Ep. 255 - Who Will Rescue Me from This Body of Death? - Romans 7:15-25

This sermon's focus: The Christian StruggleSometimes people get the wrong idea looking at Christians and Christianity from the outside. They think that Christians got it figured out and should be better people. In one sense, yes, we do claim to live for Jesus vs. ourselves, so we should be more selfless. And yet, no, we are still broken inside. Sometimes Christians get confused on this too.But in this text, Paul the Apostle opens up about his own struggle to do what is good and right in God's sight. He wants to! But he struggles to win that fight within against the evil that still rages inside. What Paul is describing is the struggle of every Christian. The struggle is actually a sign of faith! When we believe, we receive a new life from the Spirit, a life that is alive because of Christ and it fuels us to live for God. However, as long as we live in this world, we will also have a sinful nature, an infection of sin that drives us to self-destruction and fear. No matter how long or how "good" we are at being a Christian, we will struggle. Paul struggled. So do you. Be honest about it and rely on the only source of strength Christians have, Jesus!Our Sermon's Text: Romans 7:15–25a 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. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but 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. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!