READING: 1 Kings 2, 1 Chronicles 29, Romans 7
I know that scholars debate whether Romans 7 speaks of of one’s pre-conversion or post-conversion life. I land in the latter camp, but that’s not what most captures my thinking today. Instead, it’s Paul’s anguished and honest cry in Romans 7:24 – “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
The struggle was real for Paul. He knew what he needed to do, but he didn’t always do it. He hated sin, but he did it anyway at times. The enemy dangled his bait in front of Paul no matter how closely the apostle followed Christ. Paul knew he could never in his own power win this battle. He needed a rescuer – and He could magnify the Lord with great fervor because he had one: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom 7:25).
All of us face this same battle. Indeed as one writer put it, “Very few Christians have read this section without thinking of their own struggle against sin.”* The good news is that we have the same Rescuer, too!
PRAYER: “Thanks be to God!”
TOMORROW’S READING: 1 Kings 3, 2 Chronicles 1, Psalm 42, Romans 8
*Osborne, G. R. (2004). Romans (p. 182). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
