Romans 7:15-25

15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

When we became Christians, we decided that we wanted to follow Jesus all the time. This meant that we wanted to act like He did when He was on the earth. In our minds, there were no exceptions-- we did not think that we wanted to be like Jesus except in this or that situation. We may have understood that after we made that commitment, it was just a matter of carrying-out what we were now committed to doing. We may have thought that just because we wanted to, we were now going to always be nice to people, always give when needed, volunteer when needed, love everyone, forgive those who insulted us, etc. Not long after, we found that we were wrong about that. In fact, the more we were determined we could pull something like that off, the more frustrating it became. This passage explains why that is-- even though our hearts and minds genuinely desire one thing, we are still trapped in our old selves, which apart from our desires to be good, draw us in the complete opposite direction. It is kind of like the wide receiver who catches a pass near the sideline-- even though he wants to turn up field and score a touchdown, his momentum takes him right out of bounds.

Some day we will be shed of our old selves (the body of death) completely and we will have new bodies that don't have that problem. At that time, every molecule of our being will be able to serve Jesus Christ without exception, just like we thought it should be when we first decided to follow Him, and everyone we know will also be able to do the same thing. I can only imagine the things that will be possible for us then.