ANOTHER LAW!

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

ANOTHER LAW!

Rom 7:22-25

22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

           The unwelcome law in Paul’s members was a regulating principle. It was a mode of operation that had a long-standing history. It was the way things were done. It was the way things always had been done. It would not be unseated without a fight! Sinful passions, which have enjoyed a long history of unrestrained gratification, have developed a strong force of habit that will not be easily broken.

           This law, or regulating principle, wars first against the mind. It questions right thinking. It argues for indulgence of vices. It lays siege to morality of mind until finally the walls are broken down and the mind relents to the cravings of the flesh. “He that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17)

           Paul painfully describes what so many of us know. We know what is right and want to do it but there is a ruling principle that demands that we do wrong. The good which we want to do is not done but the wrong which we hate is what we continue to do. It is frustrating and miserable. Paul calls it captivity and bondage. From this fleshly prison we are not able to free ourselves. We need Someone to rescue us from ourselves.

            Adam Clarke, in his commentary, answers the craving of the scholars who may happen upon this feeble writing of mine. He says: “Instead of ‎eucharistoo ‎‎too ‎‎Theoo‎, I thank God, several excellent manuscripts, with the Vulgate, some copies of the Itala, and several of the fathers, read it ‎hee ‎‎charis ‎‎tou ‎‎Theou‎, or ‎hee ‎‎charis ‎‎tou ‎‎Kuriou‎, the grace of God, or the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; this is an answer to the almost despairing question in the preceding verse. The whole, therefore, may be read thus: "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" ANSWER: "The grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Prov 4:23

23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

Dear Lord, how well I know the frustration so well described by Paul. Apply thy grace with a broad brush and with bold strokes today for I am taken captive by the enemy of self. Come quickly to rescue me, O Champion of Grace! AMEN