June 10, 2026
Wednesday, June 10
Why do we get stuck, committing the same old sins over and over? Didn’t Jesus say that if we trust in Him, we’ll be born again? Didn’t Paul say that if anyone is in Christ, the old things are gone, and all things are made new? Yes and yes. But Paul also told us that the old man is still in us. That sinful nature we had when Jesus saved us didn’t die; not yet. It’s still around, and it fights against any sort of progress in our lives. Paul himself makes an astonishing confession in Romans 7:14-19. “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” Sound familiar?
When Paul talks about “the law” he’s not talking about secular legal codes, like speed limits. He’s talking about the Law of God, what Jews call the Torah. This was the foundation of Paul’s life from his childhood. His ambition was to outdo everyone else at following God’s rules. And he did it. He could honestly call himself flawless by the terms of the Law. People could have followed Paul around all day and never seen him sin. Never once would he stare at a pretty girl, or take God’s name in vain, or fail to tithe his ten percent and more. He knew the Word of God better than you, prayed longer than you, fasted more often than you, and worked harder than you. People noticed. He became something of a superstar in religious circles in Jerusalem.
But he wanted more. He wanted to outdo everyone else at being good in God’s eyes. So when he learned that a group of Jews were worshipping a crucified man named Jesus, he knew they had to be stopped. After all, didn’t God say in Deuteronomy that a man who is hung on a tree is cursed by God? It wasn’t enough to argue with them, threaten them. The other religious authorities had tried that. Paul would go further. He would hunt them down, drag them from their homes, throw them in jail. He would see them all repent or die.
Then he met Jesus, and everything changed. There are people who think that in Romans 7, Paul is talking about the man he was before that day. They’ll say, “Surely once he was a believer, he didn’t struggle with sin anymore.” But here’s why I think they’re wrong: In other part of Romans, Paul talks about his old life using the past tense. Here, he’s writing in the present tense. He has realized that religion has the power to help him look outwardly blameless, but not to make him truly righteous.
CS Lewis said, “Of all the bad men, religious bad men are the worst.” Paul was exhibit A of that statement. Religion didn’t make him good. It made him a terrorist, a murderer, and an arrogant fool. Jesus came into Paul’s life, and the ultimate fundamentalist suddenly became aware of just how terrible a sinner he was. Why do we get stuck? Because we’re sinners by nature. We’re so sinful, we take something good, like the religious rituals and commands God has given us, and use them to justify our own arrogant self-righteousness. We take the beauty of divine Law and twist it into a source of evil in the world.
“Lord, you have given us commands to follow and rituals to perform, so that we can get closer to you. As I get better at being religious, don’t let me become self-righteous or judgmental. Instead, make me even more aware of my own sin, full of godly sorrow that leads to repentance. In your name, amen.”
Senior Pastor
First Baptist Conroe
More from Pastor Jeff at his website: jeffbergerwriting.com
