EXPLORE THE TEXT
Believers need to recognize that the struggle with sin is real, and they need help.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am of the flesh, sold as a slave under sin.
15 For I do not understand what I am doing,
because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate.
16 Now if I do what I do not want to do,
I agree with the law that it is good.
17 So now I am no longer the one doing it,
but it is sin living in me.
18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh.
For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it.
19 For I do not do the good that I want to do,
but I practice the evil that I do not want to do.
20 Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it,
but it is the sin that lives in me.
21 So I discover this law:
When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me.22 For in my inner self I delight in God’s law,
23 but I see a different law in the parts of my body,
waging war against the law of my mind
and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body.
Talk about the spiritual tension Paul experienced between sin and righteousness:
Paul had the desire to do what is good.
This desire comes from the Holy Spirit.
However, there was no ability to do good.
He struggled to do the good he wanted to do, doing instead the evil he did not want to do.
In these verses, Paul was acknowledging that sin is still a formidable enemy, even after salvation.
Death to sin as a power did not remove sin’s allurement,
hence, the conflict in the believer’s life. (PSG, p. 60)
The tension between obeying Christ and giving in to temptation
is ongoing even in the life of the believer.
Our struggle with sin is real.
Temptation in itself is not a sin.
Our response to temptation and sin is what matters.
Note that while the struggle is difficult,
the tension should encourage us to make the right choices
and to rely on God to help us overcome sin.