The Mind – The Flesh. Romans 7:21-25 V.21. To deny the fact of sin being present in us after we are saved is not only dishonest but is dangerous. That kind of deception is a total misrepresentation of what sin really is and the potential for evil that it can bring to the child of God. The "inward man," the "new creation in Christ Jesus" is conscious of what God intends because the Holy Spirit is within. He or she does not want that sin working within. Unbelievers do not have that inward hatred of sin that so provokes the true Christian. The saints who have been set apart for God, delight in God, love God, love God's Word and God's people - but still have within an awareness and an abhorrence of "the body of this death."
V.22. This struggle continues until the believer in Christ recognizes and admits to the fact they have no power to defeat indwelling sin in their own body with their own strength. Keeping the law has been proven to be impossible, and its reason, anyway, is to make us conscious of sin - and it certainly does that! Self-effort to cast off binding habits that have been returned to does not work. "Mind over matter" has no power to overcome sin.
Some have tried to avoid the problem by changing the definition of sin to suit modern society. However, changing the public perception of sin does not change the nature of sin and what it is in God's eyes. This tension in the Christian life may continue daily, causing the joy and enthusiasm we had when we were first saved to seem like an impossible dream from the past.
V.23. Where do we go and what can we do? Who can deliver us? Forgiveness of sin took place when we died in Christ. We were saved from the guilt of sin and the penalty of sin. That has passed. What the child of God who has succumbed to the power of indwelling sin needs now, is deliverance from that power. The fear of coming judgment for sin is not the problem, but the bondage to sin that he is experiencing now is. When we are confused and, perhaps at times, overwhelmed by the appeal that sin still has, we need the deliverance that the power of Christ gives us.
Do we have to commit ourselves to the hard struggle of righteousness and pleasing God in this dark time, or do we capitulate to doing evil? Before we were saved, we had to look to Christ, not to ourselves or any other person to find the peace that was made through His death. Sin will always push us to do what is wrong, but it is our responsibility to resist sin and do what is right. In ourselves, we are not able to defeat sin, but the Holy Spirit enables us to do that, which we read about in chapter eight. The misuse of the law of Moses makes our flesh a prisoner of sin. The purpose of the law was to bring us to Christ. Our sin is what brings condemnation when we break the law. Being torn between living for the present in the flesh and living for the future in our spirit creates tension. Who can deliver us?
V.24. We look outside of ourselves to Christ in whom we died to sin and the condemnation of the law. Christ does not have to die again for our deliverance from sin's power. The power to do that is available for us to claim. The flesh serves the law of sin, but our mind gladly serves the law of God - really, the will of God. Now the walk of the child of God is to walk in the Spirit who gives us the power to live the Christian life.
The path of faith and the struggle with the flesh have no part with each other. The flesh will seek to deny itself or inflict suffering or some kind of cost on itself to deal with indwelling sin - anything but death and real separation from sin by living in Christ. The person who lives by faith does not need to go through these struggles when we have "reckoned ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God." When our faith in Christ is strong and the Holy Spirit is free to guide us, we will "triumph in Christ." Our help to deal with the temptations of the old nature, has to come from outside our own human will. To live daily in the blessings of being in Christ is normal Christian living. The other is sub-normal and is not intended to be the experience of every believer.
V.25. The transitional statement in verse twenty-five takes us from defeat to victory. Our Lord Jesus Christ can deliver us! He is the Supreme Authority and Ruler of the age to come with which the spiritual mind is occupied. This victorious statement is a summary of the whole subject of the conflict. The last half of this verse makes it clear that the real self, the inner person who delights in God’s law but will have to reckon with the power of sin for our lifetime here, can live in victory through all the pressures of life until the redemption of the body takes place. Then the war will be over.
Romans 7:25. “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.”