THE BATTLE WITHIN

The oft-quoted phrase 'We have met the enemy, and he is us' was published by Walt Kelly in his Pogo comic strip dated, April 22, 1971. (having to do with man's negative impact on the environment)

It unwittingly describes the 'battle within' every Christian believer. The 'sin nature' we inherited from Adam stubbornly camps in our mortal bodies until we're home. 

We know Paul as a devoted servant of God. His profound impact was 'second to none' in Biblical history, yet he penned this heartrending confession to the early church: For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is ... in my flesh. For the willingness to do good is present in me, but the doing of good is not. For the good that I want to do, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want to do, I am no longer the one doing it, but the sin nature which lives in me. (Romans 7:18-20)

This great Apostle described that inner conflict as an ongoing war he is losing day by day ... I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 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 7:21-23)

No matter how long you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you'll never be completely free from the pull of sin. Guilt and shame come with every faltering step and we, like Paul, cry out in despair ... O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Romans 7:24)

The Answer: 

Jesus ... who is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)

Jesus ... I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6)

Jesus ... the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

While we wait for that blessed day, the Bible gives us this admonition ... Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. (Galatians 5:16-17)

We have met the enemy, and he is us. But ... one day very soon, the 'battle within' will be over forever. 

Hang in there, pilgrim.