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v. 16-20 You Aren\'t Your Flesh


You are not your Flesh.  You have a flesh, but you are the ministry.  The ministry is the Christ in you, Who is the hope of glory.  This is a matter of identity.  If you think that you are your sin, you will think that you have no choice but to sin.  You will follow your flesh wherever it leads you.  However, you are the Christ.  You have flesh, but the flesh must die.  That is what it means to die to self.  Once your sins are covered by the blood, you don't desire to do them.  Sometimes, the strength of the old Adam rears up and does sin.  When that happens, Satan will accuse.  There is no condemnation, though, since you hate the sin.  You repent of it and keep going knowing that it is not you who did it.  You are the Christ in you.  You are not your flesh.

Romans 7:16-20 If then I do that which I would not, I consent to the law that it is good.  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. [Note: this is not a cop out. As a Christian, you are to identify with the Christ Who lives in you rather than your fleshly nature. The Christ Who is in you cannot sin. (1 Jn. 3:4-11) Your fleshly nature cannot be reformed because it cannot do or think what is right.]  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. [see how completely Paul asks us to deny our self and identify with Christ.]

Here is the same passage in the New Living Translation:

Romans 16 But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. 17 So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can't. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20 But if I do what I don't want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.


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