Experiencing the Presence and Power of the Spirit

Our Daily Bread Ministries

Scripture can seem irrelevant and lifeless until it is read with an awareness of the questions that bring the storyline to life. Names, dates, locations, all pub trivia until we ask questions that help us see ourselves in the places and situations the Bible describes.

Romans 8 proposes answers to questions that have plagued humanity, and especially followers of Jesus, for two thousand years. What we often forget is that the reassuring words of Romans 8 are a response to Paul’s anguished description of his own spiritual struggle in chapter:

I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. . . . I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. . . . Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin” (7:15, 18–19, 24 – 25).

Those verses are a little too reflective for many of us. The mirror Scripture often stands before us often presents an unsettlingly clear image. We see too much of ourselves, and we probably see Paul as entirely different from us. He was assured of final victory. Are we?