In Romans 7:15-20 Paul writes of his struggle against sin after his conversion which is also a struggle all Christian’s struggle with.
If anyone could subdue sin in their Christian life, surely the apostle Paul could. But here Paul is telling us that he has the same struggle internally and spiritually with sin that all Christians do. Our old self died on the cross, nevertheless, every Christian still has to fight against his or her fleshly desire to practice sin. So, it is a battle between the Christian’s new self which is under the dominion of the grace of God and those fleshly desires that formerly dominated their lives when they existed as their old self. These two forces, their new self and their fleshly desire for sin, are diametrically opposed to each other. Thus, the Christian has an internal strife with sin minute-by-minute for the rest of their life.
Every true Christian is aware of this constant struggle against sin and for righteousness. There is never a truce in this battle. Some would also suggest that if you are a professed Christian who is not aware of this internal strife between your new self and sinful desires, you may not actually be a believer and you may need to prayerfully revisit and reconsider your profession of faith. This internal spiritual struggle is felt so intensely by some Christians that they doubt the validity of their belief in Christ. But if a Christian does recognize this struggle, then it is very likely that their profession of faith was valid and in this case they should not question their belief in Christ because nothing can take their future inheritance promised by God from them (1 Peter 1:3-5).
Paul is writing as a mature believer. This does not describe Paul prior to his conversion on the Damascus road. He was as mature and as sanctified a Christian believer as anyone yet this passage is his description of this internal spiritual struggle between his new self under the grace of God and his old fallenness that produces his internal desire for sin. And this sinful disposition exists in spite of the fact that under the domination of his new self he tries to be obedient to God and do what is good and what is right in God’s eyes. Paul makes it clear that this struggle is common to all Christians and it is real, internal, spiritual, and ongoing. Christians must resist temptation and fight for righteousness.
Human beings have a sinful nature in that they have a natural inclination to sin. This remains even after the death of the old self. So, Christians, even though they now have the new self under the grace of God, continue to be susceptible to Satan’s temptation. And this is the basis of the internal strife in Christians between their new self and their inclination to sin.
So, we understand that Christians after their conversion retain this corrupt inclination toward sin but the obvious question is “Why do Christians have his sinful inclination even after justification and adoption by God?”
The answer is original sin. This refers to the sinful state and condition which is imputed to every human being at birth, becoming the root cause of all actual sins in the life of each human being.
ORIGINAL SIN
Original Sin gives human beings a positive disposition toward sin. There are two elements of original sin: original guilt and original pollution
Original Guilt: Guilt results in the sinner being obligated to render satisfaction to God’s justice for the self-determined violation of the law. Guilt is not an element of sin but is the relation to the penal sanction of the law.[1] Berkhof writes, “The guilt of Adam’s sin, committed by him as the federal head of the human race, is imputed to all his descendants. This is evident from the fact that, as the Bible teaches, death as the punishment of sin passes on from Adam to all his descendants. Rom. 12-19; Eph. 2:3; 1 Cor. 15:22.”[2]
Original Pollution: “original pollution includes two things, namely, the absence of original righteousness, and the presence of positive evil.”[3] This is sin in the real sense of the word and guilt attaches to it. It is not infused into the human soul and is therefore not part of the substance of the human soul. Instead, the sin of Adam is imputed to all his descendants in that it is reckoned as theirs and they are dealt with as guilty of that first sin even though they did not commit that first sin. There are two aspects of original pollution: total depravity and total inability.
Total Depravity: the inherent corruption of this inherited pollution is inherent in every part of human nature, body and soul and because of this corruption, the original state of human beings after the fall is one that is totally unable to NOT sin. After God regenerates a person’s soul, the regenerate person is changed and they are then able to choose to sin or not sin.
Total Inability: this aspect of original pollution may be defined as follows:
When we speak of man’s corruption as total inability, we mean two things: (1) that the unrenewed [sinner] cannot do any act, however insignificant, which fundamentally meets with God’s approval and answers to the demands of God’s holy law; and (2) that he cannot change his fundamental preference for sin and self to love for God, nor even make an approach to such a change. In a word, he is unable to do any spiritual good.[4]
Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (The Banner of Truth Trust, 2012), 246.
However, it is important to note that this does not mean that the natural human being cannot do good in any sense of the word. Unregenerate people can still do common good and civil good and even external religious good and these good acts can meet with the approval of society and even to some extent of God. For example, one person may rescue someone from drowning which is good from the drowning person’s point of view and a civil good, and God foreordained it or it would not have happened, but if not done for the glory of God, it is not a good work as far as God is concerned. These common or civil good acts are defective in the sight of God because they are not motivated by the love for God or by any desire to meet the approval of God. Therefore, they are not good works in God’s eyes.
In Part 3 of this discourse concerning the Christian’s struggle with sin, we will finish our discourse on the Christian’s struggle against sin with an exposition of the passage of Scripture located at Romans 7:15-20 where Paul expresses his consternation over his post-conversion battle against sin.
[1] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (The Banner of Truth Trust, 2012), 245.
[2] Berkhof, 245.
[3] Berkhof, 245.
[4] Berkhof, 246.
