How God Grows Us

One of my favourite comic book heroes is Batman. I share that with Ethan as well, actually. Ethan, who was very, very concerned about his brother's hairstyle, making sure that we could, you know, get the mohawk going again. Now I'm a little bit of a Batman nerd. And the reason I am a Batman nerd, or at least one of the reasons, is because I think of all the comic book superheroes there are, Batman has the most interesting super villains that he combats, you know, on a weekly basis.

You have the Penguin, you have the Joker, the Riddler, Killer Croc, that sounds scary. And then you have a bad guy, another bad guy, and it sort of gets more obscure, a guy called Calendar Man. I don't know if you've ever heard of him. He does crimes according to holidays and significant dates. Now there are dozens and dozens of these villains that have been created by the creators of Batman, and some of them are cringingly bad.

But they are so cringe-worthy that it makes them good. It makes it interesting. Now one of my all-time favourite bad guys is a villain called Two-Face. A villain with a split personality. In the comic, his two personalities are graphically illustrated by one side of his face, the left-hand side here, representing the good, the morally upright lawyer Harvey Dent.

And then the other half of his face and body really, a severely disfigured face representing his cruel side, a nature prone to murder and violence. Now the character, the super villain Two-Face, is one of the most enduring enemies of Batman because at any time, he could be either very cruel or very good. Sometimes he fights against Batman and sometimes he fights alongside Batman. And all of his decisions, all of Two-Face's decisions, are based on that coin that he has, which he flicks at any time to make a decision. And one side of the coin means that he makes a good decision, a nice decision, a fair decision, and the other one is usually something bad.

A fifty-fifty chance in every decision he makes whether to spare a life or to take a life. Now this morning, we're going to be talking about the journey of the Christian faith or the growing of the Christian faith. If you've been a Christian longer than two seconds, you'll soon realise that there is something in us that relates to the character of Two-Face. Something in us that seesaws between two natures. I've just come from the youth camp, the state youth camp up in Mount Tamborine, and it has been fantastic.

But last night, we shared a wonderful time of worship, and yesterday morning, in fact, as well, where young people gave their lives to Christ. They were given the opportunity, and there was a group of people there that were led by a pastor and gave their hearts to the Lord. And my heart was singing. But I realised that a week from now, a month from now, some of these guys I talked to are brand new Christians from absolutely non-Christian families. A month from now, what are they gonna be wrestling with?

What are they going to be experiencing? What happens when they find this camp passion failing? What happens when the thing that you gave up for God in repentance creeps back in into your life? Well, I want us to investigate a passage in scripture where the apostle Paul talks about this very thing. And in a moment of extreme honesty, he lays it out and I think he personally writes from his own experiences.

We're gonna look at Romans 7:7 through to Romans 8:4. Just an incredible passage and I think something that every Christian in some time, in some way can relate. Romans 7:7. Paul writes, "What then shall we say? That the law is sin?" So the requirements of God is sin? By no means.

Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said you shall not covet. But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.

The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Verse 13: So did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means.

It was sin producing death in me through what is good in order that sin might be shown to be sin and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good.

So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For 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. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

And so 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. O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

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 requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. So far our reading.

Now if you got confused about three verses in to that passage, that's okay. That's fine. We're going to be unpacking it this morning. But basically, what we see here is Paul the apostle writing to Christians about the process of Christian growth, of the Christian life. Theologians call this growth sanctification.

Sanctification is essentially the process whereby the Holy Spirit, God Himself, increasingly makes real the union, the connection, the relationship we have with Jesus. Because of Jesus' sacrificial death, His powerful resurrection, which allows us access to our holy God, Paul says we now with unveiled faces behold the glory of God and we are transformed with ever-renewing glory in a likeness closer to Him. Paul uses one of the most common phrases to talk about this reality, saying that Christians are in Christ. In other words, what our faith means if you are a Christian is a unity with God through the Holy Spirit whereby all Christians, however new, however old in their faith, all Christians have died with Christ, have been raised with Him through His resurrection, have been given victory over sin and over death, and will share in God's glory forever one day. The simple definition of Christianity is summed up by Paul in Galatians 2:20.

A verse we should all know. I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. What we see in Romans chapter 7 is the lifelong process where this reality, this victory, grows in us. Broadly speaking, we see three stages that sort of happen here. Now before we get to these three stages, we have to maybe just talk about some of the terms that are being used here.

First, we see or hear Paul talk about the flesh. The flesh. What is the flesh? Well, that refers to our humanity that is infected by sin. The flesh is both a situation that we are all in, all of humanity, it is a situation or an existence of alienation from God.

It is being dead to God and His laws and His will. But the flesh is also a force that is at work in us, which makes us do actual bad things. It is both an existence or a state. It is also a dynamic force. On the other hand, and this is what Paul sort of holds up in this passage, is the Spirit.

The Spirit. And that refers to the life connected to God, God the Father, through Jesus Christ, facilitated by the Holy Spirit. Now the life of the Spirit is also a state or an existence, but it is one of being freed from the condemnation that will come from not being able to live a holy life. The condemnation that will come from breaking the law of God.

It is that state of existence, but it is also the Spirit, a force that is dynamically working within the Christian, causing us to live and to act in new ways. Now between these two forces, the flesh and the Spirit, we see a struggle happening. We see a battle happening in this passage. And what we're going to highlight and talk about is the three stages of this battle, the three stages of this struggle.

The first stage we see in verses 7 through 12. We see a person who is at one point in their life living a life completely unaware of God, completely opposed to God's will. He is living a life according to his own rules, his own morality. Even at one point, should the law of God be revealed to him, Paul says, even though God may be made aware, rather he may be made aware of God and His requirements, verse 9 says that once this person is alive apart from God's law, but when God's law comes to him, sin springs up to life. And ironically, he dies.

Verse 10, Paul says, I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death to me. What we find here in this first stage is the non-Christian. The non-Christian is the person who does not have a relationship with God through Christ. At one point, I was oblivious to what was right or wrong.

I thought I knew, but I did what I wanted and I rationalised the way I wanted things to be. But then even when God made me aware of Himself, made me aware of His code, that killed me. That killed me. Paul writes, it drove me further away from Him. This is illustrated by Saint Augustine, the great early church father, who writes about this dynamic in an illustration.

He says, when he was eight, there was someone that told him that he was not allowed to go into the neighbour's garden to eat their fruit. What do you think he did? He went and ate the fruit, or at least he stole the fruit. Because he says, when that command was given to him, he tried everything to get there. And once he did, he realised he's not even hungry.

He doesn't even want to eat the fruit. He got the fruit and he threw it away. But he did it, he writes, because he was told he was not to do it. In the same way, Paul says, God's requirement for holy living at one point became known to us and we heard it, but sin hijacked our fleshly natures and we did the very opposite thing. Why do non-Christians hate God's law?

Sin hijacks them and they will do the very opposite. What we see here is someone before they believe in Jesus. It's an unrepentant unbeliever. Now maybe some of us can recognise our lives at one point being like this. But then a second stage happens and that is found in verses 14 through to 24.

In these verses, Paul talks about a person who has been changed and has been made alive to God. They have realised their sinfulness before God, but now they have started trying to work very hard to get themselves right with God. At this point, this person is born again. This person is regenerated. They are alive.

They are aware of God, but they have also now become aware of their two natures. I want to do the right thing, Paul says here, but I cannot do it right, at least not for very long. In verse 22, he says, I find this law at work in me now. When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. This person has been made aware of God.

They have been challenged by their great need, but they may not be converted yet. Verse 22 says that in their inner being, something of them delights in God's law. They know that it is good in some way that the law of God is right. But other parts of me wage war against it, skirmish against it, rebel against it. And Paul says, I realise that I am still a prisoner of sin.

I am still a slave to it, but I am fighting. Friends, there may be some of us in this place who are here. We may be aware of God. We may be aware of His love, His law. We may have a desire to please Him and yet are wrestling with things in our lives that we know are not right.

But instead of worshipping God with our hearts, our minds, our bodies, we like Batman's Two-Face live a life of duality. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. And we rationalise and we excuse and we downplay. Sometimes we secretly despise those who love God and want to live His way. When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

If that is you this morning, I hope you will listen, at least just for a little bit longer, because there is a third stage and there is hope. I remember a time when I, with Paul, said something along these lines. When I found myself in stage two and I said with Paul from verse 24, what a wretch I am. Who can rescue me from this?

But your hope and my hope is a third stage. And it spills from this somber, vivid, painfully descriptive Romans chapter 7 into Romans chapter 8, that glorious chapter. We've seen in verses 7 through to 24, a person struggling with sin in a battle that they cannot win. And now from Romans 25 through to Romans 8 verse 4, we see a Christian in a battle that they cannot lose.

Who will save me from this body of death? Poor, Paul. And verse 25 says, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 8 verse 1 says that there is a slavery, a condemnation that has been broken. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, He says, because through Christ, the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death. This is the point of difference.

Once we struggled in an enslavement to sin and perhaps we tried really hard in our own strength to get it right. But now Jesus Christ has made it possible with the breaking of chains. For the first time ever, humanity will not need to choose sin always. For the first time ever, humanity has a choice. The truth is apart from the Lord Jesus, we would always choose ourselves over God.

Even though it's true that we have free will to choose, we would always choose to reject God. But Paul is saying in Christ, we've finally been set free to choose God over all else, and thereby we find freedom. This is how the Christian grows: to choose God over all else. You see, I was tempted to share a message on how we grow as Christians through reading the Bible often.

I could have been tempted to tell us how to pray. I could have said to us how we should be in small groups and how important the worship life is to do that regularly. But all those things are secondary to this ultimate choice: choose God over all else. Put your faith in Christ.

When we come to faith in Jesus, we become unified with Him. We are not only forgiven of sin, we are also swallowed up in His holiness. So much so that when God the Father sees us, He sees the perfection of His Son. Verses 3 and 4 of chapter 8 say that God the Father sent His Son to earth to bear our punishment of sin, but not only that, that through His perfect life, we are given the Son's righteousness. And so what happens with this Christian faith is that I come to the cross and I give my sin and Christ gives His holiness to me.

And once you take a hold of this reality and you make it your own, the Bible promises that instantly you will start to grow. Instantly you will start to change. Now for some, and we've seen this, God may change their life radically, radically. Perhaps for those handful of kids that gave their lives last night, their lives will be changed radically overnight.

We've heard those stories of huge reversals in people's lives. God may change a life overnight, but this is not necessarily the biblical pattern for sanctification. More commonly, this growth of sanctification is a process. Second Corinthians 3:18 talks of being transformed into the likeness of Christ with ever-increasing glory. We are commanded in Ephesians 4:10 to grow up in Him.

That is a process to grow up. In Colossians 3:10, we are told that we are in the process of being renewed. And so for this reason, whilst there may be things that God immediately changes in our life when we become a Christian, there is also other things that God will grow in us over time. But at the end of the day, this is the reality for the Christian: that once in your attempt at doing the right thing, you faced a battle you could never win.

Now you face a battle that you will never lose because the battle has been won on your behalf. And the amazing thing is this life will start changing because of that reality. Do you find yourself struggling with pride? With being a Christian that can easily look down on those who just don't have it right in their lives. Well, soon you'll realise that being in Christ releases you from that sin by decreasing your contempt of others as you realise that you are a sinner too.

Are you devastated by a sense of feeling unworthy? Promises that you will become stronger and stronger as a Christian because you realise that human approval is worth far less than the approval of a holy, perfect, and just God who knows everything perfectly and loves you. Are you prone to anger? The sin of anger will lose its power over you because you realise just how patient God has been with you and how He bore with your sin for so long. Are you worried?

Are you anxious? Those sins will lose their power over you when you reflect that the death of Jesus proves that God cares for you and He watches over you to the nth degree. Sanctification means that one time we were like Batman's arch nemesis, Two-Face. Good and bad, always in a struggle of fifty-fifty. But the promise is for the Christian, it will never be fifty-fifty again.

You will grow. You will change. You are growing because God is at work in you. Friends, be encouraged this morning that the good work that God has started in you, He will finish. He will finish.

Jesus is the author and the perfecter of our faith. You cannot lose your fight against sin. We may lose a few skirmishes along the way. We will lose a few little battles on the sideline, but the war is won. So keep growing, keep striving, and rest in the joy that Jesus Christ has set you free and you are free indeed.

Let's pray. Father in Heaven, Lord, have Your way in our hearts. And Lord, we thank You for the work that You have already started doing, that You may have been doing over many, many years. We thank You for the light in our life. We thank You for the joy and the peace that we may experience, that we know we didn't have before, that we see in the lives of others that don't know You yet, who don't have that.

Oh, but Father, we are also so aware of our continuing struggle, our weaknesses. But God, we pray, give us the strength to endure. Give us the strength to stay in it, to not give up. Lord, renew our minds so that we can put it on You again and the work that was finished on the cross on our behalf. Lord, give us a perspective of that glory that awaits us.

The victory that is already ours and that we are just waiting to receive. Help us to have patience, Lord. Help us to overcome our anger. Help us, Lord, to overcome our depressions and our anxieties, our sense of worthlessness. And, Lord, help us to see everything the way that You see it.

We wanna pray for those kids who made commitments to You last night. We pray, Lord, that You will bless them and keep them and keep them safe. Even those young ones that didn't come up on the stage there, but who gave their hearts quietly, but honestly to You in the chairs, Lord, I pray for them as well. We pray for those kids especially who are going back home to parents that don't know You, to situations that may be so difficult. We pray, Lord, that You will keep them safe.

And then You will also, in their lives, finish the work that You have started. We pray for our church, Lord. We pray that we may all, with unveiled faces, behold the glory of our God and be transformed with ever-increasing glory. In Jesus' name. Amen.