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This is the diary of a man in the process of discovering what it means to be born-again and empowered by the Holy Spirit. To twenty-first century Christians, these struggles appear almost commonplace. We saw the Reformation over five-hundred years ago; we can recall countless Holy Spirit revivals throughout history; we’ve experienced many types of movements in Christianity: Prayer, Charismatic, Prophetic, Pentecostal, Messianic, and Hebrew Roots, to name a few; and we have study bibles, bible programs and apps; a myriad of Christian books, curriculums, and study guides; Christian television, radio, magazines, music, and the internet; and we have churches on every corner, over three-hundred thousand of them in the United States alone. You get the picture?
However, Paul is the first man alive to sort through and commit to words what took place in us when the great transaction occurred, ideas and words that have become part of the common vernacular for those whose lives Christ exchanged for His own. Let’s examine Paul’s struggle to discover just what happened to each of us when we got knocked off our feet in the great exchange. The last part of Romans seven is like taking a peek into the diary of a man on a long journey. Think carefully about your own life and history, contemplate any important event, and then consider if you were called to write about it. The words could hardly compare to the details of the actual story. Words can’t do justice to the seconds, minutes, and hours of reality. Sure we can overview life in snapshots, key moments and highlights, shards of history, but the minute details of reality can never be chronicled sufficiently, for any historical event, even one in your own life. Consider a soldier at war, for instance. There are key battles, strategic moments, memorial dates, and history-deciding losses and victories. And in that one soldier’s life, in his mind, he endured the expanded nano-seconds of time—an ongoing personal reality, but hidden from recorded history: the fears, the suffering, the cold, the pain, the doubt, the hope, the confusion, and the terrible longing for his loved ones. He experienced every continuous moment, reality that history never recorded. And this is but one soldier. Can you feel it?
Now, take a look back at Paul’s struggle, his dilemma. You are reading an encapsulation. He is opening his diary and allowing us to see, and possibly feel, the highlights of his journey of discovery; “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Yes, it all comes down to this journal entry; “Thank you Father, your Son has already delivered me from this struggle. I get it now, my old flesh serves the law of sin; but, the new man, born-again in Christ, serves the laws of my God.”
And then the great question for all of us. Do we join Paul in his struggle, or do we join him in his discovery, his victory? You have his diary entries to draw from; why repeat his mistakes? Choose now to agree with the law of sin that has you doing things you know you shouldn’t and neglecting things you know you should, or live as the new creature and serve the laws of God who sent His Son to die for you that you might be born-again and filled with His grace.
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