I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good.For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not.
5 sermons cite this verse
therefore there is now no condemnation for all who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death for the law was powerless to do and it was weakened by the sinful nature God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering so he condemned sin and sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the spirit. Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires. Those who live according to the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death. The mind controlled by the spirit is life and peace. The sinful mind is hostile to God. It doesn't submit to God's law nor can it do so. …
… but it is 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. Now I'm gonna advise that nobody try this verse at home. husbands next time you disappoint or frustrate your wife don't say listen honey it is no longer I who do it it is sin that dwells within me students don't say that to your parents next time you get in trouble it's not going to go well for you but it's true Paul's saying I have a problem I can't fix I have a problem and it's a problem I can't fix all those other world religions, they tell you you can fix your problem. Christianity says, no, you can't. That's bad news. I have a problem I can't fix. But why the struggle is good is if it can bring me to a point of realizing I have a problem I can't fix, that's transformative. How many of you have ever heard of AA, Alcoholics Anonymous, an amazing organization program that has literally transformed the lives of millions of people. People who were enslaved to addiction, now set free in sobriety. It was created by two Christian men. And do you know what the first step of AA is? …
"I would but cannot pray I would but can't repent"— and when you could use Paul's words as your own and sadly cry, "To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not?" You were still a prisoner, yet you were beginning to be one of the "prisoners of hope." That is a strange kind of prison that is mentioned in the text—"the pit wherein is no water." In the East, pits were frequently used as prisons. When a tyrant king wished to keep anyone in safe custody and also in ignominy and shame, and sorrow, he would have him cast into one of these waterless pits where the poor prisoner would be beyond human sight or hearing—and with no possible hope of deliverance from his doleful dungeon. Such was our sad state by nature, and well do we remember our first efforts to obtain release! We were in dense darkness and we felt all round the walls of our prison to try to find a door, or window, or ladder by which we might escape, but all in vain. We tried to look up, but we seemed to have been thrust, like Paul and Silas, into some inner prison where no ray of light could penetrate. The fact that there was "no water" in our prison-pit made our agonies all the more terrible! Those of you who have passed through that state of deep conviction of sin know that in such circumstances there is no comfort for the present and no hope for the future—as to the past, there is nothing to look back upon but sin—and as to the future, there is nothing "but a certain fearful looking for ofjudgment and fiery indignation." To a sinner in that condition, there seems nothing within but a heart as hard as stone, nothing beneath but a gapping Hell and nothing around but thick darkness. How dreary and dreadful is the state of man by nature—and how painfully conscious he is of his true condition when the Holy Spirit reveals it to him! Then is he, indeed, like a prisoner in a "pit wherein is no water." …
8. The more he strive, wishes, labours to be free, the more does he feel his chains, the grievous chains of sin, wherewith Satan binds and “leads him captive at his will;” his servant he is, though he repine ever so much; though he rebel, he cannot prevail. He is still in bondage and fear, by reason of sin: Generally, of some outward sin, to which he is peculiarly disposed, either, by nature, custom, or outward circumstance; but always, of some inward sin, some evil temper or unholy affection. And the more he frets against it, the more it prevails; he may bite but cannot break his chain. Thus he toils without end, repenting and sinning, and repenting and sinning again, till at length the poor, sinful, helpless wretch is even at his wit’s end and can barely groan, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” 9. This whole struggle of one who is “under the law,” under the “spirit of fear and bondage,” is beautifully described by the Apostle in the foregoing chapter, speaking in the person of an awakened man. “I,” saith he, “was alive without the law once:” (Verse 9:) I had much life, wisdom, strength, and virtue; so I thought: “But, when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died:” When the commandment, in its spiritual meaning, came to my heart, with the power of God, my inbred sin was stirred up, fretted, inflamed, and all my virtue died away. “And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me:” (Verses 10, 11:) It came upon me unaware; slew all my hopes; and plainly showed, in the midst of life I was in death. “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good:” (Verse 12:) I no longer lay the blame on this, but on the corruption of my own heart. I acknowledge that “the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin:” (Verse 14:) I now see both the spiritual nature of the law; and my own carnal, devilish heart “sold under sin,” totally enslaved: (Like slave bought with money, who were absolutely at their master’s disposal:) “For that which I do, I allow not; for what I would, I do not, but what I hate, that I do:” (Verse 15:) Such is the bondage under which I groan; such the tyranny of my hard master. “To will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do:” (Verses 18, 19:) “I find a law,” an inward constraining power, “that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in “or consent to “the law of God, after the inward man:” (Verses 21, 22:) In my “mind:” (So the Apostle explains himself in the words that immediately follow; and so, o eso anthropos, the inward man, is understood in all other Greek writers:) But I see another law in my members, another constraining power, warring against the law of my mind, or inward man, and bringing me into captivity to the law or power “of sin:” (Verse 23:) Dragging me, as it were, at my conquerors chariot-wheels, into the very thing which my soul abhors. “o wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Verse 24.) Who shall deliver me from this helpless, dying life, from this bondage of sin and misery? Till this is done, “I myself” (or rather, that I, autos ego, that man I am now personating) “with the mind,” or inward man, “serve the law of God;” my mind, my conscience is on God’s side; “but with my flesh,” with my body, “the law of sin,” (verse 25, ) being hurried away by a force I cannot resist. …
Well, we need not read those early pages, the pages of our estate of sin. Drop tears and blot them out! Dear hand of Jesus stained with blood, wipe down each one of them and blot them out forever! But what is this first bright page? It is the page where we began to live, the page that records our spiritual birth.And I think we shall find written somewhere across it, "This day my eyes beheld God's Salvation." Well do I remember that day! I had looked here and looked there. This was my question—I have offended God, how can He forgive me? It was no use to tell me God was merciful—I had an answer for that—"God is just." It availed nothing to say, "Sin is little," I knew better! It was heavy to me—what must it do to Him? The question I wanted to have answered was—How can God in justice pass by my iniquities? Then did I learn, as in a moment, this sweet story which has been my delight to tell in various forms a thousand times—that Jesus came and said, "I will be the sinner's Surety. I will stand in his place of curse and ruin and will bear for him the penalty of pain—for him I will even bear death." I learned that if I looked to Jesus—just looked, that was all—that if I simply trusted in Jesus, I would be saved! I looked and, happy day, my eyes saw God's Salvation! That blessed Doctrine of Substitution, that simple command, "Believe and live"—that was the glass through which my soul looked and saw God's Salvation! …