Resisting Arrest

A Personal Exposition from Romans 7

O wretched and miserable sinner that I am, who will release me from the shackles I bind myself with, and deliver me from this body of sin and death?
Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Romans 7.24-25 (Paraphrase)

Were it not for my capital crimes against God (Read sin), there would be no need for me to be crucified with Christ, even more, there never would have been any need for Christ to have been crucified for me. If the preceding sentence does not apply to you, I’d like you to drop me a line sometime and let me know how you like Egypt, because you are in denial! But I don’t mean to presume to write about anyone else’s situation, there is unfortunately plenty to say about my own.

For, even knowing my guilt, and what Christ has done for me, I try to evade capture, and when the hounds of heaven corner me, I continue to resist arrest. I know I need to die to sin, and I even know that in Christ I have died to sin. But I also no that, even having been put to death on the cross, my sin nature stubbornly refuses to just die and leave me alone.

I think it has to be with being human. You see, ever since our first ancestors, you know, Adam and Eve, ever since they sinned, all their descendants have been born with all the necessary equipment to be just the worst kind of sinners you can imagine. Again, I won’t speak for you, but I put that equipment to use early, often, and persistently. There are lots of things people lose interest in and move on, and I have had my share of things I’ve pursued avidly for a time, only to outgrow them, or become bored with them (Like for instance, I used to eat nothing but baloney and mayonnaise sandwiches for lunch every day, I mean every day, but I’ve develop more sophisticated tastes, and eat things like peanut butter sandwiches, or even chicken salad for lunch.). But sin, why, for some reason I have a very hard time not doing it. In fact, every day I have to apologize to God for my debts, sins, and transgressions of commission and omission.

It’s so bad, I find myself doing what I don’t want to do, what I know I shouldn’t do. And, like a wimp, I punk out and don’t do many of the things I know darn well I should be doing. Don’t know what to call it but resisting arrest. It is all nearly enough for me to just concede that I’m on the lamb, as they say, but I’m no sheep.

But there’s the Cross you see, and don’t you know that it is much more, well, intimidating isn’t exactly the word, but it will do, more intimidating than any badge worn by anyone in law enforcement. Maybe it is because the Cross wasn’t at all about law enforcement, but law fulfillment. And, I suppose intimidating isn’t the word, so let’s use arresting. Oh, I don’t mean to say that anyone gets shackled to the Cross; Jesus’ pursuit of us isn’t like we are being chased by a Royal Canadian Mountie, or anything like that, though he always gets his man, or woman. No, Christ’s pursuit of us is really that of an ardent suitor, he woos us with winsome grace, though I think he is not above setting roadblocks for us when we try to evade him. And me, well when Jesus catches up with me, and I surrender, I find out I am a sheep after all. It wasn’t ever a lawman who was after me to punish me, but a Shepherd who refused to let this sheep be lost and destroyed, so he kept on after me to save me, from myself.

I wish I could say my running days of resisting arrest are over, but the truth is, every day I find my feet, so to speak, taking me in the wrong direction, like the little hooves of a wayward sheep. Thank God the Shepherd is always keeping me under strict surveillance.