May 26, 2018: SOAP #3096: Proverbs 1-3; Romans 7

Scripture:  Romans (NIV) 7:22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.  24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?  25 Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Observation:   Paul, in his letter to the Romans, has progressed to the place of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:9.  There were two trees with fruit.  One was forbidden, one was allowed: “the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”   There were no limitations put on the “tree of life,” but they were forbidden to eat from “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

At the end of Romans, chapter 7, Paul was experiencing the “knowledge of good” by “delighting in God’s law” in his mind.  He was also experiencing the “knowledge of evil” by the “law of sin at work in his members.”

The reality is that law can only show us what is wrong and how we should live, but law can never be the answer.  Law cannot enable and empower me to live pleasing to God.

Application:   The answer to the dilemma is found in Romans 8:2 where we find the other tree in the Garden (Genesis 2:9), the tree of life.  In Romans 8:2 it is called the “law of the Spirit of life (KJV), or the law of the Spirit who gives life (NIV).” This law sets me free from the law of sin and death!  Living life in the Spirit lifts me above the level of life that is so affected by evil temptation.  Laws come to us as words written down; but the Spirit is life!

Prayer:    Holy Spirit, I cannot live as God designed me to live without your empowering presence in my life!  I surrender to your indwelling and leading.  Have your perfect way in my life.  Amen

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!