"sin" in my "flesh"

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

[If I haven't heard from you that you read this blog, or visit it, I'd like to hear from you. It's meaningful to me, and helpful, but I'm evaluating whether I'll keep doing it after Lent. I'd especially like to hear from Church of the Apostles people. Thanks. markjdicristina@yahoo.com]


Jer. 17:19-27; Rom. 7:13-25; John 6:16-27

For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 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. (Romans 7:22-23)


Paul actually has already given a pattern, a discipline, a new way of life, in order to deal with this "sin" in the "flesh," this other "law" that dwells in his members (cf. ch. 6). He will return to it shortly in chapter 8 - after framing it in its most important context and reality: "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord... the law of the spirit of life in Christ has set me free..."

But I find this whole chapter oddly comforting. While some scholars hold that this is Paul's testimony of his life before Christ, what in part led him to Christ, the majority consider this his and our current reality as believers. This does describe me. Ingrained in my "flesh," in my very body and mind, are ways of relating, responding, thinking, rationalizing... that have long been ingrained in me, habitual patterns of behaving and "believing" that are not ways of faith and trust, that when I step back and think about it, I don't really want to do.

But I also have experienced, bit by bit, little victories. Patterns and responses changing, as I take on disciplines (that I initially resist, and do not like!) to detach and begin to heal from these "compulsions." The speeding example I gave in a recent sermon is one. I'm finding myself relaxing much more while driving. My quick response to be irritated and even angry with people going the speed limit (!) is lessening; and I'm not as panicky when I see a police car too (!). But lurking close at hand is pride... an even more deeply ingrained "sin" pattern. Bottom line is, where is my life? What is it that satisfies, that seems to "increase" and secure me? And, of course, the answer is - the love of God in Jesus Christ. But it is the "discipline" of engaging the "sin" in my "flesh" that exposes that I'm not really trusting God, and which moves me to repentance and faith...

Lent, and life in Christ, is a journey - a journey to Easter, to the passion, cross, and resurrection. It is a journey of dying with Christ and rising to new life, and Romans 7 reminds us (and ought to encourage us) that we have not arrived, that God's Word (his "law," the Torah = guidance, teaching) is a gift pointing us to Jesus, and to take the frustration, the reality of our stumbling along in the journey and cast it all on him who is our only hope.

"Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord"