“But sin, taking occasion BY THE COMMANDMENT, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For WITHOUT THE LAW sin was dead.” (ROMANS 7:8 KJV)
There is something very special in this verse. Something much too overlooked by believers in Christ. The word CONCUPISCENCE is our tendency to sin, our inclination to sin when tempted. It is the very essence of our Sin Nature which the Bible calls ‘The Flesh’. Too many believe the Ten Commandments (and even the full 613 commandments in the Law of Moses) is to be followed to somehow make us right with God. To appease God into allowing us to please God and be saved by God.
Some of you reading this as believers in Christ may be shocked with what I am about to state but it is very Biblical. It is in fact, the main thrust of the writings of Apostle Paul, who was an expert in the Law of Moses. Paul was once known as Saul, a persecutor and killer of Christians, until one day he had a supernatural meeting with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus that changed his life forever. Saul became known as Paul, who gave us The Gospel of Grace Through Jesus Christ in the New Testament. In fact, two thirds of the New Testament exists because of the writings of Apostle Paul.
Romans 7 is a really pivotal chapter in the Gospel of Grace that is so under taught, yet is central to the truth of the good news of the Gospel of God’s Grace. Verse 8 above may not be what some have considered as the real truth of the freedom and liberty we have been given by belief in Christ for our Salvation. They instead may be pushing the Ten Commandments and preaching condemnation to believers instead of preaching the freedom and liberty that Jesus Christ has provided for us.
Paul just spent Romans 5 and 6 explaining what happens when we believe on Christ for righteousness. Salvation is all about God’s grace free gift to us. In Romans 7, Paul pauses teaching about life as a saved person and switches to explaining what it was like living under the Law for righteousness before he got saved. The word IMPOSSIBLE comes to mind! Paul is stating that following the Law of Moses causes people to sin more! Oh yes, this is very true indeed. Apostle Paul also stated this,
“Moreover the law entered, that the offence MIGHT ABOUND. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:” (Romans 5:20)
“The sting of death is sin; and the STRENGTH OF SIN IS THE LAW.” (1 Corinthians 15:56 KJV)
That is really not what most pulpits are teaching these days now is it? I mean all I hear is to ‘live by the Ten Commandments’ as if by doing so we will please God. Yet, the Bible teaches us that by trying to keep all the commandments as a means of having a good standing with God will result in our FAILING MISERABLY. In fact, the Bible tells us that it will cause us to SIN MORE.
You see, we all are born into this fallen world with a Flesh Sin Nature. A bent toward sinning. Try to tell a dog to act like a cat. GOOD LUCK! Why? Because the dog’s nature is to be a dog! It is the same with us since the fall of mankind in Eden. We all have this diseased sin nature. All The Flesh wants to do, is sin. The Law of Moses is all about “THOU SHALT NOT…”. And all that does is make our sin nature want to sin more. Paul explains the more we want to do good by keeping the Law, the more we end up falling into sin. Verse 17 needs to be looked at closely to see what Paul is talking about.
“Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” (Romans 7:17 KJV
The word SIN in Romans is mostly used as a NOUN. It is not an action word. It is not sins we commit but Paul is showing us that humans are born with this THING, a noun called SIN. It is a SIN NATURE you see? We sin because it just comes naturally from our birth.
Now when we are saved, we become a NEW CREATURE called The Spirit. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit from the very moment of belief that Jesus is the Christ who died for our sins on that cross, paying the penalty for ALL our sins (1 John 2:2), and rose from the dead. Apostle Paul tells us this in Ephesians:
“In whom ye also trusted, AFTER THAT YE HEARD the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also AFTER THAT YE BELIEVED, YE WERE SEALED with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the EARNEST of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:13-14 KJV)
So after our Salvation what is different? Some teach a believer has TWO NATURES. One sinful bent and the other perfected and righteous as God. However, do we still have a Flesh sin nature? According to Paul in Romans 8 the answer is actually no. We do not. Paul also had just explained in Romans 6 that our old nature DIED WITH CHRIST (in Colossians 2 as well). So that cannot be correct.
But our mind still has left over sinful thoughts and beliefs (from when we were living in the Flesh) which needs to be renewed. Our bodies will not be glorified until our bodily resurrection in the future. So we still have old sin nature THINKING in the mind wanting to sin at times. Yet, a believer in Christ is now a NEW SPIRIT. This new spirit never sins as it is the seed of God within us (1 John 3:9). We may still choose to live in a fleshly way and fall to temptation and sin, but our Spirit remains intact as born again believers. We are IN CHRIST forever. Because of this, we will feel guilt, remorse and call out to God to help us overcome such temptations next time because that is not us anymore. In fact, the devil and his angels cannot even touch our new perfected Spirit (Hebrews 10:14) so they entice the Flesh thoughts in our mind to tempt us to sin. There has been an eternal change in our Spirit. A believer will turn back to who they were made in Christ.
“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” (1 John 3:9 KJV)
This verse is describing the NEW US that believers became when they believed on Christ for Salvation. This new us is called THE SPIRIT. It is at war with our old, left over, Flesh nature thoughts and beliefs IN OUR MIND.
In Romans 8, it is clear that a believer is no longer IN THE FLESH. That old sin bent nature was put to death on the cross with Christ (Romans 6 and Colossians 2). However, the mind has not yet been renewed. Only our Spirit was renewed. In 1 Corinthians 15:50 Paul states clearly that our bodies are still corrupt and cannot inherit the Kingdom. That is why we need a bodily resurrection to come. Our Spirit is heaven ready as born again believers, but our body and mind, still has a sinful corruptness it deals with.
Apostle Paul tells us to renew our mind in Romans 12 and to walk in the spirit to avoid the lust of the Flesh in Galatians 5:16. To walk in the spirit, a believer needs to understand what the spirit is because THE SPIRIT is now the NEW US as believers. We have that small voice telling us, do not sin. Yet, our fleshly left over thoughts (from when our Adam spirit nature died) strongly wants you to sin. We strive to not sin but as believers we do fail and sin as well. Paul described this situation as it was before his salvation in Romans 7. He is explaining that living under the law was impossible like this,
“For I delight in the law of God after the INWARD MAN: 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. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the BODY OF this death?” (Romans 7:22-24 KJV)
The ‘inward man’ Paul is talking about here is his Adam spirit nature before he got born again by belief on Christ. Now why would Paul explain salvation in Romans 5 and 6 and in chapter 8, and then switch back to before he was saved in the middle, in Romans 7? He is explaining what it is like living under the Law for righteousness. We need to understand that, as believers. And then Paul says,
“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.”
In Romans 7, Paul is showing us the complete impossibility to keep The Law in our own strength before Christ came. He explains this between chapter 6 and 8 because it is intended to make the point to born again BELIEVERS, who think that The Law must be kept to remain righteous and is showing us that it is totally wrong. It is only through Jesus Christ our Lord that we can start to win battles between the wrong fleshly thoughts and beliefs in our mind and our new Spirit. It is so that we realize how to increase our faithful walk in life as believers. Born again or not, we live outwardly as we believe in the mind you see?
If we could not keep the Law to remain or be holy before we were saved, we most certainly cannot follow the Ten Commandments to keep ourselves holy and saved as believers either. Law following does not make our Spirit saved! The Law just shows us we have a SIN problem. Christ freed us from that bondage to the Law. He fulfilled all the Law and took our sins in exchange for His righteousness on that cross.
We do not have TWO natures at war. We have one new nature and left over wrong beliefs and thought processes from when our Spirit of Adam died on the cross with Christ. The REAL US as believers is The Spirit and The Spirit always wants to do good and what is right because it is Holy and without a sin nature. It is Holy, and the Holy Spirit indwells our new Spirit. In fact is is now the very righteousness of God, in Christ!
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might BE MADE the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV)
If we were only in The Spirit, and not body, then we would be freed from this internal war between our sinful fleshly thoughts and the real us in the Spirit. That is why upon physical death a believer goes directly to Heaven where there is no sin. Why? Because our Spirit has NO SIN. All our sins were paid for by Christ on that cross. As believers on Christ, our Spirit was perfected (Hebrews 10:14) and made righteous (2 Cor. 5:21) by God. One day we will become whole as Jesus resurrects our physical body into a glorified body without this disease of bodily sinful corruption. Until then, we strive to walk in The Spirit because The Spirit is the new us now. And to be honest, that takes a while for a person to realize after their moment of Salvation. A process starts at our Salvation called our sanctification (John 17:17) and it lasts until our physical death, or Rapture.
Now we have our part in this sanctification after salvation. A person is saved and born again only by belief on Christ and His blood atonement and rising from the dead (1 Cor. 15:1-4). The person becomes eternally saved. However, if believe is all they do and they do not read the word of God and they just live worldly, they have not renewed their mind much. Because of this they are easily deceived by the devil and his angels. They end up remaining as babes in the faith just as is described in Hebrews 6. Eternally saved but as James wrote, having a dead, useless faith. Again, we live outwardly as we believe in the mind.
As believers if we read God’s word and we pray to God to help us increase our faith and knowledge in the truth of the Gospel of grace, we start to see the world differently. We renew our old Adam beliefs with the truth. In this case, also, as we believe in the mind, we live outwardly. See how this works?
“O wretched man that I am!”, Paul exclaims about using Law following to be justified. It is hopeless because we need the new Spirit to even be able to change! He is so right isn’t he? But there is a difference now that we are born again! It is so frustrating when we fail and sin. We know it is wrong and after we sin we just feel awful about it. It can really affect our fellowship with God because we are so ashamed to have sinned and so we shy away from God. My friends, do not do that! Instead, understand about this war going on inside you as a believer is between THE MIND and our NEW SPIRIT. It is not two Spirit natures within us at war. It feels like what it was like before our salvation just as Paul describes in Romans 7 but it is different now as a born again creation of God.WE HAVE A NEW CREATED SPIRIT OF GOD. It is who we now are!
We have fleshly Adam sin bent beliefs left in the mind, yet the Adam nature is DEAD. It died on the cross with Christ! But these left over thought processes and wrong beliefs can be RENEWED by the truth of God’s word and with help from the indwelling Holy Spirit. That should be the focus of every believer! Paul goes on to explain this in Romans 12. Our struggle now, as born again believers, is with RENEWING OUR MIND to match up to who God MADE US at the moment of our conversion. It is not about Law following to the letter to remain holy. NO! It is just renewing our mind to match the truth of who God MADE US in the Spirit. That is where we get freed more and more, day by day, until our physical death and eventually bodily resurrection.
This tabernacle we live within called the physical body, is corrupted. Only our Spirit has been renewed. The body has a disease called sin (NOUN) and unbelievers sin because they have a sin nature. Believers sin because of left over sin bent thoughts and processes called ‘The Flesh’ in the mind. And once a person is redeemed by belief on Christ (John 3:14-18, 36) we become a new creation called The Spirit that dwells within this sinful body. So important to understand this.
At first, after Salvation it may seem like not much has changed. We do not ‘feel’ much different actually because we are still here in this body. And it still wants to sin with wrong beliefs. But slowly you start to realize that you start to care about NOT sinning. The Holy Spirit begins to renew your mind by the Word of God and you start to see things by God’s worldview and not the world’s view. You start changing on the inside and it moves outward into your life in good works. This is The Spirit growing and the inward man becoming stronger while The Flesh becomes weaker. It does not happen over night and that is okay! You are completely redeemed and saved by the blood of Christ. You are Heaven bound because ALL your life of sins have been penalty paid by Jesus and placed on your account.
Keep on striving to not sin? Yes. But realize we are not to follow the Ten Commandments to keep us Holy, acceptable, nor saved. They just show us God’s moral high standard. They are the absolute truth. They show the Holy standard of God for us. Absolutely. Yet, they can never make you Holy! But we no longer use the Ten Commandments as our source. Our source now is the Holy Spirit indwelling us as believers. He will teach you and guide you in life into all the truth. This process cannot be rushed and the Holy Spirit works within believers individually and at different paces as well.
Since we are now, as believers, The Spirit, then we should strive to Walk in The Spirit which is the real us now. Study the Word of God. Pray for the Holy Spirit to teach you. Be patient. Jesus is the only begotten Son of God who is God in the human body. He did not start His Earthly ministry until the age of 30. It will take time for us as well! Take courage in this. God is not against you, He is for you!
“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.” (John 16:13 KJV)
