SPIRIT VERSUS FLESH

Romans 7:14-25

            I’m concerned that Christians are getting sloppy when it comes to their view of man’s lost condition.  I’ve been in ministry since 1974 so I’ve had 39 years of watching the American church handle the gospel message.  There has been a lot of change!  One of the biggest changes has been the way we look at sin.  It seems to me that sin has become a “weakness.”  It has become a “failing.”  It has become something that we have to be concerned about because it messes up our lives and makes us “unhappy.”  It appears to me that we have once again made it all about us.  If I were to depend on television ministries and popular Christian books for an understanding of sin and man’s lost condition I would have to come to the conclusion that Christians want to deal with human “shortcomings” and “mistakes” because their lives would be happier and easier.  There seem to be many people who offer the gospel of Jesus like some 12 Step Program that will make their lives better.  This is the problem that comes to mind when I read Romans 7.  Paul succinctly addresses the human condition and the human problem.

            Adam and Eve must have been amazing people in their pre-sin condition.  God created them as spiritual beings encased in flesh.  They had the ability to share fellowship with God who is Spirit even while they walked around the Garden in their human bodies.  They were spirit and flesh in perfect harmony.  There was no conflict between their spirits and their bodies.  But they sinned against the command of God and there was a radical change.  Their spirits continued to exist but their spirits’ ability to commune with God died.  Also, their bodies began to die.  They had sinful spirits and dying flesh.  This condition was passed on to all men throughout the ages.

            In the fullness of time the Father sent his only begotten Son, Jesus, to redeem, ransom, save, deliver his people from their spiritual and physical death.  He was the perfect sacrifice, capable of paying the penalty for sin and delivering a justified people to the Father.  All who receive Jesus, all who believe on his name and trust in his perfect sacrifice for salvation are “born again.”  They receive the Holy Spirit and their own spirits are given eternal life, life that is capable of sharing fellowship with God once again.

            So Christians are new spiritual creations who are still living in bodies that are under the curse of sin and dying.  This is the problem Paul addresses in Romans 7.  The renewed spirit and the dying flesh are in conflict.  The spirit wants to do what the Holy Spirit leads us to do while the flesh continues to pull us toward sin and death.  Paul writes, “For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but 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” (Romans 7:22, 23).  Then he cries the cry with which we are so familiar, “Wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24).

            Sin is sin.  It is not a mistake or a failing or a weakness.  It is death!  It cannot be dealt with gently or casually!  We have to call it what it is whether people find it offensive or not because it is a matter of life and death!  If Jesus died to destroy sin and death then it cannot be considered an inconvenience.  The gospel is not, “Jesus died to help you straighten your life out.”  The gospel is, “Jesus died to pay for your sin and to make you a new creation who brings glory to God by living a holy life.”

            It’s not about us.  It’s all about the glory of God!