(Rom 7:22 -25) My inner being delights in the law of God. But I see a different law at work in my body - a law that fights against the law which my mind approves of. It makes me a prisoner to the law of sin which is at work in my body. What an unhappy man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is taking me to death? Thanks be to God, who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ! This, then, is my condition: on my own I can serve God's law only with my mind, while my human nature serves the law of sin. (Good News Bible)
A body - a whole mass of sin and corruption, was bound to his soul with chains, which he could not break. The diseased body dead and rotting with sin, swept through his whole nature, was pressing him down to the bitter pains of an eternal death. He now finds that the law cannot save him.
Remember Saul the Rabbi, the righteous persecutor of the Christians is now speaking as a Christian. No person can stand in his shoes and feel the regret and pain. He cannot become the perfect person he wants to be so much. He knows that no matter how hard he tries he will never be completely like Jesus and this hurts.
Servius stated that nothing the persecuted Christian of his time could suffer could compare with the suffering of surviving in eternity without God. It could also not compare with the suffering a believer feels when confronted with his own sinful nature. What suffering was Servius referring to? Roasting, burning, racking, crucifying, etc.? Now how could anything be as bad as that? The believer broken open and honestly confronting his lost state without salvation will agree. The person who finally realizes his/her lost state is shattered and completely broken. A person reaching this realization gladly receives the forgiveness offered by the sacrifice of Jesus.
So now we can turn to the great rejoicing of Paul in verse 25. Despite our lost and depraved state and our poor attempts to live up to the perfect example of Jesus Christ, we may live in hope. Not a futile, maybe someday, “iffy” kind of hope. No, a strong, assured, secure, eternal hope. Let us give thanks to God like Paul because we can strive in our minds to achieve and attempt to execute the standard of Jesus and still be loved, blessed and saved despite our failures.
Paul does not give us the reason why in these verses. He does so elsewhere and in Romans 4:5 we read: “But those who depend on faith, not on deeds, and who believe in the God who declares the guilty to be innocent, it is this faith that God takes into account in order to put them right with himself” Our salvation does therefore not rely on our poor performance but rather God’s faithfulness to us. Even if our faith falters as we read in 2 Timothy 2 “This is a true saying: "If we have died with him, we shall also live with him. If we continue to endure, we shall also rule with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. If we are not faithful, he remains faithful, because he cannot be false to himself."
This should encourage us to be the best we can be and grow and develop to our full potential. With Paul all believers can say: Thanks be to God who has rescued us through Jesus Christ despite of ourselves rather than because of who we are.
May the Lord bless you, make his face shine on you, give you courage and peace. Amen.
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Send your questions to gerhardp@ananzi.co.za (Gerhard Potgieter)
In South Africa today security plays a vital part in any business or private home. This book and the volumes to follow, will guide you step by step through the essential precautionary measures to be taken in protecting your family and valuables. From employing security guards, evacuation of your site and security measures to burglar bars and alarms in your private home.
a Book compiled by me from experience gained after 10 years in the security industry as Industrial relations officer with Nosa qualifications, 1st Aid, fire protection and also S.O.B. grade A.
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