“Where There's a Will, There's a Way?”

Proper 9 (Sunday on July 3-July 9)—A

“Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way?”—Romans 7:21-25

The text for this sermon, the theme of which is, “Where There’s a

Will, There’s a Way?”, is Romans 7:21-25 ý I find it to be a law that

when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of

God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging

war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin

that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver

me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our

Lord! This is the text.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus:

I have had the privilege of growing up in a society of freedom and

seemingly endless possibilities. I remember being told that I could be

anything I wanted to be when I grow up—even the president of the

United States! (Although now I’m not sure why I’d aspire to such a

position.) Mantras like, “If you can dream it, you can do it!” . . . “Just

believe in yourself!” . . . “Where there’s a will, there’s a way!” have been

placed before me as motivational ideals my whole life.

Unfortunately, as I got older I discovered that I couldn’t necessarily

accomplish whatever I wanted to do just because I wanted it bad

enough. I discovered that there were certain activities in which I was

talented and others that I couldn’t do no matter how hard I “willed” them

to be done. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way!” actually turned out to

be not true in my everyday living.

This untruth really manifests itself when it comes to obeying the law.

When’s the last time you had difficultly driving a speed limit of fifty-five?

When’s the last time you found it difficult to obey that “Do not touch!”

sign? The inability to “will” ourselves into specific behavior becomes

even more evident when trying to break bad habits and take on better

ones. We struggle to follow our own rules! Why is this? Our text tells us.

Our text reveals the apostle Paul being rather “transparent” as he

described the struggles with sin and obedience to God’s law in his life.

It reveals the struggle of every person who desires to follow God’s

written Word, a struggle within which you can easily fall prey to despair

and give up the good fight of the faith. (cf. 1 Timothy 6:12) As difficult as this

struggle is, it is a good struggle because the struggle itself reveals your

relationship with God and your need for faith in Jesus Christ.

The dictionary defines a “catalyst” as an agent that provokes or

speeds significant change or action (Merriam-Webster, I. (1996). Merriam-

Webster’s Collegiate Cdictionary (10th ed.). Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.) While

we usually think of such reactions due to mixing chemicals (such as

mixing baking soda and vinegar or dropping a Mento into a 2 liter bottle

of diet coke), reactions happen on relationship levels daily. Many

children find it difficult to have an objective adult conversation with their

parents and wonder why they so easily get frustrated with their parents.

Maybe you’ve witnessed a total change in a person’s disposition when

a spouse or family member walks into the room. Relationships, laws,

situations and even thoughts about God can work as a catalyst to bring

out our sinfulness even if we didn’t intentionally “will it” to happen.

In the context Paul speaks about us rebelling against God’s law

because our sinful hearts react to it’s demands. God’s Law is kind of like

a catalyst our sinfulness so that we produce rebellion. The situation is

so serious that he says, I do not understand my own actions. For I do

not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate . . . I know that nothing

good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what

is right, but not the ability to carry it out. (cf. Romans 7:15,18) Could this be

why many people express faith in Jesus, claim to be Christians and even

feel a desire to follow God’s Will, yet produce behaviors which are

directly opposed to God’s laws contained in His written Word?

Thus, Paul concludes in verses 21-23 of our text: I find it to be a law

that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the

law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law

waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the

law of sin that dwells in my members. This sinful condition is so

prevalent in human life that many animators have pictured it as the devil

on one shoulder and an angel on another shoulder, each striving to

influence the individual to behave in a particular manner. While it would

be easy to use such a spiritual battle waging within the heart of every

Christian as an excuse for sinning, it is expressed by Paul to admit how

utterly helpless he is to bring peace into His life himself. He cannot do

it. Thus, his final assessment and question in verse 24 of our text:

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Do you ever feel this way? Do you feel like the struggle is so

overwhelming that you want to throw up your hands and simply give up?

Yet, you don’t even know how to do that properly? You’re not alone. You

are presently sitting in the company of not only the apostle Paul but the

broken sinners in this place. This is why we begin our worship as “poor,

miserable sinners” who “draw near” to God “with a true heart and

confess our sins unto God our Father, beseeching Him in the name of

our Lord Jesus Christ to grant us forgiveness.”

This is essentially Paul’s answer to being at the same time a saint

and a sinner in verse 25 of our text: Thanks be to God through Jesus

Christ our Lord! Thanks? He is thankful in the midst of such a messed

up condition? How can he be thankful? Because of God’s working in our

lives through Jesus Christ our Lord!

According to God’s work and His promises you have been declared

righteous, blameless and holy in His sight simply through faith in what

Jesus Christ did for you! Romans 5:19 says that by the Adam’s

disobedience you were made sinners and that by Christ’s obedience you

will be made righteous. To focus on somehow living righteously

according to God’s Law by some program or discipline of your own will

lead you to further despair. The search for peace on your own terms will

lead to further realizations of wretchedness. Rather, to trust in the

perfect obedience of Jesus to God’s Law; to trust in His perfect sacrifice

for the payment which your sins deserve; to trust in His resurrection

victory over sin, death and the devil for you—leads you to give thanks to

God in hope!

Titus 3:4-7 says: When the goodness and loving kindness of God our

Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in

righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of

regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, Whom He poured out on us

richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His

grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Through faith in Jesus Christ God declares you righteous, not because

of what you do or have done but because of what Christ has done for

you!

This is why Paul could go on to declare: So then, I myself serve the

law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (cf.

Romans 7:25) In the midst of this struggle with the presence of sinfulness

he still goes forward striving to obey God’s commands given in His

written Word. He even continues in the next verse: There is therefore

now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (cf. Romans 8:1)

In the midst of the struggle you need not live in condemnation but in

forgiveness!

So what about the old saying, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way?”

When you look at your relationship with God totally on the basis of His

will for you in Christ Jesus our Lord, then where there’s God’s will, there

is a way! Hebrews 10 says that when Christ came into the world, He said

to God His Father, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” . . . And by that

will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus

Christ once for all. (cf. Hebrews 10:5,9-10) His one act of obedience was for

all your sins, for all time!

God willed your redemption in the Person & Work of Jesus . . . and

accomplished it! God willed your sanctification—that is, being declared

holy in His sight and being empowered by the Holy Spirit to live a holy

life—in the Person & Work of Jesus . . . and accomplished it! You get

to live the victorious life in Christ even if it doesn’t feel all that victorious

many times. Thus, when you find yourself rebelling against God’s Law

the Holy Spirit will empower you both in repenting of that rebellion and

striving to go forward under God’s Will, trusting in the way He has

provided in Jesus! Amen.

Thanks be to God,

Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

(1 Corinthians 15:57)

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English