“Conflicted!” … I jotted it in the margin of my Bible after reading Romans 7:15-24 this morning during “coffee with the Lord!” As I read it I admit I identified with Apostle Paul… Read it yourself, be honest, and I think you’ll admit that you’ve felt that way too!
“For I do not understand my own actions! For I 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 within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh! For I have 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 want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So, I find it to be a law 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?” (Romans 7:15–24 ESV)
After reading that, I paused and sighed deeply… Is there no answer?!
Then I read the next verse and thought to myself, “Too simplistic?” And then I thought of the class of 1st and 2nd grade boys I once taught in Sunday school and one little redheaded boy who would always wave his hand wildly to any question… He desperately wanted to give the answer! But to every question his answer was, “JESUS!”
Well, in this case “JESUS” is the right answer, simplistic though it may seem. In fact, a good reading of Romans 6 and 8 proves it! A full and complete, decisive, appropriation of the merits of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus IS THE ANSWER to Christian victory! Verse 25 of Romans 7 declares it:
“Who will deliver me? … THANKS BE TO GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD!” A simple answer? Yes… but I intend to soak my head and heart in Romans 6 and 8 again until the full benefit of what Jesus did through His death, burial and resurrection on my behalf sinks in, is appropriated, and takes full effect! How about you?
I read the following wonderful words in the Bible this morning…Been relishing them all day! Frankly, they describe an antidote and salve to the poison and painful condition that exists in our world and country at the present time! Read it all! … It describes a leader our world desperately needs (in fact a Savior we all need). It also describes a wonderful idyllic state of affairs that can only be realized when He is fully in control!
Someone has said, “Children can be cruel!” And it’s true! I remember as a child in elementary school seeing children that were a little different, children that weren’t “pretty,” children that were “poor,” or children that were disfigured or disabled, experience the taunts, the cruel giggles, even the outright harassment of other children! I remember one little girl in particular who had experienced the ravages of polio who walked with difficulty and the cruelty she experienced from other children. How mean! How sad!
