"What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin" (Romans 7:24-25)

Realizing what you have in Christ puts you much closer to victory. Unless you know who you are and what has been provided for you, you will never experience the freedom that the Bible teaches. Paul is going over in detail this freedom so that we will understand how we have been freed and how to live out of that freedom instead of living out of bondage. Paul gives us the means whereby we experience this freedom... it is through Christ.

Notice that Paul is talking about his flesh when he says that nothing good lives in him. He was recognizing that nothing within his flesh could save him. It was utterly wretched and pitiful. He knew that living in the flesh made him a slave to what he had previously been freed from, the sin nature. He is stressing that this is no way to live. If we live according to it then we are allowing the lingering effects of the old nature influences us. An unrenewed mind will allow the sin nature to operate in our lives. Our thoughts, attitudes and emotions still pose problems, so how do we overcome the flesh?

"Thanks be to God..." God has provisioned a way for us to be free and to live free. It is through Jesus Christ, he is the only way to be free. Once we have accepted his payment for our sin and believed in him by faith then we are free in every sense of the word. After that, the key to living free is by walking in the spirit, when we do this we will escape the effects and left over desires of our previous nature. The battle takes place in our mind, but we can weaken the flesh by renewing our mind to the Word of God and living by the Spirit. The Amplified Bible puts it this way, "...with the mind and heart, serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin" ( Romans 7:25 Amp ). So by renewing our minds we are cutting off the desires and dictates of the flesh... this is the key to living a victorious Christian life and escaping the flesh. Join us as we embark on an adventure in how to live by the Spirit of God.

Previous: Romans 7:21-23  Next: Romans 8:1

Original article published November 17, 2009.

"So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members" (Romans 7:21-23)

Can you relate to what Paul is saying? Do you find yourself struggling between the old and the new? Do you desire to live a holy life only to fail and succumb to the mandates of the world around you? Paul lived the victorious life that you and I desire, because he knew the key to that life, the key is found in the Word, Paul is setting the stage for hope in today's passage of scripture.

In the last two chapters of Romans, Paul has masterfully written that we were freed from the sin nature when we accepted Christ Jesus as our savior. When we were born again we received a new spirit and now we belong to another. Because of this, we have no obligation to that old nature, instead we are free to live according to our new nature and to live free before God.

However, Paul starts summarizing at the end of Romans 7, pointing out the struggle that still exists between the old and the new. At first glance this dichotomy doesn't make sense, we are freed from the old nature but it is apparent that it still has effect upon us. How can this be? Paul explains that it is the body of sin left over from the old nature that has died that still wages war against us. He says in today's passage that this battlefield is ever present in our being. We want to do what is right and good, but evil is present and we are subjected to it's insistent demands. Our new nature delights in the Lord, but the left over residue of the old nature makes us sensitive to the appetites and wills of the flesh. This fight goes on and on unless we do something about it.

Paul is stressing the important of living by the spirit as opposed to living by the desire of the flesh. When we live out of our flesh, we are living contrary to our nature and the battle is severe. He adds further clarity to this in Galatians 5, "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want." ( Galatians 5:16-17 ). Paul is giving us the answer to the question? The question is, how do we escape the leftover effects of our previous nature? The answer is to live by the spirit of God. When we do this, the demand of the old nature will have no effect upon us. We will see them pass away in the same manner as the sin nature.

So how do we live by the Spirit in order to live contrary to the flesh? This is the million dollar question, but Paul is merely setting the stage in order to answer this question once for all. He will spend the entire chapter of Romans 8 talking about how to live by the Spirit. We have been given everything necessary to live a victorious Christian life by Jesus. And when we renew our mind through the Word we will understand how to live. Today my prayer is that you will join me on this journey of faith!

Previous: Romans 7:18-20  Next: Romans 7:24-25

Original article published November 15, 2009.