Unfinished Work - What's My Excuse?

Jesus Christ died on the cross for the sins of all mankind and He declared, “It is finished.” However the work He wanted us to do is unfinished. The work of sharing the gospel to the unheard. We love God without a doubt, but our desire to love others and lead them to the Lord is rather bleak. The reasons are many and I am going to highlight the issues from the words of Paul. There are two spirits at work – the human spirit and the Holy Spirit. I recall the words of the song Jekyll and Hyde by Petra. It goes like this –

I have this secret that I let nobody see

It's like a split personality

And the one I feed is the one who lives

The one I starve will be the one who gives

Sometimes I feel like Jekyll and Hyde

Two men are fighting a war inside

I am sure we too share the similar frustration like Paul as portrayed in the words of the song that was based on Romans 7:15. In that context, let us examine the passage in Romans 7:14-25:

14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature[d] a slave to the law of sin.

There are various problems that prevent us from sharing the gospel. I have enlisted four from the perspective of Paul.

1. I know what I am doing is wrong (v.16). This is a very bold confession; the reason for such boldness is he was aware that it was the sin that is in him that forces him to end up doing the wrong things. All of us are aware of the difference between that which is right and that which is wrong. So when we examine ourselves we can be sure that we only do what is wrong and the right is not in us. For example we love to get up early in the morning and pray, we set the alarm for 5 in the morning and the alarm promptly rings but we press the snooze button and feel within ourselves – God! You know me and my heart’s desire, pardon me let me sleep a little more. We know what we did is wrong, no one asked us to pray so early, we decided and we failed.

2. I know nothing good lives in me (v.18). Paul was point blank with this statement. You remember the young man who came to Jesus wanting follow Him, said, “Good Lord,” Jesus answered him saying there is no one good except the Father God. Paul was calling himself wretched and wicked man since there was nothing good living in him. If we look at our lives we can be true in saying nothing good lives in us because we are all the time under the influence of the world around us.

3. I inevitably do what is wrong (v.21). I unavoidably do things that are wrong. We sometimes become desensitized to things around us that we don’t even know what we are doing is wrong. We are no less than Paul, if a man who encountered God in such powerful manner be wailing with his heart for his inevitability then how much more we need to be struggling. This leads to the next strange problem.