Romans 7:15-25a (NRSV)
Read Romans 7:15-25a on biblegateway.com
Verse 15I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Verse 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. Verse 17But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. Verse 18For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. Verse 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Verse 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. Verse 21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. Verse 22For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, Verse 23but 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. Verse 24Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Verse 25Thanks 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.
Devotion
A couple months ago, the newspaper carried the headline that a young, female serial bank robber thanked a teller who testified at her trial. She said that she deserved her two- to three-year sentence and hoped that it would help start her over with a clean slate. She didn't want to be the person she had become.
I am not a bank robber, but I can identify with this woman's dilemma. In the "Peanuts" comic strip, Lucy once instructed her younger brother, Linus, by drawing a heart, half of which was black and the other half white. "There is a battle going on within our hearts," Lucy preached. Linus thought about what she had said and exclaimed, "I think that I can feel the fight going on inside of me!"
The wars that we fear will rob us of our independence are often the result of these inner battles that keep people from doing what they know to be good. These inner wars are triggered by greed, revenge and envy. The novel "Lord of the Flies" reminds us how the layer of civilization is only skin deep for the very best of us.
Who or what will deliver us from the ravages of this inner war? Paul spends this whole chapter in Romans expanding on his answer before concluding, "Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Sounds simplistic, but I can testify that while the battles never cease, we can, with Jesus' help, do the good he has called us to do. That is also a victory and freedom worth celebrating this week.
Prayer
Christos Victor, we thank you for your offer to live within us to help us to do the good we want to do. Amen.