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April 06, 2006
Keep Reading... It Gets Better!
I'm beginning to see a pattern in my walk with God. We get closer; he convicts me; I feel unworthy; I move away. I've always identified well with Paul's description of his struggle with sin:
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 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.
-Romans 7:14-20
The back and forth repitition and juxtaposition of "don't do" and "do do" (yes, I said "do do") is a powerful expression of Paul's level of exasperation with the continuous tug-of-war between his sinful human nature and his yearning to be godly. If you didn't make it through all of the dos and don'ts (and do dos), Paul takes a breath and rephrases in the next verses:
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?
-Romans 7:21-24
But I often find myself identifying with this passage so much that I wollow in it and forget that there is a resolution! Who can rescue us?
Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
-Romans 7:25
And that's where the chapter ends. But how is being a "slave to the law of sin" a positive? Keep reading -- it gets better!
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
-Romans 8: 1-4
To tie it all together, we're human. Thus, we're slaves to sin. We'll never be perfect. Not you, not me, not any man or woman on this earth. But, God sacrificed his perfect son as an offering to compensate for our sin. The theology of this can be confusing, but if you want a clearer picture, rent "The Chronicals of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe." And I'm not getting paid for that endorsement.
Posted by Megan at April 6, 2006 09:59 PM
Comments
Read backwards (Romans 6) we're no longer slaves to sin...
Good thoughts Megan, keep reading. :)
Posted by: Matt at April 7, 2006 03:28 AM
I appreciate your encouraging thoughts, Megan...
Posted by: Nancy at April 7, 2006 12:46 PM
Right on.
When I do do the stuff I shouldn't do and I'm in the doo doo I have to focus on the Who who can rescue you.
Whew!
Posted by: Dan at April 7, 2006 06:02 PM