Based on Romans 7 (New King James Version)
“Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. 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. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I 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.”
I know that this chapter may be a little confusing for some, or that it can lead to not so good things if it is not discerned carefully, seeing it through the context of the entire Bible (as all Scripture should be discerned). So then, we need to start with the main point to be able to understand: the origin of sin. Many may have asked, “Where does sin come from?” Sin comes because of genuine love. How can that be? God allows for sin to exist so that there can be an element that is almost as attractive as He is, but of course, completely opposite to Him. If He is the positive, then sin would be the negative. For a true decision to be possible, then there has to be something nearly as attractive and opposite to God so that there can be a competitive fight; feelings between God and evil.
What makes it possible to understand this is the concept that God is love; and love is a choice. True love is not like what Hollywood paints in its romantic pictures; that you feel butterflies, or that there is something that cannot be understood or controlled. True love, especially the type that God consists of (and the type that He desires to be corresponded with) the combination of the heart, the soul, the mind, and strength. And for that to happen, there has to be something that involves all the elements that compose a person, especially reason. Therefore, God’s love does not consist of mere feelings, but rather of very profound and extremely logical things. God does not want to be followed because of selfish interests, or manipulation, or because there is no other option. He wants what every human being desires: to have someone that loves Him through different and diverse circumstances. That can only originate from a completely conscious decision.
Therefore, since He desires a love that happens through a conscious decision, and against something that is almost as attractive (so that there can be true competition), every being with a soul and conscience, including angels, have the capacity to sin (not necessarily that angels are in sin, at least the ones that are with the Lord), and to be tempted. They have the capacity to decide to remain with God or to fall. For example, before Satan fell, he was an angel that was with the Lord called Lucifer. Being attracted by sin, he decided to let envy and pride take control of him. And with him, a third of the angels fell (those that are now known as demons). Man has sin interwoven in the very fiber of his being. For it is written: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” Psalm 51:5. Sin lives in every human being.
So then, if we could condense what this whole chapter means, it would be like this: we cannot save ourselves (through the works of the law through our own strength). We need Christ in our lives. But once the Lord comes into our lives, then the fight starts within our being, the one that God wants to happen, to see if the love He so longs for to live in us through Him manifests itself. If we have Christ in our life, then we have the capacity to overcome. The Bible teaches that salvation is something conditional, for those that are able to overcome. For it is written: “…To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” Revelation 2:7b. “…He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.” Revelation 2:11b. “...To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.” Revelation 2:17b. “And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’—as I also have received from My Father; and I will give him the morning star.” Revelation 2:26-28. “He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” Revelation 3:5. “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.” Revelation 3:12. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” Revelation 3:21. So then, are you dying to the sin that still lives within you? Lord bless! John