(10) You Are Not Alone

We are dead to sin. We have the power by God’s grace to say “no” to sin. We can live in victory. But often, we don’t feel dead to sin. Often we feel like sin is very much alive in us. The battle to resist temptation rages and too often we loose the battle. And so, we can become discouraged with ourselves and with our spiritual progress, or lack of progress. If you can identify with this struggle, you are not alone. This battle rages with the most committed and mature believers.

For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. (15)For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. (16)But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. (17)So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. (18)For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. (19)For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. (20)But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. (21)I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. (22)For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, (23)but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. (24)Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? (25)Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. (Romans 7:14-25 NAU)

Paul says that “the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.” The problem in our struggle toward holiness is not a problem with the Law of God. The Law is the work of God, the product of the Holy spirit. A few verses before, Paul said that “The law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good (7:12).

The problem in our struggle toward holiness is not a problem of requirements from God that are unreasonable. The problem is with us. Paul describes himself as being, “of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.” The grammar here inicates that there is a condition still in effect from a past action. In other words, we are still under the effects of the fall.

In Christ, I am free from sin’s consequence of spiritual death. But, because I am still part of humanity under the fall, I am still living in the presence of sin, under the effects of sin in my life and under sin’s consequence of physical death.

Though we have died to the power of sin, we are still imperfect human beings, often living as believers who are carnal, “of flesh.” We have a new nature, but, the old nature, the flesh, remains in us to influence us and draw us away to live according to the flesh. We can live and act nearly the same as unbelievers.

This is how Paul described the Corinthian believers.

Brothers, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:1 CSB)

By saying, “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh,” Paul is saying that there is more to him than his new, regenerated nature. That is his “flesh,” his sinful human nature that he has to fight against continually.

Notice that. One of the greatest, most godly men who ever lived was engaged in a daily battle against his sinful nature. Paul had to fight for victory over sin all the time. You are not alone. This continuing struggle with sin and the “old man” was a common battle in Paul’s life and a common theme in the first century church. You are not alone.

Next:  (11)  How Could I Do That?