Imagine with me that you are in a war, in a battle at this moment, and that a thousand men are lined up across a field. They are an enemy unit coming with guns to kill you. This is war. But, you also have a thousand men on your side. So, you have a fighting chance. Nevertheless, this is a serious danger you might not survive.
Remember that we are discussing this from the standpoint of being a Christian. By that term I am not referring to a general meaning of Church member, or desencent of people designated as "Christian". Christian here is used to mean a person who has at some point in time decided to surrender their life to Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord and who maintains an ongoing spiritual relationship to Him according to the teachings of the Bible. Please read Romans 8:1-16.
Now suppose that rather than a thousand people coming to kill you, there is only one. And, you no longer have a thousand fellow soldiers. You are on your own. But then you notice something strange. The person coming to kill you is yourself, or rather, a special part of yourself.
It is the carnal, "fleshly", selfish nature you have that has been your downfall in so many ways. It is that part of you that prompts you to be selfish, lustful, deceptive, or even harmful to others. And your carnal nature is coming to kill another part of you.
The part of you which the carnal nature is coming to kill is the spirit within you that is alive to God. When you were first "born again" this spirit within you was revived with joy. This spirit is in love with your Savior. This spirit creates a desire in you to read the Bible, to pray, to tell others about Christ. This spirit enables you to love difficult people. It rejoices in worship. This eternal spirit is the part of you that has a ticket to Heaven. It is also the part of you that agrees with scripture that the carnal nature must be destroyed.
The point is that there is a war going on within the Christian between the carnal, fleshly nature which is the worst part of us versus the living spirit which is the best part of us. The individual temptations we face are weapons in the hands of our carnal nature. And this evil aspect of us is actively trying to destroy the eternal spirit born again by the Holy Spirit.
The carnal nature has very powerful allies: Satan and our weaknesses. However, our spirit has an all powerful ally: the Holy Spirit. Our soul, that is made up of our mind, our will, and our emotions, has choices to make. Are we going to choose to allow the carnal nature to tear down the relationship we have with our Savior and even threaten our eternal destiny? Or, are we going to stand with the Holy Spirit to destroy the work of our carnal nature, to bring it into subjection to God? As we rid ourselves of the chains of the carnal nature, we are free to be able to grow in the relationship we have with Jesus Christ.
This conflict within the Christian could lead to fear that the battle might not be won against the evil within us. We know that if we are merely trying to live by the laws of the Bible, we are weak and forever in trouble. However, "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:2, New American Standard) And, "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you (the Holy Spirit), He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you." (Romans 8:11, NAS.) This would mean a power to live in agreement with God's will.
Remember, it was Christ Himself who told Peter in Mathew 18: 21-22, that a person should be forgiven not only once, but, if necessary, many times. If we have fear that keeps us from coming back to Christ because we have sinned again, we need to decide to come anyway for fresh forgiveness. This is not to be "excused" for falling short. It is rather to allow us to genuinely repent and put the failure behind us so that we can move forward in the way we should have been going with God in the first place. Proverbs 24: 16 (NAS) says that "a righteous man falls seven times and rises again..." God is faithful when we are not.
Place your trust in the power of the Holy Spirit to keep you strong, to overcome the carnal nature, and to preserve your relationship to Jesus Christ. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1, NAS)
So, guess what? You and the Holy Spirit will overcome the carnal nature within you. It will be a struggle and not necessarily always successful. But, more often than not, you will bring thoughts captive to the Lord. You will experience success by the Holy Spirit's power. You will gain in steps of faith to reach the hope of a greater relationship to Christ. Because, "greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world." (I John 4:4 NAS)
"Now, to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless and with great joy, to the only God our Savior through Jesus Chrsit our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forevermore. Amen. "3 John: 24, 25 NAS)
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