Paul candidly described the battle he faced with his own sinful nature in Romans 7:14-25.* God had gloriously transformed him from an enemy of Christ to an Apostle of Christ. He had been preaching the gospel for about 25 years by the time he wrote the Book of Romans. But he realized that evil would always be a familiar adversary in this earthly life:
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Romans 7:21-23
Our relationship with Christ has permanently altered our relationship with sin–it no longer rules our lives. We are dead to sin (Romans 6:11). We have been set free from its power in order to serve a New Master with a glorious, new purpose (Romans 6:22).
But our old, sinful nature is like a deposed dictator who wishes to retake power and will seek every opportunity to do so.
This conflict I have described is part of a process known as sanctification--becoming more like Christ. It is a lifelong process. We should be growing and experiencing victories in our war against sin. But we never reach sinless perfection in this life. The closer we get to God, in fact, the more aware we become of the sin in our lives that has yet to be defeated.
Why bother, then, if the struggle never ends? This illustration came to mind:
We’ve all had the experience of turning the kitchen light on the kitchen light to find an unwanted, six-legged animal crawling along the floor or counter. I’m talking about cockroaches, of course.
The disgusting little critter usually evokes an immediate response–we either reach for the nearest can of insecticide or try to give it an old-fashioned stomp. We also know there’s bound to be more of them in hiding, so we take steps to get rid of them, too (cleaning up food crumbs, putting out poison baits or traps, etc.). We declare war on the invasive species.
What we don’t do is accept the pests’ presence as just “the way things are.” We don’t act as though they have the right to cohabitate with us and share our food. We know we’ll probably be at war with creepy crawlers our whole lives, yet the thought of allowing them to multiply and take over is never an option.
Believer, take heart in your battle with sin! Like Paul, you will experience both victories and failures as you seek to please God and die to yourself. But you must never live as though sin has some rightful place in your life.
*Scholars, theologians, and commentators have debated the meaning of Romans 7:14-25 for centuries. Some argue that this section describes the experience of an unbeliever–someone who doesn’t know the Lord. I believe Paul is describing the universal Christian experience of struggling with sin. I believe even those who disagree with my interpretation would acknowledge the believer’s responsibility to resist sin and the ongoing battle with the sinful nature (1st Corinthians 10:13, Galatians 5:16-18 and Ephesians 4:22-24 are a few other texts that come to mind).
