PRESS ON IN FAITH! Romans 7: 7-25
BILL MCKAY Moderator
“What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an op- portunity through the commandment,
produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the com- mandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with
ds of co etou ov usness Fo I
n looking at this passage from Paul’s letter to the Roman church in context, we see Paul giving an explanation of the outworking of God’s law and the effect of sin in our lives. This passage is quite the personal admission of struggle from the Apostle Paul in his own life and it is an admission we need to carefully heed.
So, how does these words apply to us as we all struggle with daily life? What exactly do we struggle with in our lives? Do we fail to do things we should do? Do we naturally procrastinate about things? What are our pri- orities? How often have we struggled to be faithful in our devotions or to attend worship, as well as other church and prayer meetings? In our very busy lives, we want to try to get it right, but after a hard day, it is often all too easy to simply do something else and not think about it. the Christian from a common perspective. In perspective, we all deal with the same basic struggles daily. Paul speaks about how he doesn’t do the
PRESS ON IN FAITH!
things he should do but instead does the things that he knows are wrong. As R.C. Sproul puts it, “Paul says whenever he wants to do something good, evil is right there to trip him up. At our most dedicated moments, in those times when we feel the greatest personal devotion to Christ – that is when the most wicked thoughts creep into our minds. Such horrible temptations are cast up out of our hearts just when we are serving Christ most intensely.”
We are absolutely no different than Paul. All too easily we put away the things we should be do- ing and doing the things we should not. We want to shut off our brain and not have to think about spiri- tual things. We want to ignore the noise and drama that constantly surrounds us in our lives and at church. We do not attend prayer meetings or listen to sermons as we should. We become distracted thinking about serving lunch or whether the house is clean enough for guests on Sunday afternoon. We start thinking about the after- noon football game or whatever our favourite distraction is. On a daily level, our minds wander and we all too easily lose concentration on what we should be focused on. In looking at Paul’s struggles with sin (as outlined in Romans 7), the item that strikes us imme- diately is Paul’s struggles with sin and his love for God and His law. God’s law is what Paul brings his focus to. But, if our problems with 7:25, we would be in a lot of trou- ble. But Paul continues on in Ro- mans 8:1, “There is now no condem- nation for those who are in Christ.”
“Advance the Gospel” Philippians 1:12 4 The Associate Reformed Presbyterian
Moderator’s Challenge
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