Lessons From Adam and Eve: The Spirit and the Flesh (Rom. 7)

Paul describes this warfare of the Christian whose desire is to please God.  The desire is there.  in Romans 7:21-24, “So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being, I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.”  The difference with Adam and Eve is that they were not in Christ as was Paul but the feeling of wretchedness and loss after sin was experienced by not only them, but the entire human race that experiences the ”commandment coming to them” (cf. Romans 4:1).  Some people appear to have never experienced this because they have not retained God in their knowledge (Romans 1:28) or they have become “past feeling”  (Eph. 4:19).   Their conscience has been seared as with a hot iron (1 Timothy 4:2).   Paul describes the Gentiles when writing to the Ephesians saints.  He explains that they “walked in ignorance, alienation, and vanity of mind because of the hardening of their hearts (Eph. 4:17-19). To such people God will send “a working of error, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess. 2:11,12).  Still, at some point, the commandment came when they became accountable to the law, and they chose to either ignore it or obey it.  In other words, some have never chosen to obey God and do not experience abandonment and loss due to sin.  Others, like Adam and Eve, chose to obey God for some time.  As long as that remained, they had access to the tree of life where they would live forever.  But, as soon as they sinned, that knowledge of sin was overwhelming.  They were then seeking to hide from his presence, yet excusing their choice to disobey by blaming someone else.  We’ve been doing this ever since then.  Trying to cover our sins from everyone we can and when called out on it, excuse ourselves by placing the blame on someone else.