Wearing Chains

Do you ever feel like you are bound by chains? Chains, depending on their size are heavy. Try wrapping yourself in a long heavy chain; about twenty feet of one heavy enough to pull a car and then see how long you would want to carry it around with you.

Do you know this is exactly what has happened to us and there is nothing we can do about it? You were born to be tall or short; have big feet or little feet; you are what you are; your D.N.A. came from your parents. You were also born with the "propensity" to sin. These are the chains I'm talking about. Let me explain the best I can. I want to use the Apostle Paul's words as he wrote about … his own life. You see, he wasn't any different than we are … like us, he was made of sinful flesh.

The Apostle Paul in his letter to Timothy stated … "I am suffering affliction and even wearing chains like a criminal." (2nd Timothy 2:9)

Paul was arrested and thrown into a Roman prison shortly before his death. He was not only imprisoned, but shackled and chained, usually clamped around one ankle. He had freedom, but only as far as his chains would allow him to walk around in his lower dungeon cell.

Romans 7:24 …"O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from the shackles of this body of death?"

Some have said that Paul is referring here to a custom practiced by the Romans, of shackling a dead body to a prisoner as a punishment, making him drag the dead corpse around the cell as he moved about.

Even though this may have happened to others, there isn't any evidence that the Apostle Paul had this in mind speaking of himself; for at the time he was writing this letter to the Romans he hadn't yet been imprisoned in Rome; even so, such a fact may be used as a striking illustration of the true meaning of what he wanted to show here.

"O wretched man that I am …" The feeling implied by this outcry is the result of the spiritual conflict between his will and his flesh … his body and it's frequent subjection to sinful propensities … a disposition to sin. Yes, even Paul.

"… this body of death." When Paul uses the word …"body"… he is speaking of the physical …"flesh"… denoting the law of sin in the flesh; the corrupt and evil appetites with which the apostle was struggling against; often an agonizing struggle between good and evil; from which he desired to be delivered.

Romans 7:17 …"However, it is no longer I who do the deed, but the sin principle which is at home in me and has possession of me."

"… it is no longer I who do the deed …" This is evidently figurative language, for it is really the man that sins when evil is committed.

Paul is saying, it is not … "I" … my will, reason and conscience that sins; but the sin nature that dwelleth in me, that has the domination over my reason, darkening my understanding and perverting my judgment. So we find here that there is a sin principle in man stronger than reason and his will itself; by which the whole soul is darkened, confused, perverted, and causes rebellion against God.

Romans 7:18 …"For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it. I have the intention and urge to do what is right, but no power to carry it out."

Paul goes on and gives a further account of himself, what he knew of himself to be true, assured of by long experience; and that was … that nothing good dwells in him … that is, in his flesh, or carnal self. His meaning is that there was nothing good naturally in him; nothing good of his own putting there; or as he explains it, there was nothing good in the old man that was in him, nothing good in his fleshly nature.

Paul found out he had no strength in and of himself to do what he willed, to please God and live without sin. To "will" was present with him, but how to perform that will, how to live out that will … he found not. Note: (I will speak more of this a little later.)

This is Paul’s own representation of himself. And if this was true of him, it is also true of all others. It is a good way to examine ourselves, to inquire whether we have such a view of our own natural character as to say that we know that in our flesh there dwelleth no good thing. The sense Paul gives here is, that so far as the flesh was concerned, in regard to his natural fleshly appetites and desires, there was nothing good in him … all was evil.

Romans 7:20-21 …"Now if I do what I do not desire to do, it is no longer I doing it, it is not myself that acts, but the sin principle which dwells within me fixed and operating in my soul. So I find it to be a law (rule of action of my being) that when I want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present with me and I am subject to its insistent demands."

The sense here is … the sin principle … or evil, is ever present with me; it came into the world with me, and it has continued with me ever since. There is a law whose operation I experience whenever I attempt to do good.

This law controls his carnal nature; and influences the sinful propensities and dispositions of his natural flesh. He is in bondage to it, it rules over him and it impedes his efforts to follow his true will which is to serve God.

So where am I going with this? To show that all of us, as Paul was … are by nature "Wearing Chains" that bind and shackle us to "sin." We may not be chained to a dead corpse rotting on the other end of that chain like a Roman prisoner, but we are chained to our own "bodies of death." That's the meaning of that phrase.

But wait … there is good news. Paul also said …

Romans 6:6 …"We know that our old unrenewed self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that our body which is the instrument of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin."

Romans 8:9 …"But you are not living the life of the flesh … if … the Holy Spirit of God really dwells within you (and) directs and controls you."

How do we get set free from the chains of "the law of sin" in our bodies? By allowing the Holy Spirit to have total control of who and what we are.

Now … concerning Paul and what he said about his "will" and how to do or perform his will; I want to remind you of what he wrote in A.D. 61 about 4 years after he wrote to the Romans in A.D. 57.

Philippians 2:13 … (It's) "Not in your own strength for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you energizing and creating in you the power and desire, both to will and to work (perform) for His good pleasure …"

Paul's later statement to the Philippians is in stark contrast to his earlier one in Romans. Notice …

1.) God does not force us to perform. It is not said that God wills and does for us; He leads us to will and to work. It is still the man that wills and does, although God so influences him … that he does it.

2.) God does not compel or force us against our will. He leads us to "will" as well as to "do." The will cannot be forced; although God does exert such an influence on the desire of our heart … as to make us willing to obey Him.

3.) This "power" is not a physical force, but rather a moral or spiritual influence. A physical power cannot change the will. You may chain a man, throw him in prison, starve and beat him, but the "will" is still freely his.

I could be wrong … but it looks like Paul is now saying to the Philippians 4 years later … that even though in our own strength we may not be able to perform in our bodies what our "will" wants to do for God; that the Lord … working in us, gives us the power and desire to perform the "will."

Could it be that Paul, during these 4 years between these two letters learned that he could overcome the "law of sin" that was in his flesh?

Paul may have asked this question in the Book of Romans …"O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from the shackles of this body of death?"

Death is exactly what our bodies lead us to; and he answered this question with his next sentence …"O thank God! He will … through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Paul explained to some degree in Philippians 2:13 above, how God sets us free from the shackles of ourselves … it's all Him.

Freedom comes from Jesus … when He is within you … well here are His own words as John recorded them.

John 8:36 …"So if the Son liberates you; makes you free men, then you are really and unquestionably free."

Jesus … the only one who can break the chains … the sinful fallen nature of man.


(All scripture used … Amplified Bible)