THE STORY OF JESUS: Romans 7:21-25
“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24)
Have you ever felt like this?
Feeling trapped, doomed, defeated, beaten, no way of escape?
Though not from external circumstances, but from himself.
His own weakness, his own nature, is the problem… and its ours too.
Some people don’t like it that Paul says these things.
Afterall, he is already ‘saved’, already a child of God through Jesus.
They say Paul is just explaining how he was before Jesus changed him.
We can’t be both ‘sinful wretches’ and ‘redeemed saints’ at the same time.
Martin Luther suggested that we were ‘simil justus et peccator’.
Simultaneously justified (declared innocent) and sinful.
I agree, not in the logical sense, but in the relational sense.
The fact is, my human nature is still broken, flawed, selfish.
But that is NOT how God sees me; He has declared me innocent because of Jesus.
The reason we need to remember this is twofold:
(1) So we don’t foolishly act as if we were not susceptible to sin, and
(2) So we don’t hopelessly despair about sin, because God DOES forgive us.
If we ignore the remains of sin in us, we will be caught by it.
But if we are on guard, with hope and confidence in the Lord, we can live by faith.
Until we face the sin that lives in us, but does not ultimately define us, we will remain trapped.
We need declare vs.24 with Paul before we can declare v.25.
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, I know the power of sin in my life. But I also know Your grace and Your power. I am a sinner yet a saint, always dependent on You and never abandoned!