The Struggle with Scripture

"For I do not understand my own actions.  For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate....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."  Romans 7:15, 18b-19

So far, we have seen Martin Luther's approach to learning and growing in God's Word.  We start with prayer, asking for God's Spirit to instruct us in our understanding.  Then, we meditate and reflect on God's Word, engaging it frequently, and even speaking it aloud to gain understanding.  This, then, brings us to the third part, or "rule", of growing in God's Word.

Inevitably, the Bible will tell us something that we either do not want to hear or that we find ourselves incapable of.  This is the struggle we see in Paul's words above.  For example, Jesus says that we are to seek God's kingdom first, with the full trust that God will then provide all that we need.  And yet, when we look at our lives, we find that we don't do this very well.

This is the struggle which Luther calls the third "rule".  It is where the devil takes God's Word and tries to convince us that we can't do that.  He wants us to give up on growing to be more like Christ.  Or, he tries to convince us that God didn't really mean what He said to the full extent which the Bible says.  For example, when Jesus says that it is better to lose an eye or a hand than for that member to keep us from faith in God's kingdom, we want to believe that Jesus isn't being literal or serious.  Surely God cannot be that strict, we tell ourselves.

This is the struggle which actually forms much of our lives in Jesus.  Paul says it well.  We want to do what God says, but we don't want to.  It's too demanding.  We want to follow God, but we aren't convinced that God will "have our back", so to speak.  And it is at this point where Luther suggests that our true understanding of God begins.

Will we give in to the easy way, or will we take the hard and narrow road in following Jesus?  Paul's answer is that we will do the easy thing.  And yet, God's Spirit works in us, constantly battling against that life of ease that we may think we deserve as God's people.  His Spirit challenges us to take up the hard task and to walk the narrow road.

But we don't do this alone, or without hope.  Paul's conclusion at the end of this section of Romans asks who will save him from this wretched state.  The answer: Jesus alone, by God's grace.  In the end, it isn't about our struggle, but about God's struggle and triumph in Jesus' death and resurrection.  It is God's gift which has made us His own, and which then challenges us to grow in Him, even as we face the struggle.  But in the end, we have the victory, through Jesus.  Thanks be to God!