Stop Wrestling with Yourself
Dearly beloved of God, have you ever wrestled with yourself, been at odds with yourself, and thought you were just worthless? That kind of thinking only ends in soul searching and misery. I assure you, you are not the first to wrestle with yourself like this.
“Oh wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?’ I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord [for the deliverance]. So then, with the mind, I myself do indeed serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin.” Romans 7:24 and 25.
Two laws are mentioned. One is “the law of God,” and the other is “the law of sin.”
What is “the law of God” of which this verse is speaking? Is it speaking of the Mosaic law of the Old Testament?
“But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.” Romans 7:6
The “law of God” mentioned in 7:25 is not speaking of the Mosaic law. That law exposed sin for what is was and showed it to be exceeding sinful. The law was holy, just, and good, but no one ever kept the law; therefore all were guilty and came short of the glory of God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law no flesh is justified in God’s sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Previously in Romans, we learned that Jesus Christ justified us from the reign of sin and death. He delivered us from the guilt and condemnation of sin, and we will be delivered from the presence of sin when Christ returns and transforms us to have glorious new bodies like his at the gathering together.
If we have been born again we have two natures. One is the old nature of the flesh; the man of body and soul life, and that nature is dead in sin.
The other nature we now have due to the new birth is the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Everyone who confesses Jesus as Lord and believes that God raised him from the dead is saved. They have received newness of spirit life in Christ Jesus. They are begotten of the spirit from God.
The Mosaic law could not give spirit life. “If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.” Galatians 3:21b
The Mosaic law pertained to the flesh, the old nature; it was not capable of giving spirit life.
If we are born again we have both the old nature of the flesh and the new nature of the spirit dwelling in the same person. That produces a dilemma in our walks for most of us.
There is no good thing in the flesh; the will to do good is present with me, but I cannot find how to perform that which is good.
“Thus I do not do the good that I want to do, but I do practice the evil that I do not want to do.
Now if I do this that I do not want to do, then it is no more me producing it but instead the sin dwelling in me [in the old flesh nature].
So then, because evil is present with me, I search and find the law for when I desire to do good.
Therefore, I see a different kind of law in my bodily members warring against the law in my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of the sin that is in my bodily members.”
The “law of God” is the inward man, the newness of the spirit, the new spirit nature we received in the new birth. The flesh wars against the spirit.
The old covenant of the law kills, but the new covenant of the spirit gives life. Christ was the end of the law for righteousness, or God’s justness, to everyone who believes in him.
If we walk in the spirit, we will not fulfil the lust of the flesh. The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would; but if you are led by the spirit you are not under any law.
If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit, in the complete new birth reality including all the rights, privileges, and ability of that birth.
Who will deliver us from the dilemma of the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord for the deliverance! So then, with the mind, we indeed serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin.
“So there is now no condemnation [no legal sentence against] to those who are in Christ Jesus because the law of the spirit, that is to say, the life in Christ Jesus, has made me free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:1 and 2
It is the spirit that gives life so walk in that reality, dearly beloved. Jesus Christ justified us! There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus!
Dearly beloved, God no longer sees us in Adam, He sees us in Christ. Our standing is no longer in the flesh, it is in the spirit, if so be the spirit of God dwells in us.
If any one does not have the spirit, that is to say Christ, he is none of His, and if Christ is in you, the old nature is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of God’s justness. Walk in that reality, dear ones.
Believe who you are in Christ and live with the peace of God in your heart. Renew your thinking to who God created you in Christ Jesus and stop wrestling; it will transform you. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory! Rejoice forevermore. Stop wrestling with yourself.
Jesus Christ won the match once and for all; believe it and stop wrestling with the old man; he is dead, and you are alive in Christ Jesus: believe it!