The up and down line in the diagram is photographic. It is almost cruelly self-revealing. It visualizes the average church member. It is like a costly picture cheaply framed or an exquisite garment illy fitted. One look tells you that something is wrong, and no matter how often you look, it never seems right. We know instinctively that the true Christian life could never be symbolized by a wavering line. Christianity, which is Christ-possessing, controlling, and using, must spell straightness and steadiness. It must be life on the spiritual plane. The life of the carnal Christian is not so.

It is a Life of Unceasing Conflict

Romans 7:22-23
“For I delight in the law of God after 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.”

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

One law “warring against” another law in the same personality; part of a man “serving” one law and part of him serving another—this is indeed the language of conflict. Two forces are absolutely contrary to each other, and each works to gain and control the entire personality. Two natures, the divine and the fleshly, are engaged in deadly warfare. The spiritual is sometimes ascending, and the believer enjoys a momentary joy, peace, and rest. The divine nature imparted to him at his rebirth is in control, and Christ in him is victorious. But the fleshly nature, which is always defiant to the authority and rule of God, rebels. Conflict ensues. The fleshly nature is again the master, and joy and peace are gone. Such is the miserable existence of the carnal Christian.

A friend told me a story of her six-year-old nephew, which tellingly illustrates this manner of living. Her nephew was often tempted to run away, and his mother was much distressed by it. One day, she told him she would have to punish him if he ran away again. Soon afterwards, the temptation came through a neighbor boy, and he yielded to it. Upon returning home, his mother said, “James, didn’t you remember that I said if you ran away again, I would punish you?” “Yes,” said James, “I remembered.” “Then why did you do it?” asked his mother. Little James replied, “It was this way, Mother. As I stood in the road thinking about it, Jesus pulled on one leg, the devil pulled on the other, and the devil pulled the harder!” The Lord Jesus pulling on one leg and Satan pulling on the other is the constant experience of the Christian, but yielding to the devil and giving him the victory over Christ is the wretched condition of the carnal Christian.

It is a Life of Repeated Defeat

Romans 7:15
“For that which I do I know not: for not what I would, that do I practice; but what I hate, that I do.”

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

As one reads Romans 7, one feels that the apostle Paul is writing someone’s spiritual biography. It was no doubt his own. But could it not have been yours and mine as well? It is the revelation of a true desire and an honest attempt to live a right and a holy life, but it is surcharged with the atmosphere of deadly defeat, a defeat so overpowering as to burst forth in that despairing cry for deliverance.

Romans 7:24
“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

Who among us has not uttered it? We have made countless resolutions at the dawn of a new day or of a new year regarding the things we would or would not do. But long before the twilight hour, our hearts had been heavy with a humiliating sense of failure. The things we steadfastly determined to do were left undone, and the things we solemnly resolved not to do were repeatedly done. Like evil spirits, the sin of commission and omission haunt our bedchamber and rob us even of the balm of sleep. Temper, anger, fretting, worry, murmuring, pride, selfishness, malice, worldliness, unfaithfulness, evil speaking, bitterness, jealousy, envy, quarreling, hatred, in fact “the old man’s” entire family of evil passions and desires may have worked havoc in one’s own personal life, and spoiled the day not only for one’s self, but for one’s family and friends and, most of all, have grieved God.

The trouble was not with the will, for it was very sincere in the decisions made at dawn and fully purposed to carry them out.

Romans 7:18
“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.”

But in the carnal Christian, Christ is compelled to share the control of life with another, and the result is both inner and outer maladjustment. Self-will, self-love, self-trust, and self-exaltation always spell envy, quarreling, bitterness, and division.

1 Corinthians 3:3
“For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?”

The state of the carnal Christian is one of failure and defeat, and it can never be anything else. If he wishes deliverance, he may have it, but it will be a deliverance out of Romans 7 into Romans 8.

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

Oh Lord, please help us see that the life You have called us to live is much higher than the life we are settling for.