Can Sin Dwell Within You?

In this regular feature, Dave and Tom address questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call, here’s this week’s question:Dear Dave and Tom, I know you guys have talked a lot about a person’s will, so maybe you can help me here.I just read Romans Chapter 7, and I’m confused.How can Paul say that when he sins it’s not longer him that’s doing it, but it’s the sin that dwells within him?

Tom:

Dave, I could read Romans Chapter 7:15-25, really that’s the context, but let me go right to the verse that this person that wrote to us is asking about.Romans:7:19For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
See All..., “For the good that I would I do not:but the evil which I would not, that I do.Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.”

Dave:

Hmm, you’ve got some people really thinking out there, Tom.

Tom:

Which is good.

Dave:

Sending in these things.

Tom:

We encourage that, don’t we, Dave, some thinking Christians, or even those who don’t call themselves Christians but are really seeking after truth.We need more of that today.

Dave:

I think what Paul is saying is, when Adam and Eve sinned, and of course Adam’s sin was worse than Eve’s, she was deceived, the Scripture says, he was not deceived, he knew what he was doing, but he didn’t want to lose Eve.If she died and he’s still on God’s side…so Eve was more important than God, and that can come up.A young Christian lady, she falls in love with an ungodly man, and will not listen to council and just insists.Well now, what caused her to do that?Well it was self, I want my own way. But I’m really not in charge of myself because I’ve become the slave of sin.So, sin that dwells in me causes me to do this.I think this is what Paul is saying.

Tom:

Dave, it’s just like the Scripture lays it out clearly, we’re a new creature in Christ, a new creation. Yet we still have that old creature; that old nature. Is he talking about the battle between the two, the old man, the new man?As somebody who is in Christ he has the ability and you would say the will to deal with these issues, but he’s still fighting the flesh, the old man, the old creature.

Dave:

He says, “It’s sin that dwelleth in me.”Now what is sin?How would we define it, how did we first meet sin?It’s rebellion against God, and it’s a desire for self, self is now on the throne.And you mentioned it earlier, self- esteem, self-acceptance, self-love, self-motivation, the whole thing, so, it’s a bit difficult to define.

Tom:

It’s called the mystery of iniquity.

Dave:

Right.So here I am, Paul says, I really—it’s like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.I’d say, God, this is what I really want.But then I turn around and do what I don’t want to do, but something is compelling me.It’s called the sin nature.

Tom:

Right.Well, Dave, as you know, in Chapter 8—well, we’re led toward the end of Chapter 7, Paul calls out:“O wretched man that I am!Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”In other words, if I give way, or let me say it another way, if I am not really walking with Christ, all right, and obeying the Spirit of God within me, and the Spirit of God enables me to be obedient, but if I drift away from that my old nature is going to have the better of me here.So, he says, “O wretched man that I am!Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?O thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”

Dave:

And Paul tells you how and where he found the victory.He says:I am crucified with Christ.If the death of Christ was just another idea well, Jesus is a wonderful example, let’s follow Him, try to be like Jesus, the imitation of Christ, Thomas Acampus way back there.

Tom:

Dave, I have to interject this, we were talking about the social gospel.That’s where the idea came from, What Would Jesus Do?That was part of the social gospel, it’s a works thing.

Dave:

I knew a basketball player, what would WWJD—

Tom:

That’s where he got it; it comes from the social gospel.

Dave:

What would Jesus do?And I would say he did not follow what Jesus would do.But anyway, it was just a popular saying.So Paul says there is a genuine struggle.In other words I could reason with a person.You’ve got a glass of vitamins and here we’ve got a glass full of poison, and here’s a guy sitting there.I know the poison is going to kill me, I know the vitamins would really help me, but the poison tastes so good, I just can’t resist it.Just the intellect is not going to help you unless something has happened through the Cross and your faith in Christ, you are a new person, you have been crucified with Christ.I died in Him, now He has become my life, there is no hope otherwise.