This article is part of the series: The Chapters That Changed My Life
The Chapters That Changed My Life: Part 4
In Romans 7, the Law exposes sin, but the real struggle comes from our own inner passions.
Read Time: 4 minutes
In our last article, we followed Paul’s logic in Romans 7. The Law’s purpose is to reveal sin, not to remove it. People lived naturally without guilt until the Law exposed their actions as sinful. The Law, therefore, creates an inner conflict by contrasting human desires with God’s character, revealing the depth of human sinfulness. Ultimately, Paul concludes that while the Law is good, it cannot change human nature or save us; it only shows us that the real problem lies within ourselves.
Paul puts the spotlight on human nature, the motions of sin which were set to work by the Law. I would simply put forward to you that you must understand human nature if you want to do something about it.
Ah, but what is human nature?
As Paul will convey to us in Chapter 7, human nature includes feelings, desires, lusts, passions, infatuation, rage, envy, and many other things that are easy to feel but hard to explain.
In this article, we’ll try to get a handle on human nature and its connection to our sinfulness.
The fact that our desires, arousal, and passions are front and center in Romans 7 is evident in a few places.
So, to understand chapter 7 at even a basic level, we need to get our head around the desires, passions, arousal, and hate that Paul talks about.
First, a practical example, which I admit works much better in a talk with audience participation, but nevertheless, let’s try brainstorming quickly. What are some good personal characteristics you would like to have? Just name one. Okay, got it?
Now, brainstorm for a moment on some personal characteristics you’d rather not have. Again, name at least one. Hopefully, you participated in this exercise; if not, I’ll use Paul’s lists of such characteristics in Galatians 5 as a good illustration of both good and bad examples.
Now raise your hand (yes, you, the reader) if you do not want the fruit of the spirit and want, instead, to keep the works of the flesh listed above.
Do you have your hand raised? I didn’t think so.
So, you agree you want the good and avoid the bad?
Good, then it’s settled. Everyone reading this article will have only good characteristics and none of the bad ones. Wow, that was easy.
Now, will that work? Well, why not? You have just confirmed that you only want the good characteristics and ditch the bad. Remember, you did not raise your hand! So what is stopping you? What prevents us from doing good all the time, even when that’s what we want?
The Bible has many words for it. It calls it sinful nature, the flesh, human nature, our passions, and even just sin. But it all boils down to the same fundamental issue. One of the predominant words used in the NIV, NKJV, and RSV to describe human nature is “passion.” We generally think of passion as a good thing, but let’s see what Greek words the RSV translates as “passion.”
This may seem excessive, but I want to take every use of the word passion in the RSV that is translated from one of the above words and list them. You may be tempted to skip over all these references, but I’d urge you not to. Read them and let the Bible’s usage of the concept sink in.
Passions are:
- Ungodly tendencies (Jude 18)
- Sexual desires (Romans 1:26)
- Desires for things (James 4:3)
- Associated with drunkenness, lawlessness, and carousing (1 Peter 4:3)
- Things that cause fights and wars (James 4:1)
- Closely associated with hate (Titus 3:3) and wrath (Ephesians 2:3)
- Associated with the desires of our body (Ephesians 2:3)
- Especially connected with youth (2 Timothy 2:22)
- Opposed to righteousness, faith, love, and peace (2 Timothy 2:22)
Look at the list of adjectives God adds immediately before the word “passions”: ungodly, licentious, human, dishonorable, sinful, youthful, and worldly.
Are we getting a sense of what our passions are? Let’s try to identify times, places, and situations where we feel our passions are inflamed. Examples include:
- When we’re hungry, angry, lonely, tired, or stressed.
- When we want to do something we should not, or take something that is not ours.
- When others are hurting us, or we feel defensive.
- When we feel empty or worthless.
Passion is simply the body’s way of asserting itself and getting what it naturally desires.
Do we agree that passions have something to do with “willing to do right, but not being able to do it?”
With this new appreciation of passion and its intimate connection to our human nature, in our next article, we’ll pick up the argument of covetousness in Romans 7 to see how it is this, not the Law, that is really the issue, and thus how Christ’s work must address not merely sin, but its source.
Ben Brinkerhoff,
Christchurch North Ecclesia, NZ
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