I was reading the book for my weekly Bible study last night and was given a brand new perspective on Romans 7. The quotation that she used was from the New Living Translation. This is a great Modern English translation to help us be able to more easily understand what Paul is trying to say. It made it a lot easier for me to personalize it. Here is the text:

I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?

We have all been here with Paul. The struggle of knowing what is right, but fighting within yourself to do that because the sin looks/feels good to us. Thankfully Paul didn't leave us hanging at the end of chapter 7, but moves on in chapter 8 in the first verse to say that there is "now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." By turning to Christ we have the Spirit of God that can help us to not turn to the sins that "so easily beset us." As our pastor pointed out yesterday in his message, we don't have to sin. Sin is a choice, just as doing right is a choice. In order to not do the sins that we are so drawn to we need to set up road blocks. Remove yourself from the temptations. Romans 8:13 says "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Our pastors message was entitled "Mortify". We need to daily, moment by moment, be "putting to death"(NAS) the deeds/desires of our flesh. What really stuck out to me is that the dying that will take place, is not just the eternal death, but when you make fleshly choices you are killing relationships. When we are selfish and only think of ourselves and making ourselves feel good, we don't think of those we will hurt in the process.

I think the best way to end this is to quote I Corinthians 15:56-58

"The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord."