{"id":1709,"date":"2010-05-13T18:13:12","date_gmt":"2010-05-14T00:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1709"},"modified":"2010-05-13T18:13:12","modified_gmt":"2010-05-14T00:13:12","slug":"romans-723-captured-then-confessed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-723-captured-then-confessed\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 7:23 – Captured, Then Confessed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Romans 7:23<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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 members.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Because of the battle within us, we become captured by our sin nature, but confession sets us free.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMembers<\/span>\u201d is from a Greek word we have seen before. It is melos<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201ca limb or other part of the body.\u201d<\/p>\n

The word translated \u201cwarring against<\/span>\u201d is antistrateuomai<\/span><\/em>, which is a compound word made up of anti<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cagainst\u201d and strateuomai<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cto make war against a specific enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBringing me into captivity<\/span>\u201d is from <\/span>aichmalotidz\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cto be taken away as a captive and made a prisoner of war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

In verse 21 Paul said that he perceives an unwritten law that brings out evil in him whenever he is determined to do what is right. In verse 22 he said there is another law that he delights in: the Law of God. These are the two forces that are warring within him and in all of us. As we saw in the previous verse, these two forces are the \u201cinner man\u201d (the intellect of man) and the \u201cold man\u201d (the sin nature).<\/p>\n

He now goes back to referring to these two opposing forces as laws, calling them the \u201claw of my mind\u201d (the intellect) and the \u201claw of sin\u201d (the sin nature). He aptly describes the conflict that occurs between these two as warfare. And, you will notice that Paul is astute enough to recognize that this is a warfare that is going on within his body. The two opposing forces have taken up residence in his (and our) physical body. These two opposing forces, these two laws, are at war specifically against each other and the battlefield is within our body.<\/p>\n

He also recognizes that the law of sin is taking him captive and making him a prisoner of war. Hence, Paul is telling us that as the law of his mind, which delights in the Law of God (that is, obedience to God), and the law of sin (the sin nature) clash, the sin nature captures him, leads him away as a captive, and makes him a prisoner of war. In other words, his sin nature gains dominion over him.<\/p>\n

I believe that this completely describes the battle that every Christian faces daily. We want to be obedient to God, we are determined to be obedient to our Heavenly Father and to please Him. But instead, we find ourselves succumbing to \u201cthe sin which so easily ensnares<\/span> us<\/span><\/em>\u201d as Hebrews 12:1<\/span><\/strong> calls it.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know about you, but I find that I get almost angry with myself knowing what I should do and, instead, doing what I know I shouldn\u2019t do. As hard as I try I can\u2019t overcome this enemy and it sometimes makes me feel guilty! Thank goodness for confession.<\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Let us give thanks to God that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all<\/strong> sin! Though \u201cour sins are like scarlet,\u201d His blood washes them away completely so that we appear to God \u201cas white as snow.\u201d And we get that cleansing through confession, daily, hourly, minute-by-minute confession. For He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us \u2013 every time!<\/p>\n

Now that\u2019s grace!<\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2010 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 7:23 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 members. Truth to Learn Because of the battle within us, we become captured by our sin nature, but confession sets us free. Behind the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[860,861,862,504,863,751,864,865],"class_list":["post-1709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aichmalotidzo","tag-antistrateuomai","tag-captivity","tag-law","tag-melos","tag-members","tag-mind","tag-warring"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-rz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}