Lesson 3 – Indwelling Sin in Believers
By John Fast
In our first lesson we looked at the testimony of Scripture concerning the nature of mankind since their fall into sin and saw that the Bible unanimously declares man to be a sinner by nature, not by action. People are not sinners because they sin, but rather they sin because they are sinners. All of mankind since the fall are by nature sinners, and as a sinner, everything that man does, thinks, and plans is tainted by sin and is therefore corrupted by sin at its inception. A bad tree cannot bear good fruit (Mt 7:18). Since all are sinners by nature, all have sinned (Rm 3:23), and all are by nature objects of God’s wrath (Eph 2:3). Therefore, the greatest need of man is a new nature, which can only be accomplished by means of a new birth (Jn 3:3).
In our second lesson we examined the noetic effects of the fall, that is, the impact which sin has on the mind. Since the fall mankind has lost the ability to understand spiritual truth as spiritual truth. They have lost the ability to reason and think biblically, but not the responsibility to know, love, and obey God. This does not mean that an unbeliever is incapable of an intellectual knowledge of biblical doctrines, but rather that these truths have no transforming effect on the person. The fault is not in the truth, which is perfect, but in the mind blinded by sin. Until the mind is brought to the state where it can perceive the truth in all its beauty and glory, where its hearing and reading have a transforming power, where the affections are drawn to God and His word, and the power of self and sensual desires are subdued, the mind remains blinded to the truth. The only thing that will remove this blindness is a divine power, and this is regeneration, or the new birth.
No unregenerate person is any more capable of spiritual understanding than a blind man is of perceiving colors. A blind man may have his own ideas about colors. He may intellectually understand the difference between primary and secondary colors, the effects of mixing different colors, and all the laws which regulate the refraction of light into its various colors, and teach these things to others, just as well as those with perfect sight. In the same way, an unregenerate person may be able to deliver doctrinally accurate sermons, teach on all the finer points of theology, and yet not perceive one glimpse of the glory and power of the truth with which he is intellectually knowledgeable. The Bible declares all unregenerate people to be destitute of the true knowledge of God, they are darkened in their understanding (Rm 1:21; Eph 4:18). The world in all its religions and wisdom has never come to know the true God aright (1Cor 1:21). When people are left unchanged by the truth known, it must be because they do not know it as they should, and they cannot understand truth in its true nature until they are regenerated (1Cor 2:14).
In this our third study we are going to begin examining in detail the doctrine of indwelling sin in believers and the implications of this doctrine. Sadly, in its attempt to boost self-esteem and increase attendance, and because it has embraced the philosophies of secular psychology and the world’s wisdom and values, the church has neglected this doctrine to the extent, that in most places, it is one of the sound doctrines which people will no longer endure (2 Tm 4:3). But a clear understanding of this truth is essential for our own spiritual growth, our own wisdom, and own obedience. The importance of an accurate acquaintance with the power of indwelling sin in believers to motivate us to watchfulness, diligence, and perseverance, to faith and prayer, to call us to repentance, humility, self-denial, and self-abasement, will become obvious in the course of this and following studies.
It is this doctrine of indwelling sin in believers which the Apostle Paul takes up in the seventh chapter of his letter to the church in Rome. This is not, as many have contended, Paul’s description of himself in an unconverted state while he was trying to achieve a righteousness of his own by means of the law. That this is the struggle of a regenerate, and not unregenerate, heart is not the purpose of this study, so we will take for granted what may be easily proved that this is the wrestling of an eminent Christian with the remainders of indwelling sin in himself. Paul represents indwelling sin in terms of a “law”; “I find then this principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good” (Rm 7:21).
We can make four observations from this verse. First is the name, or title, which Paul gives to indwelling sin. What the apostle labels in this verse as a “principle” is what in the previous verse he identified as “sin which dwells in me” (Rm 7:20). The Greek word translated “principle” is nomos – a law, a rule, or a principle. It denotes something that is established and inviolable. Second, we see how he discovered this law; he found it. The word translated “I find”, eurisko, is in the present tense, indicating a continuous action, and means “to discover, to find to be, to learn by experience”. Paul was continuously finding this law, this principle of indwelling sin to be true in himself. Third, we see his disposition and the desire of his heart while he was discovering this law, “the one who wishes to do good”. The word translated “wishes” is also in the present tense, and means, “to be willing, desirous, wishing”. Fourth, the nature of this law is such that it “is present in me”; continuously, constantly there within. At no time was Paul free from the influence of this law of indwelling sin. Let’s examine these four observations more closely.
First, Paul dubs indwelling sin a “law, a rule, a principle”. The word “law” can be taken in one of two ways. It can be understood to refer to a set of rules and regulations by which people are to govern their lives; a list of do’s and don’ts which have corresponding rewards or penalties attached. Such are the Ten Commandments. For a Christian, God’s law is not a means of salvation, but a rule of life after salvation (Jn 14:15; 1 Jn 5:1-3). A consequence of true regeneration is God writes His law on the heart of those to whom He gives a new birth (Jer 31:33). As such God’s law becomes the dominant regulative and directing influence of a Christian’s heart, mind, will, and affections.
The word “law” can also be understood in terms of a principle that inclines or moves someone or something toward an action in keeping with its nature. When an object is dropped it is inclined to fall by the law of gravity. For a stone to float instead of fall or sink would be against this law. Bears are inclined to hibernate and birds are moved to migrate by an inward law or principle, and not to do so would be contrary to their nature. It is in this sense that Paul calls indwelling sin a “law”, just as in Romans 8:2 he calls “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” a law or principle that inclines and moves a person toward an action. It is this principle of life in Christ Jesus which inclined and moved Paul to be desirous of doing good, and what he also calls “the law of my mind” (Rm 7:23). In a Christian there are two competing principles vying for dominance. There is the law of indwelling sin which is a powerful and effective principle that is inclining and moving towards actions that are in keeping with its nature.
So powerful is this principle of indwelling sin, Paul states that it is “making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members” (Rm 7:23). To make someone a prisoner speaks of great power and influence. When unbelievers demand the right to sin and indulge their lusts, this is not freedom, but instead they show that they are enslaved to the sin which dwells in them (Rm 6:17, 18). Today, we have given this enslavement to sin the respectable name of “addiction” and have turned it into a disease for which we are not responsible. Instead of identifying it for what it is – sin which needs to be repented of and forsaken – it is labeled a disease or disorder, or even celebrated as a virtue, thereby further enslaving the person in their sin. Some people may exchange one sin for another that is less obvious or more respectable, but they still remain enslaved to their indwelling sin. In a true Christian, contending with this principle of indwelling sin is the principle “of life in Christ Jesus”, the indwelling Holy Spirit, which inclines and moves to actions that are in keeping with its nature. The principle of indwelling sin wages war against the principle of indwelling grace (Rm 7:23); the flesh wars against the Spirit (Gal 5:16, 17).
Even in believers there is this powerful principle of indwelling sin which is constantly inclining and moving the heart, mind, will, and affections toward what is sinful and evil. It is a law within them, but not a law over them. They are a prisoner of the principle of indwelling sin, not a servant of it. The old, fallen, sinful nature is not dead or destroyed, but it is weakened and supplanted as the dominant motivating principle. Like a toppled dictator, it may be deposed from its throne, but it never stops trying to regain its dominance. It is a principle which the believer is constantly striving to resist, escape from, and kill.
This is what separates the true from the false Christian. The unbeliever is under the dominion of the law of indwelling sin, it is the ruling and overriding principle in all they do and think in every moral action (Rm 8:6-8). All their thoughts, desires, and actions are governed by this principle of indwelling sin. They are its servant, not its prisoner. They do not feel the tension and the warfare between the old and new nature because they do not have a new nature. Where the power and influence of indwelling sin is least felt, there it is the most powerful and holds the most sway.
Secondly, Paul describes how he encountered this law in himself, “I find then…” (Rm 7:21). Paul may have been aware of this law before he found it. He may have been taught about it in the rabbinic school of Gamaliel (Ac 22:3). He may have been convinced intellectually that such a law existed. But it is one thing to be told that such a law exists and to know of its existence in theory, and something else altogether to find by constant experience the reality of this law’s power and influence. It is one thing to know in theory its power and influence, and another to feel it. Until someone feels the reality of indwelling sin in themselves they have never found it.
Only those who resist its power and influence feel it. Only those who swim against a current feel its force, while those who simply float along are oblivious to it. They may know the current exists in theory, but they have no idea of its reality, so instead they are controlled by it. The sin which dominates their life is given respectable names, turned into a virtue, labeled a disease, disorder, and addiction, and even celebrated. People are gradually desensitized to the sinfulness of sin to the point they will no longer tolerate having their sin exposed for what it is (Jn 3:20), “Their deeds will not allow them to return to their God, for a spirit of harlotry is within them, and they do not know the Lord” (Hos 5:4). Their sin is their idol.
By this we know that very few who profess to be Christians have ever found this principle in themselves, but instead are offended at the very suggestion that such a principle exists within them. They see no reason why God should be angry with them. They respond like those to whom the prophet Jeremiah preached, “For what reason has the Lord declared all this great calamity against us? And what is our iniquity, or what is our sin which we have committed against the Lord our God” (Jer 16:10)? If those who profess to be Christians were sensible of this principle within them we would not see so much fruit of it and so little contending against it. Instead of resisting the influences of indwelling sin, the vast majority of professing Christendom is being swept along in its current.
It is one thing to be taught something from God’s word, to give assent to it as truth, and another to know and find it to be true in ourselves. Divine truth can never be truly and fully known until it is known experimentally in the heart. Faith is not faith until it is applied and acted on. The effect which the truths of God’s word have on the heart and life are the only evidence that those truths have been truly and spiritually understood in the mind. A theoretical faith and knowledge is the faith and knowledge of demons (Jm 2:19). Only believers find this principle of indwelling sin in themselves because they alone strive and contend against its power and influence. Those who do not find and feel its power are controlled by its influence.
Third, we see the habitual inclination of Paul’s heart and desires when he discovers this law, “the one who wishes to do good”. This is the consistent and continuous penchant of the believer’s will; to live a life characterized by good, with “good” being defined as that which is in keeping with God’s revealed will. This is what the Apostle John defined as “practicing righteousness”, “…the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous” (1Jn 3:7), as opposed to the unbeliever who “practices sin”, “No one who is born of God practices sin,” (1 Jn 3:9). This is why both are “obvious”, “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious;” (1Jn 3:10).
When the believer sins it is against his will and his habitual desire to do good, “For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate….But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me” (Rm 7:15, 20). Because he possesses a new nature and the Holy Spirit holds sovereignty over his life, the believer’s will is habitually set on doing what is morally and spiritually good as defined by God and His law, in spite of this indwelling law of sin which is contrary to good. “The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth what is evil” (Mt 12:25).
This is what distinguishes a believer at his worst from an unbeliever at his best. In the unbeliever the will and desire to sin is never taken away, it is never supplanted by a desire to do good for the sake of doing good, and because of a desire to be pleasing to God. Instead, “The soul of the wicked desires evil” (Pv 21:10), their will is still under the power and dominion of indwelling sin.
Any avoidance an unbeliever has of evil is not from a will to do good, or from any aversion to sin as sin, but to avoid the consequence of the evil. This is why people will go to such great lengths to try and avoid the consequences of sin without having to give up the sin they love, even to the point of murdering their own offspring. Any opposition they make to sin is not from a desire to do good, but from their background, education, conscience, or sin’s impact on their life. The will of sinning is never abated. Remove all restraints and consequences for sin and they would willfully sin relentlessly.
To choose good because it is spiritually and morally good is not the inclination of an unbeliever’s will. They have no desire to choose that which is spiritually and morally good because it would be contrary to their nature. If they choose good it is not because it is good in itself, but because they desire some end to which they think the good may lead. They want some fringe benefit which they think will result from the good (Jn 6:26), or they want to avoid an evil which might result from the neglect of good, thereby hoping to avoid evil by being “good”. For someone to claim they have a will to do good as defined by God’s word, and yet willingly neglect the good which God requires, is a false and phony will. This disposition and will to do that which is spiritually and morally good can only be said to be in those whose life gives evidence of it by their fruits. A good tree bears good fruit, while others will “profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him,” (Tit 1:16).
Fourthly, Paul describes the nature of this law; it “is present in me”, the one who wishes to do good. It has a constant residence in the believer whose will is also habitually inclined to that which is good. It is always there, acting as a contrary and opposing principle to the will to do good. Whenever the will of a believer is inclined toward any act of obedience toward God, both in the desire for the good and in its actual doing of the good, the law of indwelling sin is present to oppose both the desire for and the actual accomplishment of the good.
This is the biblical description of a Christian; he/she is both a sinner and a saint. These are the two opposing principles that reside in every believer; there is the law of indwelling sin which sets itself to oppose the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. On the one hand there is the law of sin in our members, and on the other there is the “law of my mind” which desires to obey the word of God. Both their actions and influences are expressed in this one statement, “evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good” (Rm 7:21).
All our obedience as Christians depends on knowing these principles and their actions and influences. Herein lies the root of all our holiness and sin, our joy and our sorrow, our ability to glorify God rather than gratify the flesh (Gal 5:17). It requires wisdom to guide and manage our hearts, to know ourselves, and to recognize which of these two laws is leading and guiding us. We are either walking by the Spirit, or by the flesh, “for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live (Rm 8:13).
There is nothing which most people are more ignorant of than the workings of their own heart. It was for good reason that Solomon wrote, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life” (Pv 4:23). Most do not know themselves. They do not know they have a principle within them that is hostile toward all that is God (Rm 8:7). They are insensible to the enmity they have toward God and His word. They object to being told they naturally hate God and have an inbred hostility to God. They declare they are not conscious of this enmity in themselves, so they think it is not there, but still they cannot altogether disguise their aversion to the truths of God’s word, their dislike to the spiritual worship of God, and their preference for a carnal worship that panders to the flesh, and this is nothing else but enmity against God. They are ignorant of this enmity within them because they do not know or understand the ways and things wherein this enmity fundamentally consists and expresses itself.
Very few study to know their own hearts as they should. Most think they are basically good because this is what they have been told. They live as though they had no principle of evil within them. They are oblivious to the workings of this law, and as a result are swept away in its current. They think they will just stroll into heaven. It is ignorance of this principle of indwelling sin that is the ruin of so many and the source of all the apostasies today. This adversary is in us, always working, and it works by deceit (Hb 3:13). The Christian life requires watchfulness and diligence over our own hearts.
We live in dark and deceitful times when falsehood and false teaching abound. Everyday more and more people are being deceived by the deceitfulness of indwelling sin and by those who are under its dominion. If you think you are immune from sin’s deceit, it has already worked its deception in you. If we are to escape the temptations and corruptions of the times in which we live; if we are to be preserved from falling into one of the many apostasies and false gospels that have infiltrated and seduced most of the professing church today, we must take seriously this principle of indwelling sin which is the source of all these and the innumerable other evils which characterize the days in which we live.
In our next study we will delve into the power which indwelling sin exerts by virtue of it being a law.