ROMANS 7:15-20 – For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

THEME OF THE DAY. WELCOME TO THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. One of the great truths of the Bible verifying it is truly the Word of God is how well it knows us. No other book rightly defines the human condition, the human heart, and the problems that make our world a confused and chaotic place of much evil and suffering. And when it comes to the Christian life, the Bible really knows us well. Today’s scripture makes this clear.

Every Christian who comes across Romans 7 will read it and shout, “Hey, that is me. That describes my walk with the Lord to the ‘t’. I struggle like Paul. The things I hate, like sinning, like spiritual laziness, like spiritual indifference, are the things I do. Yet, I want to do right but I feel so powerless to consistently do right.”

Welcome to the Christian life. Romans 7 is the life of a Christian. It is the reality that we are not in heaven yet, nor totally free from the deceptive power of sin. Yes, we are free from the complete reign of sin, but not free from sin (Romans 6:14). And God in His wisdom and plan has made the Christian life so. We may think, “Why? Why did He make fumbling, bumbling, and stumbling a part of the walk of His children in this life?” Well, we don’t know His ways completely, but we can be encouraged with a couple of things that are produced by living out Romans 7.

First, the more we see our weaknesses, failings, and inability to live out the Christian life on our own, the more we are able to experience what the Apostle Paul did – the sufficiency of God’s grace. He wrote of the Lord’s Words to him when he was harassed by the devil, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Remember that God’s grace not only saves us, but strengthens and keeps us. Allow our spiritual inabilities to lead us to a reliance on and boasting in God’s abilities.

Another wonderful thing learned by the experience of Romans 7 is a deeper longing for heaven and total freedom. It seems like a paradox, but the more we fail the Lord, the more we long to be with the Lord and free from such failures. If we are more prone to discouragement and mistrust of the Lord when we fail, two things are present. First, we don’t understand justification by faith. God never gets angry in our failings. Yes, He will discipline us but always in love and for our development. The next thing we fail to understand if Romans 7 isn’t producing a longing for heaven is that God has ordained this life to be hard, full of sorrow, suffering, and failures to wean us from seeking comfort in the world. This miserable place is not our home. Let’s not be comfortable here. We don’t belong and Romans 7 will show us by experience that truth.

Romans 7 is a “Welcome to the Christian Life” text. May God teach us that all things, even our failings, are part of His marvelous plan for us as He prepares us for heaven.

PRAYER: “Father, I praise You that though I may fall in my walk with You, I will not fall away from You.”

QUOTE: “Christians still sin and such awareness is to humble us and create a greater longing for a sinless heaven.”