Read: Romans 7:7-13 - STEP Bible, Bible Gateway
We all know the cartoon: a man stands peering, finger poised, over a big red button. The sign above the button says, ‘Do not press this button!’
It’s a strange fact of human existence that we instinctively like to disobey. The moment we see a sign (‘do not press this button!’) we want to press it far more than we would ever have done if the sign had never been there. In Genesis chapter 3, God told Adam and Eve there was only one thing they couldn’t do – eat of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden – but they could do anything else they wanted. What did they do? They did the one thing they were asked not to do, of course. ‘Do not press this button!’ And so sin entered the world.
St Paul reckons that this is how sin grips us. God gives his people the Law (which is a very good gift) but then, now knowing what it is we shouldn’t do, sin suddenly takes hold of us and makes us want to do precisely that thing we know we shouldn’t do. That’s the reason why the solution to our sin will never be more rules and regulations, restrictions on what we allow one another to do. More rules will just make us want to disobey more! No, what we need is a whole change of heart – a conversion, if you like – that stops us wanting to disobey in the first place, and instead aligns our will with that of God himself.
That is what the Holy Spirit of Jesus, dwelling within us, can accomplish. Let us pray that he will do so, and continue to work in us that improvement which he has already begun.
These devotions were originally written for the parish of All Saints, Ascot and we are grateful for permission to republish them on Fulcrum.
Patrick is curate of All Saints’, Ascot in Berkshire. A musicologist by training, he is married to Lydia, a university lecturer, and dad to Madeleine. He writes (sporadically) at benedixisti.wordpress.com and tweets (even more sporadically) as @patrickgilday.