"As one learns, grows, and matures, the grace of God is enough not only for him to will, but ALSO to do the good pleasure of God."
Thank you Prentis. How can anyone not see or worse, reject, such a beautiful thing!!!
Prentis, I say that the man whose flesh nature ruled and defeated his ability to be faithful was the man before Christ.
And after describing himself before Christ Paul began giving the solution to the problem, not away off in the future, but now!!!
Romans 7:24-25 "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."
And in Romans chapter 8 he elaborates on why we no longer need be slaves to that flesh nature letting it defeat us when it desires to do so.
Want proof? Ponder this:
Romans 8:9 "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."
We only yet sin if we are straddling the fence. We only yet sin if we try to keep one foot in the spirit while leaving the other foot in that flesh nature.
We are to put that flesh nature to death. No if , ands, or buts. If we have obeyed that flesh nature be dead by the power given us of God.
Romans 8:12 "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not tothe flesh, to [have to] live after the flesh."
I inserted the [have to] because that is clearly what Paul said.
How does it work?
Romans 8:11 "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you."
When we say that we have to sin as long as we wear these physical bodies we indirectly call Paul a liar.
Galatians 5:16 "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh."
Prentis this is what those who are fearful of works do not see. They believe they have to sin and so they have created illusions of the grace of God and cling fearfully to them. If God does require good works and they have no ability in the flesh to deliver them they see themselves as in a pickle. That is because they are not yet familiar with the true saving power of Christ which transforms a man into that new creation, even doing as Paul said at Romans 8:11.