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"For what 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" (Ro.7:15). There are two I's the apostle Paul mentions here, one concerning understanding and liking and the other concerning doing. The first I is his mind which agrees with the laws of God and likes to obey them. But he finds his body doing what he does not really want to (v.16). He discovers that his body is doing sin which his mind does not agree with (v.23). This is a lifelong conflict that occurs inside every born-again child of God. Some people try to ignore this reality within themselves and live in a doctrinal bubble that says that chapter seven is describing Paul's life before being born again, and that a true Christian lives only in chapter eight!

One of the many things God does when we are born again is to give us a new heart (Ezek.36:26,27). Now, in our heart and mind, we want to stop sinning. That is what God means when He says that we who were dead in sin now become dead to sin (Ro.6:10,11). But it does not happen that we automatically stop sinning. Our body that has lived so far in sin still continues to follow our old habits of the mind and body. That is why we now have to consciously prevent our body from going on in sin, and make sure that it is yielded to God to do what He wants (v.13).

This 'gap' between our mind and our body explains why we sometimes get shocked to find we have done something wrong even though we had determined not to do it ever again! It also explains when we point out to someone where he is wrong (because we can see his body doing it), he tells us that he is not like that at all! He is looking at his mind which is set on doing the right thing, and he has not yet understood that there is a gap between his mind and the body!

When we do something over and over again, it becomes a habit, and the next time we are faced with a similar situation, we repeat that habitual pattern without even thinking consciously about it. That is how we have accumulated a lot of sinful 'habits' in our life before we were born again. Now that we are born again, it takes time before new habits are formed that overwrite our old habits. This will happen when we consciously choose to deny ourselves whenever we are tempted to do wrong, and instead do the will of God (Ro.8:13). The Holy Spirit will help us to do this. Obviously, this can take place only to the extent that our mind has become aware of different areas of sin and choose to deny them. That is why spiritual growth takes time and keeps us occupied lifelong.

We can see how much we need to let the light of God shine into our heart and mind through the study of God's word (Ps.119:105). Our mind must also be set strongly against sinning—in our thoughts, intentions, speech or action. This is a battle which we must not relax from time to time, because we may rebuild the patterns we are trying to replace!

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