Have you ever decided that you’re not going to do a particular sin anymore…just before you do it again? If you and I care about pleasing God—which we should—then we are going to struggle with what the Bible calls our “flesh” or carnality. We want to be spiritual but we are carnal. I’ve sometimes heard Christians talk about not having a sinful nature after coming to Christ, but I’ve never seen any of them actually live it out! Yes, we have a new nature; but we also still wrestle with our old way of life. Sound familiar to you? Or is it just me? The Bible has something wonderful to say about this struggle, so let’s listen:

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. 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! (Romans 7:18-19, 22-25)

My pastor Brad Hales often reminds us of Martin Luther’s famous Latin phrase: “simul justus et peccator,” which means that Christians are both righteous and sinners at the same time. St. Augustine spoke of this paradox as one horse with two riders. And, oh, by the way, you and I are the horse in this analogy! God is the first rider. The second rider is the devil. You and I, the horse, must choose which rider to obey. In today’s passage, Paul is spelling out this familiar struggle that we all face after we surrender our lives to Christ. Can you sense his frustration?  He says, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” Can you identify with that? He cries out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Then he gives the glorious answer: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

You and I, as long as we are walking this earth, will struggle with both the lure and consequences of sin. But thanks be to God—He has made a way of forgiveness. That Way has a Name and His Name is Jesus…and that is very Good News!