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Pathways Through Paul
Daily Devotional
February 28
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Today's Pathway:
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Paul's recent topic has been the relationship of believers to the law. In today's passage he uses the word "law" in several different ways as a play on words to illustrate the struggles he has as a Christian. In verse 21 Paul says,
"I find then a law".
The expression "I find" indicates that this is a discovery that Paul has made. It is not simply an assumption; he knows this to be a fact in his life based upon his own experience. We could call this the "law of sin" (verses 23, 25). Here is what that law says: when I want to do the right thing, sin is always right there trying to stop me. As shown in previous verses, this is because man's flesh is still present and active even though his soul has been redeemed. But, according to verse 22, Paul also states that he delights in the "law of God". This would be the commandments that God has established in His Word. Paul is thrilled to be able to obey what God has told him to do because he is a new creature in Christ and the Holy Spirit indwells and leads him. Then in verse 23 he speaks of the "law in his members". This refers to the fact that his body wants to do the wrong thing. There is always a temptation to yield his "members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin" (Romans 6:13). Finally, Paul writes about the "law of my mind" in verse 23. This law means that his mind wants to do what is right according to the Scriptures.
Paul is using these terms to show the great conflict that exists within himself. In verse 23 he says that the "law in his members" is at war with the "law of his mind". He knows what is right. He loves the law of God and desires to follow it. But his flesh wants to fight against him. His hands, feet, eyes and ears all want what pleases them, and most of what they want is sinful. It is so bad that Paul writes in verse 23 that he is taken captive by the law of sin. The verb tenses used in verse 23 indicate that this is an ongoing, continual battle. All this conflict drives Paul to cry out in verse 24,
"O wretched man that I am!"
He is miserable, and desires something to deliver him from the "body of this death": his flesh and his sinful nature. Harry Ironside put it this way:
"He is like a living man chained to a polluted, corrupt, corpse, and unable to snap the chains. He cannot make the corpse clean and subject, no matter how he tries. It is the cry of hopelessness so far as self-effort is concerned. He is brought to the end of human resources."
What is the solution to Paul's struggle? It is not the Mosaic law. Warren Wiersbe wrote,
“'I will get free from these old sins!' the Christian says to himself. 'I determine here and now that I will not do this any longer.' What happens? He exerts all his willpower and energy, and for a time succeeds; but then when he least expects it, he falls again. Why? Because he tried to overcome his old nature with Law, and the Law cannot deliver us from the old nature. Instead of being a dynamo that gives us power to overcome, the Law is a magnet that draws out of us all kinds of sin and corruption. The inward man may delight in the Law of God (Psalm 119:35), but the old nature delights in breaking the Law of God. No wonder the believer under Law becomes tired and discouraged, and eventually gives up! He is a captive, and his condition is 'wretched.' What could be more wretched than exerting all your energy to try to live a good life, only to discover that the best you do is still not good enough!"
So if the Law isn't the answer, what is? Verse 25 tells us that the answer is not "what", but "Who". Jesus Christ our Lord will bring us to victory!
Pastor Mark J Montgomery
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