Concerning the conflict continually going on between the old and new natures in the believer, St. Paul says:
βFor the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye wouldβ (Gal. 5:17).
Regarding this conflict in his own personal experience, he writes:
βFor the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my membersβ (Rom. 7:19,22,23).
It has been taught by some that we need not experience this continual strife between the old nature and the new. They say: βGet out of the 7th of Romans into the 8th.β
We would remind such that the Apostle Paul wrote Romans 7 and Romans 8 at the same sitting; that in the original language the letter goes right on without interruption β without even a chapter division.
Thus the same apostle who exclaims: βThere is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesusβ (Rom. 8:1) refers in the same letter, only a few sentences before, and in the present tense, to βthe law of sin whichΒ isΒ in my members,β and freely acknowledges the present operation of that law in his members, as we have seen above.
How then shall we get out of the 7th of Romans into the 8th? Paul experienced both at the same time, and so do we, for while we are free from the condemnation of sin, sin itself nevertheless continues to work within us, and we must constantly βmortify the deeds of the bodyβ (Rom. 8:13). source
