“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25)
Have you ever struggled with the fear of failure? That fear was the slave-driver of every success I experienced until I was willing to make the same journey Paul writes about in the seventh and eighth chapters of Romans. As mule-headed as I am, I have finally realized that failure is not fatal when I let God transform it into learning.
REGENERATED
In the seventh chapter of Romans, Paul begins his new life with Christ as a man whose heart, will, and nature has been renewed. Though he has been regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit, he explains that he is still in a mighty battle with sin as a power within him even though the sin principle is no longer part of his new nature. He is a believer who still sins, and so are we. He is a believer who still fails and so are we.
IMPOTENT
Thank God that Paul doesn’t leave us stuck there! In the course of Paul’s struggle and failure, God teaches Paul that he is utterly powerless, even with great willpower, to obey God’s law and to stay within God’s guardrails for his life. When he writes, “I am sold as a slave to sin” (Romans 7:14), we see a man who has come to the end of himself. But Paul’s failure to break himself free from an endless cycle of sin becomes a way for God to teach him that he needs the daily work of the Holy Spirit in his life. We are so blessed that this man is so honest or we would have no answer for our own failures to be like Jesus. How amazing that the answer lies in Paul feeling so awful about his failure to get over the bar!
WRETCHED
At this point in the journey, Paul is wretched, absolutely devastated, and heartbroken. His sin has hurt the God he loves, which feels intolerable to a man who spent his life wanting to serve the Lord he once thought he knew. This is the bad news. However, the good news is that Paul realizes that his only hope of deliverance is to admit how spiritually powerless he is and cry out for deliverance from “this body of death.” If you have tried and tried then failed to deal with sin in your life, there is hope! Coming to the end of yourself opens the door to the powerful work of Christ’s spirit in you.
FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT
When Paul finally connects the dots, he cries out, “Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24). From writing I, me, and my over forty times in the seventh chapter of Romans, Paul now writes, in the eighth chapter that the Holy Spirit is the One who works in believers to give them the power of obedience, victory, and real holiness.
You and I can stay in a failure cycle or we can learn to work with the new will that God implants in us when we invite Jesus into our hearts. Instead of trying to do better, we can train to rely on the empowering of the Holy Spirit from moment to moment. We can go to church, read our Bibles, and pray, but we will be at the mercy of the demands of our flesh until we ask for and rely on a daily filling of God’s Holy Spirit. Only then will we have the answer about who will deliver us from sin’s power over us. Only then will God transform failure into learning. Are you ready to let the Holy Spirit move you from groaning to grateful?
Prayer
Abba, I admit I cannot fix myself. Teach me to ask for Your Spirit to fill me, moment to moment, so I can meet life’s challenges without relying on my own will, energy, and religious self-effort. Please show me where I went off the rails. Holy Spirit, help me yield to you. Fill me with all that You are. Amen.
Scripture For Further Study:
Ezekiel 11:19
Matthew 26:41
John 3:6
Romans 7 and 8
Galatians 3:3; 5:16; 6:8
Grow Anyway 