Battle Between two Laws

Law Leading to Death

How many of us find ourselves studying rules and regulations just to make sure that we are not going to find ourselves in a situation where we do not want to be.

Our lives are governed by many regulations.

Whether we are standing in line at the DMV waiting for a new drivers license or we are applying for a marriage license at the courthouse, there are numerous rules we follow.

These guidelines seem to help us organize and live together as a community. However, we see the faults in the rules when they are bent to serve different purposes or neglected altogether.

When this occurs, we investigate where the law was faulty and develop new rules and regulations to deter people from acting in a negligent manner again.

We Choose to Follow the Law

As we are brought up we are taught the differences in the law so we can become accustomed to either following the rules or know how to circumvent them. Depending on which choice we make, we have made a choice.

This is the same with the message of the gospel. When we have heard there is justice for the breaking of our bond between God and man we have a choice in our minds to either believe that or disbelieve it.

If you have heard the message, the choice lays in your mind, heart, and mouth to confess that either you believe the message or disbelieve it.

We may not know we have made the choice perhaps because we were not taught well enough about the creator to understand how we make that choice.

Law of Grace

Paul leads the Romans to understand the differences between the law leading to death and the one leading to life. When we only follow the law of the flesh, it leads to death, but the one that is spiritual leads to life.

Just as the Romans were a highly litigious society with organized government, senators, and a leader, our American culture is very similar in establishing rules to govern the people.

Thankfully, we have people in place of making judgements that are able to extend mercy upon those who have acted unduly.

Romans 7:14-25

Romans 7:14 NASB95

For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.

There is a cautionary point to make here. Some have taken Paul’s words here to mean the flesh is only evil and that the spirit is the only thing that can attain goodness. However, Paul is attempting to explain that while we are in this fleshly body still here on earth we have the capability to sin.

Many ancient religions, such as gnosticism would claim the body was evil. Many today do the same.

However, we are capable of submitting body, mind, and spirit to the law of grace.

Romans 7:15 NASB95

For what 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.

When we give into earthly temptations and know the difference between what we should do and what we should not do, we fall into the same dilemma that Paul did.

Many of us have addictions we are unaware of. Depending on what we turn to in our lives when we are in a struggle, we begin to understand Paul’s words here.

Romans 7:16 NASB95

But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.

When we have an understanding that there is something within us that we hate and begin to ask for help in overcoming that fleshly desire, we begin to understand what Paul is asking here. However, there are those who have never thought to know that the thing they are doing in the flesh may be wrong.

This message is for those who have begun the steps of discipleship and wonder why they still struggle with overcoming temptations.

God gave the Law to the Israelites for a time before the coming of Jesus Christ. If there were no law to guide them through the time before Christ, chaos could have ensued and evil would have full reign.

However, God chose a small fragment of the people of the earth to carry His words into all nations.

Romans 7:17 NASB95

So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

The part of us that gives over to the temptations is giving into our sinful nature that we have been given through the bloodline of Adam. It is the curse from the beginning that each person must struggle with.

Romans 7:18 NASB95

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.

Isaiah mentions that all of our righteous acts that we attempt are as filthy rags in the eyes of God. Isaiah 64:6.

We may set our minds early in the morning in prayer and ask that God pick us up and carry us through the day without us struggling at all in our lives.

But God allows us to have free choice and allows the situations we come into for us to grow closer to Him. His arms are bigger in mercy than the sin we trap ourselves with.

Paul’s quote of Jesus here comes from the acknowledgement that only God can fully stand against the temptations of all sin in the world and He has done so.

Matthew 26:41 NASB95

“Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Romans 7:19 NASB95

For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.

Romans 7:20 NASB95

But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

Romans 7:21 NASB95

I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.

We begin to understand the dilemma the disciple of Christ must understand. We begin to understand the daily requirement to take up our cross. We begin to understand here that once we say a prayer at a young age, the steps on the journey of discipleship have just begun.

We have made a commitment to fight against temptation by yielding to the only one who ever was, ever is, and ever will be strong enough to overcome sin and death. That is Jesus Christ.

Romans 7:22 NASB95

For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,

Romans 7:23 NASB95

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.

Romans 7:24 NASB95

Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

Who indeed will set you free from the struggle you have within yourself. Only you and God know fully the struggles you face each day. You may have realized the nature of sin that gives birth to death within your life but know there is freedom from that bondage to be found.

Romans 7:25 NASB95

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.

Only through Jesus Christ are we able to overcome the bondage to the law of sin that has a small hold on the world today. We look out into the world and believe that sin has the full reigns on the world. We doubt at times that God has it under control because of what we witness.

When we ourselves give in to those temptations, we doubt our commitment to Jesus. These are the words of the enemy used to frighten us into staying silent, staying withdrawn from sharing our struggles with others.

Two Wolves

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”

He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

Christians must acknowledge this struggle as well. However, scripture tells us we are incapable of staying on the righteous path without clothing ourselves with Jesus Christ.

Give up to Give in

We in our prideful selves believe we can fight this fight on our own. Our egos believe we can wrestle with God and make our own way in life just as Jacob did. However, in the end death claims us all in the bodily form.

When we give that up early, we begin to live now. We have believed the law of grace over the law of death so that we can begin living now in God’s kingdom.

Disciples of Christ

Giving in to discipleship when we surrender our old life of following the law instead of following Christ means we obey Christ. His law is easier than the one we attempt to make for ourselves. The world will only set these rules upon you to burden you.

The church has often done the same because of witnessing sin blossom into something that takes over the body of the church as well.

We as the church must confront the development of sin blooming into full grown death within the body.

Submission in the church to discipleship means we are to learn how we struggle in these temptations to remain bonded as a slave to sin. We must be willing to see the chains that hold us to our former lives before we died to that life.

Churches must be a body that embraces the struggling in the same arms of mercy and grace for those who need it. They must also disciple those who have confessed they are followers of Christ.

Constructive criticism is never easy to deliver or to hear but with practice, we will be able to overcome fear and grow as we submit our egos to following Christ instead of the law of sin.