Is it ever right to fight?
by Robert Krumrey
Most of us tend toward the path of least resistance. Constantly seeking a life that is conducive to that peaceful, easy feeling. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but this rarely ever works. There is always some kind of obstacle in our way which forces us to engage. Our goal is then to engage in a way that will restore our lives to tranquility. As soon as we succeed, something pops up again to stir the water and the cycle repeats.
This merry go round of a life is certainly not new but it has been uniquely programmed into us through our exposure to 1000’s of hours of ads promising that perfect peace that we all long for. Sandy beaches, blue waters, warm friendships, titillating experiences flashed on our flickering screens again and again. We slavishly get back onto the merry go round, but we never find the peace that’s promised with every price tag.
The Bible has a different vision for how life should be experienced. In last Sunday’s sermon, we looked at Romans chapter 7. This chapter doesn’t paint a picture of peace, but instead a picture of war. Paul writes this in a couple of verses that seem to summarize the chapter:
“So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ”
The Apostle Paul, who may be the most famous Christian of all time, reveals to the reader that his inward life feels like a battle. Even though he knows what is right and wants to do what is right, he finds that a life of obedience is war. The war being described in this chapter isn’t a war with the world or even with Satan, though these are two formidable foes for the Christian. The war being described here is with indwelling sin. It’s an evil that lies “close at hand” and it is waging war in Paul’s “members” or body parts. Paul’s exhortation to the Christian is not to take the path of least resistance, but to engage daily in a war against the sin that dwells within.
We are called to get up every day and fight sin. It’s a bit like a chronic disease that never goes away, but there is a right way and a wrong way to keep fighting against the sickness. The wrong way is to fight in our own strength (the old way of the written code, Romans 7:6). The other wrong way is to give up the fight. What this means is that struggling to overcome our sin is not failing, but NOT fighting is. In last Sunday’s sermon I mentioned that some of us treat our sin nature like a spoiled child, giving it everything it desires. When we do this there is no war, because we are not choosing to conflict with our sinful desires. When we give in to sin we think we are choosing the path of least resistance, and in a way we are, but the results are not peace. The results are apathy, joylessness, guilt, shame, distance with God and others. Like junk food addicts, we gorge our desires only to wind up feeling fatigued and sick to our stomach.
The war against indwelling sin is the only path to the abundant life that Jesus came to give us in the here and now. Paul describes sin as seizing opportunities to deceive and kill us, even using God’s law as a means of attack. Lying down and letting sin run all over us, is not going to lead to anything good including peaceful tranquility. We are in a war zone of sorts and our foe is so heinous that surrender will only lead to us becoming a prisoner of war or worse a torturous death.
So if you are in the fight against sin, keep fighting. Retreat really isn’t a viable option for the Christian and Jesus has given us everything we need to win. Paul has told us again and again in Romans 6 that we have been “set free from sin” (Romans 6:22). This doesn’t mean that sin has no influence in our lives, but it does mean that when we cry out to Jesus again and again for rescue, he will save us every time.
If you have given up on fighting, rise up and fight again. If you are a Christian, you are not condemned by sin (see Romans 8:1). As a saved person, you now have the opportunity to fight sin daily in your life. Not only this, but there is no other path to abundant life this side of heaven. Surrendering to the sin that dwells within will only lead to a devastating experience of sin’s effects, known collectively as “death”. Surrendering your members to Jesus your King leads to life and peace.