Struggling With Sin

Now my dear friends—who are familiar with the law—don't you know that the law applies only while a person is living? For example, when a person gets married, the law binds binds them together as long as they live (I Cor. 7:39). But if one of them dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to the surviving spouse. So while both spouses are still alive, if one remarries they would be committing adultery (Luke 16:18). But if one of them has died, the surviving spouse is free from the law and does not commit adultery in remarrying.

All right my friends, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died to Christ. And now you are united with the One who was raised from the dead (I Peter 2:24). As a result, we can produce a great harvest of good deeds for God. When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law worked up these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer a captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the law to the very letter, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.

Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it is the law that showed me my own sin. I would never have known coveting is wrong if the law had not said "You must not covet" (Ex. 20:17). But sin used this command to work up all kinds of selfish desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that kind of power. At one time I lived without understanding the law, but when I learned the command not to selfishly desire (covet) things, for example, the power of sin came to life, and brought about spiritual death instead. Sin took advantage of those commands and tricked me; it used the commands to kill me. But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good.

But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my blame and condemned me to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God's good commands for its own evil purposes.

So you see, the trouble is not with the law, because the law is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, because I am all to human, addicted to sin. I don't really understand myself, because I want to do what is good and what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate! But since 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 the sin living in me that does it.

And I also know that nothing good lives in me, and by that I mean in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I just 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 the sin living inside me that does it.

I have discovered this principle in my own life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God's word and His law with all my heart, but there is another power within me that is at way with my mind. It is this power that makes me so addicted to the sin that remains inside me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life of addiction to sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature I am addicted to sin.

Thanks for letting me be completely honest with you tonight. May God bless you as you go through your week.

Paul