Title: Oh, I am a wretched man
No, it is sin that dwells in me. Therefore I understand a law, that if I want to do good, evil is present with me. In my inner man I delight in the law of God, but in my members another law is set in my heart. I see the law waging war against the law and bringing me captive under the law of sin that is in my members! O wretched man I am! Who can deliver me from this body of death? I will give thanks to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. I serve the law of righteousness, and with the flesh I serve the law of sin.”
Today, I would like to share grace with you by saying, “Oh, wretched man!”
In the confession of an alcoholic, he said, "No matter how hard I try and decide not to drink alcohol, I can't overcome the tremendous temptation and ruthless desire of alcohol." This time, listen to the scream of a drug addict. “I have neither the mental strength nor the will to meet the demonic demands of drugs. My life is a slave to drugs and a plaything.” These confessions are extreme examples of demonic temptation. One in five Korean adults is an alcoholic, and the number of drug addicts is estimated at more than 300,000. Of the 340 murderers, 85% of men and 38% of women said they were intoxicated at the time of the crime. Alcohol and drugs give pleasure at first, but then paralyze the conscience, poison the character, and lead to ruin.
However, all human beings cannot but agree with Paul's confession of conscience.
Romans 7:18-24, "I know that nothing good dwells in me, in my flesh, that I want to, but I do not do good. I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want. If I do what I do not want to do, it is not I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. Therefore I understand a law, that if I want to do good, evil is present with me. I see another law in my members wrestling with the law of my heart, bringing me captive to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?"
The Austrian physician Dr. Freud, who first proposed psychoanalysis, was a wonderful person who is called the father of modern psychiatry. But he is counted as a failure to conquer himself. The doctor noticed that his heart was beating irregularly and told him to stop smoking too much. He paused for a while, but then started smoking again. Eventually, after suffering 35 surgeries for jaw bone cancer, he was finally able to remove the lower jaw completely. Even the best doctors were helpless in the face of the lure of cigarettes. How much effort would he have put into making him the father of psychiatry for future generations? He had great willpower. However, his will to escape the temptation of cigarettes had no power. We can see from Paul's lamentation that no matter how strong the willpower is, he cannot resist the temptations of sin by his own strength.
1. The Gospel of ‘I’
First, in Romans 7, the word ‘I’ appears a lot.
In Romans 7 I lament my wretched helplessness under the yoke of law and sin.
According to a New York Telephone Company survey, the most used word is 'I'. It is said that ordinary people personally used the word ‘I’ 3,790 times out of 5,000 calls. Natural human beings live ego-centrically, but the reality is that our existence is so powerless and incompetent. I can't get rid of sin, the devil, and evil worldly habits by my own strength. The fall of Adam was a complete holistic fall, and brought about irreparable corruption. It is impossible to restore it to its original state through self-discipline, asceticism, and effort. No matter how hard you try to get rid of guilt and curses, you can practice, deify yourself, or find rest by finding a false religion.
Romans 3:10-23 says, “As it is written, There is none righteous, not even one.” It says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
After Adam, human beings were born in the corruption of sin, and nature was born into this world as a servant of the devil who sinned from the beginning.
In Psalm 51:3 and 5, he confessed, "For I know my transgression, and my sin is always before me." He lamented, "I was born in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me."
1 John 3:8 says, "He who sins is of the devil, and the devil sins from the beginning, because the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil."
That is why, although our heart desires, our natural people do not have the strength to act. Even if you make up your mind and make up your mind, it is three days.
Romans 7:18 "I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh; the desire is in me, but it is not in me to do good."
I want to, but I don't have the strength to do it.
Romans 3:20 "Therefore, by the works of the law no flesh has to be justified before him, by the law the knowledge of sin."
The more you try, the more you realize that you are a wretched sinner. Through human effort, even if we fast, ascetic, and practice, the outside is clean, but only a vessel full of rot and a whitewashed tomb. You can whitewash the outside, but the inside