Friday, 16 May 2025

Romans part 80 - Victory Over Sin 19

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Romans 7:14-15 For we know that the Torah is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold to sin. For I do not understand what I am doing - for what I do not want, this I practice; but what I hate, this I do.

Paul seems conflicted. Aren't we all? The flesh is in a battle with the spirit. Our subject here is "Victory Over Sin," not "The Futility of Trying to Have ... Victory Over Sin." God is not the author of futility and frustration, that is Satan's realm.

Let me offer a few thoughts on this. To put it straightforwardly, God wants your heart. Did you just read that like many other words on a page? Let's pause and meditate for a moment on the seriousness of that statement.

Proverbs 4:23 Guard your heart diligently, for from it flow the springs of life.

Psalm 51:12(10) Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Yes, "It's a heart thang." God gave us the revelation of His righteous standard in the Torah, which He already knew (when He gave it) would be impossible for us to attain in the flesh. Not so that we would give up in frustration, but so that we would realize the need for a Savior and find Him in the person of His own Son. That's why He gave us His Holy Spirit, Who is the power that keeps our hearts anchored in the Father through the Son.

Remember this ... for every physical reality there is a greater spiritual reality. That "heart thang", to which I was referring a moment ago, is a greater spiritual reality. If our heart is with God, everything else will come into proper alignment. God wants us with Him. Read these verses, keeping in mind that God's glory is His oneness.

Isaiah 42:8 I am Adonai - that is My Name! My glory I will not give to another.

John 17:22 The glory that You have given to Me I have given to them, that they may be one just as We are one.

Now, Paul is essentially saying, "I am sold to sin (in the flesh) and I hate it." Aren't we all? Well, yes and no, depending on if you belong to God. Some actually embrace sin while others are immune to it.

1 Timothy 4:1-2 Now the Ruach clearly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, following deceitful spirits and teachings of demons through the hypocrisy of false speakers - whose own conscience has been seared.

But thanks be to God we don't have to live like that. So let's close today on this pleasant note. 1 Corinthians 15:57-58 But thanks be to God, who keeps giving us the victory through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah! Therefore, my dearly loved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord - because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Shalom shalom.