Wednesday, October 21, 2015

That Sinning Again and Again Problem



For we know that the Law is spiritual but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.

For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing that which I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.  But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.

So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.  For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh, for the willing is present in me, but the doing of good is not.  For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 

But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.  I find then that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 

For I joyfully concur with the law of God, in the inner man, but
I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.

Wretched man that I am!  Who will set me free from the body of this death?

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!  So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other with my flesh the law of sin.

Romans 7:14-25

The Apostle Paul said it well, “I do not understand; for I am not practicing that which I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.” 

Sin is a sticky trap which even the most devout and serious Christian cannot escape.  Every day we face hundreds of temptations to do evil and every day we do some of them.  We cannot say we do not sin because if we even think evil things about others we have sinned. 

So, what is the solution?  The answer is in Jesus Christ who once and for all cleansed us from our sin.  We sin, but we still serve God. 

The ruler by which we measure our sin is far shorter than that of God.  We say we are bad, God says we are forgiven. 

So, let us strive to clean up our lives and to sin less, but let us remember that sin is sticky and it is only the swipe of forgiveness of God that can cleanse us.

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