Paul talks of sin as if it’s a person. Sin is something living inside him, like a separate being. It has its own personality. It can act independently, doing whatever it pleases, and it’s very clever, as well. It can somehow twist God’s law – which is holy, righteous and good – into all kinds of rotten, awful desires in Paul’s head instead. And worse still, there’s absolutely nothing he can do about it.
He would like to do something about it, because in his own mind the law is very good, and he would very much like to obey it. But there’s something else in his head preventing him from obeying it. So what on earth is it? Conclusion? It’s this other alien creature living inside him – “it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me (Romans 7:17).”
But at least he knows it’s not him, and it’s not the law either, that’s creating these wrong desires in him. The problem now, though, is what to do about this squirming, cancerous mass of sin inside him, because “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature (verse 18).” Sin has ripped the good right out of him. It’s infiltrated his mind with its own mind, so that his nature is sin’s nature, and in sin’s nature there’s nothing good at all. It’s all bad.
It’s a terrible state of affairs to be in, because in his own mind (what’s left of it!) “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out (verse 18).” His own mind is still working, he can see that, and he’s still conscious and capable of thinking his own thoughts. He knows what his own thoughts are too, and they’re good, but can he carry them out? Absolutely not, because this other creature has his hand on the controls.
Paul has simply become a robot. He does whatever sin commands. But what makes this so awful for Paul is that he still has his own mind, and his own mind doesn’t want to do what the robot’s doing. “For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing (verse 19).” Paul is powerless. If his evil nature wants to do evil, then evil is what Paul does, even though it’s the last thing he wants to do.
Paul is disgusted with himself, but what can he do? Sin has control of him. Or does it?…
Filed under: The new way of the Spirit
