The conflict in every Christian’s heart

I would submit to you therefore that Romans 7:1–25 describes the conflict that lies in the heart of every genuine Christian. And what Paul sets before us in the four verses are the following three things. First, he talks to us about an inward delight, then an inward dilemma and lastly an inward deliverance. Let us look at those three things here: inward delight, inward dilemma and inward deliverance.

It begins in Romans 7:22 of our text and it says that he delights in the law of God after the inner man. Now, by the inner man of course he means the core-being; the inmost soul, the heart of man: the inward person that is hidden from the public gaze. Paul says My inmost being delights in the law of God. He is echoing of course David, when he said O, how love I Thy law. It is my meditation all the day. Paul is confessing, I delight to be and to do that which is consistent with Gods law. I want to think consistently with this law, to speak, to have thoughts that spill into speaking and acting consistently with that law. I love to do his will and to walk in his ways. I love to keep his commandments.’ Can you say that today? Can you say, Lord, Thou knowest all things. Thou knowest I do not love Thee as I should. I do not even love Thy laws as I should. I come short at every hand, but Thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I narrowly love Thee, but I love Thy law. I want to please You. I want to do what Thou hast commanded me to do. Or do you just serve God to satisfy your conscience? Or to avoid damnation? Can you say from the depths of your soul with Moses, I choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. For I delight in the law of God, after the inward man. You see this gratitude to God for his great salvation is not to merit salvation, but this gratitude for God for his great salvation spills over into the heart and life of a believer and gives that believer that holy longing to obey God. So let this be the ruling principle of my life.

You see, there is actually three purposes of the law. Perhaps you have heard of this before. Our forefathers called it the first purpose, the second purpose and the third purpose. The first purpose is to convict us of sin; to drive us or to draw us to see our need for the Lord Jesus Christ, as a guilty, hell-worthy sinner. That is also sometimes called the evangelical use of the law. The second use of the law is a civil use, that judges in our land use to restrain sin. It has got a civic purpose to keep society functioning in a sort of way of God’s common mercies or common grace. The third and primary use of the law, according to John Calvin, is the law as a rule of life. It is for a believer who has already been at the cross, found forgiveness in Jesus Christ, and now wants to live out his life as a Christian in accord with the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments which fence us in in every area of our lives, tell us both in its thou shall not dimension, as well as in its thou shalt implied counter, how we should walk in the Christian life. By nature, we do not delight in this law. We do not delight in the third use of the law.

There are many Christians today, who think they are Christians, who are not really Christians and you know that of course. Many of them are people who are what we call Antinomians. They are really against (anti) the law (nomos). So, they say, I am saved by grace; it is all free grace. Then you think they are sound in their orthodox. It is wonderful. But they do not live according to the law. So actually, what they are embracing is cheap artificial grace, because they can live a worldly lifestyle. They can live the way they want to live. They have Christ in the one hand, the world in the other, and they just go on their way. They are thinking they are going to heaven, because they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but it is not a believing in him that bears fruit in their lives. And Jesus said, By their fruit you shall know them. And one of the fruits, you see, is delighting in the law of God, after the inward man.¹

Joel Beeke