A civil war is a war between citizens of the same country, and you only have to watch the news to realise that the world is at war in many places. It can be frightening when the war is not with a hostile enemy from outside but an enemy within, so to speak.
And even more worrying at times can be the internal battle we face. Last night we looked at Romans 7:7-25, that famous passage where Paul talks about the struggle between the flesh and the new life, where we see how hard it can actually be to do the things we know we ought to do and even want to do: “What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise.” (Rom 7:15, The Message)
Or as Aaron Shust paraphrases these verses:
“I just don’t understand this life that I’ve been living,
I just don’t understand, I just don’t understand.
I just don’t understand the lies I’ve been believing,
I just don’t understand, I just don’t understand.” (Give Me Words To Speak)
Paul talks in these verses about the role of the law: it’s not that the law is bad in itself, for God’s law is holy, righteous and good, spiritual and true. Rather, we see from the law the right way to live, but this only highlights the key problem: we are ‘unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin’ (Rom 7:14). The problem isn’t with the law; the problem is with us. Try as we might (and many of us try very hard to live good lives), we lack the power to successfully live in a way that is wholly pleasing to God. No wonder Paul cries out, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” (Rom 7:24)
The answer, thankfully, is not far away, though we will have to wait for next week’s study on Romans 8 to explore fully how the ‘law of sin and death’ is overcome by the ‘law of the Spirit of life’. (Rom 8:2) Here, we are left with Paul’s words, that deliverance comes through the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 7:25). The battle may rage, but victory is available.