The Road Between Grace and Corruption

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 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. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.Romans 7:15-19

It is our human nature that when something is off limits to us , that is when we want it. The sin in us makes us like a child with their parents, "I wouldn't have crossed the street if you had not told me not to!" So we see that delighting in God's law on the inside and obeying God's law on the outside will remain a source of conflict for the believer in this life. Internally we want to obey God and walk in the way that pleases Him, but externally we go another way. For our sinful nature always desires what is contrary to the Spirit of God and the Spirit contrary to our sinful nature, it remains in constant conflict with each other, so you do not do what you want to do.

The intense realization of the pull of sin, the tension that comes between the desire to do right and the temptation to do wrong is apparent to every believer. At one point or another we all wrestle with the inability to control the powers of sin in our lives. Everyday we wrestle with which way to go, Paul in Romans 7 used this passage as a personal testimony, to explain to every believer the conflict and struggle with sin. Some of us did not even know the things we were doing were wrong, now the word has come and exposed the truth for us. Those things we were so used to doing, that we agree we should no longer do, is what we do and the desire to do what's right is in us, but we don't do it. Righteousness and sin are waging war inside of us,and we sometimes get confused about the person we are.

The fight that goes on inside of us is like this, the sign says to go one way, but our members say no another way. Those two impulses, good and evil are constantly struggling for supremacy over man.I know for most of us that deep in our hearts there is this longing to please God and to do what is right, but then the offensive side of my life comes along and I go down the road I promised not to go down. This kind of struggle in a believer's life does make one want to give up, but hold on my sister and brother because God has given us a deliverer who can save us from ourselves. His name is Jesus, we just have to cry out to Him.

We always turn to Him after we have gone in the wrong direction, but we need to understand our need for Him before taking our daily journey. There is nothing good in our flesh, so we must live in Christ daily. In the life of the believer there will be conflict between grace and corruption in the heart, between the law of God and the law of sin. Who shall deliver us? Jesus Christ is the sufficient one for the job, He has not only purchased our deliverance, but He is our advocate in Heaven as well. Strife is effectually taken up on the believer's behalf by the Holy Spirit and if we would just yield to Him in the midst of every conflict, He will take the victory! "I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh." Galatian 5:16