Body Of Death

Romans 7:21-25

21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

25 Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

This term "body of death" was graphic and showed the extent of his struggle. Near Tarsus, Paul's birthplace, an ancient tribe dealt harshly with murderers. A convicted murderer would be strapped to the dead body of the slain. He would remain strapped there until the decay of the corpse infected him and killed him. Maybe this is what Paul was referring to when he spoke of his "body of death."

- Jud Wilhite, Eyes Wide Open pg. 122


I had to post this from the book I just finished, Eyes Wide Open. If you read the bible verse above you read that the struggle Paul was going through - the same one that we deal with as well - was bad enough, but add in this little tidbit of information and you see the way that Paul writes this intensifies that much more.

I couldn't imagine suffering a death in which I had to let the infection of someone Else's corpse infect me and bring about my death. And yet that is exactly what we do sometimes. We allow other people's sin to get us addicted or start us on a path that leads to destruction. Their sin becomes our infection and before we know it it slowly kills us.

Sometimes we get infected before we even realize it.

What area's in your life are you struggling with because someone Else's infection rubbed off on you?

What kind of infection are you giving others?