Friday, October 2, 2009

No one gets out of Romans 7

More of J. I. Packer's introduction, in which he quotes John Owen, from the book Triumph Over Temptation:

The battle is lifelong. "Sometimes a soul hopes or thinks that it may through grace be utterly freed from this troublesome inmate. Upon some sweet enjoyment of God. , some full supply of grace, some return from wandering, some deep affliction, some thorough humiliation, the soul begins to hope that it shall now be freed from the law of sin. But after a while...sin acts again, makes good its old station," and the fight has to be resumed. No one "gets out of Romans 7" in this world." (27, emphasis mine)


Romans 7:15-25
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

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