«l will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed» (Genesis 3:15).
IN HIS METAMORPHOSES, Ovid, the Roman poet, described the reality that reigns in human life: «A new power drags me against my will; and desire persuades one thing, my reason another. I see and I approve better things, I follow worse.»
Several decades after Ovid, the apostle Paul would paint a similar picture in Romans 7:15-24. In this controversial section of one of his most famous epistles, using the first person singular, Paul says, «What I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do» (verse 15, NLT); «I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out» (verse 18, NIV); «I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do» (verse 19); «in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me» (verses 22, 23); and finally, defeated and growing dimmer, he exclaims, «What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?» (verse 24).
The man in Romans 7 is unwillingly tied into an intimate, unyielding friendship with sinful powers that force him to give in to his most crude sinful inclinations—he is the typical person who wants to do what’s good, but despite having that desire, ends up doing the opposite. Now, in verse 25, he gives thanks to God for Jesus Christ. And in Romans 8:1, he proclaims that there is no condemnation for him. What happened between chapters 7 and 8? Romans 8 describes life in the Spirit, a victorious life, the experience that makes us God’s genuine servants.
How can that change take place? There is only one way, and we find it in the first promise mentioned in the Bible: «l will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel» (Genesis 3:15).
The man in Romans 7 and our very life plainly declare we’re friends with Satan and we don’t have the strength needed to break off that friendship. That’s why God promises to «put enmity.» Let’s allow the Lord to do that work in us, and may this great, precious promise become a vibrant reality in our daily lives.
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Taken from: Devotional Readings for Adults 2023
“I AM WITH YOU”
From: J. VLADIMIR POLANCO
Collaborators: Lorina Maya & Angelica Cuate
