Romans 7:7-25
Struggling With Sin
7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet." 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.
11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 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.
21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
Following Jesus does not prevent us from sinning...But knowing Jesus and His Father give to us the hope of not sinning...Knowing our Father and His Son do not stop man's sinning which is in our nature, but we see sin better, recognize it better, and we desire not to sin our hearts out of knowing Them and Who They Are...
The closer one gets to God the more they know about their sinful ways...The Great Saints knew and know much about sin...The Saints knew they sinned and looked to Jesus for His help...St. Paul desired not to sin...I think that is one of the reasons St. Paul was so hard on himself in his epistle to the Romans about his own sinful nature...St. Paul said that in his mind he was a slave to God, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin...Thanks be to God for Jesus, Who is Christ our LORD...
This desire not to sin is a precursor to heaven, because there is no sin in God's Kingdom...Author and philosopher Criss Jami wrote, “The Christian does not avoid sin to achieve salvation, but rather salvation brings him to a desire not to sin...The closer that one's spirit is synchronized with the holy knowledge of God, the more he comprehends how and why sin is destructive to himself and others in each and every circumstance...The dwindling desire for sin is a premature gift of Heaven - where there will be no sin, where all will, too, possess that full and complete wisdom; all will have perfect reasons not to sin...In this way, free will might still exist, but the shared wisdom of God will simply outwit all desires, impulses, and needs to sin.”...