Love & Laws

    There are confusing spots in the bible. This is one of those spots. I’m not going to say that I have perfect clarity but I thought I’d just write down my thoughts on what Paul was saying. Paul has such a passionate heart for His calling that it just hurts. I wish I had the same passion. You can’t just push yourself to be like someone else, but you can just push yourself with your propeller of a personal love for the incredible Father, Savior and Lover who made the world.
     One thing I’d like to point out. God knows everything right? His clarity and the depth of His mind is sooo deep that we can’t even comprehend it so He knew that creating this world would amount into so much incredible pain. Try to think of this. An all knowing God made this world knew what pain creating the world could potentially amount too. How amazing is His incredible, amazing, mind melting gift that He has waiting for those who are trusting on Him? His benefits of His gift would need to out weight the pain.

“16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
-Ephesians 3:16-19

….That my friends is an amazing verse….

Now, to Romans 7:15-25, 8:1-2.....

vs. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

    This really is the battle that we all have with our sin nature. We all battle our own desires, what we “want” to do for ourselves. It’s actually very selfish. In the context of humanity, isn’t everything that He (God) doesn’t want us to do, going against God’s desires for our own good?

 vs. 16 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.  So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

     His (Paul’s) body is flesh. Certain parts of the body desire certain things. Like, if your arm has an itch, doesn’t your body signal to your brain that, that part of your body to be scratched? Some things that your body has an “itching” for aren’t always beneficial. Some things our bodies instincts want aren’t always good for us. Candy isn’t something we need to eat for every meal. Our body doesn’t think like our minds. We’d be very unhealthy if that’s all we ate. That’s why it would be sin against our body.

Vs. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

   Paul is saying  that his desires battle with his mind. He even have the strength to fight anymore!

Vs 19-20 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but the sin who dwells in me.

     First, one thing should be clarified, he separates the “evil” living inside himself because those evil desires are more instinctual. If you’re hungry and wandering in the desert, what if you spot a nice piece of food? Your body wants it but your brain, your higher brain functions tell you, “no way, that has to have been sitting out there for a while, there’s no way that it’s beneficial for human consumption!” Paul is saying, he desires what is evil but he knows that fulfilling his animal instincts can kill him spiritually and eventually physically. His communication with God will also be broken. His communication with God could be severed too!

Vs. 21-23 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

     Paul knows what is right morally with his head, he knows it! However this human instinct in his body still wants different things and is fighting against what he knows to be God’s way. We all know this battle.

Vs. 24-25 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?! Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Paul is at the breaking point, like we all come too. We need to face the truth, WE CAN NOT DO IT ALONE!

Ch. 8, vs. 1-2 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

     When we hold fast to Christ our Lord, no one can blame us. We’re free, He’ll take the blunt of it if we let Him and cling to Him. He is our savior! He is our rescuer from this rotting world and bodies that constantly turn from our true life in Him. He is our strength. He makes us strong when we feel like laying down and giving up.  We must recognize the truth, we can’t do this, but He can. When we are weak and choose to lean on His Spirit, we are stronger than we were before.

   I love You Jesus! You are the savior of my life and eternal soul! I can boldly face the darkness because You are with me.