The Sin-Shell

Romans 7:15

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

Like me you may ask, “If I am a new creation and the old me has been buried with Christ’s death, then why does sin still have such an influence in my daily life?”

My understanding is this – The work of the cross has a threefold outcome:

• I have been saved from the penalty of sin.
  • I am being saved from the power of sin.
    • I will be saved from the presence of sin.

The first has been completed; the second is currently taking place; the third is yet to come. The closer we come to God and the more we wish to please Him, it actually feels like the more we let Him down. This happens because our growing relationship with a Holy God illuminates the complex relationship we have with sin.

My spirit has been renewed and the Spirit of God fills my innermost being but the new me is still housed within the body of the old me. That is where the rub is – that which is holy, redeemed and eternal has, for the moment, to walk side by side with that which is impure and mortal.

My sin-shell is always attached which means my daily life is an ongoing battle of wills.

But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord (v25), who walks beside us every step of the way.