The War With - Part III

February 16th, 2007

The War Within – Part III

I think at this point, I need to start expounding on the points of the right and wrong. Here’s what I said previously:

I can make decisions to do wrong:

• I can create actions to feed those decisions.
• If I want to do wrong, I can and sometimes will go out of my way to make it happen.
• I can tear down road blocks so that when I want to do wrong, it isn’t as difficult.
• I can put people in my life to reinforce my wrongful decisions.

I can make decisions to do right:

• I can create actions to feed those decisions.
• If I want to do right, I can and sometimes should go out of my way to make it happen.
• I can put up road blocks so that when I want to do wrong, it is difficult.
• I can put people in my life to reinforce my rightful actions, should I need encouragement.

How is this whole war set up? It’s not as easy as it sounds. There’s a part that wants to do the right thing, and a part that wants to do the wrong thing. Both fight each other within me, you, everyone really and it influences the decisions that are made on a weekly, daily, even a minute by minute basis.

Romans 7:11-25 (NIV)
What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet." But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.

For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

You know, I’ve had this passage “pounded” into me at CR. And I’ve CR grads say that they can recite this passage. And they say it with a glossed look in their eye… and that is unfortunate, because it is the Bible. The Bible is the Bible. And even though I have, regrettably been at one point in my life one of the guilty ones with the very same look, I have heard and read this passage “a million times”. I still need it a million more.

Romans 7:11-25 (NCV)
Sin found a way to fool me by using the command to make me die. So the law is holy, and the command is holy and right and good. Does this mean that something that is good brought death to me? No! Sin used something that is good to bring death to me. This happened so that I could see what sin is really like; the command was used to show that sin is very evil. We know that the law is spiritual, but I am not spiritual since sin rules me as if I were its slave. I do not understand the things I do. I do not do what I want to do, and I do the things I hate. And if I do not want to do the hated things I do, that means I agree that the law is good. But I am not really the one who is doing these hated things; it is sin living in me that does them. Yes, I know that nothing good lives in me -- I mean nothing good lives in the part of me that is earthly and sinful. I want to do the things that are good, but I do not do them. I do not do the good things I want to do, but I do the bad things I do not want to do. So if I do things I do not want to do, then I am not the one doing them. It is sin living in me that does those things. So I have learned this rule: When I want to do good, evil is there with me. In my mind, I am happy with God's law. But I see another law working in my body, which makes war against the law that my mind accepts. That other law working in my body is the law of sin, and it makes me its prisoner. What a miserable man I am! Who will save me from this body that brings me death? I thank God for saving me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So in my mind I am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful self I am a slave to the law of sin.

I totally dig this translation. I find switching between the NIV and NCV, I can really get a good feel for what the scripture is saying. And if I want to see it for myself, I can go to the Greek and Hebrew dictionaries and come up with my own conclusions, but I do not always have the time for that type of study.

With sin, there is a slave and master relationship. If I am a slave to sin, then sin becomes the master over me. It rules me. Genesis 4, it says that I should rule over sin. That is the type of relationship God wants me to have with sin, with me ruling over the relationship with sin, not the other way around.

What comes into play at the end of the passage, Christ comes to rescue me from sin. He frees me from the bondage. Now that I am free, it doesn’t mean that temptation will be gone, it doesn’t say that at all, but in fact it says that despite wanting to do good things, the body is wanting to do the bad things. It is a power struggle with right and wrong. It says that temptation will be there. Temptation and struggles will come, probably in all shapes and sizes. And when will the temptations come? Isn’t that just a brilliant question… I’d like to know, for sure.

Anyway, I’ll knock down part IV soon. I’m really liking this study. Johnny Out.