Our Struggle

Good Morning,

Romans 7:15-25 (NIV)
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Most of us think of the Apostle Paul as one of the most holy of human beings...well, at least after his experience face to face with the Lord. We think of Paul as a man who probably walked the earth and simply did not sin. Well, these verses that he wrote surely tell us differently. Paul, just like most people, struggled with sin and a sinful nature. I pray that these verses give everyone a positive hope about themselves, as they have done for me many times. You see, we all struggle with sin. We all have this ongoing battle where we, like Paul, want to do "good" but find ourselves doing exactly the opposite. As Paul put it, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do."

Twice Paul mentions this fact of doing things he didn't want to do and, conversely, not doing the things he knew he should do. Much like us. No, that's EXACTLY like us.

Struggling with sin is our human condition. Sometimes we will be successful in our endeavors to escape the clutches of the enemy when we are tempted to do this or that sinful thing. Sometimes we will fail when those temptations come our way. Sometimes we will do what we know we are supposed to do at God's calling. Sometimes we will simply ignore whatever it is that we know we should be doing and go our own way, ignoring God's call. Just like the Apostle Paul.

I think that it must have been extremely difficult for Paul to write these words and admit that he failed in living a "holy" life sometimes. But, I also think that he knew that he had to write these things so that people would understand that this life is, and will always be, an ongoing fight against sin and our sinful nature in this world. I am so very pleased that he obeyed God and was truthful about himself. Aren't you?

But, lest we just shake our heads and go on thinking that we will simply be imperfect sinners with no real hope, let's look closely at what Paul tells us in the last words of this section of Scripture. He admits that he is a "wretched man" and he begs for a rescue from himself and his sinning. So, he calls out to God; he calls out to Jesus. And, as we read, God provided just that rescue to him...just as He will to all of us...through Jesus Christ.

This is where we have our true hope. We have our hope in the fact that God is a loving, caring, and forgiving God who provides us hope and salvation from our sin through Jesus. Yes, God is a just God, of course. But, more than anything, He is a loving God and because of His great love, he came as a man...Jesus...and lived among us, suffered and died for us, and was raised from the dead so that we would have the hope that Paul writes about in these verses we read today.

So, as we struggle...and we MUST continue the struggle all the time and do all we can to not give in to our sin nature...we must remember to call on Jesus to provide for us the rescue we so badly need. He is always there for us, in every and any situation. All we need to do is to call on Him.

Love, peace, and blessings,

David