Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Why You Still Struggle With Sin | Rafael Nieves-Rosario | Romans 8:1-4

Episode Date: April 8, 2022

What's holding you back from spiritual growth? What do you refuse to give God control over? The answer to these questions might be the same thing. In today's episode, musician and seminary student Rafael Nieves-Rosario uses Romans 8 to describe the new life you have in Jesus. Are you willing to accept it? Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Romans 8 Resources: The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Hey, we've been asking some of our friends to share with you their favorite Bible verses and why those verses are important to them. Today, I want to introduce you to one of our good friends. His name is Rafael Nieves Rosario. I hope I got that name right.

Rafael and his wife, Monica, grew up in Puerto Rico. In fact, they just moved to the States a few years ago. He's getting his master's of divinity from Covenant Seminary, and he's an incredible musician. Okay, here's Raphael. When I was growing up, I thought that if I became a Christian, my life was going to change for the better in an instant. I would understand everything. There was not going to be any suffering. I would not struggle with sin anymore.

And maybe you did too. Maybe we all had this expectations of what coming to Christ was going to look like. Of course, we rejoice in what we rejoice in. what is true. Being in Christ means that we have peace with God, that we have new meaning and purpose for our lives, that we enjoy God's presence, and many other incredible things. But it does not mean the end of our struggle with sin, at least not in this side of reality, and certainly not overnight. So let's look at what the verses of Romans 8 have to say about our struggle with sin. It says this. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the

spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do. By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. Paul wrote this letter to the Roman Church to answer a central question regarding humanity's relationship with God, namely, how are sinners to be reconciled to a righteous and holy God? Apparently, this church was divided between converted Jewish believers on the one hand, who thought that reconciliation with God came through the observance of the Mosaic law,

and Gentile believers, on the other hand, who took pride upon the Roman judicial system. Paul explains that both are wrong, but rather God has reconciled sinners to himself through faith in the gospel. The first chapters of Romans aim to explain how every human being has failed in their attempt to achieve peace with God because of sin, and how salvation is a gift of God to be received passively through faith in Jesus. The Christian is counted as righteous before God, rather than actually being righteous.

And this new identity has as one of its central features that we are dead to sin and alive to Christ. And so he says in verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. I think we can begin to understand his message by asking, what does it mean to be in Christ Jesus? I think the idea is not a new one. I think it goes back to the Old Testament. You see, when God

established a covenant with his people, he also established a representative to be the mediator of that covenant. The people as a whole are represented before God in this mediator. This means that to be a part of the represented people means that you are in the covenant representative. That's the language being used. And so Paul uses this concept to say that Christians haven't believed in the gospel. are now represented before God in Jesus, who is the mediator of a new covenant, as the book of Hebrews calls him. So for those who are in Christ Jesus,

there is no condemnation. No condemnation. Why is there no condemnation? Because by virtue of his sacrifice on the cross, Jesus has taken upon himself all the penalty for sin, buying us freedom from it. That is why he goes on to say, Verse 2, the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus.

Within the context of Jesus' work, the liberating power of the Spirit begins to work in us so that we may now live for Him in freedom. This is beautiful. This is incredible. Check this out. Before, sin was the cause of our condemnation before God, right? But now look at what he says in verse 3. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do. By sin. sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. Jesus turned the tables on sin. Now it is sin which is condemned. It's an incredible truth. Christ has broken the power that sin held over us and made us to live for his glory.

But if that is so, and the logical question to ask would be, why do I still struggle with sin? Why do I keep failing? You say Jesus broke the power of sin, but I can seem to break my desire for my favorite sins, gossip, pride, jealousy. So why do we still struggle with sin? I think we can reframe the question, as it were. We can look at it from a different perspective. We can ask, what is the resistance to this spiritual growth? Well, I don't think there's a simple answer to this,

but look at what theologian Dietrich vonhofer says in his book, The Cause of Discipleship. He says this. No one should be surprised at the difficulty of faith if there is some part of his life where he is consciously resisting or disobeying the commandment of Jesus. Is there some part of your life or you are refusing to surrender? Some sinful passion maybe or some animosity, some hope,

perhaps your ambition or your reason? How can you hope to enter into communion with God when at some point in your life you're running away from him? And I think this is true of all of us. If we're honest with ourselves for just a moment, would it be possible that the main resistance to spiritual growth does not come from the outside, but it is in fact on the inside?

Would it be possible that the reason we struggled so much with sin is that we don't want to relinquish those parts of ourselves that want nothing to do with God? I think this is why the law of the Spirit of Life is to set us free. Not only from actions that we do, they'll go directly against God's will, like gossip and pride and jealousy, but also to set us free from our own failure to submit to God,

because we don't know what will happen if we relinquish all to Him. We want to be in control. That's the temptation, isn't it? And so it is scary and counterintuitive to surrender ourselves. And I think God understands this. Therefore, it makes sense to say that spiritual growth, is ultimately a work of God in us, not of ourselves. So why is Romans 8 one of my favorite chapters?

Well, number one, because it reminds me that being in Christ Jesus, I can rest on his completed work. Do you remember Matthew 1128? The words of Jesus come to me, O'Hulabor on our heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Christianity is a religion of trust, resting on Jesus' completed work,

rather than our own. Number two, because the law of the spirit of life setting me free means that God is the one working for my spiritual growth. As Paul says in Philippians 2.13, for it is God who works in you, both to well and to work for his own good pleasure. And number three, because it reminds me that he will see his sanctifying work to the end.

And we can see this more fully in the final verses of Romans 8. Listen to verse 33 on. He says, Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that who was raised, who is at the right hand of God who is interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? I'm sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor think presence, no thing to come. Powers, height, depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So what do we do when we struggle with sin in the future? Well, we remind ourselves that there is no condemnation because we are in Christ Jesus.

And we rest in his completed work. and even as we sometimes may falter in the long process of spiritual growth, we ask in prayer for the ability to walk according to the spirit and for the spirit's help to surrender all that we are to our trustworthy God. Hey, thanks for listening. If you want to go deeper, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talk newsletter. You'll get a short email once a week. It'll challenge you to grow in your faith,

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