Jekyll & Hyde

One of my favorite stories is Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. The story is all about a Dr. Jekyll who is working on a potion that allows him to actually become the man of Edward Hyde. The two men couldn’t be more different, Dr. Jekyll is nice and well respected whereas Edward Hyde is malicious and a cold blooded killer. At first Dr. Jekyll can control the Hyde within him but then after awhile Hyde begins to emerge on his own taking control of Dr. Jekyll’s life. The two men fight for control over the body in which they live. Robert Louis Stevenson’s story is simply about the battle that rages in every person, and the apostle Paul knew about this battle as well.

Romans 7:15 read.

In this passage we have Paul talking about the two natures that fight for control of his life. The one nature, Dr. Jekyll, agrees that God is good and that the things of God are good for his life. But, Mr. Hyde is in him as well wanting only what the flesh wants resisting the will of God and asserts his rights or his free will whenever he wants. It occurred to me that if this battle raged inside of Paul, then we all probably have a little of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde within us.

In our lives we go through most of our days as people who want to please God and who want to live God’s will in our own lives. We look for ways that we can help people and we truly enjoy helping someone out. If we could live simply as Dr. Jekyll we would find the Christian life a whole lot easier. But, a battle rages within us as well, Mr. Hyde shows his face whenever he wishes and ruins the very things that we sought to build. Mr. Hyde crushes relationships, he veers us off the path of righteousness, and he seeks only to fulfill his own desires. It is this battle that shows us that our old nature, our sinful nature is still with us even after we accept Jesus Christ.

Listen to how Paul described his battle with his own flesh:

· (v15 NLT) “ I don’t understand myself at all!”

· (v16 NLT) “I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong.”

· (v17 NLT) “ I can’t help myself”

· (v18 NLT) “ I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned”

· (v18 NLT) “ No matter which way I turn – I can’t make myself do right”

· (v21 NLT) “When I do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.”

· (v24 NLT) “ What a miserable person I am.”

Many times when we as Christians encounter Mr. Hyde in our lives we do so full knowing that he is in control. And, yet when Dr. Jekyll returns we are filled with remorse for what he have done. We begin to feel as if we aren’t the Christians that we should be and we convince ourselves that something must be wrong with us. Sometimes we doubt our own salvation.

For many of us this battle of natures is waged in secret. Nobody else knows about the terrible fight that goes on within our minds. Nobody else knows the struggle that we face. For many of us we keep Mr. Hyde hidden from view. If you asked our friends they would each say that we were nice people who loved the Lord and who were really good Christians. I wonder, if we each were to tell honestly about our own lives, would we see the righteousness of Jekyll or would we see the sin of Hyde? Which of our natures would we say that we most resemble?

Knowing this leads us to feeling unworthy of Christ. So many times I have heard from people, “God will never forgive me for the things that I have done.” We begin to focus on the things in our life that bring us shame.

“I don’t understand myself at all!”

“I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong.”

“I can’t help myself”

“I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned”

“No matter which way I turn – I can’t make myself do right”

“When I do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.”

“What a miserable person I am.”

Surely God must hate me because of the things that I do. Surely he must look on me with shame and horror at the sin in my life. How can I possibly be forgiven of all that I have done?

We get caught in this web of doubt this web that says, “Look at my life, and you tell me if you think it deserves forgiveness.”