The Word of God calls each of us to die to self-will as an act of martyrdom. It is not the easiest thing in the world to deny our fleshly desires; nevertheless, Christ would have us to totally submit to His will and not ours. Paul wrote in Romans 7:18-19 (KJV), “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh), I dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good that I would do, I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.”
Now this sounds strange coming from a man who loved God as much as Paul did, but Paul was no perfectionist. He did not believe in sinless perfection. The older Paul got and the closer he got to the Lord in his walk, the more he felt his own sinfulness. The more he knew of Christ, the less he thought of self. Yet, we are not to suppose that when the apostle said, “When I would do good, evil is present with me,” that he meant in every instance when he wanted to do good he was prevented from accomplishing his purpose and drawn away into positive sin by the corruption which still adhered to him.
What he meant is evidently this: that in all his endeavors to do the will of God, the power of sin so interfered with his efforts that he could not do anything as he wished to do. I think we would all agree what Paul experienced is the same experience for every child of God. We are called to continually died to our self-will and to die to sin. The true Christian will detest sin because it is offensive to God. This denying of self will is an act of martyrdom.
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