We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Romans 7:14-25
Having expounded even further in the first 13 verses of Romans 7 about the believer’s death to sin, Paul now gets up close and personal about the ongoing struggle between the two natures of the believer. The spiritual transition is total at the point of faith in Christ, but the bodily experience can be quite a difficult pilgrimage. As a former religious legalist, it seems to have been especially painful for Paul.
His testimony regarding his own righteousness as Saul of Tarsus: Philippians 3:6, “as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.” Acts 23:1 “My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day.” As a godly Jew he had considered himself blameless. He was ambitiously chalking up points in that life. He had not yet realized that even with all that work, he would never reach his goal of perfection. Since the law had no power to deliver, the real master continued to be sin.
Then he met the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus. Everything changed. He now could see that the law is spiritual. He now could see that not only had he not actually kept the law, he was condemned by the law. He, who had thought he was alive, now realized he was spiritually dead. He saw that all his past works were worthless human good. He saw that in spite of his efforts to impress God with his own righteousness, the sin remained and dominated. He saw that in his sinful nature, there was nothing good. As a legalist, he genuinely wanted to do good, but could not. He wanted nothing to do with evil, but there it was, constantly in his life. How could this be? Answer, verse 20: “it is sin living in me that does it.” Congenital sin.
Human good is no good.
Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”
After his shocking encounter with Jesus, Paul was physically blinded and led helplessly to a Christian who could help him understand what had happened to him (Acts 9:9). Then he spent three years in Arabia (Galatians 1:12-18) alone with the Lord, learning about the purpose of the law and the power of the sin nature to enslave the unbeliever to evil. He learned about the deliverance from slavery by the death of Christ, and our identification with His death. “Thanks be to God!”
The sin nature isn’t deleted, however. It remains in our cell structure as long as we live in these bodies. There will always be the conflict between the Holy Spirit in us and the old sin nature, trying to regain control of our thinking and behavior, until such time as physical death eliminates all that baggage we were born with. Oh, wretched man!
In this life, we will always need to maintain a right relationship with God by obedience to His Word. He has promised to help us with that. There will be lapses in judgment and moments of weakness. Until we learn what really is and is not sin, there will be pitfalls of ignorance. He has given us every asset by which to live and learn and grow. One of the most basic and most frequently necessary for the believer is found in I John 1:7-9:
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (keeps on cleansing us from all sin!)
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (get real). 9 If we confess our sins (name them to God. Agree with Him about our sin. Admit that thought or action was wrong), he is faithful (always does the same thing) and just (fair and righteous in this action) and will forgive us our sins (the ones we confessed, because we know they are sin) and purify us from all unrighteousness (the ones we didn’t confess because of ignorance).
IN CHRIST we are free and pure, enslaved only to righteousness. In the mortal body, we are still plagued by the sin nature within.
Who is in control? We choose. With growth and awareness, the choice gets more obvious and easier. We are not alone.
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