Our Struggle With Sin

https://odb.org/MY/2023/03/30/to-do-or-not-to-do

Romans 7:14-25 has been a source of debate because if it describes Paul’s personal struggles with sin, then it contradicts Paul’s assertion that believers have freedom from sin in the Holy Spirit as described in Romans 6:17-18 and 8:1-2. Thus, many scholars now believe that Paul’s narrative in Romans 7 is more a literal technique to dramatically describe one’s general struggle with sin under the law as opposed to our freedom from sin in the power of the Holy Spirit.

But the reality, I believe, as most of us have experienced, is that there is indeed an ongoing struggle with sin, even as believers empowered by the Spirit. We can be driven by emotions and sometimes get disportionately angry with others, especially when driving and confronted with unethical queue cutting drivers. So we display our dissatisfaction with such situations by honking at such drivers when we should be exercising compassion and forgiveness.

Or after paying for a meal, halfway home, we realised that the restaurant had under-charged us by omitting an item. Do we turn back and spend another 20 mins in traffic, look for parking, and go back to the restaurant to pay them for the omitted item? Would we do that if we were over-charged? The thing is, by not doing what is right, we are committing sin. In the earlier case of queue cutting, shouldn’t we have taken photographs and reported such unethical drivers to the authorities? For example, those driving on the emergency lane during packed highway traffic conditions.

Is our struggle with sin in not doing what is right or doing what is wrong when we don’t want to? I believe, like Paul, we have the freedom not to sin anymore in the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus, we must clearly refrain from intentionally doing evil to avoid the embarrassment of telling God later why we did what we did in our next conversation with Him. I think if we intentionally do evil or hurt others, we will have a tough time explaining ourselves to the Lord. Also, for not doing the right thing, perhaps it will be easier to justify to the Lord; but even then, if we had disobeyed a prompting of the Holy Spirit, we had not only sin but would have missed out on the blessing and experience of responding to His voice in our heart.

I guess the message this morning is that whenever we face sin, we should remember that if we intentionally do evil, we will have a tough time explaining our behaviour to God. What are we to say the next time we face Him in prayer? We can avoid the issue, but for how long can we do so? It is my prayer for myself and everyone that as we journey on with God in this walk of faith that we will overcome sin and our weaknesses more and more, that we will always remain faithful and true to our calling in Christ until the day of Jesus Christ.