The War Within Us
Keith McFarren
July 5, 2026
Romans 7:15-25a
    We live in an age
of self-fulfillment.  In fact,
self-fulfillment has pretty much become the law of the land.
   In Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs, self-fulfillment sits at the very top.  Our self-fulfillment represents the desire to
do and become the most that one can do and become.
    It is the pursuit
of a “good human life” causing us to move beyond our basic survival and social
needs to focus on our own personal growth, our own creativity and living life
in such a way that we can focus on our own self-expression through
self-destructive ways like partying, alcohol, sex and drugs.
    There are people
all over who are living a lifestyle that is totally out of control; they are
living a destructive lifestyle, destructive lifestyles that make them the
victims of their own desires and they don’t know how to deal with it.
    Paul found himself
with the same problem.  He sensed a
raging war deep down within himself, a battle between good and evil; a battle
between God’s will for his life and the evil of satan that kept pulling him in
the opposite direction.  
    I think it would
be safe to say that at some time or another, we have all been a part of that
same battle…at some time or another we’ve all felt the same strong pull that
comes from our own sinful human nature, the strong pull that eventually
overwhelms us and  causes us to go in the
direction that we know is wrong.
    Life is a lot like
a battlefield.  Over here, on the right
flank, or on the right side, we see God’s law calling us into trust and
obedience.  God’s law is the law that
reflects God’s character…a character that is pure and righteous and holy.  God’s law allows us to understand how he
wants us to live our lives and what his expectations are for our lives.  
    Paul was a guy who
had experienced God’s transforming power in his life and because of this life
changing transformation he now wanted nothing more than to be obedient to God’s
will and fulfill God’s purpose for his life.
But at the same time, there was something else at work deep within him,
just as it is at work deep within us.
    On the opposite
side of the battle field, over here on the left flank, or the left side, we see
satan and we see the seductive power of sin, a power that is continually
calling each of us toward a life of self-destruction.
    Well, let me take
that back because that’s not exactly true.
It’s not true because satan doesn’t always make himself fully known to
us.  That’s because evil isn’t always
bold, and forthright and honest.  I mean,
Satan never comes to us with an open outright invitation to disobey God and
ruin our lives.  
    Instead, he comes
to quietly; he comes to us deceptively.
He comes undercover or sometimes disguised as a moment of “pleasure” or
a moment of “enjoyment” or as a way of perhaps cheating or taking advantage of
someone; he comes to us in a moment in a better yet, “no one will ever know
what I’m doing.”  
    But these moments
of wrongful pleasure or enjoyment, these moments of our cheating or taking
advantage of others because of our wrongful actions really do hurt someone and
no matter how quietly or how quickly our sin takes place, there is always
someone that knows.  These moments of
shame hurt us…and no matter how quietly or discreet we are…God always knows.
    We’ve all been on
that battlefield in various degrees, haven’t we.  Wanting to do what is right, but time and
time again finding ourselves lured to the other side of the battlefield, giving
in to certain temptations, temptations that cause us to cut corners,
temptations that cause us to grab all the gusto we can or temptations that
cause us to cheat and take advantage of someone…temptations that find us always
giving in to what we know is wrong…temptations that find us giving in to what
we know is far less than what God expects from us.  
    Paul knows what’s
going on and he isn’t very happy with himself.
He’s having a bad day…a bad day to end all bad days.  “Wretched man that I am,” he shouts out.  “Nothing good dwells within me.”  
    Paul knows what’s
going on.  This isn’t just about a
momentary lapse in judgment or something that happens every so often.  To Paul, this is an “all the time”
thing.  This is how he is.  This is what he has become.  This is the consequence of living in the
world as it is now rather than living in the world the way it was supposed to
be.
    Paul, as good as
he has tried to be, has become this way because of sin running rampant.  Sin is a universal condition.  It’s not just you or me or some of us.  It’s corporate.  It’s national.  It’s worldwide.  It’s all over the place!  
    This is about
admitting, Paul says, as he throws his arms up in the air that there is nothing
good in any of us.  And then, as he slams
his fists down on the table in frustration, he says that we’re all rotten to
the core.
    Paul’s emotional
approach to sin and his way of going about getting us to repent and change our
ways may have worked years ago.  The
bible thumping and the screaming and shouting and throwing ourselves around may
have worked back in the old days.  It may
have worked back when the idea was to preach hell, fire and brimstone and to
scare people into their faith, back when the idea was to shame people into
changing their lives by responding to an altar call during a tent revival.  
    But that was
then…and this is now.  Things have
changed over the years and gotten a little more sophisticated now.  Today, when it comes to changing our lives
and solving our problems we turn to self-help books and take on-line classes on
goal-setting and strategic planning.
This is the 21st century; we’re into things like behavior modification,
we’re into raising our self-esteem and awareness training.  We rely on self-help books…the kind of books
that tell us how to be a better person with a positive attitude  in just five days…the kind that tells us how
to transform our lives and our future…all for the better in seven days or less.

    Paul is baring his
very soul for us; and he’s telling us of an experience, a war, if you will,
that lies in the heart of each of us.  He
knew what was right and he wanted to do the right thing; and yet, somehow, he
could never do it.  He knew what was
wrong and the last thing he wanted was to do it; and yet, somehow, someway, he
did it anyway.
    It was like he had
a split personality.  It was as if he was
two different people inside of one body and he was being pulled in two
different directions.  He was haunted by
this feeling of frustration - a feeling of frustration created by his ability
to see what was good and his inability to do it…and at the same time he was
haunted by his ability to recognize what was wrong and his inability to keep
from doing it.
    If we know the
right thing to do and then do it, life would be simple.  But knowing something is right or correct
doesn’t always allow us to do it.  But
that’s the way it is in life.  
    A lot of times on
Saturday or Sunday afternoon when there isn’t much on TV we watch golf.  It’s peaceful and the scenery is usually
beautiful.  But I’ve also learned a lot
about golf just by watching it.  A
birdie, a par, an eagle and a bogie.  I
know a lot about golf, but that’s far from saying that I know how to physically
play it.
    I know a lot about
baseball and football.  I pretty much
know all the rules and regulations and even some of the maneuvering that goes
along with it during the game.  But
knowing what I know doesn’t allow me to go out and slam dunk a basketball or
outrun a defensive safety and catch a 50 yard touchdown pass.  
    Just because you
know what you ought to be doing or just because you know what you want to be
doing doesn’t mean that you can do it.
It’s part of the spiritual war that going on within us.  It’s part of the human situation in that we
know what is right but it doesn’t make any difference…because we still do
wrong.
    Paul knew exactly
what was wrong…but he was unable to make it right.  He was like a doctor that could make the
perfect diagnosis…but he was powerless to prescribe a cure.  What we need, Paul says, is someone who not
only knows what is wrong with us but someone who can also right that
wrong.  
    What we have
needed and what we will always need is a savior!  We need someone who can rescue us not just
from the world around us but rescue us from ourselves as well.  
    What we need is
someone who knows what it’s like to face satan’s temptations.  What we need is someone who can teach us and
show us what needs to be done to look satan in the eye and tell him no.  
    What we need is
someone who won’t criticize us or find fault with us, but instead help us to
live and to lead the life that God so desperately wants us to live.  What we need is Jesus…someone who’s been
tempted and knows how to say “No!”
    One commentator
likens Paul’s view of sin to a disease called Shingles, a viral infection that
is continually in our bodies - and every now and then - breaks out in a rash
that can cause a tremendous amount of pain that lasts for a very long
time.  And even when the rash and the
pain eventually goes away…the virus is still there within us.  
    Even when we’re
not engaged in sinful acts, sin still dwells within us.  And as long as sin dwells within us…the war
within us continues on.  And what Paul is
telling us this morning is that no one is strong enough to win the battle
within us on their own.  It’s going to
take some help…and that help comes to us in Jesus.
    “Who will rescue
me?”  That’s the key passage today.  “Who will rescue me…the wretched person that
I am.”  In a world without hope all that
exists is a cry of utter despair.  
    But for those who
know Jesus, the cry of despair becomes a cry of hope… and the cry of hope
becomes a statement of our  faith.  “Who will rescue me?”  The Lord of life will.  Jesus will.
    That’s the promise
for today…the promise for forever.  The
promise for today…and the promise forever…is that sin, this lack of will power
that dwells in each of us, can be overcome by the Spirit of God.  We can all be changed.  We can all be transformed from the inside
out.
    When we finally
decide that we alone cannot win the war within us, when we finally surrender
and say we can’t live our life on our own, it is then and only then that we
will find new strength.  
    It is then we will
find a spiritual support network.  It is
then we will find a new possibility for life.
It is then that we’ll find that the sun is still shining even when the
dark clouds of the world around us roll in and envelope us.
    When we give way
to the Spirit of God, we will find hope instead of despair.  We will find joy instead of shame.  We will find the glory of God in us and all
around us and we will win the war against evil!