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Rom 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
Rom 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
Rom 7:6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
Rom 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
Rom 7:8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
Rom 7:9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
Rom 7:10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
Rom 7:11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
Rom 7:12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
Rom 7:13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
Rom 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
Rom 7:15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
Rom 7:16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 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 which is in my members.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25 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.
Paul the chief of sinners, I am no better then He! What the issues are is clear, we are in Christ and Christ is in us. It is black and white, in print. Anyone who serves God will discover sooner or later that the greatest hindrance he has in the Lord's Work in not others, but himself. The Lord Jesus tells us in John 12;
Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
The true life is within the grain (corn), but it is surrounded by a shell, as long as the shell is not broken then the true life cannot come forth, the wheat cannot sprout. The wheat must die, what is this death? It is the breaking of the shell, through moisture, temperature, natural process. Once the shell is broken then the wheat begins to grow. We have a shell of flesh, that must be broken so that the Real life, can flow through us who are children of God, saved by faith in Christ alone. This inward man Paul writes of in Romans 7:22 contains this life, which is the Holy Spirit. The outer shell is our own life, identified as our soul, while the life within us is the eternal life which He has given us, by His Grace, not because of works. That is why the story of the Woman in Mark chapter 14 who poured out the vial of Alabaster is so rich in meaning. The Vial, while beautiful and seemly costly by wordly eyes, needed to be broken to allow the real fragrance(life) to be released. We do hinder the Spirit's work in our life. Each time we hinder the Spirit, it is sin.
Just as a seed takes time to grow in the ground so are we who are in Christ, we are matured over time, and the maturation takes the breaking of the shell, as we break we become more like what Christ desires us to be.
The thinking that Christians do not sin is "cute" but not true. If it where true then Paul is in error. We can justify our sin however we choose, but I caution you, we would be in great error to beleive that we have achieved the perfection of Christ while we are here on earth. but maybe that is a way of justifying ourselves, I wonder?
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Originally Posted by evangeline
