The Constant Struggle


Romans 7 is filled with content that is extremely applicable to all and brings up a timeless topic. The struggle with sin. But before diving into that, the first portion of this chapter, verses 1-6, Paul again compares the concept of marriage with the idea of our dead life to sin as talked about previously. Marriage is something that binds two people together, a husband and a wife, and they are bound until one passes. When the husband or wife pass away, they are freed from their commitment of marriage. Similarly, we are bound to sin, but when we chose to follow God, he came into our lives, killed our old sinful self, freeing us from the binding sin that held us down.

Now that we've been freed from a life of sin and wrong, we shouldnt expect a life of sinless perfection, but as many of us, in fact all of us Christians have discovered that now, in this new life, there is a constant inner struggle with sin. We know what is right, yet sometimes we still end up doing what is wrong.

Paul explains that the law allows sin to be, without the law, we wouldnt know right from wrong (v.7). Yet at the same time, because of the law, we now have sinful desires to break that law, to do what is wrong (v.8). That is how sin and Satan works, he uses something good, like the law and commandments, to produce death in us.

As human beings, we will always have a sinful nature in us, a sinful flesh, but in our spirit, we have Christ, a stronger force and being that will guide us to holiness and righteousness. But we will always be at war between God's law and the law that causes us to sin (v.22-23).

This is our reality in our life with Christ, a constant fight with sin. In Romans 4, we saw that a true believer would continue to bear good fruit in their lives, and a false believer wouldnt bear fruit. In Romans 7, a true believer would cry out to Christ when fighting this struggle, where as a false believer would enjoy the struggle because they are still attached to sin and hasnt let go yet.

Our victory is found in Christ, not in self-discipline or anything else.

verse of the day: Romans 7:25
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

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