Romans 7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

Romans 6:7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.

Romans 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

Romans 5:21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

I find the passages within Romans 7 to be some of the most confusing passages to grasp. In order to survive the onslaught of confusion I have to cling dearly to that which I have learned and understood in chapters 5 and 6 of Romans. I cling dearly to those truths as I try and reconcile the confusion.

Romans 7:2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

Paul lays out a comparative analysis of marriage and death and law. He is after all speaking to those who understand the law. We soon lose the analogy of marriage within those passages as Paul shifts to the principles of the struggles of life and death within the ruling principles of spirit and sin. Both are at work within us. Yet the comparative is about the law of marriage, Christ being our betrothed.

Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

1 Corinthians 14:33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

If that did not clear up the confusion, I am not surprised.

Cling to Christ your betrothed all the harder and do not let go.

Mark 10:18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.

Jesus Christ was perfect in performance. He would not allow Himself to be called good. Some might look at that statement and see perfect humility. Maybe so, but I see something else. It is subtle and I have no idea how it must feel, not yet anyway, but I can see it.

Jesus was with the Father and chose to subject Himself to all that man had to endure in being human. What He had to give up to come here we can only imagine, and imagine I do. God the Father is perfect and Holy in a way that no man can be. Sin could never approach Him, much less touch Him. Jesus had to endure that, the Father did not, could not, for His Holiness is an all-consuming fire that destroys all that is sinful in thought and action.

Did Jesus, as the man, know what He had given up to be here for us? Perhaps, but how could He express that in any terms that we as mere mortals could ever understand? He hints of the mysteries. He reveals Himself, but we catch glimpse of His Glory and not all of it. Just the depth of His love is difficult to grasp and we struggle with that alone, much less the deeper and more profound truths of living a life like Christ.

Therein lies the problem. We try to attain the unattainable. Christ as much as told us, “Follow me!” It is a journey, we are pilgrims in a foreign land trying to get home. Perfection is not a state of being, it a walk, the path home. Keep on the path, that is good enough. Yes you will trip, yes you will fall, yes you will stop and rest, but do it on the path.

Stay in the Way.

John 14:6b I am the way, the truth, and the life: