[:en]SCRIPTURE: ROMANS 7
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do” (Romans 7:15)
AN ILLUSTRATION FROM MARRIAGE (vs,. 1-7)
Paul used marriage to illustrate our relation to Law. A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. She is released from the law of marriage when her husband dies and is free to marry again. Similarly, before we meet Christ, we are bond by the Law. When we are saved, we are married to Christ and no longer married to a Law or a system of regulations. The Old Law no longer controls us because we are related to Christ in newness of the Spirit. Now that we belong to God’s family, we are to obey God just as a bride is lovingly pleasing her bridegroom.
STRUGGLING WITH SIN (vs. 7-25)
The Law is spiritual but we are unspiritual (v. 14) . That is why Paul said: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it our. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. Now, if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it” (vs. 15-20). We cannot make ourselves holy by means of law because of our sinful nature. A true Christian has the new nature of God that needs no law.
When we receive Christ, it does not mean that our old nature is entirely changed. The believer still has the ability to sin but God gives him a new nature for a desire not to sin. The Holy Spirit enables us to obey Him and fulfill the demands of God’s holiness. Let us be dead to sin and dead to Law but alive in Christ through the Spirit so that we can enjoy God’s blessing in our holy living.[:]