You can read in Romans 7 Paul’s struggle with the flesh, his desperation to come out of its weakness, and the condemnation of the law. The struggles of this bound, “wretched man” (7:24) are indeed miserable. But if you read on to Romans 8, you will find that the frustration of the corrupt and the old are purposeful if they lead us into something new, something glorious. Paul testifies to us that our struggles should bring us not only to an objective understanding of salvation, but also to a subjective experience of freedom in faith.
Faith has nothing to do with self-effort or religious practices. Faith is the organic response of life in a divine relationship. It comes from a living person reacting to another living Person from within. So much of religious Christianity misses this crucial point, leaving us with the outward law and duties, or a self-contented sense of well-being — both of which miss the real engagement with the depths of the Person of God. In Romans 8, the Lord has a way to engage us: He transfuses His life — Himself — into us through the Spirit (8:2). And as human beings, we are “reactors.” The proper reaction to the Lord in our spirit is a joyful and free reality. This joyful response in our beings is faith. Faith is the witnessing of the Spirit with our spirit (v. 16) — the Lord as a Person living in our person, spreading through our soul. When He moves, we move; what He says, we say; where He goes, we go.
When we touch the Lord in our spirit, then faith is present in a personified way. When faith is present, there is no need for a believer to struggle. On the contrary, the result of God’s glorious life being expressed through us is freedom (v. 21). Our expression is that of a person in love, powerful, joyful and free in all we do in life. We feel no condemnation or struggle, completely free of the miserable bounds of the flesh, yet joyfully driven by that very love. This kind of faith is generous and expansive in His love, not stingy and small in our own frustrations. If we find ourselves struggling with our living in any way, let’s not find comfort in weakness, but “more than conquer” through this living Person who loves us and who is transfusing Himself within (v. 37).
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 6/23/2024, not reviewed by the speaker.)