I Can't Believe I Did That

For starters, I can't believe I am admitting to this, but here goes. I was in a hurry with several errands to run, places I needed to be and people I needed to see. I had stopped at a store on my list of errands, got out of the car, set the door locks and hurried into the store to make my purchases. Upon exiting the store, I reached into my pocket for my keys and pushed the "Unlock" button on the remote.........and nothing happened. I had known for several weeks the batteries in the remote were weak and had not been functioning well.  The job of purchasing new batteries for the remote had not made it to any of my errand lists, so now I was suffering the consequences. I stood by the driver's door pushing on the remote button, pushing it harder and harder.....still nothing happening.  Thoughts going through my head at that moment were of all the places I was supposed to be and now I was going to be late at all of them, just because this silly electronic device wasn't working and I had no way to get in my car. I don't know how long I stood there wondering what to do before it dawned on me.....the remote key ring in my hand wasn't working, but attached to it was a KEY that would open every lock on the car!  I quickly looked around to see if anyone was watching and laughing at my momentary ignorance, then I unlocked the door with the key, and went on my way.  Chalk that one up in the list of my many "I can't believe I did that" experiences.

There are others.  And the others, though not humorous, are just as real. I know I am not alone in the struggle because Paul says "There is none righteous, no not one."  What we may call our mistakes and blunders, God calls unrighteousness and says we are all sinners. In Romans 7, Paul even identifies himself as one who battles sin in his own life when he says, "For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate to do." He adds, "For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing."  Read Romans 7: 15-25.  There is a little consolation in knowing the mighty apostle has his own "I can't believe I did that" list.

Paul goes on to explain it another way, which also allows us to see ourselves in his logic. He says that sometimes he has a feeling of delight in God's law, and other times there is a war going on inside him. It is a war against his mind and he admits it makes him a prisoner of the law of sin. It's right here that I want to raise my hand and proclaim, "I can identify!"

Just as I had realized in my dilemma with the remote entry to my car, that the answer to the problem was close at hand, Paul wants us to see the answer to the sin problem is near to us, too. He says, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!"  Paul could see the answer to his sin-problem because he knew about the blood of Jesus. He knew about the love and grace of God. He knew about the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit. That's why he could say, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death" Romans 8:1-2. 

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