Lifetime Guarantee (17 page)

We have already seen in Romans 7:15-25 how the law of sin will control the believer to keep him captive. Sin continually condemns many Christians in their thought life. This is especially true for those with perfectionistic flesh. Sin hammers these dear people constantly, “telling” them that they are failing because they cannot achieve perfect results. I’ll now use the same passage to accomplish a second goal, documenting the believer’s true identity in Christ.

Let’s take this passage verse by verse and apply our hypothesis that the Christian person is
actually, literally
holy in his heart and see if it will fly. Romans 7 is usually thought of as the most depressing, defeating chapter in the New Testament. I propose to take this passage and prove to your discerning mind that the person in Christ is literally godly. Then we’ll see how to make our behavior consistent with that reality.

Romans 7:15 says this,

We have here a person whose
desire
is to obey God, but who lacks the power to live it out somehow. He sins, but he hates it. The first point I wish to make, then, is this: What kind of “heart” does this person have?

What do I mean by heart? I mean the deepest, innermost dynamic of what drives this man; his deep desire. Does this man rejoice over his sinning, or is he miserable because of it? He is miserable, and the reason is that he’s powerless to make his performance line up with his heart. His heart is
good.
If his heart were only semi-good, he would have a tolerance for sinful performance. If he had two “natures” as we have been taught, one good and one evil, this verse would read entirely differently. It would read to accommodate the two desires like so:

Such is not the case with Paul, however. He is miserable because he cannot bring his performance into line with his holy nature.

Let’s go on to verse 18: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.” Note, he doesn’t say that he is no good, but that nothing good
dwells
in his
flesh.
Now, the Holy Spirit dwells in his earthsuit, and He is certainly something good. So Paul must be speaking of the old, green highways definition of the term
flesh,
and truly, “nothing good”
dwells
there.

Please note though, that he does not say
he
is not good. The remainder of the verse states “for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.” He is a
good man
who cannot find the power to “life out” his goodness.

I believe I would be too charitable to say that most Bible teachers take the position that Christians are “half good and half evil” as new creatures in Christ. What most imply is that we are 90 percent evil and 10 percent good. Many are even harder on us than that. Their messages to Christians imply that we are 100 percent evil and 0 percent good, citing, “in me dwells no good thing” as “proof,” failing to complete the verse, which states, “in me dwells no good thing, that is,
in my flesh
.” Of course there is “no good thing” in my flesh (old ways), but the person in Christ is now “the one who
wishes
to do
good
.” We’re the good guys! Or they cite, “The heart of man is desperately wicked” from Jeremiah 17:9. Of course that man’s heart is desperately wicked; the prophet was speaking of the “old man” in this Old Testament passage. That is not the new person. The new creature in Christ has had a heart transplant! We deeply desire to do good.

Paul continues in Romans 7,

As we have already seen, Paul identifies the culprit, the source of his poor performance. This thing is somehow controlling this good man and deceiving him into “acting sin-fully.” And you will recall that the power of indwelling sin will deceive the believer in his mind by sending him thoughts with first-person singular pronouns through the flesh, attempting to control him against his true nature.

Paul says,

Evil is
present
in this man. This doesn’t say that
he
is evil, but that he (the one who desires to do good) has evil present in him. That’s a very real and crucial distinction. He is a good man.

If you have a gold crown on your tooth, does that make you a gold mine? No, you have gold
present
in you. If you get a splinter in your foot, does that make you a totem pole? No, you have wood
present
in you. Neither is this good man anything other than good because he has evil
present
in him, according to this passage. But many Christians have misinterpreted it.

Paul continues further, saying,

This man totally agrees with, loves, and desires the law of God in his true identity.

Aha! Now we identify the
location
of the problem. Sin still resides in the
body.
It is not in the soul or the spirit. Those two parts are the righteous new man (see 2 Corinthians 5:14-21). But technically, the body has not been saved yet: Later in the epistle, Paul says that we are “waiting eagerly for…the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23). It is still earthbound and destined to return to the dust. It will
be
saved one day at the resurrection. It will
be
transformed into a new, glorified body (see 1 Corinthians 15:42-44). Our bodies aren’t evil, but they are earthy. I call the body the “vehicle of vulnerability.” It is vulnerable to being used by the evil one if we submit to him.

Continuing on with verse 23,

What sort of law is the “law of my mind,” godly or evil? Godly! Your mind
has
to be pure and good for there to be a battle. If there is a war going on, can the opponents be on the same side? No. They must be in total opposition to each other. A “new person in Christ” is a “partaker of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:3,4). He “has the laws of God written on his mind.” This man’s mind is
good.
He has a “sound mind,” “the mind of Christ,” or there would be no war.

The word
wretched
does not mean evil; it means unhappy. This man is stating that he is terribly unhappy living like this, as will be any person who has only one nature, a godly one, and who has not claimed his true identity in Christ. But—praise God!—look at his answer to his own question in verse 25: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” He’s free! But he will never experience it if he walks according to the flesh, only if he walks in the Spirit. His identification in the death, burial, and resurrection with Christ has set him free.

When he chooses to walk in the Spirit (in his true identity), he serves the law of love, but when he is deceived into walking after the flesh, he is serving the law of sin. He doesn’t
have
to sin. He is free to obey God through Christ’s indwelling life.

Paul then goes on in the next chapter to explain how we, as new people in Christ, are a battleground in which God fights His archenemy, the devil. Note how many verses in Romans 8 pit sin against God, the Spirit versus the flesh, and so on. But make no mistake about it, Christian, we are free to obey God: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
has set you free
from the law of sin and of death” (Romans 8:2, emphasis added). And “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

You are literally a brand-new person in Him, a good person who loves Jesus and deeply desires to submit to His Kingship. The kingdom of heaven has arrived. It’s in us! Let’s turn Him loose to reign in us by acting dead to sin and alive to God!

Okay, it’s time to take a little test to see what you’ve learned so far. Choose an answer from either column A or column B.

All of the correct responses are in column A. How’d you do? If you chose any responses from column B, pay close attention to the next section. You’re in for some great truths!

Now that the deception, the “walking according to the flesh” pattern, has been identified, let’s trust the Holy Spirit together to put some practical handles on
how
to implement God’s provision for victory. As with every spiritual principle, this victory will not be so much a matter of fighting
against
the power of the Evil One, but rather a matter of
starting up
a new method of walking, moment by moment, experiencing Christ as your very life while simultaneously you “act dead” to those thoughts that will be served up to your mind through the flesh in the brain. The Word says you are “dead to [the power of] sin” (Romans 6:11). To make this an experiential reality, you must
act
dead to it regardless of feelings.

Let’s look at just a few of the many astounding and glorious things God has to say about our true identity, the new people we are in Christ.

Many can identify with having learned in this world that they are unlovely, worthless, inadequate, or insecure. But if God says that the “old you” died and the new resurrected you is holy, even though the world won’t agree, what are you? Whom will you believe? You say, “But I don’t
act
holy.” Well, I hope this will change radically as you read this book, but the Word doesn’t state that you always act holy. We’re not discussing performance; we’re discussing identity.

Some may ask, “But isn’t it just that God
sees
us as holy?” No, that would be saying that God somehow deceived Himself by pretending we are holy when the fact is that we’re grubby. That can’t be the case, dear Christian! God told Peter in the vision on the rooftop, “Don’t you call unholy what God has called holy” (Acts 10:15, author’s paraphrase). God has called
you
holy: “…who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints [holy ones] by calling, with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours” (1 Corinthians 1:2). “For the temple of God is holy, [literally]
which you are
” (1 Corinthians 3:17b, see
NASB
margin).

Are you accepted or rejected? You say, “Well, I
feel
like the other women in the women’s group at church sometimes reject me.” Okay, so perhaps they reject you. Did God promise you they wouldn’t? No, He just said they shouldn’t. But He did promise you that
He
wouldn’t. Has He? No. Will He? No! He can’t. How do we know? Because He
said
so: “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). Believe Him. You
are
accepted: “Wherefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God” (Romans 15:7).

Is God holding grudges against you for the times you’ve failed Him in the past? No! “You were dead in sins, and your sinful desires were not yet cut away. Then He gave you a share in the very life of Christ, for He forgave all your sins” (Colossians 2:13
TLB
). He has declared you blameless before Him: “That He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:27). “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him” (Ephesians 1:4).

You are actually seated in heaven, according to God’s Word, experiencing God’s rest (above your circumstances). You are secure, loved, and treasured: “And [God] rais
ed
us up with Him, and seat
ed
us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6, emphasis added). It’s to be
believed
continually, Christian, not
felt
continually.