulfilment of the New Covenant promise, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees…” (Ezek. 36:26,27).

The whole point of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling is to enable believers to rise above themselves and actually be the people God wants them to be. As chapter 7 has demonstrated, without the Lord’s help, we are absolutely hopeless to ever conquer our evil selves. When Moses gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites, they replied, “All that the Lord commands us, we will do!” The Lord’s response to Moses was, “Oh that they had such a heart in them.” He knew they didn’t. Throughout the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was “with” people, but He wasn’t “in” them. This New Covenant indwelling of His Spirit would be God’s answer to the problem they didn’t have “such a heart in them.”

So the Messiah did come. He did win the victory over sin and death. He did send the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost and now believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We do have “such a heart in us.”

What I don’t understand is why it doesn’t seem to do any more good than it does or has. The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity. He is personally occupying a place inside of me. I can say without a doubt that I constantly experience the reality of His presence. I am rather constantly doing and saying and accomplishing things I know come from Him, not me, and I am very thankful for that.

But still. As I look at church history, I don’t think the church in general has done any better than Israel. It doesn’t appear to me that church history reads any different than Israel’s. You would think with this being the age of Holy Spirit indwelling, the church would have done noticeably better. You’d think Christians in general would be noticeably more godly people. Yet I read the Old Testament and see people like David and Daniel and Ruth and Boaz and Isaiah and Josiah and they would all be spiritual giants compared to our general level of spiritual maturity (or lack thereof). Remember that the Psalms were largely written by David—an Old Testament believer. I feel in the last few years, I’ve only begun to enjoy the kind of relationship with God that David had.

Why doesn’t it seem to make much difference if we in this dispensation are literally indwelt by the very Holy Spirit of God? Why is there still such a minimal level of general spiritual maturity amongst us believers?

I know a lot of people would give a lot of answers to my question. They would be quite sure “their group” has the answer. My question would be, then why doesn’t “your group” rise any higher than anyone else’s? I don’t see anyone’s that does or has.

I’m very confident there is a good answer. I’m sure one way or another I am “darkening counsel without knowledge.” I do not doubt at all that the Lord knows exactly what He’s doing and why He’s doing it and that it is the very best possible plan. Like Job, I just don’t understand.

That’s why I study the Bible. When and if the Lord is good and ready (or should I say I’m ready), He will teach me something that will make it all make sense.

But right now, I don’t understand. And I wish I did.

Well, I’ll just have to wade into chapter 8 and see what I find!