“But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him; for Yahweh your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into your hand, as it is today” (Deut. 2:30).
Sin in the flesh is obstinate, firmly set against God. We can’t reform it. It can’t be fixed. No negotiating is possible. Only a new creation makes it possible for a greater power to overcome it.
The law of sin in you cannot accept God. It cannot accept a spiritual solution. It only considers what is in the body, only your own weak built-in resources. Sin will resist the Spirit at all times. It cannot please God. It cannot believe God. Faith in Jesus is foreign to sin in us. Every time you look to yourself for solutions to a sin problem you are letting sin have the upper hand. This is the law of sin in you. Its principles are ironclad. Tenacious.
When the Spirit shows you your obstinate faith in yourself, know that faith in Jesus is always the antidote. No substitute for Jesus the Redeemer exists. Sin in you will always look to self until you cry with the apostle Paul, “Oh wretched soul that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
Your life of slavery in Egypt trained you to trust in yourself. It has only hardened your sin processes into solid habits. Turning from self to Jesus is part of the battle. The practices you have always relied on to get ahead in this world are of no effect against sin, no help to furthering your enjoyment of eternal life.
Faith in Jesus breaks the hold of sin. Trusting Jesus is the greater law that frees you from the law of sin and death, as an airplane soars in spite of the law of gravity. In response to your initial faith in Jesus, you were placed in Him and a new law operates whenever that faith is active, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The law of airplane dynamics overcomes the law of gravity to break free of its grip. So does life in Christ. Sin in the flesh can’t be fixed, only died to. Let it go.
