Title: The War Within

Text: Romans 7:15-25

Date: 1-06-08.am

Ro 7:15-25

5 For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which indwells me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. 22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. NASB

Introduction:

This morning Paul is going to share with us about the conflict or war that rages on in our lives even after we have become Christians. In a way it’s a parallel between the conflict in the world today, particularly in our case the war in Iraq. Politics aside the first stage of the War was intended to liberate the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussain and the oppression they had lived under. That part of the war, at least from a military standpoint took place rather quickly and went exceptionally well. Of course over time we have seen the continuing conflict to restore order and peace, bring about some sort of unified government to that nation. In other words there’s a lot struggle left as that war rages on as well. I remember reading in the paper around the time our troops entered and took control of Baghdad a comment by a local Iraqi refugee who compared what was happening to surgery. I can relate to that and many of you can as well. My knee surgery didn’t take very long a few hours all together, but the healing process afterwards is much longer, there is still a lot of pain and soreness and a lot of rehab to go through.

The same thing is true in the Christian life. Christ went to the cross and won our victory. He atoned for our sins, as one of Max Lucado’s books, recalls Six hours one Friday. And, as we said last week the very moment we accept and trust Him we are justified. Now, for some of us there may have been a long struggle leading up to that decision, people may have been praying for us for a long time, people may have been witnessing to us over and over, we may have fought against the against making a decision to trust Christ because we didn’t want to give up our old way of living and we put it off time and time again. But the moment we made that decision to trust Christ we were saved. It was over just that quick. In the twinkling of an eye we were sealed by His Spirit and we became His. But, there is a great deal of conflict that remains. The Christian life There is a war that continues to rage within us.

What often happens in our lives is we want to do more for Christ, but end up just doing more. We want to reach higher, but we tend to settle for a little lower so we’ll fit in and friends or family won’t think of us as strange or fanatical or going overboard. We want to become better people and better Christians, but for various reasons we fall short God’s expectations, and even our own goals and expectations. At least if you are like me that’s usually what the conflict within your life as a believer is like. The apostle Paul experienced that same kind of conflict in his life. I believe this passage we are looking at this morning is an autobiographical passage in which Paul opens his own heart to share with us from his own struggles.

Paul confessed he experienced inner conflict as a Christian. "For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature, he wrote in Gal 5: 17. Those two natures, the flesh and the Spirit within us, are in conflict. Trusting Christ receiving His forgiveness and justification is the beginning of new and abundant life, but it is also just beginning of a war that rages within every believer. When we trust Christ we are giving a new nature that frees us to obey God. However, we are not perfected in this life and the old sinful nature still tries to pull us back. We refer to these as the old man and the new man; the old nature and the new nature or simply the flesh and the Spirit. That Paul shares with us from his own experience and his own struggle because he wants us to know there is a war within us between these two natures. And, he wants us to know the war is winnable, but only through Jesus Christ.

THE WAR WITHIN IS BEYOND HUMAN UNDERSTANDING

First we need to recognize this inner war is beyond our understanding. The Psalmist asked, "Who can understand his errors?" (Psalm 19: 12). For the believer there is an irrationality about this ongoing struggle within. The fact that it exists to start with and the intensity of the struggle exceeds our understanding. Paul said we were free from sin and death and free from the law, we were alive in Christ so it seems only natural to expect that when we trust Christ everything is going the way it should be. That we are not going to have to struggle with sin anymore but we find that’s not the case. Paul wrote, "I don’t understand what I’m doing" (7:15). We can relate to that.

Paul doesn’t mean he actually doesn’t know what he is doing. He’s not in a trance or sleep walking, he knows all too well what he is actually doing. Paul recognizes he is now a man with two natures. The new nature, that comes as a believer delights in the Law of God. We talked about that last week. We are free from the Law as a means of justification we are free from its judgement and penalty. The new nature recognizes that God’s law is holy and pure and good (v. 14) and wants to obey out of love. The old nature, however, wages war against God’s law. It rebels against it, it sees it as something bad, something restrictive, something that holds it back something that keeps it from being completely free. Paul said he doesn’t always acknowledge, approve, or condone some of the things he does. He says, "The things I do are incomprehensible to me."

The conflict is that what I want to do I don’t do, but what I hate, or what I know I shouldn’t do those are the very things I do" (7:15). Can your relate to that? Why did I say that; why did I write that; why did I go there; why did I do that? Why did I give in?

We have a hard time seeing that side of Paul. We have a lofty image of Paul, as well we should. But we often put him on a pedestal with the Lord. We see him as almost beyond human as a super Christian. I think that’s why God led him to share this with us so we can understand he was just like we are. Though he knows better, he continues to struggle with the very things that he knows he should not to do.

Paul doesn’t mean he’s always defeated, or that he always gives in to the old nature. He is telling us, there is a continual conflict within that dogs our every step so that our life falls short of God expectation and ouw own understanding and expectation of what the Christian life is about.

Paul says in verse 17, "it is no longer me doing these things, but it is sin living in me." It’s important to understand here Paul is not making excuses. He’s not saying, as the gnostics, he isn’t responsible for what he does. He’s not saying to us, your going to make mistakes, you’re not going to live up to God’s standards so don’t worry be happy whatever will be will be, live however, you want to live.

He is acknowledging the fact he hasn’t achieved perfection in this life. Sin lives within him it ambushes him, it takes possession of him, and sometimes it dominates him, just like it does us.

Wouldn’t it be nice if it didn’t happen like that, wouldn’t it be nice if we lived up to the worlds expectation of Christians. Not the worlds expectations, you have to live down to those. But the world throws out this expectation that in order to be a Christian you live this “prima dona” kind of life and if you don’t well then your just a fraud. Sometimes Christians think that, and that’s what the devil wants you to think and if you somehow don’t live up to that you should just give up on it and not try. The truth is we do struggle, we do fail, we are not perfect and never will be in this life, but as Paul said I press on towards the goal of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ. We must keep on keeping on too. Because you said something or did something or went somewhere and you knew it was wrong you don’t quit. Just because you failed before you don’t excuse it and you don’t give up you press on.

Paul makes a distinction in this passage between what his new nature desires and what the old nature does. Paul isn’t saying he never does what the new nature tells him is the right thing to do. We know in fact his life bears witness to the fact he most often followed the desires of the new nature.

It’s important for us to understand Paul is telling us this: A Christian, even a “good” Christian, even a “super” Christian, who strives to live up to God’s standards, or strives to please God in his or her own strength will ultimately find frustration. We have to recognize we are sinners. We are saved and kept by the grace of God, but that is not as an excuse to continue to sin, or condone sinning, but as a reason to depend daily on God. We have to make choices and we do that by our free will, but the war within is beyond the ability of the human will alone to be victorious.

THE WAR WITHIN IS BEYOND THE ABILITY OF HUMAN WILL

Even though we may understand the will of God for our lives, the capacity to do it exceeds our human will and our human ability. We can diagnose, discuss, and deliberate about our condition, and even desire a different condition. Yet at that point Paul says in verse 18 , "I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out". . Even our best intentions are often stained and spoiled by our own ego and pride. I have this desire to follow God’s will but often it’s my will that wins out. The struggle is for our will to conform to His will. Again, Paul doesn’t mean we are totally ineffective or completely helpless

The dilemma of the Christian is this: There is an essential flaw in our lives. That flaw is sin and it produces conflict. Paul says, "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature" (7:18). Because of sin in the world all of the abilities of our human nature are flawed, everything that is in a person, continually falls short of God's perfect expectation. "It is sin,” Paul says, “ living within me that is producing the sinful deeds" (7:20). To borrow from modern vernacular a terrorist remains within each believer. This terrorist, the left over nature of sin hijacks and captures the mind and the will of the believer. That leads to conflict because of the presence of the Holy Spirit. There are two principles at war within the believer - the flesh and the Spirit. Paul says there is a warfare between the members of his body and the law of God in his mind. This conflict is so intense Paul cries out, "What a wretched man I am.”

Of course this conflict is not necessarily a bad thing. The fact that there is a struggle can be an indication of God’s abiding presence. I say can be, because just the fact of Inner conflict isn’t necessarily proof of a relationship with Christ. You might feel guilty about sinful actions and you’ve never trusted Christ as Lord and Savior; you might feel guilty because your parents raised you not to do certain things, or because your culture or peer group doesn’t approve of certain things, and that causes an inner conflict. If you have received Christ, however, one of the indicators of that relationship is the consciousness of sin in your life and the conflict it brings.

For Paul that awareness was so great it caused him to acknowledged his sinfulness before God and his complete need for God. The struggle between the old and the new nature in a believer’s life doesn’t just produce feelings of guilt, but feelings of genuine sorrow and a recognition of inadequacy before God. It also leads to repentance and confession. We become like Isaiah who when he came into the presence of God saw Him high and lifted up and in His holy presence saw himself as completely in need and repented and confessed his need before God.

THE WAR WITHIN CAN BE WON THROUGH CHRIST ALONE

This inner conflict between the old and new nature is beyond our understanding and our ability but it is far from a hopeless situation. Christians sometimes lose the battles because we try and handle them in our own strength and wisdom, and while we might be times when we can do this and get by if we consistently try to handle things on our own we will ultimately suffer a defeated life. There is victory over the sinful nature and the sinful desires of the flesh, but victory only comes through the power and presence of Jesus Christ.

That’s the hope and the solution to the war we have within as believers? As Martin Luther's hymn so aptly puts it, "Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing; were not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing." Our only hope to win the war within is "through Jesus Christ our Lord," who is the man of God’s choosing.

The Christian life is more than just obeying rules. Living the Christian life is not difficult; it’s impossible without the indwelling presence of Christ. Just as salvation comes through Christ alone, only through the supernatural resources that come from a moment-by-moment relationship with Him enable us to win the war within. Every day, in every way we must as Paul said, "offer ourselves" as living sacrifices to God (6: 13). We must take advantage of the fact that "we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us" (8:37). As Dr Joel Gregory put it, “Your outlook determines your outcome.” You win the victory by presenting yourself to the Victor. The question for me and for you, is will we surrender our all to Him today, not only for salvation, but for Christ-like living? To be victorious in the war within us. Will you surrender your all to Him?