The Conflict in the Believer Between the Adamic nature and the Indwelling Spirit of God:

Before our we get into the 7^th chapter of Romans, a review of what leads up to it is in order. Romans 5:1 – 2 reads: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:  By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” These are blessed assurances for believers; we stand justified and have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ and rejoice in the hope of the Glory of God. However, these blessings are by faith and faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, Hebrews 11:1. So while we hope (earnestly expect these blessings) we are unable to see them, while in reality we live in humble, frail human bodies, dealing day by day with the world, the flesh and the Devil. As believers, we recognize our propensity to sin, knowing God cannot condone sin, Habakkuk 1:13. Thus, Paul proceeds to explain how the factual truth of Romans 5:1 – 2 works out in our tangible living experience. Briefly summarized are the passages following Romans 5:2, which have been referenced in previous NW Connection articles.

• As believers, we can expect trials/tribulations, but we should glory in them because we learn patience from them, which brings hope, i.e., our confident expectation of eternal salvation, which comes from the Holy Spirit, Romans 5:3 – 5 (published 12-5-2020).
• In spite of the fact we are born sinners and have no power in ourselves to get out of our condition, God exhibited/proved His Love for us when Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, Romans 5:6 – 8 (published 12-20-2020).
• We are justified (rendered righteous) by Christ’s blood (His death), which has saved us from the wrath that is going to befall all unbelievers who are the enemies of God; sinners will die (the second death) because all are born from the seed of Adam who sinned, Romans 5:9 – 12 (published 1-17-2021).
• The Law of Moses was given to identify the sin that exists in everyone. But whereas all are sinners in Adam and thus are bound to die, God in Grace has given us the “free gift” of righteousness, which rules unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord, Romans 5:13 – 21 (published 3-3-2021).
• However, let it not be that believers should continue to sin in order that God’s Grace will abound (exist in abundance). Believers are dead to sin, having been baptized into Christ’s death. And since He was raised from the dead by the glory of God, we should live in the newness of His life and no longer in sin. Just as we are united together in His death, we will be united in His resurrection. Christ cannot die again because death has no power over Him. It follows that believers consider themselves dead to sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord and yield ourselves instruments of righteousness unto God. Sin has no authority over us because we are not under the Law, but under Grace, so let it not be that we should sin, just because we are under grace and not the Law, Romans 6:1 – 15 (published 4-11-2021).
• Since sin has no power over believers because we are not under the Law, but under Grace, we are not to present ourselves as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but as slaves unto righteousness. Before believers were saved, they were slaves of sin and the fruit (work/act/deed) of their labor brought death. But since they believed, they are free from sin and are slaves to God and their fruit (work/act/deed) is to be holy (separated or set aside) unto eternal life. The wages of sin is death (our former identity in Adam) but the Gift of God is eternal life (in Christ Jesus), Romans 6:13 – 23 (published 4-16-2021).

The seventh chapter opens with an object lesson clarifying the believer’s relationship with the law. It states that believers have been released from the law of Moses, explaining it only has dominion (authority) over people who are alive, Romans 7:1, such as a woman who is bound by the law to her husband. However, when he dies she is no longer under her husband’s rule, Romans 7:2. If she marries another man while married to her husband she is an adulteress, but if he dies and she marries another man, she is not an adulteress, Romans 7:3. And so we are dead to the Law of Moses by the Body of Christ (Who fulfilled and died to it) and are married to another (The Lord Jesus Christ) Who was raised from the dead, therefore we should bring forth fruit unto God, Romans 7:4. (See also Ephesians 2:10.) We are reminded that before we believed, the afflictions/suffering of sins, which are identified by the law worked in our human bodies to bare the fruit of death, Romans 7:5. Believers, having been delivered from death, in which the law previously held them, should serve in the new state of life in the Holy Spirit, and not in the old state under the law, Romans 7:6.

Lest some gather the wrong idea about the Law, it is not sin; it is holy, just and good; it identified the sin that exists in all mankind, who otherwise would not have known the sin of lust (a longing for that which is forbidden). When the law came it identified envy, which is all manner of longing for that which is forbidden that exists in everyone, and that sin brought death Romans 7:7 – 12. Thus, the question; “Was then that which is good (the law) made death unto me?” The answer is “let it not be.” “Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.” Romans 7:13. The law is spiritual, but humans are carnal (governed by human nature) and so we are naturally sold as slaves under sin, Romans 7:14.

When believers don’t do what they know they should, but do things they know they should not, it is a confession that the law is good, Romans 7:15 – 16. “Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me,” Romans 7:17, so believers come to know that there is no good thing in their flesh (their Adamic nature), because although they want to do good, they can’t, because even though as believers they desire or purpose to do good they don’t know how to accomplish it, Romans 7:18. Believers come to delight in the Law of God indwelling them (by the power of the Holy Spirit) when they find the law of sin in their bodies (their Adamic nature) is at war or conflict with the law of God as they don’t do the good they want to, but instead, the evil they don’t want, Romans 7:19 – 23. And so, the question; who will deliver believers from their wretched bodies that are bound to die; and answered: “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.” Romans 7:24.

In order to better understand Romans 7:24, it’s necessary to understand the meaning of the Greek word “nous” translated “mind.” Thayer’s Greek defines “nous” as “reason in the narrower sense, as the capacity for spiritual truth, the higher powers of the soul, the faculty of perceiving divine things, of recognizing goodness and of hating evil.” This word is used twice in the following related passage: “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:12 – 16. This makes it clear that believers have by the Holy Spirit within, the faculty of perceiving divine things and of recognizing good and evil and the conflict experienced in themselves between the lust of the flesh (our old Adamic nature) and the Law of God.

Unbelievers do not have this understanding. I witnessed this firsthand in a long time Jewish friend to whom I witnessed over the years. He was well aware of the Law of Moses but in a conversation with him while he lay dying in the hospital, I told him that he, like everyone, has sinned, but Jesus Christ died for his sins. He flat out denied he was a sinner. He had given the appearance of a moral, upright person, but never-the-less he was a sinner so he either didn’t recognize it or was in denial. I explained the Gospel from 1 Corinthians 15:1 – 4 to him but as far as I know from what he said about a week before he died, he didn’t believe it.

Romans is written to the Saints at Rome, those called of God, Romans 1:6 – 7, and by extension, to all believers since then that we are “… justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:  By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Romans 5:1 – 2. And with the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we come to recognize the conflict between our Adamic nature and the Spirt of God that indwells us in our daily lives and any concern is put to rest as we know: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,” Romans 8:1.