Christian Warfare

At a glance

Relevant Scripture

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”

Galatians 5:16-17 KJV

UECF.NET summary

Finney opens by untangling a knot that, in his view, has confused generations of readers: if verse 17 simply means the flesh and Spirit war against each other so fiercely that no one can obey, then Paul would be canceling his own promise, one sentence earlier, that walking in the Spirit keeps a believer from fulfilling fleshly lust. He resolves this by reading verse 17 as the reason for verse 16's promise rather than its contradiction — because flesh and Spirit pull in opposite directions, a person cannot do both at once, so walking in the Spirit necessarily excludes fulfilling the flesh. From there he clears away a second common confusion: Christian warfare is not, as some describe it, an inner fight between the will and conscience, nor a fight against some substance called 'indwelling sin,' since the regenerate will and conscience already agree, and sin itself is only ever a choice, incapable of fighting itself. The real conflict, he insists, is between the will on one side and the whole array of appetites, passions, and desires — what Scripture calls 'the flesh' — on the other, along with the pressure added by Satan and by the world's countless allurements. This reframing matters because it changes what a Christian is actually supposed to be doing in temptation: not agonizing over an enemy inside the self that cannot be defeated, but standing firm against pressures from outside the will that can, in fact, be resisted.

Having placed the battlefield correctly, Finney traces what intensifies this warfare — old wounds and fears that have overgrown a person's feelings, appetites indulged until they dominate attention, a poorly disciplined imagination, habits formed over years, and simple neglect of training the will to govern the mind's cravings — and what eases it, chiefly a deepening apprehension of Christ's own character and His death, which redirects the whole force of a person's affections toward God rather than self. He is careful to distinguish the true believer's experience from that of the merely convicted or self-deceived professor: both feel temptation, but the convicted sinner's resolutions fail because his heart is still secretly on the side of what he resolves against, while the true Christian's heart already agrees with his conscience, so that resistance, sustained by dependence on Christ rather than willpower, actually succeeds. He insists, too, that warfare of this kind would have existed even without the Fall — Adam, the angels, and Christ himself were all tempted while entirely holy — so its presence is no sign of remaining corruption, and its full removal is neither promised nor even desirable, since it would mean extinguishing the very appetites and desires God built into human nature for good ends. What entire sanctification changes, on this account, is not the presence of the battle but its outcome: the propensities remain, but the will, resting on Christ, now keeps them consistently under rein.

Main theological themes

• The real Christian battlefield is the will against temptation from appetite, world, and the enemy — never the will fighting itself or some indwelling substance called sin.
• Warfare is a permanent feature of embodied moral life, not a mark of remaining corruption; Adam, the angels, and even Christ were tempted while wholly holy.
• The difference between the merely convicted and the truly converted is not the presence of temptation but whether the heart's actual allegiance already agrees with conscience, making resistance effectual rather than futile.

Key ideas

• Verse 17 gives the reason for verse 16's promise, not a contradiction of it: because flesh and Spirit pull opposite ways, walking in the Spirit necessarily excludes fulfilling the flesh.
• It is nonsense to speak of the will 'fighting indwelling sin,' since sin is itself only a choice of the will; the true fight is against temptation arising from appetite, world, and Satan.
• The convicted-but-unconverted person resolves against temptation without love and fails, because the heart's real preference is still on the side of self; the true Christian's heart already agrees with conscience, so resistance succeeds.
• Temptation itself is not sin and is not evidence of incomplete sanctification — it existed before the Fall and was fully present in Christ; the goal is not its removal but its consistent, faith-sustained defeat.

Important concepts

• Warfare vs. self-contradiction — Finney's key move of relocating Galatians 5:17 away from an inner civil war within the regenerate will, toward an external conflict between the will and the pull of appetite, world, and enemy.
• The sensibility (constitutional propensity) — Finney's term for the whole realm of appetites, passions, and desires belonging to human nature, morally neutral in themselves, yet needing constant, willing regulation lest they usurp the will's rightful government.
• Effectual vs. ineffectual resistance — The distinguishing mark between the Christian and the merely convicted: resistance rooted in a heart already aligned with conscience and dependent on Christ succeeds, while resolutions made against the grain of an unchanged heart inevitably fail.

Related Bible references

• Romans 8:1-4
• Hebrews 4:15
• James 1:12-15
• 1 Corinthians 10:13
• Ephesians 6:11-13

Practical Christian application

• The next time you feel a strong pull toward a besetting temptation, name it precisely as pressure from appetite or circumstance rather than as 'sin fighting inside me' — and bring that named pressure to Christ instead of merely resolving harder.
• Spend time this week deliberately fixing your attention on Christ's character and His death, rather than on willpower techniques, and notice whether that shifts the intensity of a specific temptation.
• Identify one habit, association, or unguarded thought-pattern that has quietly aggravated a particular temptation for you, and take one concrete step to interrupt it.

Questions for study