Good morning, good day and happy Tuesday. I hope that your daily 5 minutes in God’s Word is starting to have its full effect and you are getting into a rhythm of spending time with God each day. I love the John Maxwell quote, “You will never change your life until you change something you do daily.” What a powerful statement. Our daily routine is the common denominator of our life, the basis on which all is founded. What we do every day is in essence who we are and even more who we will become. If you are spending time with God and His Word daily I would step out on faith and estimate that you are in a beautiful thriving relationship with Him. If you’re not spending that daily time, well, lets look at an example.
What if today I stopped talking to Margie and once per week her best friend would tell me what she wanted me to know? Sounds absurd right? Don’t be so quick to dismiss this crazy example, I know alot of people that only hear from God once a week on Sunday mornings and then its from their Pastor. The only time they hear the Word of God is once a week and then they hear it from someone else. It’s so important that WE are the ones that have the relationship and personally hear what God has to say and that we don’t hear it from someone else. Margie and I must have devoted, daily, personal communication if we hope to build and maintain our relationship. It’s a fact of life, daily communication builds better relationships. It's no different with God.
Today we are in Romans chapter 7 and what a powerful chapter it is. I call this chapter the “the two faces in the mirror.” Paul deals with our old nature and its constant battle with our new nature. This is something we all deal with daily and Paul bares his soul in his struggle with this.
We start out looking at the Law. Now remember that the Bible is split in two, the Old Testament was before Jesus Christ was born and then the New testament was everything after Jesus was born. In the Old Testament since they did not have the grace of Jesus they had the Law, the ten commandments. This is also referred to as the Mosaic law because Moses was the one that received the law from God. Even today as I ask people about their walk with God some will say they live by the ten commandments. When it comes to the ten commandments though, it is really no longer what we live our lives by, when Jesus arrived the Mosaic law was trumped by the grace of Jesus Christ.
You see the Mosaic Law condemned man to die as it was impossible for anyone to keep it. For 1,000 years God’s chosen people struggled with the Law and could not keep it. Stephen said they, “had received the Law by disposition of angels, and have not kept it.” (Acts 7:53) Peter said it was “a yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear.” (Acts 5:10) You see it’s no longer about the Mosaic law and Paul is clear in saying that we are now to live under the grace of Jesus and serve Him with love and obedience. “But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.” (Romans 7:6)
Paul moves on to illustrate the single biggest struggle in the daily walk of a believer. The new self vs. the old self. The two faces in the mirror. When Dan looks in the mirror, there are two men looking back at him. The new Dan, the one saved from His sin by the Blood of Jesus Christ. The one washed anew and called to newness of life. That Dan is promised eternal life with God in Heaven and is gifted with the Holy Spirit of God living within him. That Dan is called to serve Jesus out of love and obedience. But then there’s the old Dan that is also staring back in that mirror. The old Dan is the sinful creature that was born into a world full of sin. A self-serving, self-loving, arrogant man that is in rebellion towards God and ever looking to serve self more than God. So how can these two ever be at peace? How can this Jekyll and Hyde exists inside of us all? Paul struggled greatly with this, listen to what he has to say about his personal dealings with the two faces in the mirror.
“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” (Romans 7:15-20)
Wow, the apostle Paul that wrote almost half of the new testament bears his soul here in his letter to the church at Rome. Paul was a real guy with real struggles. I love that Paul feels so free to do so because he knows that this is a universal struggle. This is a struggle that we all deal with daily and it needs to be addressed if we are ever going to triumph in this war. Paul knew this and God knew this, that's why we're reading in God's Word today.
So we look into the mirror and these two very different people are looking back at us. We have these two people living within us today. “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” I think we can all relate to this so very well. In fact, I remember this being addressed humorously in cartoons when I was a kid. I remember when Tom was faced with a tough decision about what to do with Jerry, he would have a little angel and a little devil pop up on his shoulders and give him their respective advice. Not to make light of the struggle we have, but this is really very true. When we are faced with sinful decisions throughout our day there is a real struggle within us. The old nature is ready to serve itself and embrace the sin, its how we were born. But the new creature, the one that surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ has the Spirit of God living within. This new creature CANNOT sin. Let me say that again, the Holy Spirit cannot sin and does not allow you to sin either. That’s why when you do sin it can keep you up at night. When you do make that decision that you knew was wrong at the time it will haunt you later in the day. We are truly at war within ourselves.
So you might say, well, I didn’t ask for this war and I don’t want it so what am I supposed to do? Well, unfortunately its just the way it is but there is victory to be had. Victory in Jesus. Listen to Paul as he describes this war and then answers our question.
“So I find it to be that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 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. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” (Romans 7:21-25)
Once again, Paul lays it on the line personally. In fact in Romans 7 he uses the words I, me amd myself 47 times. The message? The struggle that exists here is a personal one. One that wars within you, me and every other believer in Christ that is on this planet today. It’s really something to hear Paul say that there is ‘no good that dwells in him’ and to hear him cry out, “Wretched man that I am!” Paul knew of his state and his desperate need for Jesus.
You know there was a time in my life when I asked myself a hard question concerning my old nature. Is there 5% of the old Dan that is salvageable? Is there even 1% of the old Dan that can be used to serve God? The hard answer is no. Our sin nature permeates everything that we are and God can use none of it. 100% of what God can see and God can use is seen through the filter of Jesus. Praise God for His Son Jesus.
To really grasp Romans chapter 7 you need to fully realize the condition of the two faces in the mirror and what they each hope to achieve in your day today. You need to fully understand who they are and where they came from to realize what they want to do with your day and where they want to take you. It is a real war and in real war there is death. Someone must die in war. Our old sinful nature must die if Jesus is to prevail and rule our lives. Read all that God has to say about the death of our old nature that must take place:
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. (Roman 12:1-2)
So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh-- for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:12-13)
Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. (Col. 3:5)
knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. (Romans 6:6-7)
that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind. (Eph 4:22-23)
"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Gal 2:20)
Wow. God knows this struggle and has a lot to say about it how it will affect us. The war within us is real and only through Christ can we be the victor. Rely on Christ during the battles and he will see you through. One last verse from Paul as he nears the end of his life and the end of his battle with the two faces in the mirror.
“For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the Faith.”
I pray today that you fight the good fight and keep the faith. There are two faces in the mirror today, but one face was bought with a price by our Lord Jesus Christ and He is the victor in this war.
God bless you all.
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