Lesson 33: Oh Wretched Man That I Am, part 2

Secondly: The regenerate man is also AN IMPOTENT MAN.

Here is the great mistake made by many Christian people. They think that when there is a renewed will it is enough; but that is not the case. This regenerate man tells us: "I will to do what is good, but the power to perform I do not find." How often people tell us that if you set yourself determinedly you can perform what you will. But this man was as determined as any man can be, and yet he made the confession: "To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I do not find."

But, you ask, how is it that God makes a regenerate man utter such a confession, with a right will, with a heart that longs to do good, and longs to do its very utmost to love God?

Let us look at this question. What has God given us our will for? Had the angels who fell, in their own will, the strength to stand? Verily, no. The will of the creature is nothing but an empty vessel in which the power of God is to be made manifest. The creature must seek in God all that it is to be. You have it in the second chapter of the Epistle to the Philippians, and you have it here also, that God's work is to work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Here is a man who appears to say: "God has not worked to do in me." But we are taught that God works both to will and to do. How is the apparent contradiction to be reconciled?


You will find in this passage (Romans 7:6-25) that the name of the Holy Spirit does not occur once, nor does the name of Christ occur. The man is wrestling and struggling to fulfil God's law. In the chapter, instead of the Holy Spirit and of Christ, the law is mentioned nearly twenty times. It shows a believer doing his very best to obey the law of God with his regenerate will. Not only this but you will find the little words "I," "me," and "my" occur more than forty times. It is the regenerate "I" in its impotence seeking to obey the law without being filled with the Spirit. This is the experience of almost every saint. After conversion a man begins to do his best, and he fails; but if we are brought into the full light we need fail no longer. Nor need we fail at all if we have received the Spirit in His fulness at conversion.

God allows that in failure the regenerate man should be taught his own utter impotence. It is during this struggle that there comes to us this sense of our utter sinfulness. It is God's way of dealing with us. He allows that man to strive to fulfil the law that, as he strives and wrestles, he may be brought to this “I am a regenerate child of God, but I am utterly helpless to obey His law." See what strong words are used all through the chapter to describe this condition “I am carnal, sold under sin"; "I see another law in my members bringing me into captivity"; and last of all, "oh wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" This believer who bows here in deep contrition is utterly unable to obey the law of God.