Warring against the law of my mind

Fight Club Series Vol II

Romans 7:14–25 MEV

14 We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand, for I do not practice what I will to do, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 But if I practice what I do not will to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing, for the will to do what is right is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good I desire to do, I do not do, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who does it, but sin that lives in me. 21 I find then a law that when I desire to do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man, 23 but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with my mind, I serve the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.

Warring against the law of my mind

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 7:15–17

At the start Paul confessed, I do not understand what I do (lit., “what I am producing I do not know”). He was like a little boy whose honest answer to why he did something wrong is, “I don’t know.”

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 7:15–17

Paul continued to present this quandary he faced: For what I want to do I do not do

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 7:15–17

What I hate I do (lit., “What I am hating that I am doing,”

Paul said, I agree that the Law is good. Here the Greek word for “good” is kalos, “beautiful, noble, excellent,” whereas in verse 12 it is agathē, “useful, upright.” Because of this evidence, Paul concluded, It is no longer I myself who do it (lit., “no longer am I myself producing it”; cf. v. 15) but it is sin living in me (lit., “but the dwelling-in-me sin”)

Someone say Sleeping with the inner-me

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 7:15–17

This does not mean Paul was avoiding personal responsibility for his actions; he was speaking of the conflict between his desires and the sin within him.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 7:18–20

Paul’s experience convinced him that “the Law is good” (v. 16). But he also concluded, I know that nothing good lives in me. Then he hastened to explain that by the phrase “in me” he meant in my sinful nature

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 7:18–20

This is not literal physical or material flesh, but the principle of sin that expresses itself through one’s mind and body.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary (7:18–20)

As support for this conclusion Paul explained,

For I have the desire to do, what is good but I cannot carry it out

Paul then repeated in slightly different words the statement of verse 15b, and then in verse 20 he repeated in effect his statement in verse 17.

Paul recognized that even as a believer he had an indwelling principle of sin that once owned him as a slave and that still expressed itself through him to do things he did not want to do and not to do things he desired to do.

This is a problem common to all believers.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary (7:21–23)

7:21–23. Paul was a person who tried to learn from his experiences, so now he concluded, I find this law at work. This is not the Mosaic Law, of course, but a principle drawn from experience

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 7:21–23

“law” (nomos) means principle

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 7:21–23

This law or principle is the reality of ever-present evil in an individual whenever he wants to do good.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 7:21–23

Paul held fast to the fact that, as he said, In my inner being I delight in God’s Law (cf. 7:25). “In my inner being” is literally, “according to the inner man.”

2 Corinthians 4:16 KJV

16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

Ephesians 3:16 KJV

16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;

Because of regeneration, a believer has a new nature or capacity for loving spiritual truths.

Yet, recognizing the facts of experience, Paul said he saw another law or principle at work within him.

This is the principle of sin.

Paul called it “sin living in me” “evil” right there with me (v. 21), and “the sinful nature”

This principle is continually doing two things:

1. waging war against the law of the believer’s mind

2. making him a prisoner of the law of sin at work within his members.

The indwelling principle of sin is constantly mounting a military campaign against the new nature, trying to gain victory and control of a believer and his actions

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 7:21–23

The new nature is called “the law” of the “mind”

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 7:21–23

because it has the capacity for perceiving and making moral judgments. Further, despite a believer’s identification with Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection and his efforts to have Christ-honoring attitudes and actions, he cannot in his own power resist his indwelling sin nature. In and of himself he repeatedly experiences defeat and frustration.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 7:24–25

Paul expressed that frustration in his exclamation, What a wretched man I am! Significantly Paul’s description of himself is part of John’s picture of the church of Laodicea—“wretched”

Revelation 3:17 KJV

17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 7:24–25

The apostle then asked, Who will rescue me from this body of death?

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 7:24–25

Paul’s answer to this question was triumphant and immediate: Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Our Victory Over Sin Is through Christ Jesus!!

So the Question to us all, is how in the ham sandwich do I flush this flesh Through Christ.

Tell somebody i got to filter my flesh in Sanctification,

Talk To Them Lady M

1. Starve The Flesh When our Flesh is demanding something other than “God’s Will” it’s time to starve it!

Galatians 5:16–26 KJV

16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

2. Renew The Mind To control sinful behaviors it requires a firm and decided mindset.

A : Ask the Lord to guard and guide your mind.

B : Recognize self-defeating thoughts and cast them down.

3. We have to acknowledge that nothing good comes from the flesh. "it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure?" Philippians 2:13 Make a Radical Allegiance to God!!