Lately I’ve been reading a book about a future world where ongoing war between other countries has become a way of life. It has become so common to hear military jets flying overhead and hear reports about atomic bombs being dropped all over the world that people have learned to ignore the threat that a bomb might drop on them at any moment. The population has devoted itself to being happy in the moment and not even bothering to think about tomorrow. They surround themselves with mindless entertainment and refuse to think too deeply about anything. Sound familiar?
There is an ongoing war in this world we’re all taking part in. It is a war between God and Satan, between good and evil, between Heaven and Hell, for the souls of people. But, unlike other wars that happen in books or between nations, this conflict is one where we know how it will turn out and who will be the winners! You and I are called to be aware of this conflict and, even as Paul the Apostle did, “Fight the good fight.”
God used Paul to clearly explain the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ: justification before our holy God by the gift of Jesus’ perfect righteousness and forgiveness of our sins because of His atoning sacrifice. We receive this free gift by trusting in God’s grace through the Lord Jesus. But our salvation has an ongoing aspect. We are called to lives of obedience to God, becoming progressively more conformed to the image of Christ. This is sanctification. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” Ephesians 2:10.
This present section of Romans 7 is challenging in several ways. Paul uses himself as an example to teach his readers how sanctification is normally worked out in the life of a Christian. He has already spoken of his own experience in discovering how the law awoke feelings of covetousness in his own heart (verses 7-8). Now, he proceeds to tell how the new spiritual nature of a Christian enters into conflict with the remaining sinful desires within. These sinful desires are what Paul refers to as “carnal” or fleshly.
In verse 14, Paul admits that he himself is “carnal, sold under sin.” He is comparing himself (and with him, all his readers) with the “spiritual” law of God, which he has assured us is “holy and just and good.” Because of Adam’s fall into sin, all of us have been “sold under sin” and possess a sinful nature. As believers, this nature has been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, it continues to try and influence our behavior and get us to disobey God’s law. Our growth as believers on this earth greatly depends on our willingness to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in His fight against this carnal nature.
Many Christians have tried to interpret this section of Romans as Paul describing himself before he became a believer. Or before he experienced a “second blessing” that ended his own struggles with sin. But as we continue studying these verses, we’ll see big problems with that approach. Paul is writing in the present tense here, and in verse 22 he says: “I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.” That certainly can’t describe a non-believer! Clearly there are two factors in Paul that are at war.
If we assume that Paul is writing about his present, ongoing experience as a believer, the first conclusion we must come to is that the belief in a Christian perfectionism on this side of Heaven is a false hope. Many groups and movements have tried to teach that there are deep spiritual secrets or additional works of grace that can bring earthly perfection in a believer’s life, putting his sinful desires permanently to death even before he is glorified in Heaven. Paul obviously disagrees.
The most spiritually mature, godly Christian leaders will testify that the longer they serve the Lord and grow in His grace, the more they are aware of the presence of remaining sin in their lives. This is to be expected, for the more clearly and thoroughly we’re acquainted with the character of God, the more we see our own imperfections when compared with His perfect law. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves…” (I John 1:8).
Many churches have taught that there is a “Deeper Life” or a “Spirit-filled Life” or a “Higher Life” available to average believers that will super-charge their sanctification. One young man in such a church once told R.C. Sproul he had achieved total sanctification. Sproul patiently explained to him that the Apostle Paul confessed that he had not, according to our passage. But the man simply said how sad it was that he himself had progressed even farther than Paul the great apostle had! Obviously this young man either had a very exalted idea of his own moral abilities, or a very LOW view of what the law of God requires!
According to Paul, who had few equals as far as his progress in holiness, there are no “shortcuts” in a Christian’s growth in godliness. Sanctification is a lifelong process and a continual struggle against the world, the flesh and the devil. At our conversion we are gifted with a new heart that strongly desires to love and trust and obey God--the very heart of Christ. But our love, trust, and obedience are incomplete because we have conflicting, sinful desires.
“For what I am doing,” Paul confesses, “I do not understand.” Here he begins to explain the results of his “carnal” identity--his sin nature that remains within. If this inner conflict was perplexing to Paul, of all people, it surely will be so for all of us! He says that it is his “will,” his faculty of choice, that is confusing him. “For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do” (verse 15). The will of the believer is the center of the conflict.
We have to understand that this conflict between the Spirit and the flesh is a mark of the believer. Non-believers might have troubled consciences from time to time, but they have no indwelling Holy Spirit and no new nature to truly oppose the domination of their sin natures. They have no deep love for God and His law, no affection for Christ or desire to please Him. Their sinful, selfish desires are at the controls of their wills, steering them and enslaving them.
Christians, on the other hand, undergo an immediate change, finding in themselves a new sensitivity to sin, new desire to glorify the Lord, and deep longing to be fully obedient to Him. Some areas of obedience will be easier, and some more difficult, than others, because of the “baggage” each believer brings with him or her. But each of us is called to keep on fighting the fight of faith, looking to Jesus and His Spirit and His Word, the Bible, for strength and guidance toward victory.
Jesus our Great High Priest prayed for His people, that the Father would “Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy word is truth.” Christ Himself was our perfect example of being sanctified through the truth of God. Whenever Satan tried to get him to leave the path of perfect obedience to His Father, how did Jesus respond? By quoting and obeying the Scripture He had memorized. “Man shall not live by bread alone,” He told the Devil, “but by every word coming from the mouth of God!” This is how the battle against the flesh is won. By trusting more and more in the commands and promises of God.
How are you and I doing in this ongoing spiritual war? First, are we certain that we are on the winning side? Have we enlisted in God’s army by receiving His free gift of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, turning away from self and sin and Satan? Secondly, are we taking steps each day to starve our carnal, sinful desires and feed our God- pleasing, spiritual desires? Are we making the Bible the guidebook to our every life choice and staying in constant love-relationship with Christ and His people?
The Apostle John wrote, “If we say we have not sinned, we lie, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sin, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” This is God’s promise to Christian soldiers who are sincerely struggling in the fight against their own fleshly desires. We will stumble and fall, day after day, even as we seek to live for Christ. But no true believer will fall fully or finally. As we “put on the full armor of God” that Paul writes about in Galatians 6, the spiritual armor of salvation, gospel truth, faith, prayer and God’s word as our sword, Christ will lead each one of His dear people to ultimate victory when we stand in Heaven before Him! The Christian life is a struggle, but we rejoice in knowing that God is for us!
MNA
9/9/2026
