Rachel Workman:
14 We know that
the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I
do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate
I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the
law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it,
but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does
not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[c]
For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For
I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep
on doing. 20 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.
Paul wasn’t struggling with sin because he was such a sinner. Paul was struggling because he was such a saint. Sin makes you numb. People who sin over and over again become desensitized to sin. The reason Paul’s “struggle” was so intense was not because he was caught in a web of sin, or because he thought of himself as hopelessly doomed to giving into the temptations that he faced. Rather, it was because Paul lived a life so sensitive to the Holy Spirit and passionate about the glory of God that he intensely felt his sins whenever he became aware that he had committed a sin.
In other
words, you can see a black spider crawling up your shirt a lot better if you
are wearing a white shirt than if you are wearing a black shirt. Paul wasn’t struggling with sin because he was such a sinner. Paul was struggling because he was such a saint. Sin makes you numb. People who sin over and over again become desensitized to sin. The reason Paul’s “struggle” was so intense was not because he was caught in a web of sin, or because he thought of himself as hopelessly doomed to giving into the temptations that he faced. Rather, it was because Paul lived a life so sensitive to the Holy Spirit and passionate about the glory of God that he intensely felt his sins whenever he became aware that he had committed a sin.
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Tomorrow’s reading for Romans 7:21-25
21 So I find this
law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For
in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another
law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a
prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a
wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks
be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So
then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature[d]
a slave to the law of sin.
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