Unlimited: I Hate What I Do
Nov 30, 2022 772
For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good (Romans 7:15b–16).
Like the apostle Paul, I hate what I do because I do what I hate. I love kindness and goodness and honesty and fairness, but I recognise that my behaviour and my words fall far short of my desires.
Paul is explaining a fundamental truth of the human condition. Paul is speaking from his own experience. However, if they’re honest, every human being who has ever lived can identify with what Paul says here.
I hate what I do because I do what I hate.
Paul has already made it clear in the previous chapter (6:6–7) that our old self was crucified with Christ on the Cross. Paul has made it clear that this liberation was a one-time event:
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin (Rom. 6:6–7.)
Although it no longer rules over us or defines us, our sinful nature still remains within us until glorification.
Until them, our lives will be a battle between the new nature under Christ, and the defeated old nature that was ruled by sin. Our sin-nature will continually try to deceive us into thinking that our acceptance in Christ is not real.
Spiritual Application
Think this through. Is the Christian life a battle or a resting in Christ? If it is one or the other, then why? If it is both, how do you reconcile these two realities in your own life?
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