That is what the struggle of the seventh chapter of Romans means. That
is a struggle under law, the picture of a man who has been brought
under condemnation by the law. The law is a great mirror let down from
heaven in which a man may see himself as he is. That is why the law
brings condemnation and death. It is a curse,――not because the law is
not holy, but because it convicts the man of his unholiness. Law does
this in the New Testament as well as the Old, and with infinitely more
searching terribleness because of the high spiritual interpretation of
the inner meaning of the outward commands. The law of God has done its
work in a Christian when he has seen that it is impossible for him to
be good according to God’s standard.
Not all have seen this. Dr. Scofield tells of a gentleman who came to
him at the close of a talk on how a Christian might get out of the
struggle of the seventh chapter of Romans into the victory of the
eighth chapter, and asked him this: “Doctor, what was the trouble with
Paul anyway? Why did he find it so hard to be good? I don’t find it
very hard to be good.”
“What do you mean by being good?” the preacher asked.
“What every one means――living a clean life, being honest, paying your
debts, treating people right, and if your neighbor gets in trouble put
your hand in your pocket and help him out.”
“Oh,” Dr. Scofield responded, “Paul did those things all his life. Any
_gentleman_ would do those things. Paul was not talking of that when he
said it was a struggle to be good.”
“Well, what did he mean?” the business man asked, somewhat taken aback.
“Not Built That Way!”
“Did you ever try to be meek?” was the preacher’s next question.
“What’s that?”
“Did you ever try to be meek?”
“No, sir! I don’t admire a meek man.”
“Don’t you? Well, God does. His Son was meek and lowly. But now suppose
you started off some morning and determined to be meek all that day, to
love everybody, no matter what mean things another man might say. Would
you find it easy?”
“I couldn’t do it. That’s not in my line. I’m not built that way.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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