Romans 7

This is the most honest paragraph in the New Testament about internal conflict. Scholars debate exactly who Paul is describing here. But whoever it is, the description is uncomfortably accurate to the experience of anyone who has seriously tried to follow God.

I want to do good. I don’t do it. I don’t want to do evil. I do it anyway. Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

There’s something relieving about that passage being in Scripture. Because it means the experience of internal contradiction isn’t evidence that you’re not a Christian or that your faith isn’t real. It might be evidence that you’re awake enough to notice the war.

People who aren’t paying attention don’t feel the conflict. The conflict comes precisely because something has changed. Because the Spirit is present. Because the desire for good is real. And the flesh hasn’t stopped being the flesh.

What I’ve had to resist is using the description in Romans 7 as an excuse. The war is real. It’s also not supposed to be the final word. Paul moves to chapter 8. There is no condemnation. The Spirit of life sets us free. The war is real and it has an outcome.