You’ve made the commitment. You believe that your “old self” was crucified with Christ. So why, on a random Tuesday, do you still feel that intense, magnetic pull toward the very things you’re trying to leave behind?
The Residual Echo
In Romans 7, Paul describes a technical reality: even though your “spirit” is made new, sin is still “lodged” in the physical members of your body—the flesh.
“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.” (Romans 7:23)
Think of it like a habit-loop burned into your nervous system. Your spirit has been liberated, but your body still carries the “muscle memory” of your old life. The “tug” isn’t the real you; it’s a ghost in the machine.
The Strategy: Reckon and Walk
To defeat the draw, you have to stop fighting the feeling and start changing your accounting.
- Reckon (The Math): Romans 6 tells you to “reckon” yourself dead to sin. This isn’t “faking it until you make it.” It’s a legal fact. When the urge hits, you don’t say, “I’m trying not to do this.” You say, “That impulse is talking to a dead man. I don’t owe it a response.”
- Starve the Flesh: Romans 8:13 says to “mortify” (deaden) the deeds of the body through the Spirit. You don’t negotiate with the tug; you starve it by shifting your focus to the Spirit’s power within you.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1)
You aren’t a bad person for feeling the tug; you’re a soldier in a body that’s still catching up to your soul. Stop identifying with the impulse, and start identifying with the Victory.
Here’s a prayer exercise I’ve discovered to be a blessing:
Eugene Peterson applies years of experience and pastoral training to capture the essence of Psalm 91 in the Message Bible and it has been very encouraging today — take a moment to absorb it.
Patrikin - Kinship through The Father 