Eternity Daily Bible Study: No. 532 Romans 1-8 - A Righteousness That Is By Faith Verses: Romans 7:22-25 Topic: Conflicting Natures Part 2 Date: October 28th 2005 Romans 7:22-25 MKJV For I delight in the Law of God according to the inward man; (23) 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 being in my members. (24) O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (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 the above verses Paul makes a distinction between "I myself" and "the flesh". This is the same distinction as between "the inward man" and "my members". There is also a law "of my mind" and a law "of my members". Lets arrange Paul's descriptive terms in two distinct groups: Group A) Inward man = law of my mind = Law of God = I myself = me = the mind Group B) Law in my members = law of sin = law of sin being in my members = flesh = body of death There is a distinct body-mind dualism here. Not that the body is naturally and intrinsically bad as Plato taught, but that it has been corrupted by sin since the fall and was now sin indwelt so that "in my flesh dwells no good thing". Romans 7:18 MKJV For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I do not find. The body stores our history, our past, in associations and memory traces, and in habits and reflexes, some of which are good and some of which are bad. The body has everything from physical scars to psychological scars. The body also acts in its own interests for its own comfort and for the satisfaction of its own appetites. It seems to have a will of its own. If you don't believe this try fasting. Your mind wants to fast, but your body has other ideas! There are at least three areas in which the body will oppose the will of God in your life. The first is strong physical cravings of an illicit nature. For sex outside marriage, for excessive alcohol consumption or drug use, or for the physical high that comes from rage and violent out bursts. The body will say "I want it" when you know it is wrong. Sin in the flesh will devise many strategies for getting these physical cravings satisfied. The second area is the uncontrolled "fight or flight reaction" which is the body's response to perceptions of threat whether real or imagined. Hormones such as adrenalin are released, blood flow to the extremities to prepare for action and away from the brain and the person decides whether to stay and "fight" or whether to take "flight" from the perceived attacker. One the feeling of threat intensifies very poor and unbiblical responses are common - such as rage, abuse, fighting, fleeing responsibility, and causing divisions and retaliation of all kinds. The third area is quiet subtle. The body has been trained in certain sinful patterns and it wants to repeat those patterns. As a young boy I suffered much at the hands of bullies and had to learn how to fight. Many years later and well after my conversion, I was at bible college when some friends played a prank and jumped me from behind some bushes at night. In less than a split second my fists were up and I was ready to hit them. The old ingrained reaction surfaced, sin in the flesh manifested before I had time even to think. Fortunately I caught myself before I could actually thump anyone. In a similar manner a godly Christian may kick their toe and say a swear word they learned prior to conversion. It just slips out, it is just an old pattern of associations in the brain that is "fired" by a certain specific stimulus. It is sin that dwells in the flesh, resident evil that is deeply programmed into our bodies. In marked contrast to these is our real selves (if we are saved). This true self joyfully agrees with the law of God. The mind of the Christian loves the law of the Lord. The inner man, which is our real eternal selves, has no desire to sin, because it is born of God and loves God. When Paul uses the terms I, me and my he is referring to his inner man, not the flesh. For Paul the unredeemed flesh was "something other" than his true self. Now this is not saying that everything mental is good and everything physical is bad. After all we celebrate the Incarnation! Our bodies will one day be resurrected and redeemed. And the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. But at the moment the body is indwelt by the law of sin. The body obeys one master - sin, while the mind obeys another master - Jesus Christ. I know one woman where this distinction is quite startling. She has a terrible history of alcohol and drug abuse, yet when you talk to her she seems to be genuinely a very keen Christian. The body is doing one thing and the mind quite another. This is due to a great lack of personal insight and inner integration. Paul gets so frustrated by this duality that he cries out "who will deliver me from this body of death". Paul desperately wanted to be perfect, sinless and guilt free, but his best intentions were being subverted by sin in the flesh. For Paul this battle was son intense that it literally split him in two. One half was the mind which served God, the other half was the flesh that served sin. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (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. As we shall see in chapter eight of Romans the answer to the question: "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" is Jesus Christ our Lord working through the power of the Holy Spirit in those whose mind is set on the Spirit. The mind is on the winning side, and the mind can be used to win the battle against sin: Romans 8:1-6 MKJV There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (2) But the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. (3) For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; (4) so that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (5) For they who are according to the flesh mind the things of flesh, but they who are according to the Spirit the things of the Spirit. (6) For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. More on that next week! Blessings, John Edmiston (johned@aibi.ph) REFER OTHERS: If this devotional is a blessing to you, maybe you have a friend or family member that would like to start receiving this daily bible study. You can forward this to them, and they can use the following link to subscribe. http://www.aibi.ph/eternity/ or they can just send a blank email to: eternity-dbs-subscribe@strategicnetwork.org BLOG: If you missed a day or would like to read the bible studies online you can catch up using the new Eternity Daily Bible Study Blog at: http://aibi.gospelcom.net/eternity/wordpress/ EBOOKS & ARCHIVES : http://www.aibi.ph/eternity/ - includes free ebooks containing each series of Eternity-DBS bible studies. 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