“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.”
Reminders: 1) our identity is no longer our sin, the bad things we’ve done. Our identity is that we are children of God, of the light. 2) on this earth, we will still sin. Even people we hold up so highly like Paul admit that they “do not do the good I want but the evil I do…”
but again back to that first point, it’s no longer who we are, it’s not us but sin in us.
Friend, whatever sin you’ve committed, you’re fighting — that is not your identity. You have a new identity and while we will still struggle in this world to fight against sin, sin no longer holds us captive and it no longer defines us.
“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! “