Why are we still struggling with sins?
14For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For 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. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23but 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. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25Thanks 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.
Romans 7:14-25 (NIV)
For the rest of Romans 7, Paul’s words about the struggle with sin raise many questions: Is he talking about himself here? If he does, is he describing his experience before or after becoming a Christian? Some argue that a believer could not speak as Paul does, saying things like, “I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin” (Romans 7:14) and confessing to regularly doing the very things he hates (Romans 7:15, 18). Many have concluded Paul must be referring to his pre-conversion state.
However, there are compelling reasons to believe Paul is actually sharing his present experience as a mature Christian. First, there is a shift in verb tenses from past (Romans 7:7-13) to present (Romans 7:14 onwards), suggesting he’s now describing his current reality. Second, while Romans 7:7-13 speaks of sin “killing” him, the following verses portray an ongoing struggle, indicating spiritual life. Third, Paul delights in God’s law in his inner being (Romans 7:22), something impossible for a non-Christian (Romans 8:7). Finally, even at the end of his life, he progressively and humbly acknowledges his sinfulness (1 Timothy 1:12-16), a depth of self-awareness uncommon among unbelievers.
Paul’s main point is clear: though we still struggle with sin, in Christ we are no longer under its dominion. The battle may be fierce, but victory is assured. This is the reality of the Christian life – an ongoing conflict between the flesh and the Spirit. As believers, we are no longer enslaved to sin, but we still feel its pull. This inner struggle is a mark of our new life in Christ.
Yet in the midst of this battle, we are not hopeless. Paul’s anguished cry, “Who will deliver me?” is answered with a shout of victory: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (v.24-25). We fight from victory, not for victory. Christ has already conquered sin on our behalf.
However, this confidence should not lead us to “sinless perfectionism.” If even Paul struggled with sin, we would be foolish to think we will reach a point of no conflict in this life. The Christian journey is a continual fight of faith, a daily dying to sin and rising to righteousness.
So when we face temptation and wrestle with sin, we need not be dismayed. This is the normal experience of every believer. But in the thick of the fight, we must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, our great Deliverer. In Him, we have the assurance of ultimate victory. Thanks be to God through Christ our Lord!
Paul’s struggle with sin was a mark of his new life in Christ, not a sign of spiritual defeat. How does this truth encourage you in your own journey of faith? What would it look like to embrace the fight, rather than being discouraged by it?
[This material for Romans 7:7-25 was drawn from Tim Keller’s book “Romans 1-7 for You“]
The truth that the struggle with sin is a mark of new life in Christ, not a sign of spiritual defeat, is a truth that has been a great encouragement to me in my own journey of faith. There are several implications to this truth that give us real hope! First, the fact that we struggle with sin at all is an indication that the Spirit of God is at work within us. An unregenerate person, (a non-believer,) does not struggle with sin, other than perhaps attempting to avoid consequences, (which would include guilt and shame.) A struggle that comes from a real desire to love God as we should only happens if we have been born again, even if we may stumble time and time again. Second, we have evidence in our life that His work in us, though far from being complete, has certainly been effectual! When I look back at the time when I first became a believer up to now, there is no doubt in my mind that He has done a magnificent work in me! As John Newton said, “I am not the man I ought to be, I am not the man I wish to be and I am not the man I hope to be, but, by the grace of God, I am not the man I used to be.” And lastly, but most significantly, we know that “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ,” (Philippians 1:6). God, being faithful to the end, will do in us what He has promised to do.
Considering all of this, struggling with sin should not be a discouragement, but rather it is a very real indicator that we are true children of God, “and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him,” (Romans 8:17).
How do we know that the Spirit is working in us? Because we recognize our failings and we struggle with it and we are not content with the progress we made because the more progress we make the more we recognize the gap between us and our model Christ. Worse, each time I feel that I’m making progress in some way and start to feel good about it, that puffs me up and make me slide right back into my pattern of prideful thinking. But recognizing the problem and acknowledging it is the first step to recovery. Just like with substance addiction, the addiction to sin is even harder to conquer. Don had said that once you are an addict you are always an addict and I think addict must always be vigilant to stay clean. It is as if we of the human race are ALL sin addicts. I think the 12 steps might be exactly what we need to follow to try to fight against this insidious addiction. Do we fight or do we become discourage and give up? We cannot give up as Jesus called us forward so we must push ahead – Philippians 3:12-14 “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”