In this episode of Living the Selah Life, Kim, explores Romans 7 and the inner struggle every believer faces. Though we have been set free from sin's dominion through Christ, we still experience the conflict between the flesh and the desire to obey God. Even the Apostle Paul wrestled with this battle.

Join us as we examine the purpose of the law, the role of grace, and the hope found in Jesus Christ. You are not alone in the struggle, and victory is found through Him.

The content shared on Living the Selah Life is for spiritual encouragement, personal reflection, and informational purposes only.

It is not intended to diagnose, treat or replace medical, psychological or professional advice of any kind.

Please consult a licensed health care provider or qualified professional for any physical, mental or emotional health concerns.

The views expressed are those of the host, Kimberly Lockanor, and are based on personal, personal experience and Biblical insight, not clinical or professional training.

Welcome back to Living the Selah Life, a podcast that invites you to slow down, to breathe and to reconnect with the presence of God.

I am your host, Kim, and this space is for anyone longing to become more familiar with his presence.

Each episode is an intentional pause, a moment to reflect, realign and remember that God meets us when we create space for Him.

So take a breath.

You are right on time.

Let's live the Selah Life together.

In our last episode, we celebrated the freedom that we have in Christ.

We're dead to sin and alive to God.

Sin no longer has dominion over us.

We're free from its slavery.

We present ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness, and that's the truth.

But if we're being honest, we know there's another reality, the ongoing struggle with sin.

You know what's right, but you do what's wrong.

You want to obey God, but you fail.

You experience an internal war between what you desire and what you do.

Today we're entering Romans Chapter seven, where Paul gets deeply honest about this struggle.

This chapter has brought comfort to countless believers who thought they were the only ones battling sin.

And you're not alone.

The struggle is real, but there is hope.

This struggle doesn't negate your freedom.

Hear me.

This struggle doesn't negate your freedom.

It points you to your need for Christ and prepares you for the victory described in Romans chapter eight.

So let's go.

This week's main teaching we will call the War Within Release from the Law Romans, chapter 7, verses 1 through 6 Paul begins with an illustration about law and death.

Or do you not know, brethren?

For I speak to those who know the law, that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives.

For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives.

But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.

So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress.

But if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.

That was a Whole lot.

I know.

Law has authority over someone only while they live.

A married woman is bound to her husband while he lives.

If he dies, she's free to marry another without being an adulteress.

Paul applies this.

He says, therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.

You died to the law through Christ's body.

The old relationship ended.

You're now married to Christ, united with him who was raised from the dead.

And what's the purpose that you bear fruit for God?

For when we were in the flesh.

He goes on, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.

But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

Under the law, sinful passions were aroused and produced death.

Now you're delivered from the law.

You serve in newness of the Spirit, not oldness of the letter.

And I know this is a lot, but I promise you, the book of Romans will set your whole life free.

Ask the Holy Spirit to give you a deep understanding of what Paul is saying here.

Because this is a part that a lot of believers forget.

They get saved and forget that it's not about works.

Now that as the Holy Spirit is sanctifying us, getting us out of our old ways and purifying us, that has nothing to do with their security in Christ.

Sanctification and salvation are two separate things.

And this doesn't mean the law is bad continuing on.

It means the law can't save you or sanctify you.

You're free from trying to be righteous through law keeping.

Or we would say performance based faith.

You serve God through the Spirit's power.

Not written code.

Is the law sin.

Romans 7, 7:12.

What shall we say then?

Is the law sin?

Certainly not.

On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law.

For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, you shall not covet, but sin.

Taking opportunity by the commandment produced in me all manner of evil desires.

For apart from the law, sin was dead.

I was once alive, once without the law.

But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.

The law isn't sin, the law reveals sin.

Paul wouldn't have known coveting was sin if the law hadn't said, you shall not Covet.

But here's what happened.

When the commandment came, sin used it to produce evil desires.

The prohibition awakened rebellion.

Telling someone not to do something often makes them do it more or want to do it more going on.

And the commandment which was to bring life, I found to bring death.

For sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and by it killed me.

Therefore the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good.

The law was meant to lead to life, obey and live.

But sin used the law to bring death.

Sin deceived Paul and killed him through the very commandment meant to give life.

The law itself is holy and good.

The problem isn't the law.

The problem is sin working through the law.

So what's the struggle?

And here Paul describes the internal conflict every believer knows all too well.

For we know that the law is spiritual.

But I am carnal, sold under sin.

For what I am doing I do not understand.

For what I will do, that I do not practice, but what I hate, that I do.

The law is spiritual.

It comes from God, reflects his character, expresses his will.

Paul is carnal, he's saying, fleshly, still living in a fallen body with remaining sin.

I do not understand what I'm doing.

I want to do good, but I do evil.

I hate what I do, but I do it anyway.

This is the frustration of every honest believer.

And you know what's right.

You want to do it, but you constantly fail.

If then I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

When Paul does what he doesn't want to do, he's agreeing.

The law is good, he wants to obey.

The problem is sin dwelling in him, remaining corruption, the flesh indwelling sin that hasn't been completely eradicated yet.

And this isn't making excuses, this is identifying the real enemy.

It's not the law, it's sin working against the law.

For I know that in me that is in my flesh nothing good dwells.

For to will is present with me.

But how to perform what is good I do not find.

For the good that I will to do, I do not do.

But the evil I will not to do, that I practice in the flesh.

Paul's fallen nature, nothing good dwells.

He has a desire to do good, but he can't carry it out consistently.

He doesn't do the good he wants, he does the evil he doesn't Want.

Now, if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

Again, Paul distinguishes between his new self that loves God's law, and and the indwelling sin that rebels against it, the war within.

Romans 7:21, 23.

I find then a law that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.

For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.

But I see another law in my members which warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

And this is the war.

Paul delights in God's law, in his inward man, his new nature, his regenerated spirit.

He loves God's commands and he wants to obey them.

But there's another law at work, the law of sin in his members, his flesh.

This law wars against the law of his mind and takes him captive.

Two forces battle within.

The new nature that loves God's law and the flesh that rebels against it.

And this produces constant struggle.

Wretched man.

Romans 7:24, 25 oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?

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.

This is Paul's cry of frustration.

Wretched man that I am, who will rescue me from this struggle, from this body of death, from this ongoing battle.

And the answer comes immediately.

I thank God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Deliverance comes through Jesus Christ.

Deliverance comes through Jesus Christ.

And I will say it again, deliverance comes through Jesus Christ.

The struggle continues with the mind serving God's law, with the flesh serving sin's law.

But deliverance is found in Christ.

And this sets up Romans chapter 8, where Paul would describe the Spirit's power that enables what the law couldn't produce.

Romans chapter 7 has been debated for centuries.

Is Paul describing his pre Christian experience or his Christian experience?

The text suggests that Paul is describing Christian experience.

Present tense verbs.

Delighting in God's law, the agony over sin.

This is the experience of a regenerated person who loves God but still battles indwelling sin.

It's the air quotes already, but not yet, of sanctification.

You're already made new, but you're not yet perfected.

This passage brings comfort because it shows that you're not alone, that we are not alone.

If Paul the Apostle experienced this struggle, you can expect to experience it too.

This passage also brings Hope because it points beyond itself to Romans, chapter 8.

The struggle is real, but it's not the end of the story.

Deliverance comes through Jesus Christ.

The law is holy and good, but the law can't save you or sanctify you.

The law just shows you your sin.

It reveals God's standard.

It exposes your inability to meet that standard and drives you to Christ.

But the law can't empower obedience.

It can tell you what to do, but it can't enable you to do it.

This is why you're no longer under law, but under grace.

Not because the law is bad, but because only grace can accomplish what the law demands.

You're a new creation.

Your old self died.

You're alive to God, and sin doesn't have dominion over you.

All that is true, but you still sin.

Why?

Because you're not yet glorified.

You have a new nature, but you still live in a fallen body.

You're regenerated, but you're not perfected.

You're being sanctified, which is an ongoing process.

Until we leave this earth, we will be sanctified, but yet not completely perfect.

And this creates internal conflict.

Your new nature loves God and wants to obey, but your flesh rebels and pulls towards sin.

Romans chapter 7 ends with a cry for deliverance and a declaration that deliverance comes through Jesus Christ.

The same spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you.

And this spirit empowers obedience that the law couldn't produce.

The spirit transforms from the inside out.

The Spirit enables victory.

We will move on to this week's pause prompts.

Remember, pause prompts are just meant to take inventory of where we are so that we will know where we need to be.

Let's go.

Have you been discouraged by the ongoing battle with sin?

You.

Are you trying to overcome sin through willpower alone?

Where do you delight in God's law but struggle to obey it?

How does knowing Paul experience the struggle bring comfort, if any?

You are not alone.

Even the apostle Paul battled indwelling sin.

And this is part of being human and redeemed, but not yet glorified.

Now let us move on into our our Selah moment and prayer.

This is our opportunity to bring our struggle honestly before God and receive his grace.

So sit comfortably and take several slow, deep breaths.

Acknowledge the war within.

If a the part of you that delights in God and the part of you that rebels against it, Bring it into God's presence.

He knows.

I will always say authenticity before the Lord goes so much further than you would ever imagine.

He understands and he doesn't condemn you for the battle.

Hear Jesus say, I know the struggle.

I died for those struggles.

Deliverance comes through me.

My spirit will empower what the law couldn't produce.

Don't lose hope.

Looking forward, the struggle is temporary.

Complete freedom is coming.

For now, fight the battle knowing victory is certain through Christ Jesus.

Let us pray.

Father, thank you for your honesty through Paul.

Thank you that he didn't hide the struggle, but described it so we know that we're not alone.

We experience what Paul described.

We want to do good, but can do evil.

We hate sin, but we commit it.

Thank you that this struggle doesn't mean we're not truly saved.

Thank you that it's normal for believers who are redeemed but not yet glorified.

Thank you that even Paul the Apostle Battle indwelling sin.

Help us to be honest about our struggles before you keep us from pretending.

Give us courage to confess our battles to you.

Help us distinguish between our new nature and and indwelling sin.

And when we fail, help us remember this isn't who we are.

This is the flesh warring against our true identity.

Our identity is in Christ, not in our sin.

Thank you that the law is holy, just and good.

Forgive us for resenting your commands.

And help us delight in your law, knowing it shows us your good path.

Thank you that the law reveals sin.

Thank you that what the law couldn't do, you do through your spirit.

Thank you that we're not under the law, but under grace.

When the struggle feels overwhelming, help us cry out, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me.

And help us hear the answer.

Thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Keep us from camping in Romans 7.

The struggle is real, but it's not the end of the story.

Romans chapter 8 is waiting.

The Spirit's power will enable victory.

Complete freedom is coming.

Give us grace for the journey, Lord.

We're going to fail.

We're going to sin.

And when we do, help us confess quickly, receive forgiveness freely and get back up immediately.

Help us make progress.

We're being sanctified.

The work is incomplete.

You're transforming us progressively.

And help us trust the process.

Thank you that deliverance comes through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Use this struggle to keep us dependent on you.

Use it to drive us to your spirit.

Use it to remind us that we need grace and every moment of every day.

And we thank you, Lord, that victory is certain.

Thank you that you who begun the good work will complete it.

Thank you that you're faithful even when we're faithless.

In the name of Jesus Christ, through Whom deliverance comes.

Amen.

And it is so let's lean into our Selah moment.

Foreign.

That is it for today.

Thank you for listening to Living the Selah Life.

If this moment stirs something in your spirit, share it with someone who needs to be reminded to pause and to listen.

You can connect with me on Instagram, a Facebook group, not a Facebook page or YouTube at Living the Selah Life.

Or email me your story to Living the Selah Liferoton me.

That's livingthese laliferoton me.

Until next time, Remember that God is speaking.

He wants to guide you and direct you and give you his wisdom for your life.

Create space to listen.

May you go from this place, resting not just in body but in spirit, carrying the awareness that his presence is always near.

May you be rooted in the unshakable word of God, the Logos that ground you, and the rhema that guides you.

For man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

May you keep arising into the life he designed for you, into purpose, into peace, into the fullness of his calling.

May your life become a living Selah, an intentional pause that reveals his presence.

And it is so Selah.