His Spirit, his Word, his saints

Galatians 5:16-17 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
The battle of good and evil is portrayed, evident, and real in all our lives and in every part of our lives. It is a battle from within, and a battle that plays out in front of us every day. This battle has been around since the Fall of Man at the Garden of Eden; sin came into this world and paradise was lost until Jesus Christ returns to eternally restore his creation. There is no one of us that does not struggle with sin every, single, day. There is no lofty pastor in any pulpit that does not struggle; even the great apostle Paul wondered why he did the things he did; he wrote in Romans 7:15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. There is so much to unpack in this chapter, but Paul is speaking about the struggle of good and evil, the struggle that all of us face, one that even himself battles from within. Paul goes on to explain how sin has such a hold over us, that he really can’t explain. My study Bible puts it like this, “Being fleshly, sold over to sin, involves a conflict that mystifies Paul and other believers. Paul feels he does not understand himself. He finds himself defeated, not doing what he wants to do, and doing what he hates to do. the conflict indicates that there is a battle between two identities in the believer. First there is something that acknowledges that the law is good. Second there is something within, called sin, which produces evil.” The battle of good and evil inside of us.

God uses his Spirit, his Word (the Bible), and his saints to convict us of sin. He uses the Spirit to put that tug in our conscious, the same Spirit that tugs at our conscious when we read our Bible, and his saints (pastors and friends) to bring those convictions to us. Are we listening, or are we wrapped up in the temporal pleasures of it? I am no different; sin creates many temporal pleasures for me too; the convictions sting and produce great pains. I would be much more scared if I didn’t feel convicted of sin. Can you imagine the realization that one day you did not feel any inward pain related to sin? Romans 1:24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves. One of the best sermons I have ever heard was from Dr. Adrian Rogers on when God gave up on us and let us die in sin; conviction and reverent fear does not do that message justice.

You are going to fail, but you can be eternally forgiven. You are never going to be sinless, and the battle of good and evil will always be present until you die. You can only seek with your heart to draw closer to God today than you were yesterday, and to seek him for the strength to resist sin. There is just as much power of God in the conviction of sin as there is in the hope of the Gospel. Paul puts that promise on the heels of Romans seven. Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Just take life with an eternal view; rest in your Salvation and seek to work out your salvation by abiding each day with Him. The more you seek him with your heart, the closer you draw to him, and the more sin will sting and produce a cleansing effect on your soul. All of this work is accomplished by his Spirit, his Word, and his Saints.