Now there's this guy named Saul who went around persecuting Christians not long after the death of Jesus. The church is afraid of this man because if he and his homies found you, you could be taken from your home, thrown in prison, and maybe even killed. This same guy had an encounter with Jesus that changed his life forever. No longer was he killing believers, but now he was making believers. He became Paul and travelled around teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to whomever he met. He is the greatest missionary of our faith who also wrote 75% of what we have in the New Testament. He was a tremendous man of God who walked in an immense power that most of us only dream of. Instead of praying for people to be healed of sickness, he just told them to stop being sick. How many of us can do that? People would steal this mans handkerchief or apron to rub on their bodies because it would actually heal them. Again, how many of us get our clothing stolen for that reason? He talked with Jesus face to face and had converts wherever he went. We can all agree this man was a man of God at a varsity level. Which is why I think this is such good news:
"For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me...Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord."--Romans 7:18b-20, 24-25a
I love this text! It's such a great text. Let me tell you why this is so great. Because a powerful, profound man of God said this. And if he says this, then I don't feel like such an alien anymore. I can say what Paul is saying here. "Why don't I do the fulness of what I know is right? And why, when I know what is right, do I still do what I know is wrong?" Like I'm the only one who struggles with sin, that I'm alone in this grieving over my sin...I'm not. Do we struggle, do we grieve like Paul over our sin?
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