Theology for Everybody: RomansSample

Good Gifts: New Desires

God has good gifts to give to His children, and one of the greatest is that of new desires through the Holy Spirit. This is one of the great secrets of the Christian life that non-Christians don’t understand. Christianity is not a bunch of things we must do—it’s a bunch of things we get to do because God changes our desires. The things of God are those we want to do.

The Christian life is the most joyful, exciting, and satisfying life, but if we are honest, there are also moments, times, and seasons of struggle. Did you ever play tug-of-war when you were a child? When you’re young, the game is played with a rope, but the game changes when you get older. For adults, tug-of-war is between heaven and hell, and it feels like you are the rope getting pulled in both directions. Some days it feels like the Spirit of God is pulling you up, and you’re getting closer to who you’re going to be when you are in God’s presence with Jesus forever. On other days it feels like hell is winning, and the flesh is really pulling you down. Your character and conduct are getting a little darker and a little drearier. We’ve all had this struggle.

Paul shares in Romans 7 that we either go down in the flesh or up in the Spirit. We either go closer to the Lord or closer to separation from the Lord. Verse 14 says, “For we know that the law is spiritual.” He’s referring to God’s law. “But I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions” (vv. 14–15). Has anyone ever walked up to you and said, “Why did you do that?” and you responded, “I don’t know”? “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do not do what I want, I agree with the law that it is good. So now it’s no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me” (vv. 15–17). This is the tug-of-war, the struggle.

When Paul writes about the law in this context, I believe he uses the concept of law in its greatest and grandest dimension—God’s perfect, unchanging moral standard for everyone. God got it right the first time, so He doesn’t change His expectations from one generation or culture to the next. There is a universal standard of right and wrong, and this law is “holy and righteous and good” (7:12). God’s laws reflect God the Lawgiver. Having these laws and standards that oversee human behavior is a good thing.

Paul also says, “The law is spiritual” (7:14). God’s laws come from the Holy Spirit. The only perfect thing on planet Earth is the Word of God. If you want a word from God, then you have to open the Word of God. God’s laws are supernaturally delivered; they are not ideas people invented. People will never come up with an idea in which they are the problem, not the solution.

God’s standard—His law—doesn’t change, so we’re left with two choices: Are we going to try to change it, or will we allow it to change us? Does the law change, or do we change? We make this decision every moment of every day, either in the flesh, which pulls us down or in the Spirit, which pulls us up.

Today’s Reflection

In the tug-of-war of life, are you pulling toward the flesh or the Spirit?