To begin, then, let me simply set forth a few lines from John Owen as he is quoted in Shedd. Here is the first, “This remaining corruption,” Owen asserts, “is sin in the heart with a constant habitual propensity unto evil.” Shedd approvingly comments, “This remaining corruption . . . Owen asserts to be of the nature of a habit. . . this sin in the heart hath a constant propensity to evil. . . . In other words, indwelling sin in the believer is of the nature of a habit or disposition, in distinction from an act.”

Then, Shedd continues to quote Owen: “. . . in this habit of sin, one is weakened and so disabled, so that it cannot but incline unto sin, with the constancy and prevalency as formerly, nor pressed as certainly with the same urgency and violence.” (p. 196)

Owen, moreover, comments on the “flesh,” calling it “fragments of the principle [meaning in those days, “power” or “force”] of sin as “the remains of an habitual principle of sin” (p. 209).

Shedd says, “In v. 18 [of Romans 7] the principle of holiness lies alongside of the remaining corruption; here (in v. 21) the remaining corruption lies alongside of the principle of holiness”(p. 213). He further states that “regeneration had freed Paul from the “law of sin and death, but not from the law in his members” (p. 228).

Elsewhere, concerning his use of the term “flesh in Romans 7,” Paul says, that “the figure is taken from the habitual movement of the body” (p. 233), and later (p. 244) writes, “the ‘mortal body’ with its ‘members,’ is put for the entire man as corrupt. The sinful habits and practices of the body are killed in the believer, by suppressing their outward manifestations because of the principle of divine life within him (A very interesting concept that I should like to explore at some other time and place; p. 244).”

Now these quotations may seem a bit disjointed—as, indeed they are—but I have made no attempt to set forth the arguments in these pages. I just wanted to show that the views of flesh and habit that I hold with regard to Romans 7 are anything but novel.

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No, not funny, but quite useful as a paradigm. Run it this way: When is a                  not a                   ? When it’s a                . Ah, now we have something. Just fill in the blanks. When is a liar not a liar? When is a thief not a thief? If your answers were “When he stops lying” and “When he stops stealing,” you’d be wrong.

The true answers are found in Ephesians 4.

There you see that the liar is no longer a liar only when he becomes a truth-teller. The thief is no longer a thief only when he works for a living and gives from his earnings to those who are truly in need.

You see, until he puts on the alternative lifestyle, he is a liar who doesn’t happen to be a lying at the moment. But put him under pressure and he will still lie. The thief is still a thief when he isn’t stealing—he’s just a thief between “jobs.” He will still steal when given the opportunity.

This is why biblical counselors believe in the put off/put on dynamic of Ephesians 4, Colossians 3 and elsewhere. In the index of the Christian Counselor’s New Testament/ Proverbs, you will find scores of biblical instances of things to put off/put on, including the Scriptural reference from which each is taken. If you are looking for such a list, it is there. Get it and use it.

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The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

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The post No Joking appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.