I AM NOT

 

Saturday, January 11, 2025

 

I AM NOT

 

Rom 7:18-24

18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

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?

 

          I remember as a child a TV program called “The Incredible Hulk.” A mild-mannered scientist inadvertently discovered a chemical formula that unleashed the monster that was inside of him. Anger unlocked this animal in every episode, but he always emerged as the hero at the end. Shirtless and calm, he sat pondering his identity.

 

          Paul had been transformed by the grace of God and the blood of Christ but there was an uncomfortable remnant of the man Paul used to be. In Romans chapter seven Paul tries to explain his dilemma. He does what he does not want to do and fails in his attempts to do good. I often feel the same as Paul.

 

           I am not good. I am not kind, benevolent, or helpful. I am often just a petulant child, selfish, and moody. If, at the end of the episode, I emerge as an accidental hero, it is all of God and none of me.

 

Rom 7:24-25

24 O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from [the shackles of] this body of death?

25 O thank God! [He will!] through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) our Lord! So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and heart, serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

AMPLIFIED

 

Lord, thank you for the victory that is in Christ. AMEN