To Be Clear

O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. 

Romans 7:24-25 

Why does Paul close our text in the manner he does? The climax of his discourse on his own spiritual struggles is his remark, ‘I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!’ That is his answer to the question, ‘Who will deliver me from this body of death?’ Why does he seem to digress in his final remark? A possible answer is he recognized that he would always face the battle he described until he entered glory in the presence of Christ. Thus his final statement is one of realistic humility. Is there victory in Christ? Yes, there is. Does Christ deliver us by degrees from the power of sin in our life? Certainly, He does. Does the Holy Spirit renew us in the whole person and enable us to die more and more unto sin and to live unto righteousness? We know He does. All of those things are true, yet we are still of earth and not yet perfected. We will still struggle as Paul did. We will still, of necessity, look to Christ. We are utterly dependent on Him to deliver us from ourselves. Whether we are young in the faith or old well-seasoned believers, we are still nothing without Christ.  

Our Good and Gracious God, 
we rejoice that You never give up on us. 
We praise You that You will continue to work in us, 
until the day of Jesus Christ.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning