The Spiritual Battle
7:14 to 8:39
Understanding the conflict in personal sanctification involves seeing the relationship between the believer and his indwelling sin. In relating his personal experience in 7:14-15, Paul switches to the present tense here, whereas before he used the past tense. Obviously, he was describing his present conflict as a believer with indwelling sin and its continuing efforts to control his daily life. But at the same time, he describes the spiritual battle of every believer. When a person comes to trust Yeshua as his personal Lord and Savior, he surrenders to Him all of himself that he can. But as he grows in his faith, he finds previously hidden portions of himself, areas of sin he was formerly unaware of, which he must then surrender as well. Preceding each such surrender is a “Romans 7 experience,” and it takes place only when he is willing to move into Romans 8 with respect to that part of his life.184
The great triumph of the believer’s faith is total deliverance from condemnation. Paul does not say that there is nothing in us that deserves condemnation, because there is, but the truth of the gospel is that Messiah Yeshua has released us from condemnation. The believer has been granted perfect righteousness and lives according to the Torah of the Spirit, which is the Torah of God. We are not only forgiven; we have received the Ruach Ha’Kodesh into our very bodies (First Corinthians 6:19-20). He is our source of divine power to bring our necessary sanctification, to be set apart, specifically, to the holy use and purposes of God. Romans 8 is where Paul gathers various strands of thought, starting with the gospel in Romans 1. Here, he links justification with sanctification.184
Paul teaches about our salvation in three phases: the past, or justification (to see link click Ax – The Universal Solution: Justification); the present, or sanctification, here; and the future, or glorification (see Cj – The Completed Redemption).
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