Romans Chapter 7 and Tenses
Not too long ago I visited a church out of town and listened to a sermon where the speaker cited Romans chapter 7 in the message. The minister made the explicit point that in chapter 7 Paul was referring to his pre-conversion state, or a pre-conversion man in general.
As irony would have it, today’s morning drive podcast began a series with John Piper on Romans chapter 7 and how Paul is not referring to pre-conversion, and how the battle with sin is a life-long battle. I instantly remembered back and thought how interesting it was for me to hear two sermons from the same text with diametrically opposing views in the course of a week or two.
Now, it never surprises me when Piper disagrees with a local CoC preacher. And from what I can tell, this is a century-long debate that will go on for centuries to come. Regardless, I’m interested in your thoughts. I know several of you have dug into this deeply…what’d you find? Anything to help me out?
Coming to realize our salvation in Christ does not remove the struggle with sin. I just now know that Christ has made me an overcomer.
When we dug into this issue at church I came to the understanding that salvation is recognizing Christ as my Lord and Saviour, not a “solve-all” for my own struggles. Yes, He washes away my sin but I am still going to struggle and battle with sin and if I do not make a conscious effort to fight the sin then the salvation can be lost.
Now a lot of people disagree with that view (that salvation is not permanent) but I do believe it. I know there are some verses that touch on it, I’ll try to find them. Basically the belief is that salvation is not a ticket to just go out and cause chaos.