{Riddle Me This}

There is a passage in Romans that is very much like a riddle, and it is a passage which I both love and hate all at once. I love it because it shows how strong God is and the depth of our salvation, but I hate it because it shows the severity of my sinfulness, and my inability to be perfect like Christ.

"For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 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. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin."
{Romans 7:14-15}

This passage has a way of throwing all of my failures and sinfulness in my face, forcing me to confront and accept the fact that it is impossible for me to have any good within me on my own. It shows me that no matter how hard I try to do what is right in the eyes of God, that time and time again I will only continue to be met with failure. I can continue to blame other people, or the fact that I am simply born into a bondage of sinfulness; but ultimately, it is no one's fault but my own. It is only through Jesus Christ crucified that I am able to have beauty and goodness within me, and even still, as long as I walk upon this earth, I will continue to fail. But thanks be to God, that one day, in heaven, when I no longer face the trials and temptations of this world, I will be able to stand, wearing all white, in the presence of my King, as an innocent and perfectly pure child of my God!