Thus one strategy against sin is to make it your aim always to glorify God with your body 1 Cor. Sin uses reason, however faulty, to appeal to us. Satan reasoned with Eve that God surely would not impose the death penalty for eating a little piece of fruit. The fall brought our minds as well as our bodies into captivity to sin. But in addition to reason, temptation always appeals to our feelings. In fact, sin is usually irrational.
So, in the first corner, we have the reigning champion that has dominated the human race ever since the fall: Paul wants to do good 7: This must refer to the mind of a regenerate man. One of the marks of the new birth is that God gives you new desires. You have a new love for Christ, who gave Himself on the cross for you. You long to be holy, just as Jesus is holy. You hate your own sin.
And yet, at the same time, you know that in your flesh there is still a strong desire to do evil. In new believers, the desires of the old nature the reigning champion often win out over the new desires of the new nature the new challenger until the new believer learns how to fight. But mature believers have learned to put on the new man and put off the old, so that they experience consistent victory over sin.
But before we begin to see consistent victory, we often experience frustrating defeats because of the power of the reigning champion, the old man. We lash out in anger at our loved ones. We act selfishly with no regard for others. We see a seductive woman and lust floods into our thoughts. But I do not see Paul describing here a lack of perfection, but rather a lack of obedience. He is not doing what he knows to be right.
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He is practicing what he knows to be wrong. He is failing completely. I agree with Martyn Lloyd-Jones Romans: Its Functions and Limits [Zondervan], p. So let me make three observations to try to picture what deliverance looks like:. In this life, I will never love God as completely as I should, with my entire heart, soul, mind, and strength. I will never love others as much as I love myself Mark I will always fall short of these commands.
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But a lack of perfection is not the same as persistent disobedience. I can love my wife, my children, and others in a self-sacrificing manner. The deliverance that Paul is crying out for in 7: But he wants to be freed from his present enslavement to sin 7: He wants to obey God consistently, even if such obedience can never be perfect in this life.
There is an irony in the Christian life: As you walk more consistently in obedience to God and grow closer to the light of His holy presence, you see all the more how dirty you really are. When Isaiah saw God in His holiness, he immediately saw how sinful he was Isa. Yet at the same time, growing to know Christ and obey Him more always leads to a greater awareness of how sinful you still are. But instead, he summarizes the war he has just described, in which with his mind he serves the law of God, but with his flesh, the law of sin.
It leaves you with the feeling that sin is still consistently winning. Bishop Lightfoot Notes on Epi s tles of St. But even when we walk in the Spirit, the daily struggle against sin goes on. The war within of chapter 7 is never eradicated in this life, but the difference is, chapter 7 pictures persistent defeat, whereas chapter 8 pictures consistent triumph and victory, even in the face of severe trials.
As I cited my friend Bob Deffinbaugh last week, the problem with many Christians is not their despair, like that of Paul, but their lack of it. You must also realize, often through repeated failures, that you cannot obey God in your own strength. Who will set me free from the body of this death? You learn to walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit 8: You begin to experience consistent victory over sin in your daily walk, beginning on the thought level. The war within will be with us as long as we live in these fallen bodies. It is winnable, not perfectly or permanently, but consistently.
Handing Off the Baton 2 Timothy 4: Walking the Romans Road. Facing Winter Seasons 2 Timothy 4: Fact, proof, and conclusion: This third cycle teaches us: I see three lessons in our text: To win the war within, we must understand the nature and magnitude of the conflict between indwelling sin and the new man. We can picture them as boxers: The reigning champion, the old man, waging war in my members to make me a prisoner.
The War Within Me Romans 7:1-25 By David Turner www.BibleStudies-Online.com.
Note how the old man operates: The old man the flesh, indwelling sin operates according to a law. The old man operates by waging a cunning, relentless war. The old man operates through our bodies. The old man operates through strong compulsion or feelings, not through reason alone. In the other corner: The new challenger, the inner man, joyfully concurring with the law of God.
Deliverance in this conflict consists of consistent victory over sin in this life and perfect, permanent victory in the resurrection. So let me make three observations to try to picture what deliverance looks like: Deliverance does not refer to a state of sinless perfection in this life, but to consistent victory over sin.
Deliverance from sin always creates tension with the growing awareness of your many sins and shortcomings. Deliverance from sin means consistent victory over it, but it does not eliminate the lifelong struggle against it. To experience consistent victory over sin, we must despair over our sin and cry out to God for deliverance. On the outset, let me say that this passage of scripture is a very difficult one to preach. Regardless what you have been led to believe by modern psychologists, man isn't basically good… no, far from it.
At our core… we are depraved. It was not so in the beginning. When God first made Adam, he was perfect in his creation — nothing prevented him from walking with God or enjoying His fellowship. Before sin, Adam was able to relate perfectly with His Creator — in fact, he was created in such a way that it was natural for him to fellowship with God. Without freedom of will, man would have been little more than a robot — a machine.
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But God desired the love of a creature that was not FORCED to love in return — the affections of another that came from its free choice. Home Sermons The War Within. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Download Sermon with PRO. Browse All Media Related Media. Nobody has commented yet.
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