Friday, November 14, 2008

Struggle with Sin

Paul writes an simple letter in Romans 7 on a complicated subject:

14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.

15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.

17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.

18 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.

19 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.

20 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.


This is so complicated, but the more I read it, the more I find the truth in the midst of complicity.