The believers war within.

When the believer gets born again, they become a new creation.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

You receive a new heart and a new spirit. You receive newness of life, as the Holy Spirit comes to live inside you.

Ezekiel 36:26–27 ESV

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

This new birth is so real so new, so fresh, that you are even described as a Newborn babe with new desires.

1 Peter 2:1–3 NASB95

Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

We have been made alive to God, everything has changed.

Ephesians 2:4–5 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

This new birth is so wonderful, the greatest miracle, one would almost be tempted to think, this is the end of all our problems. But its just the beginning.

1 Corinthians 12:3 ESV

Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.

The latter part of Rom 7 Paul wrote as a New Creation, as a believer. From Verses 15 to 25 onwards, he is describing an experience all believers go through once they have received their new nature in the new birth.

My defense of this interpretation rests in Paul’s description of the unbeliever in the 8th chapter of Romans.

Romans 8:7 ESV

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

2 Timothy 3:5 ESV

having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

Romans 7:15 ESV

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

The tenses have changed. Its all spoken in a present tense. He hates sin and loves what is right.

Romans 7:16 ESV

Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.

Romans 7:17 ESV

So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

1 John 3:9 ESV

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.

Romans 7:18 ESV

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

Romans 7:19 ESV

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

Romans 7:20 ESV

Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Galatians 5:16–17 ESV

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Galatians 5:18 ESV

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

We have opened the wound, Shown where the battle really resides. Why there is a battle.

Tonight we will continue to speak of scriptures resolutions to this conflict