[Sidenote: Ver. 24.] =Unhappy man am I. Who will rescue me out of the body of this death,[117]= out of a life conditioned by this mortal body, which in the Fall became sin's especial vehicle, directly or indirectly, and which is not yet (vii. 23) actually "redeemed"? [Sidenote: Ver. 25.] =Thanks be to God,[118]= who giveth that deliverance, in covenant and in measure now, fully and in eternal actuality hereafter, =through Jesus Christ our Lord.= =So then,= to sum the whole phenomenon of the conflict up, leaving aside for the moment this glorious hope of the issue, =I, myself, with the mind indeed do bondservice to the law of God, but with the flesh,= with the life of self, wherever and whenever I "revert" that way, I do bondservice =to the law of sin.= * * * * * Do we close the passage with a sigh, and almost with a groan? Do we sigh over the intricacy of the thought, the depth and subtlety of the reasoning, the almost fatigue of fixing and of grasping the facts below the terms "_will_," and "_mind_," and "_inner man_," and "_flesh_," and "_I_"? Do we groan over the consciousness that no analysis of our spiritual failures can console us for the fact of them, and that the Apostle seems in his last sentences to relegate our consolations to the future, while it is in the present that we fail, and in the present that we long with all our souls to do, as well as to approve, the will of God? Let us be patient, and also let us think again. Let us find a solemn and sanctifying peace in the patience which meekly accepts the mystery that we must needs "wait yet for the redemption of our body"; that the conditions of "this corruptible" must yet for a season give ambushes and vantages to temptation, which will be all annihilated hereafter. But let us also think again. If we went at all aright in our remarks previous to this passage, there are glorious possibilities for the present hour "readable between the lines" of St Paul's unutterably deep confession. We have seen in conflict the Christian man, regenerate, yet taken, in a practical sense, apart from his Regenerator. We have seen him really fight, though he really fails. We have seen him unwittingly, but guiltily, betray his position to the foe, by occupying it as it were alone. We have seen also, nevertheless, that he is not his foe's ally but his antagonist. Listen; he is calling for his KING. That cry will not be in vain. The King will take a double line of action in response. While his soldier-bondservant is yet in the body, "the body of this death," He will throw HIMSELF into the narrow hold, and wonderfully turn the tide within it, and around it. And hereafter, He will demolish it. Rather, He will transfigure it, into the counterpart--even as it were into the part--of His own Body of glory; and the man shall rest, and serve, and reign for ever, with a being homogeneous all through in its likeness to the Lord. [108] See J. B. Mozley's _Lectures, etc._, ix, x.