The Two Laws: The Struggle Within

Imagine you're at the mall to buy new clothes because you've lost 50 lbs. You was a person who loved sweets. You had to have them after ever meal and for every celebration. The changing point for you was when you went in for a check-up and found that you were pre-diabetic and obese according to the size chart for your age. Therefore after consulting God, you made a conscious decision to leave sweets alone and change your eating habits with food. Now you have reaped the benefits of your labor. The weight melted away and your numbers are now at good levels. You're walking through the mall and a smell of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies alert your senses. You imagine that they're gooey with warm milk chocolate. You turn to the direction of the smell. Now you are battling. Do I go get some cookies or do I keep going so I don't disrupt my progress? Your flesh is saying "GO GET THE COOKIES!" and your spirit is saying "God didn't bring you this far for you throw it away for cookies. You know how hard it's going to be if you open that door." The flesh says "Two cookies won't hurt you." Next thing you know, you're at counter buying five cookies instead of two and a bottle of cold milk. What just happened? Well Paul tells us about the war between our flesh and spirt. He explains how much of a struggle it is to do the right thing without Jesus Christ. Turn to Romans 7:18-25. 

The Struggle Within

 

Romans 7: 18-25 Paul explains in this block of scripture the battle of good and evil. He says he wants to do right but he can't in his sinful nature. He wants to make the right decisions that God would be pleased with but he continues to make the opposite choice. You can see his frustration through scripture when he says " Oh what a miserable person I am!" Paul is showing us that he totally understands the fight to do good but you keep doing bad. We all go through this from time to time. In the story above it was cookies, for you it may be sexual immorality, alcoholism, bad parenting, etc. You ever heard the saying "The devil made me do it" Through the sin that satan caused to come in this world through trickery we now have a war to fight daily. Paul speaks of two laws: The law of God and the law of sin working in his body. He wants to please God but he continues to succumb to sin. As you read this block of scripture you can almost become discouraged. You may begin to think what's the point of trying to do right if I'm just going to keep failing. DON'T GIVE UP! Paul has a answer that will not only stop you from continuously failing but make you victorious in living a life for God.

The Old Man

Remember in verse 18 Paul said that nothing good dwells within his body. I want you to understand first that Paul isn't saying our body is inherently evil and it will do nothing but bad. What he is saying is that because we were tainted with sin and in bondage to it we have been using our body for our sinful lusts. Our body in itself isn't evil, God made our bodies and said that it was good. He also made us in his image and likeness. Nevertheless, our bodies are on a collision course for death in eternity due to sin. The Bible tells us the wages of sin is death. The way sin works is first through the mind as temptation of something we lust (desire) for. Then we are lured by it to commit sin. Once sin is committed it produces death. Glory be to God he gave us a way of escape from this vicious cycle of sin, JESUS CHRIST. Because we were tainted with sin we must be born again without bondage to sin and that's where Jesus come in. When we accept Jesus and believe that he is the son of the living God and died and rose again on the third day we become saved. The old man has been crucified with Christ but nevertheless we live in our new nature. When we are born again we become free from sin. We are no longer on the collision course to Hell. We now have victory over sin and when we are tempted we have the power of the Holy Spirit to resist the devil and his evil schemes. We no longer have to do the wrong thing when we want to do right. We can now do right through Jesus Christ saving grace. 

The New Man

Now that we are born again we can walk in the newness of life. We often forget this luxury. Many have become so comfortable in sin they think they can"t fight it (they're right) but you don't have to, Jesus has done that work for us. Now it's time to walk in our new nature. One strategy against sin is to make a goal to please God with your body. James tells us in Chapter four a few strategies we can use to walk in our new nature.  

• Submit yourself to God
• Resist the Devil and he will flee
• Draw near to God and he will draw near to you
• Wash your hands of sin and Purify your heart (so that your loyalty won't be divided between the world and God)
• Repent of your sin and show sorrow for it

When we follow this list God will lift us up. He will strengthen us against sin. We must crucify the flesh daily. Paul tells us in  Galatians 5 chapter that we must live by the Holy Spirit. We must learn to keep our flesh under subjection of the spirit. Be aware of the power you have over your old nature through Jesus. If you don't reject the old man and it's practices you will continue to stay captivated by sin. We do not become robots programmed to do right but we become empowered to do right. We must do the work by making a conscious decision to choose God and his commandments. Not by our works that anyone can boast but by the Grace given to us by God through Christ. Now go and be VICTORIOUS!

Scriptures in this blog came from the NLT and the ESV versions for better clarity. If you have any questions please leave them in the comment section.