The Romans 7 Reality

We don’t fix ourselves. We trip, repeat, regret—and grace’s repent repeats faster. That’s the drumbeat of Deliverance.

Sin’s Tenacity (Deliverance II.2)

Yesterday came and went and is gone;

Immersed and overwhelmed by sin’s coup:

“The good that I should do, I do not,

But evil I should not, that I do.”

Today’s agenda: To sin again?

Bound by my flesh to transgress anew:

“The good that I should do, I do not,

But evil I should not, that I do.”

Tomorrow stumbles to Adam’s end,

Fully drunk in humanity’s brew:

“The good that I should do, I do not,

But evil I should not, that I do.”

The days thereafter all dance confused,

Like sleeping nightmares perceive askew:

“The good that I should do, I do not,

But evil I should not, that I do.”

By sin bedeviled, its wounds controlled;

Despite my action, despite my plea:

“The good that I should do, is in Christ,

But evil I should not, is in me.”

My focus is changed by him who’s won,

In him sin and its struggle are done.

“The good I should do, is Christ in me,

My evil’s been nailed to His tree.”

From Romans 7

Comment: The couplets repeat day’s cycles—until the refrain cracks, and Christ speaks from the wound.