Chapter # 7 Paragraph # 3 Study # 4
December 4, 2016
Humble, Texas
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<053> Thesis:   The natural condition of man guarantees that his indwelling sin will dominate all of his actions. Introduction:   In our studies of Romans 7, we have seen that Paul's focus is upon the claim that attempting to use "Law" as a basis for "Life" is a totally hopeless endeavor, unless we understand the divine intention for "holy, righteous, and good" commandments. That intention is "pressurized revelation". It is "revelation" in that God intends that humanity learn truth about God and all of His creation from the statements of "Law". It is "pressurized" in that "Law" contains many imperative mood verbs -- commandments -- that indicate the intensity of the realities revealed about God and all of His creation. Imperatives demand that humanity recognize the true nature of God and His works. As we have progressed into the chapter, we have had a very basic set of facts "revealed" to us about "Law" and how it is deceitfully manipulated by what Paul has consistently called "The Sin". What he means by "The Sin" is both the overt action of Adam by which the devil gained dominion over "the whole world" (1 John 5:19) as well as the two most fundamental results of that action: the fear of death; and the dominion of an evil spirit over all the actions of mankind apart from the Gospel. In our current text, Paul further reveals the nature of that evil spirit by calling it "The Sin which indwells". In our last study we came to the first of Paul's declarations that human beings are not the actual producers of individual actions, repeated actions, and successfully accomplished actions. He says the "doing", the "doing over and over", and the "doing unto successful accomplishment" are all governed by "The Sin which indwells". This evening we are going to work our way through Paul's words that lead to his second declaration that it is a major mistake to assign "doings" of any kind to the human instrument; these doings need to be seen as the outworking of "indwelling Sin". God's antidote to this reality is "His indwelling Spirit" (chapter eight), but this antidote is instructive about the issue of identifying the real root of the behavior. Paul would say that believers should not take credit for what "the indwelling Spirit of God" produces as fruit and, in like manner, they should realize that credit for what "the indwelling Sin" produces is likewise not to be assumed by the instrument of the activities.