ECHOaustin

Romans 7:15-19 chronicles the internal struggle of a Christian with doing what is right.  We often want to do what it right, but realize that we seem to continue to do things that we know aren’t right.  Here is a John Piper article on Romans 7:

It is both relief and heartache to know that all true believers have sin remaining in them in this life. The great apostle said, “I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members” (Romans 7:23, rsv).

This does not mean we should become complacent about sin. It means we must fight it daily. We are commanded to constantly kill the sin that remains in our lives: “If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.… Put to death therefore what is earthly in you” (Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5, rsv). This is not optional. This is mortal combat: Sin dies or we die. Not that we ever become perfect in this age, but we go on killing sins as they attack us from day to day. We do not settle in with sin. We fight and we kill.  How do we kill sin? Here are 3 tactical steps in the battle.

1) Cultivate enmity with sin! You don’t kill friends (Romans 8:13). You kill enemies. Ponder how sin killed your best Friend (Jesus), dishonors your Father, and aims to destroy you forever. Develop more hatred for sin.

2) Rebel against sin’s coup. Refuse to be bullied by its deceits and manipulations. “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you obey its lusts” (Romans 6:12). Temptations to sin are all half-truths and half-lies at best. Paul calls their fruit “lusts of deceit” (Ephesians 4:22).

3) Declare radical allegiance to the other side—God—and consciously put all your mind, heart, and body at his disposal for righteousness and purity. “Present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Romans 6:13).

Let your fight against sin spring from your confidence in the superior pleasures of all God promises to be for you in Christ.

           From A Godward Life: Savoring the supremacy of God in all Life by John Piper