The Believer's Struggle With Sin-Rom 7:14-25,pt1

Many years ago J. I. Packer wrote of the Christian's current struggle with sin. He said, "The form that sanctification takes is conflict with the indwelling sin that constantly assaults us. The conflict, which is lifelong, involves both resistance to sin's assaults and the counterattack of mortification, whereby we seek to drain the life out of this troublesome enemy." This death struggle with sin is normal, for though the believer has been released from sin's penalty and power, it is still present in his/her experience. He cannot live at home with sin as he used to do as an unbeliever. Almost all non-lordship theology embraces this false notion of the perpetual carnal Christian, a view popularized by Lewis Sperry Chafer and associates. It espouses that a Christian can remain content in his fleshy desires as a babe in Christ, never really granted victory over sin until he finally commits his life to Christ. It is the delusion that one can trust Jesus as Savior, but not as Lord of his life. But such a weak view of the power of the indwelling Spirit of Christ does not mesh with the text at hand. Join us for Sunday's study "The Believer's Struggle With Sin"-Rom 7:7-25, pt 1.