Confusion Made Clear

14 For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. 15I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. ~ Romans 7:14-20 

Years ago, four other ladies and I would meet weekly to study the Bible while our children played together.  The above verses became an “inside joke” to us when we would come upon passages that were difficult for us to comprehend at first.  We learned that to understand these verses (written in Paul’s “legal-speak” language), we really needed to break them down and go over them slowly.  Once we took the verses apart and studied them a little at a time, the meaning became clearer.   Other passages needed to be tackled in the same manner, but this one was always the hardest to understand when being read aloud at a normal pace.  As soon as we would come upon a difficult passage, one of us would start to say, “ we do what we don’t want to do, not what we want to do…” and begin to chuckle.  Then we would “get down to business” and start breaking down the difficult passage to better understand what God was trying to say to us. 

These verses explain how we were born into a sinful world, to which our sinful nature comes naturally to us.  The law is from God, therefore, it is spiritual – not of this world and more difficult for us to follow.  As Christians, we sometimes battle our sinful nature from within, because our sinful nature comes so much easier to us than to follow the spiritual law of God.  We want to follow the law, but at times our sinful nature has a habit of “popping up,” causing us to do the very things we know we shouldn’t do.  To follow God’s law requires concentration and determination to overcome our natural instincts of sin to which we were born, even when we know that to follow God’s law is the good and right thing to do.   

This is a battle we live with as Christians every day.  In order to live according to the law of God, we need to arm ourselves for doing battle against our natural instincts of the sinful nature that we were born with.  We can win the battle of confusing decision making with the clarity of God’s direction given to us through daily prayerful communication with Him and by studying the Bible to discover His battle plan given to us centuries ago.   We can arm ourselves against our sinful natures so that we will have the strength and knowledge to fight the easier ways of our sinful nature from overtaking our desire to follow God with our whole heart.  Every day is a day to ready ourselves for battle.  Get your armor of God on and set out to fight the good fight! 

Prayer 

Lord God,

This fight between doing the right thing vs. wrong thing in life is a constant battle of wills between the evil nature we were born into and the knowledge of the good we have accepted into our lives through the saving grace of Your Son, Jesus Christ.  Help us to arm ourselves with Your strength and knowledge to go against the evil around us so that we can fight the good fight to bring others to You through our example on how to live in this world so that we can one day join You in Your kingdom.  Amen.

~ Wendy Miller