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Do you Have a "Get Out of Holiness Free" Card?

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Romans 7:18-20 18 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. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Ever feel like this? We all go through times where we know what the right thing is to do and yet we struggle to do it. It is no less sin in the eyes of God. Sadly many have used this set of verses as a "Get out of Holiness Free" card. But for the believer in Jesus Christ we are told that sin's power over us has been broken (Romans 6:6, 6:14) We are now "Alive to God" (Romans 6:11), and are to walk in "Newness of Life" (Romans 6:4).

So why does Paul speak just a chapter later about having the desire to do what is right, but not having the ability to carry it out? Has he contradicted himself? Are there times that we as Christians just end up wallowing in sin with no way to get out? No on both counts. But as long as we live here in this flesh we will have to struggle and battle against the law of flesh and sin. Though sin has been defeated, its power broken, it still lurks around us.

The same thing is true of our enemy, Satan. He was completely, finally and decisively defeated at the cross. But he still lurks around "Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8. We are called then to resist him and resist sin. Their power has been broken, our slavery to them cancelled, but we are still called to resist them. The beautiful and yet mysterious thing is that God has left sin and Satan around for a reason. One day they will both be fully vanquished, but until then, God has a purpose for keeping them around. What is that? To cause us to stop relying on ourselves and instead to rely on Him. This happens in at least two ways.

Notice the underlined portion of the Scripture above - For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. That is the place that I believe God wants us all to come to. On my own even with the new heart that God has given me, I have no ability (again) on my own, to do the thing that God wants me to do. Paul gives voice to this later in Romans 7:24-25 "24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

  1. So the first thing that it causes us to rely on in our resisting of sin is Jesus Christ. We are unable to carry out the right desires that we have to please God without Jesus Christ. We rely on him for our salvation and justification initially, and then we do the same thing in our day to day life and Sanctification - becoming more like Jesus and more like we have always meant to be by relying on his righteousness and the standing He gives us before God every day. But our hearts are so stubborn to try to accomplish it on our own that we are forced to a second reliance. 
  2. Empowerment of the Holy Spirit. In Romans 1-7 Paul introduces the problem - Who we are meant to be clashes with our inability to live like it. So we need power from outside of us to resist the flesh. That is why we are given the Holy Spirit. Not only are we pushed to rely on Christ in living out our new Identity, We are actually empowered to do so by the Holy Spirit who lives within all who trust Christ. This is the point that Paul goes on to make in Romans 8. In our battle with the flesh and wandering heart, the Spirit battles with us against the flesh and gives us life and empowers us to resist sin. Romans 8:11 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. We are empowered to live in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Instead of dwelling in sin we find that the Spirit indwells us and gives us life (Romans 8:9-10). And as we respond in faith the the prompting and leading of the Spirit we will resist sin. Not by our own strength, but by the strength of the Spirit dwelling in us and directing us always to Christ and the righteousness he died on the cross to purchase for us.

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