The spirit, mind, and inward man are opposite to our sinful, fleshly nature. This daily devotional looks at the conflict between our sinful nature and our renewed nature.
Nuggets
- Our spirit, mind, and the inward man are all intricately tied together.
- The problem is that our desire to delight in God’s laws comes into conflict with our sinful nature.
Devotions in The Goodness of Grace series
For this series, we are looking at Griffith’s sermon entitled Grace, the Only Source of Goodness. In the first two devotions, we looked at our lives without God.
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Our lives with God focus on a renewed, inner life in our spirits and minds.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
Tied Together
“For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being” (Rom. 7: 22 ESV)
Our spirit, mind, and the inward man are all intricately tied together.
Our hearts and minds are the core of us. The heart is the seat of our thoughts, intellect, will, and affections that produces our character, from which all things spring, including controlling our spiritual position. Our mind is a component of the soul that controls our will — where we process and make judgments and decisions.
Our spirit is our renewed mind: God’s law has been written within us at the heart-level, so it has changed our character.
Delight in the law has to do with satisfaction and pleasure. Lyth equated the it with the tendency of the heart. We sure want our inclinations to be to want to do what is good and right in God’s standards.
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Well, think about it. Once we accept God’s Plan of Salvation, we are to begin to imitate Him and gain His character. We learn what His character is through the laws and commandments. Salvation regenerates our spirit and makes us a new creation.
Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Sin is not believing that Jesus is our Savior to save us from our actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal new birth and requickening that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
We can only truly delight in the law when the Holy Spirit opens the eyes of our heart.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
The War within Us
“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” (Rom. 7: 23 ESV)
The problem is that our desire to delight in God’s laws comes into conflict with our sinful, fleshly nature.
We have two natures in us — God’s and Adam’s. Our sinful nature is pulling us to disobey God.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Ooo, baby. Does that breed conflict or what?!?
We are like Paul. He had just told the Romans that “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it” (Rom 7: 15-20 NIV).
Oh, yeah. Paul knew what was right and wrong. He wrote the book on it!
Paul couldn’t quit sinning after conversion — and He personally talked with Jesus!
That tells us how strong the sinful inner pull is. That tells us two things:
- We would never have been saved if Jesus hadn’t paid the penalty for our sins.
- We can’t fight sin ourselves.
Sometimes, I think that we believe we have to clean ourselves up. That isn’t what God wants. He wants to be the One to fight our sin battles because we never could.
But look it this way. We’ve said before that we grow more when we have the struggles. Not only that, but the struggles also show that we are God’s children.
Glossary
Have you heard of non-believers saying they would never believe in God because they don’t want Him telling them what to do and not do? They are going to hate the law.
McCheyne felt that non-believers hate the law because of its purity, breadth and unchangeableness. Judgement applies to all sin — the seen type or the unseen type.
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The hatred for the law changes upon conversion. The laws get written on our hearts.
Yep. Hearts and minds. Full circle to that.
Making the Connections #1
Hodge made a statement that, to me, validates something I have been saying lately when he talked about different senses of the term law. He wrote, “That which binds: hence the law of God as a rule of life whether revealed in the Scriptures or in the heart.”
I’ve been saying that God doesn’t tell us everything in the Scriptures. He leaves some to specific revelation to tell us in our hearts.
But then Hodge did go on to disagree with me. He wrote, “The whole revelation of God as contained in the Scriptures.”
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I just don’t think everything can be contained in a book. What God gives us is the framework on which to make our decisions when facing trials and testing.
The Holy Spirit prompts us when we are in the struggle to apply what the Scriptures say. He is further revealing to us what is meant.
If you are like me, you have sometime questioned God why we still have to struggle after we have accepted salvation. Bird explained that struggling — and obediently enduring — shows that we are fit to enter Heaven.
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No, we are going to mess up and be disobedient. But our struggles will show God where our hearts are.////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Making the Connections #2
But how does all of this tie to grace? Drake explained when he presented Grotius’ list of laws.
- “The law of God …
- “The law of the mind …
- “The law of the members …
- “The law of sin …
- “The law of original sin propagated by generation …
- “The law of sanctifying grace infused in regeneration …”
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We are given the law of God. It is opposite to the law of sin.
Mankind committed the original sin, causing it to be in all of us. Therefore, we have the law of the members within us.
But we are given the law of the mind. We get to judge which we are going to follow — good or evil.
When we choose to follow good, we are given the law of sanctifying grace because we are given regeneration.
How Do We Apply This?
- Show our changed spirit by studying and practicing — conforming to — God’s laws and commandments found in His Word.
- Witness to others.
- Take pleasure in the poetry of the Scriptures.
- Take delight in its wisdom.
- Take delight in its purity.
- Delight in the law even when it is convicting us of our sin.
- Seek God, which includes studying and meditating on His Word.
- Don’t expect too much from this world.
- Don’t get discouraged by failure.
- Don’t give up when we struggle.
- Put on — and appreciate — the armor of God.
- Be humble.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
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Father God. We praise You that You renew the inner us. Even though we still have the capacity to sin, we have the capacity to choose to obey You. Help us to navigate the Sanctification Road so that we may become more like You. Amen.
What do you think?
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