Fighting the Flesh

This is one of the most difficult parts of Romans to understand. The difficulty is in determining if Paul is writing these passages from the perspective of a lost person or a saved person.

Some believe Paul is continuing his thought of 7:7-13. Those verses are clearly Paul writing from the point of view before he was saved. People who hold this view point out certain phrases:

Sold under sin (14)

Nothing good dwells in me (18)

Captive to the law of sin (23)

Wretched man (24)

Others believe Paul is writing from the perspective of a saved person who is battling the temptation to sin.

“I do not understand” (15) is present tense not past

“delight in God” (22)

His humility toward his sin (24)

His hope in Jesus Christ (25)

I believe Paul is speaking as a saved man. There appears to be a transition between verses 13-14. The question remains, if Paul is saved, why is he so hard on himself in these verse?

I believe it is because Paul was such a mature Christian. We’re not looking at the heart of:

A new believer

An immature believer

A false believer

This man is close to God. The closer you get to God the more you recognize your own sin. As you grow in grace you will see that.

The more you trust God the less you trust yourself.

The more you know of God the more you know of yourself.

The more you see God the more you see of yourself.

We might think the closer we get to God the better we feel about ourselves. That’s not the case.

God is light. The closer we are to God the more He reveals sin in our hearts. Everyone of us is dealing with sin at some level. That will not change until we go to heaven. Let’s look at what it looks like when a child of God is fighting the flesh.

1. Paul admits he falls short of God’s expectation (14-17).

“We know” this is common knowledge.

“the Law is spiritual” How is it spiritual?

It came from God (inspired)

It provides a spiritual service (revealing sin, directing us into righteousness)

“I am of the flesh” Notice he doesn’t say “in the flesh”. Look at 8:8-9. The lost are described as “in the flesh”

Paul is saved. He is in the Spirit. But he is “of the flesh”. That means he has a human body that has tasted sin.

“sold under sin” is a way of describing his flesh. It likes sin. This is why we cannot go to heaven with these bodies. We must have a new body that has not tasted sin.

v. 15 Paul lets himself down. He doesn’t understand why he fails to do what he knows he should do. He hates sin but finds himself sinning at times.

We should not think Paul is an enormous sinner living an ungodly life. He was an example of the Christian faith. The truth is Paul wanted to be perfect and he was not. He cut himself no slack.

He called himself the chief of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15)

He said he was the least of the Apostles (1 Cor. 15:9)

He called himself the least of the saints (Eph. 3:8)

All of this was after he was saved and while he was spiritually mature enough to be planting and leading churches as well as writing Scripture.

Notice in verses 16-17 Paul does not blame the Law for his shortcomings. He says it is the sin that is in him that is the problem.

It’s important to note that these are things Paul said about himself. If you were looking at Paul you would have no idea. This is an inner conflict. The mature Christian is hardest on himself.

There are things only you and God know about yourself:

If you have forgiven a person

If you love in the proper way

If you’re lusting

If you’re obeying the Spirit’s promptings.

Paul was not doing everything he should be doing for the Lord and that broke his heart. He fell short of God’s expectation.

2. Paul holds himself responsible for his sin (18-20).

This idea begins in verse 17.

‘It is no longer I, but sin that dwells in me”

Paul is not denying responsibility. It is, after all, his own sin in him.

“Nothing good dwells in my flesh” This clarifies what Paul means. Paul sees himself in two ways:

“no longer I who do it” He is a new creation in Christ.

“Nothing good dwells in me” This body that he lives in that is tainted by sin.

The body has not been redeemed yet. It is the point of contact for sin. It’s how we are tempted. In his flesh he cannot resist temptation.

In verse 19 he repeats the thought of verse 15. In verse 20 he clarifies that it is the sin resident within him that keeps pulling him away from what is right.

You can only say this if you are saved. A lost person cannot truthfully say what Paul said. If you’re lost, you have no separation from your sin nature at all. You are one with it. It is who you are.

The Christian is a new creation that sin seeks to destroy. Notice how often he uses the phrase “sin that dwells in me” (17, 20, 23).

We’re not perfect yet. Paul wasn’t either. But he was trying to be.

Philippians 3:12-15

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.

There is a pressing on required of the Christian. We are responsible for this.

Paul had expectations of himself. When he failed to meet them, he did not blame God. He blamed his own sin. We are never to excuse sin. We are never to speak lightly of sin. We should be like Paul. We should take our sin seriously and hold ourselves personally accountable for it.

3. Paul recognizes the war within himself (21-23).

Even when Paul wants to do right evil is close by. We are always only a moment away from sinning. It happens more quickly than we could imagine.

Sin is like a crouching tiger waiting to pounce upon us. The Christian must always be on guard.

“I delight in the law of God” The good news is the believer loves righteousness. We would have no hope in the battle had the Lord not changed our nature.

“In my inner being” This is the regenerate part of the Christian.

In your heart you want to live for God.

You hate sin.

You love righteousness.

v. 23 Here is our problem.

“in my members” in this unredeemed body we live in.

“another law” an opposing law. The flesh.

“the law of my mind” describes the thought process of the bliever. We want to lve for God. Our mind is set on the Lord.

We know the truth.

We believe the truth.

We love the truth.

We have a new mind by virtue of the new birth. We are still dealing with an unredeemed flesh. The Spirt and the flesh are at war. One wants one thing the other wants another. There is always a conflict in the believer’s life.

Sometimes the flesh wins the battle. We become captive to a deed or thought.

Fighting sin is necessary. In fact, fighting sin is proof we are saved. The lost person doesn’t have a war within themselves. They aren’t resisting temptation or the devil. They are going with the flow.

Do you find yourself battling sin?

Do you hate that part of you that tries to pull you away from God?

As Christians we need to remember we are more than conquerors. Yes, we must battle but we always have the power to win the sin battle.

4. Paul longs to be completely free from sin (24-25).

“Wretched man that I am” Why would Paul call himself this? Because he felt like a wretch! As I said in the introduction, when you are close to God you are harder on yourself.

The more you discover of God’s holiness the more of your own sin you will see.

Isaiah- Woe unto me, I am a man of unclean lips.

Peter- “Depart from me, I am a sinful man.”

The more you study the Bible the more you will see of God’s holiness. God’s holiness will always reveal man’s sinfulness. The closer you get to God the more likely you are to describe yourself in the way Paul described Himself.

“Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” Paul knew the problem was his unredeemed flesh. His question is not one of ignorance. The question is posed to emphasize Paul’s desire to be made perfect.

Is this your desire?

The answer to the question is found in verse 25. God will deliver him. There are two ways to be released from the temptation connected to our flesh:

1) We die. Our spirit separates from our body.

2) Christ returns and we receive a new body.

When you think of all the reasons you want to go to heaven, being from sin should be near the top of the list. Without being free from sin:

1) You could not see God.

2) You could not stay in heaven.

Paul ends with a summary of his point. The Christian has tension in his life.

Our mind is set on God, and we serve Him.

At times we find ourselves serving the law of sin.

The battle against sin:

It is a battle worth fighting. It’s wonderful to live a righteous life. To be pleasing the Lord through the way we live is a reward in and of itself.

It is a battle we will fight. If you are saved, you will fight sin to some degree in your life. If sin doesn’t bother you, you should question the sincerity of your profession.