21 So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law. 23 But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me.
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
REFLECTIONS
Written by Elise Beck
Have you ever been grocery shopping and picked the trolley with the really wonky wheel? This happened to me last week. You’re trying to go straight, but the wheel keeps pulling you in another direction. You pull it back, only for it to start drifting again.
That’s a bit like how Paul describes the Christian life in today’s passage: “I want to do good. I want to obey God… but I keep being pulled towards sin”.
As I reflected on this passage, I realised how true this is of my own experience. We want to follow Christ, yet we continue to battle against our sinful flesh. There is a constant tension: we delight in God and want to obey him, yet sin continues to wage war within us.
When I worked as a midwife, there was often a culture of gossip and complaining. I found it easy to join in – complaining about colleagues who hadn’t done their work properly or doctors who were being demanding. I wanted my life at work to reflect that I followed Jesus, yet I still found myself giving in to sin. It felt like a tug-of-war within me.
Paul eventually cries out, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me?” (v.24). Notice that Paul doesn’t ask, “What must I do?” He asks, “Who will rescue me?” And the wonderful answer comes in the very next verse: “Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (v.25a). We’ll hear more about that answer tomorrow.
Our struggle with sin reminds us that we cannot rescue ourselves. It points us to Jesus Christ, the one who delivers us from sin. Praise God that in our weakness, we can turn again to Jesus, trusting in the one who rescues us and, by his Spirit, helps us to delight in and obey God.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elise is one of our Ministry Trainees.