We started our lesson today by viewing the dashboard posted to the left. If this dashboard reflected your feelings and performance, how would the dashboard appear when you are struggling with sin in your life? For example, when you struggle with sin, how does it impact your stress level, how is your frustration level impacted, and what about your enthusiasm for life and your ability to be a real friend to someone? For most of us, the struggle with sin has a dramatic impact on all these areas of our life.
The apostle Paul faced the same issues as he struggled with sin and he wrote about those emotions in the last half of Romans Chapter 7. Perhaps, the focal point for today's lesson is best articulated in Romans 7: 19-20: "For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me."
As children of God, we cannot expect to be free from the temptation of sin. Indeed, the devil often places temptation before God's children as part of his strategy to defeat the influence of God in an evil and broken world. There are many examples of our daily struggle with sin. They include the struggle against sins such as gluttony, gossip, overspending, failure to speak the truth, failing to control anger, making hurtful comments about or toward others, and a whole littany of others.
I used the example of my own struggle with sweets. I love chocolate pie. I can imagine the taste of the deep chocolaty cream and the light sweet meringue and the crisp, buttery crust. However, I also know the evils of this decadent dish. It is loaded with sugar and with fats and with calories. For a person of my stature and physical make-up, a piece of chocolate pie is BAD. Yet, I cannot resist a piece of this dessert if given an opportunity to partake. Even though I know it is bad, I still eat a piece. And, unfortunately, I often will eat more than one piece if given a chance. I know it is bad, I know that it is not healthy for my body, and I know that it will create negative consequences. Yet, in most cases, I simply cannot resist. I know it is bad before I eat it, I know it is not good for me while I am eating it, and I usually regret the fact that I ate it after I eat it. Yet, I eat it when given the opportunity. This creates a feeling of frustration and anxiety.
Paul spoke of this feeling of frustration and stress in today's scripture. Paul makes it clear that even the children of God can experience failure when it comes to avoiding sin because of the bondage of sin over our flesh. Our ONLY chance for defeating the temptation of sin is to depend on the power of Jesus. There is only one person who has ever walked across the face of this earth who was successful in meeting all the requirements of the law. That person was and is Jesus. For the rest of us, our broken flesh will cause us to fail. Paul describes himself (and us) as a "wretched man" in verse 24. Yet, in verse 25, he recognizes Jesus Christ as our salvation against this sin. Remember, our fight against sin is a war and our only chance is to depend on the Lord. We ended our lesson with a reflection on this quote from C.S. Lewis:
“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means.”
HAVE A GREAT and BLESSED WEEK!
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