DO NOT (PART 20) – WINNING THE WAR WITHIN

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The wise prevail through great power, and those who have knowledge muster their strength. Surely you need guidance to wage war, and victory is won through many advisers.

Proverbs 24:5-6          

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

A few days ago, I wrote about the matter of owning up to the fact that we’re innately sinful and wicked, born with a capacity to do wrong in our DNA, a disorder that can be traced back to our earliest ancestors for all were derived from that first man and woman, Adam and Eve. Even though they were both created perfectly, they brought sin into mankind when they disobeyed His command by eating forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3) and we’ve dealt with the issue of good and evil within us ever since.

It is a war waging in our heart, mind, and soul every day. Our flesh desires us to follow the sinful ways of the world or our own selfish desires. Counter to that, the Holy Spirit seeks to move us away from sin and toward the righteousness (or right living) that the Lord expects. And so the battle lines are set, flesh against Spirit, with the ultimate prize truly a matter of life and death and not just any life or death but life or death forever.

The Apostle Paul, arguably the greatest apostle of Jesus ever, wrote these telling words which I feel best frame this battle waging within:

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 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. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! Romans 7:15-25

Doesn’t that so accurately hot at the heart of what we go through in life?

We know what we should do and desire to do good but evil is always working within us, driving us away from the good we want to do, the good the Lord wants us to do, toward the sinfulness abiding inside us. And so we end up doing things we know are wrong, although we know we aren’t supposed to and in the wake of our actions, we’re left convicted and sobered in knowing we have violated the very One who created us, our heavenly Father God.

So what are we to do in the midst of this quandary? How do we handle the wrestling match within between good and evil? Where can we find the strength and power to resist and suppress sin and turn more toward righteousness so it dominates our behavior?

Let’s start by looking at the 22nd of the thirty Sayings of the Wise from the book of Proverbs:

The wise prevail through great power, and those who have knowledge muster their strength. Surely you need guidance to wage war, and victory is won through many advisers. Proverbs 24:5-6

First, to prevail through a war, you need great power and strength.

The word of God from Proverbs 24 tells us that those who seek wisdom and knowledge will find the power and strength they need to be victorious. Here’s the problem. None of us are wise or knowledgeable enough on our own to be able to triumph over sin and evil. We need help and this leads to the second point we find in this saying:

We need guidance and advice in order to wage war victoriously.

We can’t do it alone and so we need to turn to the source of all wisdom and knowledge, the One who created both, we need to turn to the Lord God Almighty and to Him alone.

Indeed, no other counselor can help us. We can’t consult the greatest military minds and hope to win. There is no one on earth who can help us be triumphant except the Lord.

This is good news for us. We need not be wearied by the inner battle ever taking place between good and evil. We can place our sin affliction in full remission so that righteousness may enter in and dominate. Paul figured that out as we go back to the end of our earlier passage and revisit his words:

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Paul got it. Without the help of God through Jesus Christ, he would be helpless against the evil within him. His only source of rescue was in the Lord who delivered him out of the clutches of wickedness as easily as the Israelites were delivered from the clutches of the oppressive Egyptians and their Pharaoh (one of many instances of deliverance, I might add).

Our “do not” caution today is this:

“Do not” think you can win the war raging within you between good and evil on your own.

Instead, seek the strength, power, wisdom, and guidance from the only One who can save you now and forever. Seek Jesus as one should when they are Christians striving to be Christ-like in their lives and you will have victory over sin and evil and wickedness, ushered instead into righteousness, holiness, and sanctification.

Thanks be to God for the gift of His Son who sets His captives free and leads them to victory.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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