The Christian's Struggle with Sin

The following passage describes the apostle Paul's struggle with sin. It also describes the personal experience of every Christian that I know. The Spirit and the flesh are at war with each other. But not permanently. When we receive our resurrection bodies that struggle will cease. It is temporary struggle that the overcoming enduring Christian will one day win.

(Romans 7:14-8:4 NKJV) For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. {15} For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. {16} If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. {17} But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

{18} For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. {19} For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.

{20} Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. {21} I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. {22} For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. {23} But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. {24} O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? {25} I thank God; through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

( 8:1) There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. {2} For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. {3} For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, {4} that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

What is Paul's main point in this? THOUGH WE STRUGGLE WITH SIN GOD DOES NOT CONDEMN US BECAUSE WE ARE IN CHRIST JESUS. If you think I am shouting at you -then you are right and I am shouting Hallelujah! "Sin in the flesh" is condemned and will pass away but all who are in Christ Jesus will become glorious eternal beings with imperishable and magnificent bodies (1 Corinthians 15:25-55). Our sin will be far behind us then, it will have vanished like smoke on a windy day. You see for the Christian our sin is not part of us though it is closely associated with us and affects us as Paul twice says above {verses 17&20} Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. Sin is only a part of us if we actively consent to it. Paul goes so far as to say "it is no longer I who do it". What a cop out! Not at all! It's the truth. All that is truly us is under the control of the Christian's will. This sin is a compulsion apart from Paul's will. It did not proceed from Paul's will therefore it was not Paul's deed. The sin was committed by Paul's body but it was not committed by Paul the person. {22} For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. {23} But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. {24} O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? {25} I thank God; through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

Paul thus makes a clear division between what his mind and will want and what his flesh/body wants. He also sees his flesh as temporal, earthbound and sin-indwelt while his mind and will are in willing subjection to God. {18} For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. {19} For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.