THE CIVIL WAR OF THE SOUL
It is in our nature to forget the ever present power of sin and its effects when things are going well. We are quickly reminded of the sinful nature that still resides in us when we fall yet again to its power. We sin, we sorrow over it, we repent and then go on as if we would never sin again, only to find that same propensity to sin is still with us.
As people who believe in the work of Christ on the cross to save us from our sins there is a new desire in us to live a good life for Jesus’ sake. At the same time there remains the old nature (the old man) inside of us that is drawn to sin. There are times we want to sin; there are also times we don’t want to sin but sin anyways.
Within each of us rages a civil war of the soul, the good that comes through Christ fighting the sin of the old nature.
Remarkably, in the midst of the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln captured the truth about sin in a speech he gave to inaugurate a national day of prayer. Lincoln said, “It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, who owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by a history that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. The awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has grown, but we have forgotten God.”[i]
Nowhere else in Scripture do we find that civil war of the soul so accurately described than in Romans 7:14-25. Here Paul shares either his own struggle or the hypothetical struggle of someone else with sin. The Christian life as we see it here is a battle; it is normal for believers to be in conflict with sin. This text helps us to understand the battle and gives us hope.
1. Identifying the “I” of the conflict
This is one of the most controversial passages in the NT. I confess that I thought it was pretty straightforward who Paul was talking about in these verses. All my life I believed he was talking about me and my struggles with sin. As I studied my three commentaries however, each one took a different view of who the “I” was that Paul was talking about.
a) A normal mature believer – One writer believed that Paul was sharing his own experience as a mature believer who struggled with sin. He shares his continuing battle to obey the law of God while fighting sin. This view promotes the already/ not yet perspective of the Christian life. In other words, we are saved from sin but we are not yet completely free until Christ comes.[ii]
Two phrases give us grief with this view: “sold as a slave to sin” (14) and “a prisoner of the law of sin” (23). As mature believers we know that we have been set free from sin and are slaves to righteousness (6:18), so how can we be slaves to sin still, or a prisoner of it?
b) A Jew under the law – Another writer suggests that the “I” of the text describes the life of a Jew under the law. This Jew is captive to the law of sin and only Jesus can save him from spiritual death (25). The one problem with this view is that this person delights in the law of God as one who has been reborn in Christ (22).[iii]
c) An immature Christian – This person in this view is clearly a believer because he delights in God’s law (22) but is not gaining victory over sin because of their immaturity. He does not seem to be relying on the Holy Spirit (in fact, the Spirit is not even mentioned). So this Christian is trying to live according to the law and not by the Spirit. These writers say the believer needs to get out of ch. 7 and into ch. 8.[iv]
Each view has difficulties. My problem with the third one is that I must be an immature Christian because I still struggle with sin. In my opinion it is the first option, the one I grew up with, that makes the most sense. You may choose for yourself.
2. Battling with doing right
Some argue that Paul must have been a golfer based on these verses. And if you golf like I do, you know what you are supposed to do but when you hit your ball it does not go where it is supposed to go – hook, slice, curve or plop into the water hazard. What I want to do I do not do; no, I do what I don’t want to do. But Paul is talking about sin…
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate to do. And if I do not do what I want to do, I agree that the law is good” (15-16).
First of all, Paul confesses that he doesn’t know why he sins sometimes. Isn’t that true for us? “Why did you throw that rock through the window?” At that point of confrontation we likely said, “I dunno.” We could say it was peer pressure, boredom, an accident, but in the end we really don’t know. We don’t understand ourselves sometimes.
Most of the time we want to do what is right. We want to be on the side of the good guys when the Lord comes. But there is still that voice inside of us that invites us to do that which we know we shouldn’t do.
I am personally encouraged by Paul’s words that when I do sin and I hate it, I am agreeing with Scripture that it is wrong. For me that means that the Holy Spirit is at work in me convicting me of sin (John 16:8). It’s when we grow dull and insensitive to sin that we are in trouble. It is then that we reject the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
When we battle with doing right and end up sinning we experience the civil war within. For on the one hand we agree with God’s word but on the other hand there is something inside of us rejecting God’s word. Paul describes this phenomenon saying, “As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me” (17).
You may remember the Family Circle cartoons by Bill Keane. When the children did something bad and were called on it, they would each respond to the question “who did this?” with “not me.” A ghost character with “not me” on his front whom no one could see was responsible.
Paul seems to suggest that he is not responsible for his sin by blaming something inside of him. Not so – he takes responsibility for his sin, but he illustrates that there is a battle going on in his soul between the old nature and the new creation. This is the reality of now being in Christ.
3. Battling with “repeat” sins
The “experts” say that it takes 6 weeks to break a habit and form new ones in its place. I found that it took me longer. My “repeat” sin, the one I struggled with the most, took years to overcome. And then, by the amazing grace of God who is infinitely wise, I found victory over that sin through depression. God used mental illness to break me free. Strange huh? From this vantage point in my life it is what makes the most sense.
The cycle of sin is a reality for a lot of Christians. For those who feel defeated by sin it can feel like they don’t even deserve to be Christians. Fortunately Paul spoke of this cycle too when he said, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing” (18-19).
Now when Paul says “nothing good lives in me” he is not talking in absolutes. This is kind of a hyperbole, an exaggeration to make a point. He also qualifies this saying that there is nothing good in his sinful nature. But there is good in Paul. There is good in us too. The problem is that sin tends to drown out the good. Repeat sins keep calling us over and interrupting our attempts to be good.
In Greek mythology, there is a story that illustrates this problem. Odysseus is sailing with his crew past an island inhabited by the sirens. Now these creatures have the bodies of birds, the heads of women, and very beautiful voices. When the sirens begin to sing, passing sailors are so entranced that they rush toward the island in order to encounter these lovely creatures, only to be smashed to pieces and destroyed on the dangerous rocks and the treacherous surf around the island.
Now Odysseus didn’t know how he was going to get by. There were two ways it could be done. First, Odysseus plugged up all of the sailors’ ears and had them lash him to a mast so he couldn’t move.
But somebody came up with a better idea. There was on board the ship a man who was the greatest harp player of them all, Orpheus. This man made the most beautiful music on his harp— far more beautiful than the singing of the sirens. Thus as the men listened to the music of Orpheus they were not tempted by the songs of the sirens.
But somebody came up with a better idea. There was on board the ship a man who was the greatest harp player of them all, Orpheus. This man made the most beautiful music on his harp— far more beautiful than the singing of the sirens. Thus as the men listened to the music of Orpheus they were not tempted by the songs of the sirens.
What we need in our lives is a passion for something that transcends all of our other passions. When we remove the repeat sin we must replace it with something better. Otherwise we leave a hole that is quickly filled by the old sin. Fill that hole with something godly. Then we will hear the voice of God and be unmoved by the siren voices of repeat sins that lead to destruction. We need to create a relationship with God that is so strong that it can dominate any other passion of life.
4. Battling with my “self”
I believe it is Alcoholics Anonymous that states the first step towards recovery is admitting you have a problem. This is true of our war within also. Any Christian who denies that they struggle with sin is deceived or a liar.
Paul said, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (3:23). And John wrote in his first letter, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).
Sin is living in me. Sin is living in you. Admit it. No matter what we do there is a presence of sin in the act. This is what we read here,
“So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members” (21-23).
I discovered this years ago when I had visited a lady from our Winnipeg church. She was a shut-in, unable to come to church and suffering from Alzheimer’s. I went to see her, read some verses and prayed with her. This was all fine until I went back to my car and began thinking what a good thing I had done. It’s okay to congratulate yourself in certain occasions but I was feeling pretty self-satisfied. I knew then that the good I had done was tainted with sin.
Even the good we do can be tainted with evil. There is, in fact, nothing we can do that is not tainted by sin. It is woven into the good we do, whether because of selfishness, wrong motivation, or pride. I believe this is why when we try to do good and expect powerful results we are left wondering why our efforts fell flat. Then God in his cosmic humor turns around and uses our failures to do incredible things. In our weakness Christ is allowed to be strong and glorified.
This is the frustrating reality of battling my “self.”
5. To end the war
The Christian life is not about defeat. We are not banging our heads against the wall. There are real opportunities for growth and self-realization through our battles with sin. And we will have victories. However, we will struggle with sin until we die or we see Jesus face to face. But we can know victory in the midst of struggle.
What will help us in our battle with sin? There are three principles we can take from Paul’s testimony.
a) Honesty (24a) – Paul cries out, “What a wretched man I am!” Apart from Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit we are wretched people. Can we be honest about our human situation? Can you admit that you continue to struggle with sin?
We all walk around our church building on Sunday morning with the appearance of perfection. No one would guess that these Christians struggle and have similar problems. Newcomers enter into churches all the time and wonder if they can be perfect enough to fit in to this body – then leave because the answer is “no.” Many of our own people are dying to confess their sins and unburden themselves and find forgiveness among God’s people. It is lonely to bear these sins by yourself. Can we be honest and confess our sins to each other?
b) Humility (24b) – Paul’s second cry is, “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” Some say that the Romans would take certain criminals, murderers in particular, and tie them face to face and limb to limb with the corpse of his victim and throw them out into the sun. The rest of the details are too gory – suffice to say that the corpse became to the criminal a literal body of his death. That’s the picture of our old nature which makes us truly wretched.
In humility we say with Paul that we cannot rescue ourselves. You can deny that you sin. You can deal with it on your own. Or you can fall on the mercy of Jesus Christ.
c) Dependence (25a) – In a brief but powerful reply, Paul gives the answer to his own question, “Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!” The rest of this answer is found in chapter 8. This chapter is couched in the promises of chapter 6 and the blessing of the Holy Spirit’s work in chapter 8. We need to remember that this text does not stand alone.
This is not a formula for defeating sin. We are talking about a person, the person of Jesus Christ. We are talking about a moment-by-moment dependence on Jesus Christ to free us from the body of death, the sinful nature.
Does the fact that you struggle make you a failure? No. Does it make you a bad person? No. Does it make you a loser? No. Does it make you a substandard Christian? No. Do you know what it makes you? An excellent candidate for the grace of God![v]
We may live in the “now and the not yet” of world history, but we do not need to live in defeat. Jesus has won the victory for us on the cross and Satan’s power is broken. Sin is defeated. But like a stubborn enemy it refuses to disarm. So the fight goes on until the Lord’s Day.
I want to share a story that illustrates this truth as an encouragement to never surrender to sin:
In his book Forever Triumphant, F.J. Huegel told a story that came out of World War II. After General Jonathan Wainwright was captured by the Japanese, he was held prisoner in a Manchurian concentration camp. Cruelly treated, he became “a broken, crushed, hopeless, starving man.” Finally the Japanese surrendered and the war ended. A United States army colonel was sent to the camp to announce personally to the general that Japan had been defeated and that he was free and in command. After Wainwright heard the news, he returned to his quarters and was confronted by some guards who began to mistreat him as they had done in the past. Wainwright, however, with the news of the allied victory still fresh in his mind, declared with authority, “No, I am in command here! These are my orders.” Huegel observed that from that moment on, General Wainwright was in control.
Huegel made this application: “Have you been informed of the victory of your Savior in the greatest conflict of the ages? Then rise up to assert your rights. Never again go under when the enemy comes to oppress. Claim the victory in Jesus’ Name.” Huegel observed, “We must learn to stand on resurrection ground, reckoning dead the old-creation life over which Satan has power, and living in the new creation over which Satan has no power whatever.”
Keep up the good fight. We live by faith, not by sight. So put your hope in the Lord Jesus Christ and win the battle.
AMEN
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