Set Free

Romans 7: ^15-16 “I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I can’t. I do what I don’t want to—what I hate. I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience proves that I agree with these laws I am breaking.” (LB)

Like we mentioned yesterday, Paul was the apostle of apostles, the man who wrote most of the New Testament, and the strongest documented Christian if you will. Yet in Romans 7, Paul is not speaking in past tense or concerning his past life. He is speaking concerning his present life as a Christian, and the struggles he went through. In today’s anchor scripture, Paul is saying that he knows that what he is doing is wrong. He says he agrees with the laws he is breaking but he is breaking them anyway. Paul goes on to say in Romans 7:¹⁷ “But I can’t help myself because I’m no longer doing it. It is sin inside me that is stronger than I am that makes me do these evil things.” (LB). And this is one of the biggest revelations really, for us to get to a point where we admit that we cannot help ourselves.

When Paul says, “It is inside of me…”, that is not Paul passing the buck. It is Paul actually recognizing where the problem lies. Romans 7:^18-22 “I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn I can’t make myself do right. I want to but I can’t. When I want to do good, I don’t; and when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. Now if I am doing what I don’t want to, it is plain where the trouble is: sin still has me in its evil grasp. It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.  I love to do God’s will so far as my new nature is concerned” (LB).

Romans 7:^23-25 “but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. In my mind I want to be God’s willing servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin. So you see how it is: my new life tells me to do right, but the old nature that is still inside me loves to sin. Oh, what a terrible predicament I’m in! Who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done by Jesus Christ our Lord. He has set me free.” (LB, emphasis added)

Sometimes when you read about Paul’s journey, you will think he is a troubled, hopeless man of God. But Paul was just being real and thank God it did not end there. Once you get the dynamics of this whole thing, your life totally and completely transforms. Paul shows us six things that happen in our lives when we do not know how to deal with the battle that is raging on our inside.  Six things we will delve into beginning tomorrow. For now, pause and consider Paul’s final statement; “Thank God! It has been done by Jesus Christ our Lord. He has set me free.”

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I thank You for paying the price for my freedom, in Jesus Name. Amen!