You’ve Got Sin in You!

Paul said it about himself in Romans 7:27.

The reality of indwelling sin is something that we all acknowledge but rarely respond to correctly.

The word “flesh” has various meanings in scripture ranging from meat, to the human body, to that element of our humanity that has been corrupted by the fall. The idea of indwelling sin can sound something like a Christian version of Gnosticism but it is not as clear-cut as the errant Greek philosophical system.

In this context, it is sin that lives in us and has its greatest impact on that part of us that Paul calls the flesh.  It seems to indicate our physical matter but especially impacts the little grey cells that drive our thinking, emotions, and human desires.

The sin principle that lives in us did not depart in the moment of salvation.  There were wonderful glorious things that happened at that moment—forgiveness, redemption, positional sanctification, new life, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, Spirit-baptism, and more.  However, the “principle of sin in my members” (the parts of my body) remains.  There will be a day in the future in which the principle of sin will be eradicated, but for now, we have to live with it.

This clear New Testament concept has key implications for us.

Perfectionism is unbiblical.

The idea that there can be a second work of grace in this life that eradicates the sin principle and allows certain believers to live on a higher plane of spiritual reality is not a New Testament concept.  If anyone could have attained that exalted position, it would have been the Apostle Paul.  Yet his own self-evaluation was that the sin principle yet remained in him.  In 1 Corinthians 9:27, he acknowledges that spiritual self-disciple (which is not the same as plain old self-discipline) is necessary for him to avoid making shipwreck of his personal ministry and being set on the shelf as disapproved.

The presence of the sin principle should not be a cause for discouragement or guilt.

“If I was just more spiritual, I would not be tempted by these things.”  That is just baloney.  I do not have to give in to the temptations that I face, but the desires of the flesh will be present until I am in heaven or indwell my glorified body.  Sometimes our problem lies in the fact that our sinful flesh manifests itself in various ways among true believers.  Like the strange virus that we are now experiencing where it manifests itself in many different ways depending on the person, so the sin that is in us looks different in each of us.  The danger is that we compare our weaknesses with the strengths of others and get discouraged, or our strengths with the weaknesses of others, and become proud.  We categorize sins based upon various levels of social acceptability and then rank one another accordingly.

I do not know why God did not take away all the vestiges of sin in us at the moment of salvation.  I do not if I even have a good speculative reason why.  What is clear is that he intended for us to do battle within as well as without while we inhabit these mortal vessels.

We have the resources to win the battle.

We have been equipped to win this battle with the enabling grace God has given to us at salvation.  However, those resources are supplied by the Holy Spirit who can be grieved and quenched when we stubbornly press on in unconfessed sin. It is a glorious thing when we can walk in victory over the sinful element that dwells in us.

Spiritual arrogance can be the path to destruction for even a mature believer.

In fact, it might be mature believers who are in the most danger.  Some have asked how men who have served God for many years fall into moral disaster.  It happened with David and with Solomon and it is still happening today.  There is a “syndrome” that occurs.  Early on a believer really does battle with sin and gets the victory in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Eventually, old sinful habits of life are replaced by new spiritually beneficial practices.  The new believer blossoms into productive spiritual maturity.  However, somewhere along the line, he forgets that sin still dwells in him—even that same sin that now seems long gone in the distant past.  The mindset changes from being determined to never go back to believing that it is impossible to ever go back.  And with that, failure follows.  We think we stand, and then we fall.

God mercifully reminds us of the vigilance we must maintain.

I am not sure what Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” was.  Some say it was bad eyesight, but the 2 Corinthians text seems to indicate that it was something more spiritual than physical.  Whatever it was, it was a daily reminder of his weakness and his dependence upon God.  Paul never stopped fighting until he entered glory.  In 2 Timothy 4, where he said “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course” I do not believe he was just talking about battles with false teachers or fighting to deliver the gospel in a world opposed to it.  He was also talking about the battle within.

Not that I have already attained or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. ¹³ Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, ¹⁴ I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14)

Do not be discouraged. Never stop fighting.