It was because of God’s great love for us that He sent His Son Jesus to the Cross according to His eternal plan that was from “before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:3-6). Jesus was born in human flesh to enable Him to die and redeem us from the Power of “Sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3). He simultaneously liberates believers from the “ordinances” of “the Law” (Eph. 2:15), while paying for our sins (Rom. 5:6-10).

If we’ve believed to receive Jesus’s Cross-work on our behalf we immediately also receive His “Spirit of life” into our human “spirit of man.” (Zechariah 12:1, 1Cor 6:17)

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: ⁴ According as he [God the Father] hath chosen us In Him [in Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: ⁵ Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, ⁶ To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he [God] hath made us accepted In The Beloved [Christ Jesus].” (Ephesians 1:3-6 (KJV)
“[Jesus] Having abolished in his flesh the enmity [the alienation and contention], even [that is by] the law of commandments contained in ordinances…” (Ephesians 2:15 (KJV)
“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁸  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from [God’s] wrath through him. ¹⁰ For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the [bodily] death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved [Gk. sozo, completed] by his life.” Romans 5:6, 8-10 (KJV)

Though there are the Two ‘natures’ in the believer, our being subject to Satan’s Sin-spirit has been ‘broken’ in that our “Old Man (Adamic, nature)” died with Christ at the cross, making us free from the Dominion of Sin.

“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into [placed in union with] his death? Romans 6:3 (KJV) 

“Knowing this, that our Old Man Is Crucified with Him, (so) that the body of sin might be destroyed (Gk. kartargeo, ‘rendered powerless’), (so) that henceforth we should not serve Sin [the Sin nature in our flesh]. ⁷ For HE THAT IS DEAD is FREED FROM SIN [From Sin’s Dominion].” (Rom. 6:6-7)

Having received Christ’s “Spirit of life” into us He thereby becomes the new ‘operator’ in our life, and we are as His co-operator.

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh [body] I live by the faith of the Son of God [in my spirit], who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
“For what man knoweth the things of a man, save The Spirit Of Man which Is In Him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. ¹² Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, But the Spirit Which Is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” (1 Cor. 2:11-12)

¹⁶ For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But We Have The Mind Of Christ.” (1 Cor. 2:16)

Christ’s “Spirit of life” is forever joined to our “spirit.” “… he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” (1 Cor. 6:17) Our two spirits became forever “one spirit,” so loss of our salvation is impossible!

Now, due to ‘our co-death with Christ’ (Rom. 6:3, 6-7 above), Satan’s Sin spirit is now Powerless and Isolated In Our Flesh. (cf. Rom. 6:7), We understand that ‘the tempter’s’ Sin-nature is and will still be in our flesh … until we exchange these vile ‘sin-laden’ bodies for our new, sinless, glorified, resurrection bodies at the Rapture.

“For our conversation [our citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: ²¹ Who Shall Change Our Vile Body, That It May Be Fashioned Like Unto His Glorious [Resurrection] Body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” (Philippians 3:20-21 (KJV)

Satan today, as “the accuser of the brethren,” will still persist in lying to us… giving us ‘HIS Evil Thoughts’ and then leaves us to assume they are ‘our evil thoughts’... in order to accuse and ‘condemn us.’ He thereby tries to place a wedge between us and God. Of course, we as knowledgeable Christians should know of his tricks and the fact that;

1) that all our sins (past, present and future) were paid for 2,000 years ago by Christ’s Cross-work for us, and

2) that “nothing can separate us from the love of God” (cf. Rom. 8:35).

So, all believers need to study and know “the word of truth” to enable them to stand tall in the face of Satan’s accusation. We live by and Trust in the Truth of Jesus Christ’s death and life… as our death to Sin and as our New Life being our real and eternal life.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)

Believing Satan’s lies is the root of all sin that may persist in our Christian lives... tempting us to act on our own rather than living by trusting Christ to lead us. John quotes Jesus telling the Pharisees the devil is the murderer and the liar from the beginning.

“Ye [religious Pharisees] are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44)

It’s very important to know that we are not able to successfully operate our lives successfully when we chose to live independent of Christ in us. Our impulses may feel like they are of “us” and seem like its “us” deciding and doing, but it’s never “just us” who is in action. We have never been without a guiding nature. You see, before we received Christ as our life, we only had the Sin nature prompting us tempered by what little we may have known of God from religion. We’ve never been under self-rule alone. And so it is today as Christians, we may be “prompted by Sin in the flesh” (which has no power over us except temptation) or we can choose to believe “the word of God” to live by that truth … being bolstered by “the power of Christ” in us as the new us.

I should trust that I am in and ‘one with Christ, that He lives His life through me… as I trust in him (Col. 1:27). If I think I have power as an ‘Independent’ Self, then Satan reigns to misuse me in body and soul. We have one function, that is to continually trusting in who we will be ‘operated by’; either Christ or my helpless self under the influence of Sin!

Paul wrote concerning the ongoing conflict between the Old and New natures in the believer; it will be so … as long as we live in these “bodies of the sins of the flesh.” (Col. 2:11) The tempter will always be with us while we live in this flesh body... but Sin has no power over us dead people, who have died with Christ

“For he that is dead is freed from sin [sin’s power]. Romans 6:7 (KJV)

^“[Yet] the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: [the flesh trying] so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” (Galatians 5:17)

“For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” (Romans 7:19)

“For I delight in the law of God after the inward [soul] man: ²³ But I see another law in my [flesh body] members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” (Romans 7:22-23 (KJV)

It has foolishly been taught by some that we need not experience this continual strife between the old nature and the new natures. The answer they say: “Get out of Romans 7 [above] and into Romans 8.” I 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 — without even a chapter division.

Thus, the same apostle who exclaims: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1) refers in the same letter, only a few sentences before, and in the present tense, to “the law of sin which is in my members,” so Paul acknowledges the present operation of that “law of sin” in his members, as we have seen above. Yes, we may at times still sin, but we will never be condemned by God since those sins were all paid for by Christ at the Cross.

So, how then shall we get out of the Romans 7 and into Romans 8? Paul experienced both at the same time, and so do we. The fact is that while we are free from the condemnation of sin, sin itself nevertheless continues to work within us, and we must constantly “mortify [put to death] the Deeds of the body.”

“For if ye [believers] live after the flesh, ye shall die [separate yourselves spiritually from God]: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live [enjoy His life].” (Rom.8:13)

Today, for believers, the battleground is in the mind, so Paul writes:

“For they that are after [live according to] the flesh do mind [have their mind set upon] the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the [mind] things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to be carnally [fleshly] minded is death [deadly to our soul’s peace and rest]; but to be spiritually minded is [Christ’s] Life and Peace.” (Rom. 8:5-6)

Knowing this we can understand Paul’s further words of admonishment to guide us.

“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: [the flesh of “self” trying] so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” (Galatians 5:17)

“This I say then, Walk [in accord with] in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” (Gal 5:16)

“If we live [since we have life] in the Spirit, let us also walk [in accord with] the Spirit.” (Gal. 5:25)