Romans 7:14 - 8:6
Living with Our Sinful Nature

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.

New International Version

There is something bewildering, arguably even pathetic, about living the Christian life.

We who have received God's grace and chosen to walk in the Way regularly fail to live in the manner we have committed to live. Sometimes the failures are large, public, and fully worthy of the scathing ridicule of the world, as with the Jim Baker scandal, Jesse Jackson's illegitimate child, or the sexual abuse of boys in the Boston archdiocese. We have no defense against such behavior, no matter who is committing the offense, but it is even a greater downfall in the absurdity of one who seeks to be a "little Christ" but who acts out in such contradiction to the ways of Christ.

But it is not a few believers in the public eye who fail spectacularly, but every practicing believer who fails repeatedly. Sometimes these failures are visible contradictions, as in "road rage" that triggers aggressive driving tactics -- for a car with an Ichthus fish on the back. Even more insidious are the failures that appear perfectly normal to secular society, such as a Christian looking out for themselves instead of others in a difficult work situation, for it is exactly those cases that call into question the relevance of our faith.

It is frustrating to be a Christian, yet have to admit how often I fail to live like a Christian. Being such a consistent failure often makes me feel like just giving up -- what's the use of even trying? Even setting my goals lower doesn't help. All I want to do is be a good friend in return for the friendship given me. Even more basic, all I want to do is to be a good father to my daughter, a good husband to my wife. Even at such a limited scale as that, and maybe even more so because those relationships are so important to me, I find that I fail.

Paul, the brave, intelligent, amazingly effective, gifted, and certainly blessed traveling preacher of the First Century felt just the same way. "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?"

I take a little comfort that even Paul -- Saint Paul the Apostle!! -- felt the same frustrations I feel. I take much more comfort in how Paul dealt with the frustrations and personal disappointment of so often being such a failure, and Paul's solution was to embrace God's plan that recognizes that sin is at war in us.

The fullness of Paul's explanation spans from Romans 7 into Romans 8, and it is worth a reminder that Paul did not write his letter in chapters, but in one continuous thought. Paul's exclamation of "Thanks be to God!" is followed immediately by the stunning revelation that "there is no condemnation" for us who are in Christ Jesus, even though we so often lose our struggle with the sin in us.

God has already dealt with the issue. God has already defeated Sin, and so the sins that we Christians commit are forgiven before we commit them. In contrast, we loathe our inability to be faithful, but God has already moved beyond the sinful incident. We feel paralyzed by our failures, but God urges is to rejoice in the victory God has already won. Our own resources are miserably ineffective against the sin inside us, but God has already unleashed the power that conquers sin in us.

In an almost trivial way, this seems similar to a challenge faced by every beginning piano player. The beginner starts out playing one hand at a time, and after weeks practicing the fundamentals in the left hand and the right hand, finally comes a piece of music with both hands together -- a "real" piece of music! Even after practicing it for weeks, they will still make mistakes when playing the piece at piano lesson. Every last one of them will stop when they make a mistake and comment on it! Three notes--and "oh, I missed that note". Another two notes, a complete stop, and "I missed it again". The piano teacher repeats over and over, a little louder and more strident each time, "The music doesn't stop just because you made a mistake! Keep playing!"

Fortunately, all God calls us to do is to keep our minds set on living the Christian life, no matter how often or how spectacularly we fail. God can use us if we're trying -- think back on the story of Jonah, and the miserably inadequate job Jonah did of finally wandering a little way into Ninevah and proclaiming God's impending judgment on them. God used that woefully inadequate and insincere gesture to save the greatest city of the time. Surely God can use us, too, when we "keep playing."