Struggling With Sin

I recently started listening to/reading the MSG (The Message) translation of the Bible, and it’s helped me see verses I’ve read in the past in a whole new light. I recently read the passages below and wanted to share it with you all. For the longest time in my Christian faith I would struggle with the question, if I believe in Jesus and He dwells inside me, but I also still struggle with sin and addiction, don’t those two things contradict each other? Logically it just didn’t make sense to me.

That question would just be the starting point. From there the OCD would kick in.

“You don’t see anyone else struggling with these questions.”

“Do you really believe this to be true?”

“Your faith is weak.”

“How does any of this make sense?”

“I keep messing up, while I see transformation in other people’s lives. Do I really know Jesus the way they do?”

This repetition would be a constant nagging in the back of my mind, but thank God for His word and truth. His blessed assurance.

Check out the following verses.

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“But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.

It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?

The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.”

Romans 7:17-25 MSG

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That essentially described in detail what I was going through; the back and forth tug of war in my mind down to the last detail. It also poked a hole in my thought about never seeing anyone else struggle with this.

These verses, and in fact, the entire book of Romans was written by the Apostle Paul. Through God, Paul wrote 13 out of the 27 books of the New Testament. Reading that Paul had these same struggles and same thoughts brought comfort to my mind. We are all struggling with something. Just because we’re followers of Jesus and our lives have been transformed, our souls saved, doesn’t mean the same earthly struggles we face are going to go away here on this earth, and I think this goes unsaid a lot, and I have to remind myself this everyday.

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Paul wrote this in 1 Timothy 1:15.

“This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all.”

I also wanted to share an excerpt from Pastor Steven Furtick’s book “Crash the Chatterbox” that discusses this verse and this same question. See below:

“How can the same man deem himself the worst of sinners, and yet so confidently claim full association in Christ?

The key is in the phrase Christ in me.

Yes this seems to be a contradiction, but there’s a difference between a contradiction and a paradox. A contradiction cannot be true. A paradox appears as if it cannot be true, but something beneath the surface makes it so.

The Christian life is a perpetual paradox. I am crucified, yet I live. I have sinned and continue to sin, yet I am without blame, not because of the good in me, but because of Christ in me.

In the paradox of my failed performance and God’s faithful promise, Christ is revealed. The more He is revealed, the more I become like Him. So I acknowledge what I was, but I place greater weight on what Christ did to change who I am. And I am being conformed to His image in the process.

None of this excuses me from the responsibility to change, but it liberates me from the bondage of lies so that change is actually possible.”

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I love that description of the Christian life and what Jesus did for us. None of us are worthy, yet we are so loved. It’s such good news for everyone of us. We just have to call on Him.