Most of us are ... doing okay, right? I mean, nothing ... overwhelming. You know ... "I'm okay; you're okay." The basic "goodness of man." We're not ... that bad. Even Christians, who know better, don't really think they're that bad. Maybe not as good as, say, Jesus, but certainly better than others ... at least morally. I'm pretty sure if we're thinking that way we're badly mistaken.
I remember the first time I read Paul's 7th chapter in the epistle to Rome. You know ... Paul the Apostle. He talks about the difference of "spiritual" and "flesh" (Rom 7:14) and the problem that every single believer has ... "sin which dwells in me" (Rom 7:17). Wait ... Paul? Sin dwells in him? He explains. "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not" (Rom 7:18). Paul ... we ... I have nothing good in the flesh. He goes on to say, "For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want" (Rom 7:19). That ... is every one of us. Paul gets so frustrated with this constant battle inside him with sin that he cries, "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" (Rom 7:24).
Have you ever been there? It should be every believer's constant problem. We never arrive. We never obtain sinless perfection. We never are perfectly loving God or our neighbors. We are constantly fighting sin. Hebrews says, "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us" (Heb 12:1). Sin ... entangles us. So we look to our only solution ... Christ (Heb 12:2; Rom 7:25) If you're not conscious of your constant sin problem, you're complacent, not competent. If you are aware of it, I encourage you as I encourage myself ... run the race (Heb 12:1-2). We didn't get saved on our own. We won't endure on our own. He will do it. So ... we are to run with endurance ... repeatedly placing one foot in front of the other ... "fixing our eyes on Jesus."
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It blows my mind that many people believe Paul is talking about our pre-conversion life there. When I read that, I can't help but see myself like that every day. I sin, though I want to obey. I refrain when I want to proclaim. I call myself wretched every time I have to repent, asking God to just take me out so I can worship and obey Him properly, because I'm certainly not doing it now. What non-believer thinks that way for Paul to be talking about them? They do what they want without that struggle because they don't have the new life fighting with the old man.
“We didn't get saved on our own. We won't endure on our own. He will do it. So ... we are to run with endurance ... repeatedly placing one foot in front of the other ... ‘fixing our eyes on Jesus.’” That truly is the Christian journey, in a nutshell. My own footrace might proceed more slowly than other “runners,” but I will reach the “finish line” with great joy and celebration. May my endurance never waiver, so I might finish in victory (Phil. 3:13-14, 2 Tim. 4:7).
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