O my soul,

How are you going with your holiness and repudiation of worldliness?

Are you embarrassed, ashamed even, of how feeble is your ability to live a right life which honours the Lord? Are you occasionally skewered by thoughts which take you to places you know you should not go, and in fact later you bitterly regret visiting? Do you find yourself stumbling? Again?

Know that you are not alone.

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

― Romans 7:15

This was written by the Apostle Paul, the very same man who had encountered Jesus personally and dramatically on the Damascus Road. The same man who had been taken up into the third heaven, into paradise, to hear things which man may not utter, however we grapple to understand that.

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven⸺whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise⸺whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows⸺and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.

― 2 Corinthians 12:2-4

Paul knows this man in Christ for it is himself.

And yet after these amazing encounters and being filled with the Holy Spirit now we find Paul writing this, and in the present tense no less.

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

― Romans 7:15

So here is Paul struggling with the very same.

The first thing we must do is acknowledge that the spiritual battle is real and that it must be fought every day. Every single day.

And then we must be wise to what we are up against. Again, listen to Paul.

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

― Romans 7:18-19

O my soul, do you somehow think that you have the ability to do that which was beyond the apostle?

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

Christians through the ages have struggled to understand what Paul is saying here, for does it not seem to be both defeatist and without hope? It is neither of these things. It is gritty reality, the astute observation of one for whom there is no pretending, and the humble acknowledgement of the extent to which the hooks of sin remain in one’s life even after eternal salvation has been secured by Christ’s death and resurrection.

If there is a war being waged then it must be fought. But it must be fought with the right weapons and in the grace of God. Let us first recognise that which is our own responsibility.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

― Romans 8:5-6

O my soul, what is your mind set upon? The Lord knows! And it is this which is the key to victory in the spiritual battle for our own holiness⸺earnest desire to honour the Lord in every last detail of our lives, and a longing for that which is good, right, and true to have the victory over sin in our lives.

And then what? Well then we must fully engage with Paul’s argument, for it is hope and strength and life and peace to each one burdened by ongoing and besetting sin.

Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

― Romans 7:16-17, 20

It is precisely that earnest desire to live a right life in humble gratitude to my saviour that is evidence of this: I am not my sin! It no longer defines me. And so along with Paul and with a grateful heart I can declare:

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 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.

― Romans 7:24-25

Only through Jesus’ death and resurrection can I be delivered from this wretched state. Praise my Saviour!

But there’s more. Much more.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

― Romans 8:1-4

Here is the victory. It is in Christ and it is Christ. And for those who are in Christ there is no condemnation. Instead there is freedom⸺freedom in Christ. Hallelujah!

The tension between the flesh and the Spirit remains but notice that the Lord has condemned sin in the flesh. He did this in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in each one of us, that is, in order that each one of us may become holy.

And furthermore notice this phenomenal promise.

But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

― Romans 8:10-11

This is nothing if not a promise of sanctification through the indwelling Spirit of Christ Jesus. These very mortal bodies which are dead because of sin will be given life. Victory over sin is the Lord’s gift of grace, the sanctifying work of the Spirit. Yes, it is utterly beyond us, but it is not beyond him.

So what are we to do when we stumble? Simply cry out to the Lord in anguish over our ongoing sin, confess that sin, repent, and receive forgiveness and restoration.

O my soul, even when you stumble, especially when you stumble, repent, set your mind on the things of the Spirit, be lifted up once more, and by doing so choose life and peace! 🙏