The Struggle Inside

The Struggle Inside (Romans 7:14-25)         August 10, 2025

We’ve all experience moments when we failed to live up to God’s standard, let alone our own standards – when what we want to do, we don’t do, and what we promise we’ll never do again, we fall right back into.  The apostle Paul perfectly captures this dilemma in Romans 7: “For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing.” (Vs 19)

Our passage shows the war that rages inside every believer.  Though we are justified by faith in Christ, we continue to wrestle with sin.  Paul isn’t describing someone who is spiritually careless; he’s describing someone who is deeply aware of sin’s grip and deeply grieved by it.  This isn’t a failure of purpose, it’s a battle of nature.  He speaks of two laws at work: one of his mind that delights in God, and one in his body that wages war against that desire.  Galatians 5:17 reiterates this: For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want.”  The result is inner conflict, frustration, and dependence on something more than ourselves.

But there’s hope.  Paul ends with a declaration” “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Vs 25)  The victory doesn’t lie in willpower or guilt but in dependence on Christ.  This passage reminds us that sanctification is a journey – not a flip of the switch.  The tension we feel, the frustration in our failures, is actually a sign of spiritual understanding.

And the deliverance isn’t only future-tense, but also present.  Christ delivers us today, meeting us in our brokenness and offering not just forgiveness but transformation.  The gospel does not promise the absence of struggle – it promises the presence of a Savior through it.  The Israelites still had to walk through the parted sea.  Daniel still had to go into the Lion’s den; David still had to walk on the battlefield.  But God was there each time.

So if you’re discouraged by habits you can’t break, or overwhelmed by guilt that won’t seem to lift – take heart.  You’re not alone.  The struggle means Satan is fighting for you.  But God is stronger, and He can and will deliver you from it.

Ask yourself this when you get a moment.  What struggle or sin do I find most frustrating, and how does my reliance on my own self keep me from real victory?

By Jared Boser (Adapted)