Romans 7: The Life of the Spirit

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 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. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?  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.  - Romans 6:21-25 NIV

I could easily have written these verses instead of Paul.  There are so many things that I struggle with over and over again.  I tell myself repeatedly, I will do differently, but I find my self being easily pulled back into my old habits.  As Paul said, "What a wretched man I am." 

I could spend my time sitting on the pity pot, crying over my inability to do what is right, but that would not change my actions one iota.  There is only one solution.  I go to the rock, the rock of my salvation, the stone that the builder rejected.  I cry out for God's mercy and I receive his grace.  I can hold my head high, in spite of my sinful nature. I am no longer condemned because I have been set free.  In fact, I no longer live according to the sinful nature, but according to the Spirit. 

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. - Romans 8:1-4 NIV

Sometimes, I think we Christians spend too much time apologizing for our beliefs and not enough time exhibiting the life and peace that comes from being redeemed.  If I concentrate on my deeds and my failures, it brings me down, but if I let my mind be godly, one controlled by the Spirit, my outlook and even my actions change dramatically.  I experience what I have been promised:  life and peace.  The lusts of the flesh no longer appeal to me, instead I have the life of the Spirit.

The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;- Romans 8:6 NIV

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.- Romans 8:11 NIV