Struggling to obtain holiness?

"Believers today are not under law, either as a means of justification or as a rule of life, but are justified by grace and are called upon to walk in grace... Primarily here [Rom. 7:14-25] we have a believing Jew struggling to obtain holiness by using the law as a rule of life and resolutely attempting to compel his old nature to be subject to it. In Christendom now the average (Gentile) believer goes through the same experience; for legality is commonly taught almost everywhere.

Therefore, when one is converted it is but natural to reason that now one has been born of God it is only a matter of determination and persistent endeavor to subject oneself to the law, and one will achieve a life of holiness. And God Himself permits the test to be made in order that His people may learn experimentally that the flesh in a believer is no better than the flesh in an unbeliever. When he ceases from self-effort he finds deliverance through the Spirit by occupation with the risen Christ."

H.A. Ironside