SALVATION, LAW & SIN

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 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. 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. 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.

So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 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. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 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 a slave to the law of sin.

- Romans 7:14-25

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Treading the righteous path I am set free; two laws are at work. One from within, delighting in God's Spirit and a law of my mind or psyche. The other is of sinful nature this is the outer influence and fleshly law concerning my body. One is of realization the other based in pleasures. A war rages between them as there is a desire to do both. Adhering to God's law, by grace I am not condemned. Furthermore the power of sin is to condemn by the law, however the law is just; the power in God's law is in obeying it, in the heeding of instruction, ever grateful for salvation; a gift from God. By the grace of God and spiritual law we are set free and no longer a slave to sin. It is our own sinful nature that puts us in chains, by adhering to the principals of the law we are freed from our bonds. There is a war within to go both ways. To tread the righteous path we develop spiritually gaining life hereafter.

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"If our minds are ruled by our desires, we will die. But if our minds are ruled by the Spirit, we will have life and peace."

- Romans 8:6

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Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly NOW. Love mercy NOW. Walk humbly NOW. You are not obligated to complete the work but neither are you free to abandon it.

- From the Talmud Pirkei Avos (Ethics/Chapters of the Fathers) 2:16