Another Big Enemy of Our Holy Resolves: Us

Last week, I wrote this piece both for our church's newsletter and the blog. In it, I talked about how the devil will work immediately and feverishly to undermine positive resolutions we make.

The piece has elicited emails and personal conversations, people sharing their own stories of how they seemed immediately thwarted by "unseen forces" from fulfilling their own "holy resolves."

Of course, the devil isn't the only one who works to keep us from living life God's way. As I mentioned in that piece last week, Martin Luther, in The Small Catechism, succinctly identifies the three main thwarters of our doing the right things in our lives: the devil, the world, and our sinful selves.

The second Bible lesson read in our Lutheran churches yesterday, written by the apostle Paul in about 65AD, had a thing or two to say about that last thwarter of holy intentions. I like the way Eugene Peterson renders the yesterday's lesson in The Message, a wonderful paraphrase/translation of the Bible:

What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary.

But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.

It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?

The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different. (Romans 7:15-25)

The wonderful thing is that the God Who "justifies" sinners like me, reconciling us to Himself in spite of our sins as a free gift, simply because we repent and believe in Jesus Christ, "sanctifies"--or makes us holy--after we've come to believe in precisely the same way, as a free gift.

If we're sincere about wanting to live life God's way, with love for God and neighbor, a commitment to justice for all people, compassion for the poor, and a desire to share the good news about Christ with others, God will help us overcome the sin in us.

God is willing to help us keep our holy resolves.

This side of heaven, we will do God's will imperfectly and the rebel sinner in us will cause us to fail to love God and love others throughout our lives. But as we submit to the God we know through Christ, even we rebels will at times evidence the love, goodness, and grace of the God Who went to a cross and rose for imperfect people like me.

Those are comforting thoughts for me as I ask God to help me each day to know and do His will.