Romans Ch.7

In this chapter, Paul continues to talk about the struggle with sin. But didn't we just cover that in the previous chapter? Why does he feel the need to address it again? Because so many of us Christians can easily identify with his words. We have a desire to do good but can't carry it out. Or we try to stay away from sin but get hooked by it repeatedly.

When you gave your life to Christ, your former self died. But some of us are still carrying around our old, lifeless selves. Whenever I am tempted by my former sins, I imagine myself being handcuffed to a dead body. Forced to drag it around. Carry it to work and to church. It serves as a morbid, but sobering reminder of what sin is. It's simply dead weight that God wants us to leave behind.

Here's another illustration I found while at school. We have a lizard named Larry who lives in the library. (Love the alliteration there!) One day Larry (accepted Christ and) shed his old skin. However, there was a problem. Not all of the skin came off. On the top of Larry's head was the final piece, but it was stuck on his little lizard horns. He did his best to get it off by himself, but eventually the librarian had to come to his rescue. She removed the dead skin, and Larry was a happy lizard again.

In verse 4 Paul talks about dying to the law through Christ so that we might bear fruit to God. It doesn't say we die to the law so that we can do whatever we feel like. But how can we bear fruit if we have something stuck to us? It becomes our focus. And it becomes our discouragement if we can't get rid of it. I said it yesterday. I'll say it today. Find someone who will help you. Larry would still be miserable if the librarian hadn't been there to help him.

Many people have come to this roadblock in their walk with Christ and unfortunately have given up. Please press on. I relate it to playing guitar. When I first started learning guitar, it was so much fun. Then I met the F chord. (And I know why it's called that.) No matter what I did, I could not get the strings to play properly. It was frustrating, but I practiced each day (sometimes only for 10 minutes or so). With each day, my fingers grew stronger. One day I was playing the chord and a glorious sound returned to my ears. I'd finally gotten the result I was looking for.

Your sin struggle is not about winning the war. It's about the little battles you face everyday. Taking captive your thoughts. Avoiding certain places. Opening up to your accountability partner. Spending time in the Word. And eventually you'll be strumming along and this glorious sound of God's freedom will resonate within your heart.