Equipped for Struggles

This isn't quite the way we 
are supposed to be equipped.

Scripture:

Rom. 7:14   For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. ¹⁵ I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶ Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Rom. 7:21   So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. ²² For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, ²³ but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

 So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

Observation:

This entire passage is a struggle. Paul speaks in the first person as a battle rages on inside his heart, mind, soul and body. He understands very clearly that there is a direct connection between the spiritual and the physical self. The two are not to be disconnected, one from the other. The actions in the flesh are a reflection of the desires of the heart. His mind tells him not to do things, and yet, he succumbs to temptation. He knows what he is not to do, because he knows the law. The law therefore, is good, and the law itself is not sinful, but reveals the sinfulness of humanity. Sin continues to dwell in Paul and becomes a driving force in his struggle to do good. 

All of this is a set-up for the next chapter where he will talk about being set free, but in the meantime, we are left in the midst of the struggle. “Clearly, the conflicted ‘I,’ the ‘wretched’ person, in Rom 7 is an awakened sinner, struggling for deliverance from indwelling sin” (Edlin & Modine, NBBC). It is only when we come to the end of our struggles, of trying to work all of this out on our own, when we have abandoned ourselves to the Lord, that Christ does in us what we cannot do for ourselves. In that moment we cry out, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” 

 

Application:

One of my favorite Church Fathers, John Chrysostom, comments on this passage, “Christ not only set us free without demanding any payment for his services; he also equipped us for greater struggles in the future” (Homilies on Romans 13). This epic passage of inner struggle simply sets the stage for a resolution to the problem. Life doesn’t have to be a continuous and on-going struggle. We are equipped to handle the struggle because of the indwelling presence of Christ through the Holy Spirit. 

All things are possible to God,

To Christ, the power of God in man,

To me, when I am all renewed,

When I in Christ am formed again,

And witness, from all sin set free,

All things are possible to me.

Charles Wesley, “All Things Are Possible to Him.” 

Prayer:

Lord, may the struggle be yours — not mine. Amen.