One of the most confusing things a Christian can experience is the battle that continues after salvation.
You come to Christ, you know you’ve been forgiven, you’re grateful, you want to live right—and then you’re surprised to find temptation still knocking on the door. You still fight your thoughts. You still wrestle with your temper. You still have days where you feel pulled in two directions.
Some folks quietly wonder, “If I’m really saved, why am I still struggling?”
The Bible actually answers that. Salvation doesn’t remove your flesh— it gives you a new nature to fight it. The Lord doesn’t make you sinless overnight, but He does make you His. He puts His Spirit within you. He gives you a new heart with new desires. And that’s where the conflict starts: the old wants what it has always wanted and the new wants to please God.
The apostle Paul described it in Romans 7. He said there were moments he wanted to do right, but felt another law “in my members” pulling the other way. He even cried, “O wretched man that I am!” That isn’t the voice of a lost man who doesn’t care— that’s the voice of a saved man who hates the sin he still has to fight.
Galatians 5 puts it in plain language: “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.” In other words, the believer has an internal tug-of-war. The Spirit of God draws you toward holiness, purity, forgiveness, love, truth. But the flesh pulls toward pride, bitterness, lust, selfishness and the easy path.
Paul also calls it “the old man” and “the new man.” The old man is who you were before Christ—your old habits, your old attitude, your old reactions. The new man is who you are in Christ—redeemed, changed, and being renewed day by day. Salvation gives you a new identity. Sanctification is learning to live like it’s true.
Here’s a simple illustration. Have you ever tried to clean out a storage building that’s been packed for years? You open the door and realize it’s worse than you remembered. There’s good stuff in there—things you want to keep—but there’s also junk piled up in every corner. And you can’t clean it all in five minutes. You start hauling out trash, sorting what stays, sweeping the floor, and little by little it changes.
That’s a picture of the Christian life. When Jesus saves you, He moves in for good—but He also starts cleaning house. The “new man” is real, but the flesh still has leftover clutter. And the cleaning process (sanctification) is daily.
So what do we do with the war within?
First, don’t pretend it isn’t there. Many believers live under a cloud of guilt because they think “real Christians” don’t struggle. But dead things don’t wrestle. Living things do. The struggle is often evidence that God has truly done something in you.
Second, stop feeding the flesh. What you feed will grow. If you constantly entertain what stirs your flesh—certain media, certain conversations, certain habits—don’t be shocked when you feel weak. Starve it. Cut off what fuels it.
Third, learn to walk in the Spirit. Galatians 5:16 says, “ Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” Victory isn’t just “try harder.” It’s daily surrender—prayer, Bible reading, obedience, repentance, and dependence on Christ.
And lastly, remember this: the war won’t last forever. One day we’ll be with the Lord, and this battle will be done. Until then, we don’t trust our strength—we trust His grace.
If you’re saved and you feel that inner conflict, don’t despair. Get honest, get close to God, and keep walking. The same Christ who saved you is faithful to help you.
And if you’re reading this and you’ve never been born again, your greatest need isn’t to “turn over a new leaf.” It’s to be made new. Jesus Christ will forgive you, save you, and put within you a new heart that wants Him.
The war within is real— but so is the victory God gives.
Jimmy Barrett is a resident of Blackshear and pastor of Southside Baptist Church in Waycross.
