Romans 7:20- 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. Romans 7:24-25- What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
I've really been enjoying our class on Romans at church. One of the things I enjoy about it has been found in this text. As Paul speaks of sin, he reminds us of the all too common problem so many of us face. Often times, we want to do good, we want to be righteous, but we simply aren't. Most of the time, we are at war within, struggling to be exactly what God calls us to be. In the end, we find ourselves "losing the battle" to the desires of our hearts. Paul, comes back and addresses this issue by saying, "Who can save me from this cycle? Well.... Jesus of course!"
Sometimes we need something to penetrate our hearts deeper than we have the ability to do. We've tried scrubbing the crud off of us, tried removing the grime from our lives, just to be left with disappointment, sadness, and bloody knuckles. Isn't it good to know that there is one here who can get deeper? One who can get deep down where we can't and eliminate the filth that we've been struggling to eliminate. I think that's Paul's point here. Sometimes hard work can't resolve an issue. Only the creator of the heart knows how to truly purify the heart. Try scrubbing.... and you may just end up depressed and disillusioned. Ask him to scrub, and see what happens inside of you. Maybe that is what Paul's talking about.
2 comments:
Man thanks for that. I really enjoy your thoughts on scripture. Especially since this is one thing I've been struggling with lately. I keep giving it over to God, but I guess I'm just not seeing how He's working or how He's wanting to work through those prayers. It's tuff. Do you think I am not truly giving it ALL over? And, what is the next step I seem to keep missing?
Just to let you know. This is Nick!
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