WAR WITHIN! I have referred to a tract written several years ago called "Four Spiritual Laws." According to this tract, the laws presented are as follows. -- Tomorrow:
"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" (Rom 7:23).
Devotion 18 of 23
1. God LOVES you and offers a wonderful PLAN for your life.
2. Man is SINFUL and SEPARATED from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God's love and plan for his life.
3. Jesus Christ is God's ONLY provision for man's sin. Through Him you can know and experience God's love and plan for your life.
4. We must individually RECEIVE Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God's love and plan for our lives.
By way of comparison, Paul identified four valid spiritual laws in Romans 7:22-25. They are spiritual principles with which the believer must become familiar.
(1 "The LAW of God" (Rom 7:22,25).
(2 "Another LAW in my members" (Rom 7:23a).
(3 "The LAW of my mind" (Rom 7:23b).
(4 "The LAW of sin" (Rom 7:23,25).
OBJECTIVE LAWS
1. The law of God Rom 7:22,25
2. The law of sin Rom 7:23,25
SUBJECTIVE LAWS
3. Another law in my members Rom 7:21,23
4. The law of my mind Rom 7:23
THE TYPE OF LAWS
Two of these are objective, or detached from experience itself. They are principles that exist independently of human involvement – like the law of gravity. Two of these laws are subjective, i.e. they are matters that we personally experience.
OBJECTIVE LAWS
The "law of God" and "the law of sin" are objective laws. They lie outside of mankind, and apart from experience. They exist independently of us, and yet we are subjected to them both. They are uninfluenced by us, but we are influenced by them.
It is vital that we realize the nature of these laws, or principles. Nothing that we can do will alter either of these laws. Our opinion of them changes nothing. Our love or hatred of them have no bearing on their existence. We cannot expand them or reduce them. They are completely independent of us. Nothing that we can do can alter the "law of God." We cannot add to it or take from it. We cannot will it out of existence, or summon it into existence. It is intrinsically good, and we cannot cause it to become evil.
Similarly, we cannot change "the law of sin." Like "the law of God," it is static or unchanging. It is not possible to make it good or cause it to be less a law of sin than it is.
THE LAW OF GOD
The "law of God" is given within an intelligent framework. It is comprised of words and directives. It identifies sin and apprizes men of their guilt of it (Rom 3:19-20). This law, "given by Moses" (John 1:17), convinced Paul of the nature of personal "lust" (Rom. 7:7). It was not a "feeling" that convicted Paul, but a perception, or understanding. The "law of God" produced that insight.
THE LAW OF SIN
This is an unwritten law, and differs significantly from "the law of God." It is the spirit of sin that is promoted by "the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places" (Eph. 6:12). It is not sin itself, but the principle of sin, written into the natural order. Unlike "the law of God" it does not bring the knowledge of sin. Rather, if heeded, it will produce involvement in sin. The difference between the two is seen in the sin of Adam and Eve. Satan told Eve that eating of the forbidden fruit would bring the knowledge of good and evil. That is not, however, what it produced. The disobedience urged by Satan obscured the good and brought personal involvement in evil. Now "the law of sin" is within man – part of his natural constitution. That is, there is a decided propensity to sin within men.
PRAYER POINT: Father, in the name of Jesus, help me to understand the laws with which I must contend.