QT 11/21/2024 Rom 7:19-25, Getting worse and stronger at the same time

Romans 7:19–25 (ESV) —

19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 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. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

 

NOTE: Much has been written about this passage, and it is difficult to understand. I believe there is a process of sanctification which takes a believer, in degrees of change, from a slave to sin, to a free man that follows Christ. While I see my sin in greater degrees as I grow in Christ, I also see a man who is changing -- I see both -- more selfishness (in more areas) and yet also less selfishness in the previously identified areas. As God reveals sin, I see change over time. The problem is I just seem to see more sin in my motivations. But I am changing, I am becoming more like Christ, my mind is willfully choosing to do the right thing more often. And so, I can see hope even as I see setbacks.

 

Sanctification is a gradual process that repeatedly takes the believer through this recurring sequence of failure through dependency upon self to triumph through the indwelling Spirit. [Mounce, R. H. (1995). Romans (Vol. 27, p. 168). Broadman & Holman Publishers.]

 

PONDER:

1. Am I changing?
2. Can I see the Holy Spirit changing me even as I see more areas to grow?

 

PRAYER: Father, I have never put the two ideas together, seeing more wickedness in my heart, and seeing change in other areas of my life. But, it makes sense. That is how Paul can call himself the chief of sinners and also call on people to imitate him.