¹⁶ But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. ¹⁷ So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

One thing you can say about the struggle for holiness is that it shows evidence that we agree with the Law, that it is something worth aiming for. That we can readily acknowledge. The Law is good. Paul seems to be taking sides against himself! One thinks of times when a person says to himself, “Why did I do that? I wish I hadn’t.” Paul acknowledges a sort of spiritual duplicity, like the psalmist David did when he engaged in an inner conversation: “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence” (Ps 42:5). He is talking to himself, as though he were of two minds. Paul likewise sees two minds, as it were, in conflict—one that agrees with the Law and another that carries out activities contrary to the Law.

We can easily connect with Paul on this common human experience. However, not content to just shrug his shoulders, Paul gives full vent to the dilemma, peeling back the layers of the dynamic in theological terms. First, he identifies one of the inner minds as “sin” and distinguishes this from the true “I.” Look at it again. “So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.” This almost sounds like a responsibility avoidance technique, akin to a mischievous boy who, when he gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar, says, “It wasn’t me; it was someone who looked like me.” First of all, it is clear as the passage unfolds, Paul takes full responsibility for the sinful activity. He uses “I” as the originator of violations of the Law: “I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin” (vs. 14, note the NIV renders this, “I am unspiritual …”). So when he writes that it is sin “which dwells in me,” he refers to the source of his sinfulness, and is not passing the buck, so to speak.

The source of a Christian’s sinful behavior does not come from the spiritual mind, or as some call it, the “new man.” When a Christian acts in accordance with the old way of thinking and motivations, the result is sin having free control in his life. Living with the Law as his master leaves him living in bondage to sin! This is not the “I” of the spiritual mind that desires to live for God, that does not want to do the things of the flesh.

So what is the solution to this struggle? Paul portrays what David discovered as the first step in dealing with the reality of personal sin: “Behold, You [God] desire truth in the innermost being…” (Ps 51:6).

Lord, again help me be ruthlessly honest about my inner struggle for holiness.