Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Wednesday, April 22, Romans 7:25b

"So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh the law of sin."

At first this sounds like a very dismal verse. Are we serving two masters? We will see as we continue that this is not at all what it is saying. We have been given a new nature, and our old nature is dead if we are born again. Yet we, still in this natural world have habits and comforts that linger with us as we discover how to walk in our new nature.

Romans 7 talks like this: "So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind, and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members." (22-23)

Before we were saved, we rarely saw a struggle, for our desire was to ourselves and sin. We were like leaves blowing in the wind of sin, traveling wherever it took us. But when we repented and turned to Christ, we began planting roots of Christ, and we began to "feel the wind" of sin that was working in our members.

We were given the Holy Law of God, which revealed our sinfulness. And in our "fleshly" nature we reveled in that sin. Though our consciences revealed His displeasure, we suppressed it in order to follow the deeds of the flesh.

But when the Holy Spirit touched us, He revealed the mirror of our sinful selves, and we fell wretched before Him, repenting of our sin. And in His kindness and love He "graced" us with a new birth, a nature that hates sin, and can actually through Christ overcome this awful "law of sin" that tries to ensnare us again.

If we allow it, we become more wretched, for now we have this nature that desires the Law of God in our inner man, and we now feel the brunt of the winds of sin and evil desire trying to lure us away. We are truly "wretched" in a different sense if we dwell on those lingering fleshly desires.

We find here two laws—laws that are unbending in themselves—while we, with our ever-changing wills and decision-making, can bounce around if we let it. We needed the higher law to overcome the wicked law of sin. Like helium rising above gravity.

And we will, in this mortal state, struggle until we are made immortal. When we believed, we were immediately "justified", or declared righteous because of Christ's death and resurrection. He overcame this law of sin and death for us, so we become "the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). And we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit, guaranteed within our spirits that we are indeed His children, and will be "glorified" at the end of this life. Though we pass away in the flesh, we will never "die", for we will immediately be brought within His presence. Our mortal will fade away, but we will be restored with an immortal body, just as we saw with Jesus at His resurrection.

But in the meantime, we are being trained to be the immortal children we are. And we suffer here, because we now knowingly resist the wiles of this world. When we see leaves and trees, we see that the leaves never receive the brunt of temptation, because they just flow wherever it takes them. The tree receives the brunt, for it resists the full force of the wind.

We as believers are being rooted and grounded, abiding in the nourishment of Christ. So we are becoming "solid". And in that process we will find that we will "suffer with Him", so that we may be glorified together." (Romans 8:17b)

The world suffers in ignorance. We suffer with purpose, for we know that the suffering is part of this resistance beating on us in this present darkness. And God, in His great design is using it to build "holy muscle", so to speak, so His glory will be displayed in us as well as the world. And when the lost see His glory reflected in us, they will see Him as well. And what will they do with Him?

With this glorious understanding of the wisdom of God and our great assurance, let us fall upon the Rock of Christ, and dwell in the Law of the Spirit of Life. Let us see that we no longer have to serve the law of sin. That is no longer us. We are born again. Let us serve the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.

Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

Memory Helps

"So then, I myself serve
THE LAW OF GOD     WITH MY MIND, BUT
                                         WITH MY FLESH
THE LAW OF SIN."

Word count for 25b: (5-4-4-3-4)

The way I structure this verse helps me see all the similarities. If it turns out right when I transfer it, you'll see that I have "the Law of's" in one column, and "with my's" in another. That way you can visualize the verse easily and memorize it more quickly.

Linking verse numbers:

We can continue with Neil (N=2, L=5 for 25), wearing his "laurel wreath" for Romans. It is Romans 7, so I'm going to place him in the clouds of "heaven", since it rhymes. He has two "law stones", like the ten commandments. One says "the law of God", which he puts on his "mind". The other says "the law of sin", which he takes away from "his flesh" and throws out of heaven. This way we link the verse to Romans 7:25.