O Wretched Man that I Am! Romans 7:24

Paul the apostle told the people in Rome, “I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members”, and in chapter seven and verse twenty-four of Romans, Paul exclaimed to his readers, “O wretched man that I am” where we read:

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

The verse begins, “O wretched man that I am!” Paul began with the word, “O wretched man” which means “Oh what a miserable, afflicted and enduring trials and troubles male human” “that I am” or “that Paul was”! With the dilemma of his “inner man” “warring” with his “mind and body”, Paul considered himself a “miserable and afflicted” man.

The verse continues, “who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Paul questioned rhetorically with the words, “who shall deliver me” which means “what person would rescue Paul” “from the body or “away and separate from the corpse” “of this death” which refers to “of the separation of the soul and body by which the life on earth is ended”? Paul emphatically asked, “who” would be the person who could “rescue” him from the bondage of his “deadly” “flesh nature”.

When we consider these words of Paul, we see his exasperation to the conflict he felt within himself. Although he desired to keep God's law, his “inner sinful self” “warred” against it. He wondered, “who” might be able to “rescue” him from this battle, and the answer is “Jesus”. Only “Jesus” who died on the cross for the “sins of the world” is able to “deliver” people from their “inner war”, and by “believing and trusting” in Him, freedom is at hand. May all who read these words “believe in Jesus” and be “rescued” from the “war” within.

Next time Paul answers his question as he tells his readers, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

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