{"id":1712,"date":"2010-05-16T20:34:24","date_gmt":"2010-05-17T02:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1712"},"modified":"2010-05-16T20:34:24","modified_gmt":"2010-05-17T02:34:24","slug":"romans-724-winning-a-losing-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-724-winning-a-losing-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 7:24 – Winning a Losing Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Romans 7:24<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The ever presence of sin will bring a committed Christian to his or her knees \u2026 over and over and over and over \u2026<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Greek word translated \u201cwretched<\/span>\u201d is talaip\u014dros<\/span><\/em>, which is based on talas<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201csuffering\u201d and a form of p\u014dre\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cmiserable or distressed.\u201d Hence, this word refers to someone who is suffering miserably.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeliver<\/span>\u201d is translated from rhuomai<\/span><\/em>, which literally means \u201cto draw out for oneself.\u201d It is interpreted as meaning \u201cto rescue\u201d or \u201cto deliver from danger or harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

The word translated \u201cbody<\/span>\u201d is the Greek word somatos<\/span><\/em>, which in its basest meaning refers to the physical human body. Paul is using this word as a metaphor, however. So, it is not referring to our physical body, but something else.<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

As I shared with you in the previous verse, I get really irritated with myself when I do that which I know God wants me to avoid. It gives me a great sense of guilt that is only alleviated by personal confession and God\u2019s grace. Obviously, the Apostle Paul feels similar. As a result of the battle between his intellect and his sin nature in which his sin nature carries him off as a prisoner of war and controls his actions against his own will, he declares, \u201cO wretched man that I am!<\/span>\u201d And, he wants to be rescued from his body of death.<\/p>\n

Our translation here (New King James Version) says \u201c\u2026 this body of death<\/span>;\u201d however, the Greek text reads \u201cthe body of this death.<\/span>\u201d That is, Paul is using the word \u201cbody\u201d to refer to something non-physical (the sin nature). He is saying that his sin nature has such control over him that it is as if his whole body is inhabited by and controlled by his sinful tendencies.<\/p>\n

Some commentators suppose that Paul is referring to an ancient custom of tying a dead body to a captive. In this manner the prisoner had to drag the heavy and abhorrent, smelly burden behind him for the lengthy trek back to the homeland of the captor. Although this may not have been Paul\u2019s intent, it certainly is a vivid picture of the constant burden of our sin nature.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t need to ask you whether you ever feel this way or not. If you are truly a born again Christian, then you have felt this way. That\u2019s the battle which rages within all Christians as we desire to please God and try to do His will. But this battle frequently ends in defeat when our sin nature sneaks up and takes us captive.<\/p>\n

This is not a hopeless battle, however. Paul will begin to explain in the next chapter how we, as sinners saved by grace, can overcome the sin nature and experience personal victory by the grace of God through the blood of Christ!<\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be too hard on yourself because you battle with sinful tendencies and the disobedience to God which follows. It doesn\u2019t mean you have lost your salvation. In fact, it is a constant reminder that confession and humility before God are necessities for every Christian. The more we recognize our own sin, the more we have to humble ourselves and draw near to God. And He will ALWAYS forgive our sins.<\/span><\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2010 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 7:24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Truth to Learn The ever presence of sin will bring a committed Christian to his or her knees \u2026 over and over and over and over \u2026 Behind the Words The Greek word translated \u201cwretched\u201d is talaip\u014dros, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[866,240,867,868,869,870,871],"class_list":["post-1712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-body","tag-death","tag-deliver","tag-rhuomai","tag-somatos","tag-talaiporos","tag-wretched-man"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-rC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1712\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}