Body Of Death

Genesis 4:7
"If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if yo do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you must master it".

Romans 7:18-19
I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good that I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do----this I keep doing.

If ever there was a description of what addiction is like, it is found in these two verses. Funny to me that as smart as we claim we are in this country, we reject the idea of having a sin nature, or an internal bent to choose and do wrong. Everyone has it. Everyone is born with it. Too some degree, the human race has a desire to do that which is contrary to God's will for us.

Not everyone is an addict...
Not everyone is a serial killer..
Not everyone is a professional burglar...
Why this sin nature leads some down the path of addiction, I do not know. 
I do know that all sin begins with a choice that we make.
We willingly choose to reject God and embrace the inner desire that is manifested by that "old" nature.

When you automatically reject the idea of us being driven by this nature, then no wonder all this "looking to Jesus" stuff sounds like hokum. 

To me, the Romans 7:18-19 passage sounds exactly like Step #1 of the Twelve Steps.

"We admitted that our we are powerless over our addiction - That

Our lives have become unmanageable." 

What the apostle Paul wrote in the Romans passage is exactly the definition of powerless. I want to do good...in fact my intention IS to do good, but I don't. The every thing I determine not to do is the very thing I do.

How many have I talked to that declare to me that they are finished with addiction. "I'm never going to use ever again." But because they are choosing to approach this beast in their own strength and own understanding, they fail. They go right back out and do the very thing they proclaimed they wouldn't.

In the Genesis passage, we have God warning Able about his thoughts and motives being driven by this old sin nature that has been passed down to all of us. "Yo,dude (o.k. I know God didn't really say it this way) pay attention. Sin is right outside your door (that should tell us that sin is always "right outside our the door of our choices) and its desire to have you ( that is Biblical talk for "Eat you alive") but you must master it."

How do we master such a beast? By realizing two things.

1.) We are powerless to attempt such a feat as mastering or ruling over the very thing inside of us that seeks to destroy and devour us.

And

2.) Come to believe in a POWER that is greater than us who could restore us to sanity. (Or the ability to make sound decisions)

There is only one who fits the bill of being an actual POWER greater than ourselves. There is only one who possesses the POWER to alter our minds and hearts to such a degree that we can make sound, just decisions. Such a one has a name, and that name would be Jesus.

Romans 7:24-25

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God---through Jesus Christ our Lord!

When Paul declares Jesus as being his Lord, he is not attaching a religious tittle to Him. Paul is declaring that he is placing himself under this person of Jesus. He is stating that he, Paul, is incapable of breaking free from this sin nature that drives him to do the wrong thing. Paul states that Jesus alone possesses the power to take Paul out of this "body of death". See that is funny part (not ha-ha funny, but weird funny) of this addiction thing. Those in bondage to it really are the walking dead. No wonder Jesus declares in John 3 that we must be born again. We must be brought to a new life...a new way...a new direction, and only Jesus can do this for us. What does the big book of A.A. say? "God does for me what I cannot do for myself." End of statement..end of discussion. Either such a declaration is true or it isn't. No other way to look at it.

So if you struggling today...

If you're entertaining thoughts of using again...
Cry out to God with an admission of your own powerlessness. 

You don't have to use...

You don't have to embrace that "body of death" any longer.
Jesus will free you.
That's a promise.

God on you....
Michael b.