“Houston, we have a problem.” If dying with Christ symbolized by baptism and standing up symbolizes a resurrected life and eternal life, then why do I keep sinning? When I decide I am going to go on a diet, suddenly that piece of cake jumps into my mouth. I promise myself I will not yell at the kids, or speed, or gossip, or whatever I feel is not right. But sure enough, I do that which I don’t want to do and often do not carry through on doing the good I want to do. Paul laments, “Who is going to help me?”
Paul reasons that it is not the “law” that is the problem as it was designed to teach us how to live the good life. It is not bad but “sin,” my selfish rebelliousness. I try to obey speed limits, mostly, but when I’m in a hurry, my “need” to be on time might encourage my foot to press harder on the accelerator! I can generally be nice to “the other” but if they hurt my kids, compassion is much harder and gossip much easier. Law is good, neutral and not there to condemn anyone. Sin, selfishness is bad, self-justifying and manipulative.
“Is good just as dangerous as evil?” No again! Sin simply did what sin is so famous for doing: using the good as a cover to tempt me to do what would finally destroy me. By hiding within God’s good commandment, sin did far more mischief than it could ever have accomplished on its own. (The Message, Romans 7: 13)”
We just cannot be perfect no matter how much we try. We cannot be perfect even with the help of the Holy Spirit. We just can’t. And so we are back to “grace.” We are saved by grace, by God’s goodness not ours, as a gift, a free gift, not as a reward for living a good life. We must believe. We can only bow our heads and say, thank you.
I like Paul’s clarification that the Law was meant to be a good tool to teach us how to live a good life and that the problem is our own stubborn selfishness that rebels when we think our freedom is threatened. Let’s have the “rubber-meet-the-road” now by picking one of the Ten Commandments and on a piece of paper draw a line down the middle. On one side write the good that law does and on the other write some ways the law is broken. Then pray for our people in government and law enforcement whose job it is to enforce laws.
On the Way to Wonder 