Devotion #6: War with the Old
As a young Christian, I remember my walk with the Lord being characterized by many ups and downs. I would share my faith with anyone who would listen, but over time, the spiritual high would fade, and I would find myself struggling with sin all over again. One of those sins was anger. I remember playing one of the final basketball games of my high school career, and the game was not going our way. I began to push, shove, and say some pretty awful things. In the end, the conviction and guilt hit me so hard that I went to the parking lot to cry and repent before God.
I was frustrated that I could not seem to control myself. I felt like such a hypocrite, moving from conviction to despair. That was when God brought this passage to me. It explained exactly how I felt. The passage is Romans 7:21–25, “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”
Over the course of my life, I have heard many interpretations of this passage. Some argue that it is an excuse to allow sin in our lives. Others claim that once we have Christ as our Savior, we can now be perfect in this life. However, when I look at this text, I believe the answer lies somewhere in the middle. This text does not teach that we can have a free-for-all with sin. Earlier in Romans 6:1-2, Paul points out, “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!” That being said, I also do not believe this text suggests we will be perfect in this life. In 1 John 1:8, we read, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” So, what does this text teach? This text teaches us that we have no power to defeat the old man on our own.
Several passages talk about being a changed person once we accept Christ as Savior:
• “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” Colossians 3:9-10
• “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” Romans 6:6
• “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
Paul was a man well-acquainted with this concept of the old man and the new man. We are born into sin, and when we come to Christ, we are born again. We become new in Christ, and at that moment, we have a new reality of the old and the new. There is a struggle between wanting to please God and wanting to please our sinful nature. This old man is within us, and we are called to put this man to death each and every day. Luke 9:23 says, “And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’” There is a problem. We cannot do it on our own.
In Romans 7:24, Paul exclaims, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Paul spent much of his ministry in prison, and one practice in those prisons was that when a man would die, they would bind the dead man to a living prisoner, strapping them back to back, legs and arms bound. The bacteria from the rotting corpse would eventually infect the living man, leading to his death as well. This is likely the illustration Paul had in mind when he asked, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
So, what is the answer? Just as the prisoner could not untie himself, we cannot free ourselves from the old man either. We need someone to act on our behalf.
Romans 7:25 adds, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”
The answer is Jesus. We must submit ourselves to Him and let the Spirit save us. You and I have no ability, but God does. He is more than able. James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” Victory is found in Christ, as we see demonstrated in Romans chapter 8. For us today, we must make war against our old man, our sin nature, by walking in the Spirit and drawing near to God.