Week 6: Chapter 5 — Tempted by the Flesh

1.Anderson describes the flesh (or 'old nature') as the patterns of thought and behavior that were established before we came to Christ — deeply ingrained defaults that don't simply disappear at conversion. How does this explanation help you understand why certain sins feel so automatic and stubborn?

2.Romans 7:14-25 captures Paul's anguished cry: 'I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.' Anderson uses this passage to describe the internal war of the Christian life. Have you experienced this war? Does Paul's honesty about it comfort you or unsettle you?

3.Anderson draws on Romans 6 to argue that believers have died to sin — sin no longer has dominion over them. But he carefully distinguishes between sin's broken dominion (a settled fact) and sin's ongoing activity (a daily battle). How do you hold these two truths together without either resting in complacency or sinking into despair?