0505 YOU AND YOUR HEART PROBLEMS

YOU AND YOUR HEART PROBLEM

Yesterday I paraphrased chapter 6 in first person. Much of chapter 7 is already in first person, so I will try to paraphrase it in second person. Here we go:

You, my friend, seem to have a problem with doing so much wrong. You break God’s rules of life daily. But it’s not the rules’ fault that you fail, you know. Of course not! That would be like claiming if you had no rules you wouldn’t be breaking them.

No, the rules of God simply help you to measure just how messed up you are. For example, one of the rules says, ‘you must not lust after what you can’t have.’ But your heart says, “Did you say I’m not allowed to do something? That’s exactly what I want, now that you mention it.”

You might think you would be better off, then, with no rules. No rules means no guilt, right? After all, when you were a baby, you didn’t need rules, because you weren’t able to break them. or to keep them, for that matter!”  I’ m saying, when you were a baby, you did wrong—wanting what you can’t have, rule or not. But when you heard the rules, your conscience came to life, and you died. So God’s good rules ended up bringing you death instead of life.

I’m saying the rules themselves are good. They are holy and right and good. So how can good rules lead to death? Did the rules cause your death? Of course not! Don’t blame rules for making you imperfect. But that wrong that’s inside you, that’s the enemy! Can you see how terrible it really is? It uses the good rules for its own evil purposes. The trouble is not with the rules themselves, the trouble is with you—for you are all too human, and a slave to doing wrong.

Can you explain why you actually want to do something right, but you don’t do it. Instead, you end up doing what you hate. You know that you are doing wrong, which proves that the rules themselves are good. And your heart wants to follow them, which proves that you are not really the one who is doing the wrong. You have a heart problem. Your heart within you has chosen wrongdoing, and there is nothing good in you because of that.

And you know that nothing good lives in you, that is, in your heart. You want to do what is right, but you can’t. You want to do what is good, but you don’t. You don’t want to do what is wrong, but you do it anyway. 

So now, if you do what you don’t want to do, then you are broken inside. When you want to do what is right, you inevitably do what is wrong. You can love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power inside you that is at war with your heart. This power makes you a slave to the wrong in your heart. 

I can see that you are miserable, aren’t you? ! Do you wish you could be free? Do you know who will free you from such a prison of such evil? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In your mind you really want to obey God’s rules, but because of your heart you are a slave to doing wrong.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭7:7-25‬ ‭