Evil Be Gone!

“For that which I do, I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.  If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.”  Romans 7:15-17

Don’t you wish that all evil would be gone forever?  I get so tired of hearing all the bad news on television or seeing it online.  It seems to get worse with each passing year.  Perhaps it is not any worse than it was a thousand years ago.  Perhaps it is because we have instant and worldwide communication that evil seems so prevalent.  Whatever happens 10,000 miles from here, we hear about it almost instantly.  I suppose that 1,000 years ago, the folks who lived back then likely only heard the bad news that happened in their community unless a visitor from far away happened to come to their town and give them information about things that occurred outside of their small world.  Sometimes I think we are better off not to know about all of this bad stuff, but then if there is an escaped convict in my town, I surely want to know about it.  Thus, we can bury our heads in the sand like an ostrich, or we can stay informed, which also usually means staying depressed.

The problem is nothing more than sin.  Sin is evil.  Sin causes people to do evil things.  Sin is responsible for every single bad thing that happens.  Romans 6:23 tells us that “the wages of sin is death”.  One might ask, “My friend died of cancer.  She was a good person.  How can you say that sin caused her death?”  From where did cancer come?  When Adam and Eve sinned against God, that opened the floodgate of diseases, murder, and every bad thing that one can imagine.  The friend didn’t necessarily have cancer because of some sin that she committed, but living in a sin-cursed world makes all people vulnerable to evil.  Paul was no exception.

Even after a person is saved and takes on a new life in Christ, that old carnal nature is still with him or her.  We want to do right, but that old sin that dwells in us leads us to do wrong at times.  It’s like we have no control over it.  Sin is a very powerful thing.  The law cannot make us do right; it can only reveal how sinful our old nature is.  For example, why do we obey traffic laws?  Is it the overwhelming idea that it’s the law and we must obey it?  Or is it the fact that we don’t want to get caught and fined?  What do most drivers do when they discover that a police car is right behind them?  I think most drivers slow down to the speed limit.  Speaking of speed limits, how many people actually obey every single speed limit?  Not many.  I hate those roadside signs that read your speed limit and then start flashing when you are one mile over the speed limit.  It might as well be flashing, “Slow down you sinner!”

Paul was lamenting the fact that he could not obey God’s law, but even when he tried, he found out that evil was still present with him.  No matter what he did, he still had to deal with the sin which was inherent in his soul.  Matthew Henry wrote that the new nature cannot commit sin (I John 3:9), and the old nature cannot perform a good deed.  That old sin nature, the flesh, serves the law of sin.  The new nature of those born-again believers truly delights in the law of God, thus they desire to obey it.  The inward man wants to serve God; the outward man serves sin.  It is indeed a battle which is fought by the believer until the day that he or she passes from this sinful world into eternity.  It is a battle of which the believer cannot be completely victorious, but because we have the Holy Spirit within us, we have a tremendous advantage to overcome sin that the lost world doesn’t have.  The Holy Spirit is really good at letting believers know when they have stepped over the line into sinful territory, but they have to listen, heed, and obey if they desire to get ahead in this battle of good versus evil.

When we live in the Spirit, we have all the forces of heaven to help us overcome the enemy.  Thus, we have a choice to make–live under the law (legalism) or live under Christ (grace).  Warren Wiersbe wrote, “The old nature knows no law and the new nature needs no law.  Legalism makes a believer wretched because it grieves the new nature and aggravates the old nature!  The legalist becomes a Pharisee whose outward actions are acceptable, but whose inward attitudes are despicable”.  Thank God for Jesus Christ.  Without Him, we would still be under the law, serving sin continuously, without a hope in the world.