The Battle of the Flesh

“For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.” Romans 7:15-25

When temptation comes, the pressure can seem overwhelming. We feel the tug-of-war between our sin and our new, redeemed self; sometimes the pain is intense. In the heat of spiritual battle, we need to remember who we are - victors in Jesus Christ, who conquered sin once and for all on the cross.

Elisabeth Elliot, in her book On Asking God Why, explains this relationship. “Our context is the Kingdom of God, not the kingdom of this world (which is the kingdom of self). You can’t have it all....You may not have it your way. You opted out of all that when you made up your mind to follow a Master who Himself had relinquished all rights, all equality with the Father, and His own will as well.”

With Christ as your Savior and Lord, you belong to Him completely. This is wonderful news in the midst of trial and temptation. And He has promised you this kind of help: “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it” (1 Cor. 10:13).

He will not let you fall if you lean on Him.

“For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory...” 2 Cor. 4:17