For the 8th Sunday after Pentecost on July 6, 2008, the readings for that day are Zechariah 9:9-12, Romans 7:14-25a and Matthew 11:25-30. Preaching at St. John’s in Ballwin, the chosen text is Romans 7:19, “For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.”

This passage from Romans 7 is one of the most disputed passages in regard to the condition of the human being. What is at dispute is whether Paul is referring to himself prior to his salvation or after he has been saved. For those who live under the Law expecting a complete change in behavior on the part of the believer, Paul must be talking about his condition prior to his conversion.

The problem with that is that the verbs are in the present tense. Earlier in the chapter Paul does use the past tense to describe himself before conversion. But verses 15 through 24 speak of the Christian Paul filled with the Holy Spirit. Verse 21 makes it clear that Paul is a Christian because he does will to do good and according to verse 22 his inward man delights in the law of God. No unbeliever would be able to make such statements.

But how is an unbeliever filled with the Holy Spirit unable to practice what he wills to do and ends up doing what he hates to do (verse 15) or as verse 19 reveals, not doing good but practicing evil? The answer is found in one of those paradoxes filling the Bible in which God recognizes the Christian as one who is a sinner deserving nothing but temporal and eternal punishment while at the same time as one who is a saint worthy to receive the blessed body and blood of God Himself through his mouth.

Only the distinctions between Law and Gospel unravel the apparent paradox. For from the point of view of the Law’s demands, even the Christian filled with the Holy Spirit remains unable to do one work without sin. The old Adam is involved in every motivation we have and that motivation is always self-centered and sinful. However, the new Man received in baptism, never sins but has that motivation which is pure and sinless.

This old man/new man struggle will continue until the day when this mortal will receive immortality. On that Day of Judgment, our new bodies with our spirits will never sin by thought, word or deed. We will be blameless and sinless. But until that Day, we remain as poor, miserable sinners in need of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ through which we receive the forgiveness of sins and the robe of righteousness. Through faith in Him we are indeed delivered from our bodies of death even while we are here on earth!