Readings from Romans: The Struggle

The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
July 5, 2026
Romans 7:15-25a

“Readings from Romans: The Struggle”

On this holiday weekend in which our nation celebrates its 250th anniversary, it is fitting and appropriate that we turn our eyes to the Lord of the nations. Throughout the nation, festivities and fireworks, parades and picnics, commemorations and celebrations, mark this milestone event. But let us not forget to do as the psalmist has written in words from the psalm that we spoke responsively in worship this morning: “I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts” (Psalm 145:1-4). Over against the oft-repeated phrase, “God Bless America,” the Word of the Lord here in the psalm says, “America, Bless God.” This 250^th celebration is a call for us and our nation to turn our eyes to the Lord; to seek his face and call upon his Name. Without doubt, the Lord has abundantly blessed our nation in so many ways over these 250 years, and for these many blessings, we are profoundly grateful. The truth is that our nation has not always reflected the grace and goodness of the Lord. There have been many fissures and fractures in our national life over these 250 years. Slavery has defaced our past and racial discrimination continues to threaten our future. A nation of immigrants, our continuing fear of immigrants and those who are different from us have cast a long shadow over our life together. Broken treaty after broken treaty with Native Americans is witness against us. Greed masking itself as economic freedom, running rampant over the needs of the least in our society, has been and continues to be a very real thing. The co-opting of the Christian faith to suit political agendas, including the current rise of Christian nationalism, requires both vigilance and voice to speak out against this perversion of the Gospel. So even as we rise up to celebrate and rejoice on this 250^th anniversary of our nation, it is fitting and appropriate that we also kneel down and repent over these injustices and inequities. Our forefathers and mothers understood the struggle for freedom, and so must we also struggle for that same freedom in our own generation. The love of Christ, which knows no borders or boundaries, which transcends skin color and ethnic origin, calls us to love and serve others just as Christ has loved and served us. As Christian citizens of our nation, we see this 250^th anniversary milestone through the lens of Jesus Christ, who died for us that we might live for him. Our summer preaching series based on the Epistle lessons, “Readings from Romans,” continues today under the theme “The Struggle.” May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

We pick up where we left off last Sunday in the Epistle reading from Romans 7. Last week, we heard the first half of chapter 7 (Romans 7:1-13), and now today we hear the second half of this same chapter (Romans 7:15-25a). Paul here writes about the struggle that he himself experienced in his faith life, and describes our own experience as well. “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate… For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:15, 19). For any disciple of Christ who takes seriously following Christ, these words ring true and clear. We see it in our own lives. There is this terrible internal struggle going on within us: the good we want to do, the thing that is pleasing to God and helpful to our neighbor, can and does get overruled by another will, another law, that is deeply embedded within us. As Paul describes this, it is the “law of God” (Romans 7:22) versus the “law of sin” (Romans 7:23).

The law of God is centered in what we know as the Ten Commandments, which can be summed up in one word: love. This is what Paul writes later in Romans: “Owe no one anything, except to love one other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,’ and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:8-10). The first table of the Law, Commandments 1-3, are all focused on our relationship with God. The second table of the Law, Commandments 4-10, are all focused on our relationship with our neighbor. Love of God must make itself known in love for neighbor. We may know the Commandments inside-out and upside-down, but the problem is that we fail to keep them, and so despite our best intentions the law of God is broken by the evil we do and the good we fail to do. This is the struggle. This is where the law of sin comes into conflict with the law of God, as Paul writes: “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” (Romans 7:21-23). This is the struggle that we, like Paul, face in our own lives. Left to ourselves, we would utterly fail in this struggle. Paul’s despair over this situation in his life causes him to cry out: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24).

Paul’s cry for help – our cry for help – is answered by the only One who can help: God himself. It is as Luther’s great hymn of the Reformation, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” puts it in stanzas two:

No strength of ours can match his might.

We would be lost, rejected.

But now a champion comes to fight,

          Whom God Himself elected.

          You ask who this may be?

          The Lord of hosts is He,

          Christ Jesus, mighty Lord,

          God’s only Son, adored.

          He holds the field victorious! (Lutheran Service Book #657, stanza 2)

It is Christ Jesus, God’s only Son, who has fought the fight and endured the struggle in our behalf. Dying, he destroyed our death. Rising, he restored our life. Whatever struggle we may have in our own lives as followers of Christ, it all comes back to the cross where there is forgiveness, life and salvation. The freedom which we so prize as a nation, and which we celebrate on this 250^th anniversary, pales in comparison to the true freedom we have received in Christ. Here at the cross, there is freedom – real freedom – from sin, death and hell through the cleansing blood of Jesus. Amen.

Join us next Sunday as we continue “Readings from Romans,” looking at the Epistle lesson from Romans 8:12-17.