So I have learned this rule: When I want to do good, evil is there with me. In my mind I am happy with God’s law.
But I see another law working in my body. That law makes war against the law that my mind accepts. That other law working in my body is the law of sin, and that law makes me its prisoner.
What a miserable person I am! Who will save me from this body that brings me death? I thank God for his salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So in my mind I am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful self I am a slave to the law of sin. (Romans 7:21-25 ERV)
Do you wonder why this "rule" exists? Why, when you want to do good, does evil seem to rear its ugly head? Great question! Here's the simple answer. I say simple, because it does go deeper, but sometimes we need to see things in their simplest form.
When the first humans ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen 3:1-8), they introduced this dual dilemma—good and evil—into the human experience. Up till then, they only knew a sense of innocent goodness (Gen 2:24-25; 3:9-12).
So, as expressed earlier in Chapter 7, there is a conflict—a struggle of good and evil, right and wrong—going on in each believer, because of the sinful or selfish nature in all humans. It doesn't just go away when a person is born again (as a believer in God's redemption through His Son, Jesus).
This dual dilemma is only resolved when we surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. This surrender of our life needs to be a daily denial of our selfishness (Luke 9:23). Sometimes the struggle is so intense that we need to do this throughout a day or night.
The bad news is that as long as we live in these physical bodies, this struggle will continue day after day.
The good news is this—Jesus won this battle for us once and for all (Heb 9:28) through His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead! ©Word-Strong_2016